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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1lxi is as old as anything we know of Persia. Darius proclaims Auramazda, the greatest of all gods, a powerful God, who made this earth, who made that heaven, who made man, who made Darius king. The gods invoked with the Persian Zeus (Auramazda) are, according to Herodotos, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the Wind, the Waters, that is to say, natural Deities. The two greatest gods, next to him, according to Artaxerxes Mnemon, are Mithra and Anahata (Andhita), that is to say, , a God of the Light and a Goddess of the Waters. There is no allusion to, no mention, no indication whatever, of the Amesha Spestas, nor of that crowd of abstract divinities so © characteristic of the later Mazdeism. This is no wonder ; as we have seen already that the Amesha Spentas are a Platonic development. § 3. The principle of dualism is pre-Alexandrian. This is implied, in the time of Darius, by the great king stating that Ahura ‘created welfare (shiyatim) for man!;’ in the time of Herodotos, by the religious war waged by the Magi against the ants, snakes, and other noxious creatures, which shows that the distinction of Ormazdian and Ahrimanian creatures was already in existence. Moreover, at the end of the Achaemenian period, Aristotle knows of a Good Spirit and the Evil One, Zeus—Oromazdes and Ades— Areimanios. § 4. Already in the Achaemenian Mazdeism, the existence of the world was limited to twelve thousand years, distributed into four periods, the character of which was altered in the post-Alexandrian period, to humour the Neo- Platonic tendencies of the age. It was already an estab- « lished dogma that Ahriman would be conquered at last and that men would live again. The belief in resurrection and a future life implies the correlative belief in future } rewards and punishments, which plays a great part in the post-Alexandrian religion, but must have belonged to the older stratum. 1 See Rawlinson, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. x, p. 291; Benfey, Die Persischen Keilinschriften, pp. 63, 95. - Ixii VENDIDAD. § 5. The practical and utilitarian morality of the Avesta was one of the older traits of the national character. In the eyes of king Darius and the contemporaries of Herodotos, as in those of the writer of Vendidad III, and of all good Parsis of the present day, the two greatest merits of a citizen were the begetting and rearing of ‘a numerous family, and the fruitful tilling of the soil. Truthfulness was already considered the paramount virtue, and the balance of merits and demerits was already known at least to the earthly judge. § 6. The worship of the elements, water, fire, and earth, and respect for their purity were already in practice. It was forbidden to sully the waters or the fire, to throw a corpse into the fire, or to bury it in the earth until reduced to a fleshless, incorruptible skeleton.
2§ 6. The worship of the elements, water, fire, and earth, and respect for their purity were already in practice. It was forbidden to sully the waters or the fire, to throw a corpse into the fire, or to bury it in the earth until reduced to a fleshless, incorruptible skeleton. §7. There were two sorts of sacrifices: the bloody sacrifice, of which a survival has lingered to this day in the Atash zéhr, and the bloodless sacrifice, consisting essentially of the Haoma-offering and libations, of which there is no direct mention in the classics, but which indirect evidence obliges us to ascribe to the older religion. § 8. Thus the principles of the Achaemenian religion may be summed up as follows: (1) As far as dogma goes: the existence of two conflicting supreme powers, one good and the other evil, Ormazd and Ahriman; the final defeat of Ahriman after twelve thousand years ; and the resurrection. Also a number of naturalistic deities, amongst which were Mithra and Anéfhita. (2) Morals: veneration of truth, family, and agriculture. (3) Liturgy: a bloody sacrifice and a bloodless sacrifice (Haoma). Certain laws of purity extending to the waters, the fire, and the earth. Burning or burying corpses forbidden. § 9. The Achaemenian religion was practised in the south as well as in the north of Iran, in Persia as well ‘ asin Media. It had its centre in Media and its sacerdotal class belonged to a Median tribe, the Magi. The priesthood was hereditary—as it still is nowadays amongst the INTRODUCTION, VII. Lxili Parsis—and the Magi were to Mazdeism what the Levites and Cohanim were to Judaism. The sacerdotal tribe spread wherever Mazdeism extended ; and in spite of the intense provincial hatred which the Persians bore to the . Medians, their former masters, and which the Pseudo- Smerdis’ usurpation was not sufficient to smother, still the Magi were in the Persian idea the only true, authorised priests. No sacrifice was of any value which had not been performed by a Magus: only a Magus could make himself heard by the gods.
3No sacrifice was of any value which had not been performed by a Magus: only a Magus could make himself heard by the gods. § 10. The supposed founder of the religion was named Zarathustra, a personage that must have been known to the pre-Alexandrian religion, as Dino mentions him, and his protectors, king Vistaspa (“Lordomns) and Vist4spa’s brother Zairivairi (Zapiddpys), were already, in the time of Alexander, heroes of epic songs which were current in Asia. As to the birthplace of Zarathustra, all Zoroastrian texts agree with the old classic tradition in placing it in Media. Whether Zarathustra was an historical or a legendary personage it is difficult to decide, and to some extent useless, as Zoroastrianism no longer appears to be one homogeneous religious monument, since we are confronted with two Zoroastrianisms, one anterior and the other posterior to Alexander. The Pseudo-Xanthos, which is at any rate anterior to the first century B.C., and may be much older, makes Zarathustra the founder of Magism and the first of a series of grand chiefs of Magism who succeeded one another till Alexander’s time. Zarathustra would therefore be an old chief of the priestly caste, a Mobed4n- Mobed, a Zarathustrétema xar’ éfoy4v, whether historical or legendary. As his legend is known to us only from Avesta sources, we have no means of distinguishing in it what may be older from what may be a later development. § 11. Zoroastrianism, whether prior to Alexander or in its post-Alexandrian form, was never a simple religion ; it was the result of an historical elaboration of complex materials. It was a growth in which one easily discerns Aryan elements, which it has in common with India, and new original elements. Its Aryan elements may be termed : J lxiv VENDIDAD. the supreme God, the God of the Heaven, Ahura Mazda; the God of the heavenly light, Mithra; the worship of the elementary divinities, Waters, Fire, and Earth; a number of storm myths and mythical legends; and the worship of Haoma. Purely Iranian are: the dualistic conception of the world, its limited duration of twelve thousand years with its four periods ; the continual conflict of Ormazd and Ahriman, and the latter’s defeat; the resurrection of the dead, the notion of purity carried to the extreme, the prohibition of burning or burying the dead, and the throwing away of corpses to dogs and birds of prey. § 12. Some of the new dogmas may be the independent development of Aryan elements: for instance, the dualistic conception may have grown out of the mythical struggles between gods and demons. But the Great year and the resurrection are things quite new, which seem to betray external influences. Of the Scythian origin of Zoroastrianism it will be idle to speak, till the advocates of the system have brought something like historical or rational evidence in its favour. The only civilisation of which we know in the neighbourhood of Media was that of the Assyro-Chal-
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1lxi is as old as anything we know of Persia. Darius proclaims Auramazda, the greatest of all gods, a powerful God, who made this earth, who made that heaven, who made man, who made Darius king. The gods invoked with the Persian Zeus (Auramazda) are, according to Herodotos, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the Wind, the Waters, that is to say, natural Deities. The two greatest gods, next to him, according to Artaxerxes Mnemon, are Mithra and Anahata (Andhita), that is to say, , a God of the Light and a Goddess of the Waters. There is no allusion to, no mention, no indication whatever, of the Amesha Spestas, nor of that crowd of abstract divinities so © characteristic of the later Mazdeism. This is no wonder ; as we have seen already that the Amesha Spentas are a Platonic development. § 3. The principle of dualism is pre-Alexandrian. This is implied, in the time of Darius, by the great king stating that Ahura ‘created welfare (shiyatim) for man!;’ in the time of Herodotos, by the religious war waged by the Magi against the ants, snakes, and other noxious creatures, which shows that the distinction of Ormazdian and Ahrimanian creatures was already in existence. Moreover, at the end of the Achaemenian period, Aristotle knows of a Good Spirit and the Evil One, Zeus—Oromazdes and Ades— Areimanios. § 4. Already in the Achaemenian Mazdeism, the existence of the world was limited to twelve thousand years, distributed into four periods, the character of which was altered in the post-Alexandrian period, to humour the Neo- Platonic tendencies of the age. It was already an estab- « lished dogma that Ahriman would be conquered at last and that men would live again. The belief in resurrection and a future life implies the correlative belief in future } rewards and punishments, which plays a great part in the post-Alexandrian religion, but must have belonged to the older stratum. 1 See Rawlinson, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. x, p. 291; Benfey, Die Persischen Keilinschriften, pp. 63, 95. - Ixii VENDIDAD. § 5. The practical and utilitarian morality of the Avesta was one of the older traits of the national character. In the eyes of king Darius and the contemporaries of Herodotos, as in those of the writer of Vendidad III, and of all good Parsis of the present day, the two greatest merits of a citizen were the begetting and rearing of ‘a numerous family, and the fruitful tilling of the soil. Truthfulness was already considered the paramount virtue, and the balance of merits and demerits was already known at least to the earthly judge. § 6. The worship of the elements, water, fire, and earth, and respect for their purity were already in practice. It was forbidden to sully the waters or the fire, to throw a corpse into the fire, or to bury it in the earth until reduced to a fleshless, incorruptible skeleton.
2§ 6. The worship of the elements, water, fire, and earth, and respect for their purity were already in practice. It was forbidden to sully the waters or the fire, to throw a corpse into the fire, or to bury it in the earth until reduced to a fleshless, incorruptible skeleton. §7. There were two sorts of sacrifices: the bloody sacrifice, of which a survival has lingered to this day in the Atash zéhr, and the bloodless sacrifice, consisting essentially of the Haoma-offering and libations, of which there is no direct mention in the classics, but which indirect evidence obliges us to ascribe to the older religion. § 8. Thus the principles of the Achaemenian religion may be summed up as follows: (1) As far as dogma goes: the existence of two conflicting supreme powers, one good and the other evil, Ormazd and Ahriman; the final defeat of Ahriman after twelve thousand years ; and the resurrection. Also a number of naturalistic deities, amongst which were Mithra and Anéfhita. (2) Morals: veneration of truth, family, and agriculture. (3) Liturgy: a bloody sacrifice and a bloodless sacrifice (Haoma). Certain laws of purity extending to the waters, the fire, and the earth. Burning or burying corpses forbidden. § 9. The Achaemenian religion was practised in the south as well as in the north of Iran, in Persia as well ‘ asin Media. It had its centre in Media and its sacerdotal class belonged to a Median tribe, the Magi. The priesthood was hereditary—as it still is nowadays amongst the INTRODUCTION, VII. Lxili Parsis—and the Magi were to Mazdeism what the Levites and Cohanim were to Judaism. The sacerdotal tribe spread wherever Mazdeism extended ; and in spite of the intense provincial hatred which the Persians bore to the . Medians, their former masters, and which the Pseudo- Smerdis’ usurpation was not sufficient to smother, still the Magi were in the Persian idea the only true, authorised priests. No sacrifice was of any value which had not been performed by a Magus: only a Magus could make himself heard by the gods.
3No sacrifice was of any value which had not been performed by a Magus: only a Magus could make himself heard by the gods. § 10. The supposed founder of the religion was named Zarathustra, a personage that must have been known to the pre-Alexandrian religion, as Dino mentions him, and his protectors, king Vistaspa (“Lordomns) and Vist4spa’s brother Zairivairi (Zapiddpys), were already, in the time of Alexander, heroes of epic songs which were current in Asia. As to the birthplace of Zarathustra, all Zoroastrian texts agree with the old classic tradition in placing it in Media. Whether Zarathustra was an historical or a legendary personage it is difficult to decide, and to some extent useless, as Zoroastrianism no longer appears to be one homogeneous religious monument, since we are confronted with two Zoroastrianisms, one anterior and the other posterior to Alexander. The Pseudo-Xanthos, which is at any rate anterior to the first century B.C., and may be much older, makes Zarathustra the founder of Magism and the first of a series of grand chiefs of Magism who succeeded one another till Alexander’s time. Zarathustra would therefore be an old chief of the priestly caste, a Mobed4n- Mobed, a Zarathustrétema xar’ éfoy4v, whether historical or legendary. As his legend is known to us only from Avesta sources, we have no means of distinguishing in it what may be older from what may be a later development. § 11. Zoroastrianism, whether prior to Alexander or in its post-Alexandrian form, was never a simple religion ; it was the result of an historical elaboration of complex materials. It was a growth in which one easily discerns Aryan elements, which it has in common with India, and new original elements. Its Aryan elements may be termed : J lxiv VENDIDAD. the supreme God, the God of the Heaven, Ahura Mazda; the God of the heavenly light, Mithra; the worship of the elementary divinities, Waters, Fire, and Earth; a number of storm myths and mythical legends; and the worship of Haoma. Purely Iranian are: the dualistic conception of the world, its limited duration of twelve thousand years with its four periods ; the continual conflict of Ormazd and Ahriman, and the latter’s defeat; the resurrection of the dead, the notion of purity carried to the extreme, the prohibition of burning or burying the dead, and the throwing away of corpses to dogs and birds of prey. § 12. Some of the new dogmas may be the independent development of Aryan elements: for instance, the dualistic conception may have grown out of the mythical struggles between gods and demons. But the Great year and the resurrection are things quite new, which seem to betray external influences. Of the Scythian origin of Zoroastrianism it will be idle to speak, till the advocates of the system have brought something like historical or rational evidence in its favour. The only civilisation of which we know in the neighbourhood of Media was that of the Assyro-Chal-
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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