Asi Dahaka, literally 'the fiendish snake,' was first a mythical personage ; he was the ' snake ' of the storm-cloud, and a counter- part of the Vedic Ahi or Vr/tra. He appears still in that character in Ya^t XIX seq., where he is described struggling for the HvdiXtnb against Atar (Fire), in the sea Vourukasha (Vendidad, Introd. IV, 38 ; cf this Ya^t, § 90). His struggle with Yima Khshaeta bore at first the same mythological character, • the shining Yima ' being originally, like the Vedic Yama, a solar hero : when Yima was turned into an earthly king, Kz'x underwent the same fate. In the Shah Namah he is described as a man with two snakes springing from his shoulders : they grew there through a kiss of Ahriman's. For the myths referring to Azi, see Ormazd et Ahriman, §§ 91—95.
^ Babylon (cf Yt. XV, 19). The usurper Asi, being a non- Aryan, was identified with the hereditary foe, the Chaldseans : the name of Babylon united in it, at the same time, a dim historical record of the old Assyrian oppression, then shaken off and forgotten, and an actual expression of the national antipathy of the Iranians for their Semitic neighbours in Chalda^a. After the conquest of Persia by the Musulmans, Kzx was turned at last into an Arab. The original seat of the kz\ myths was on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea (Etudes Iraniennes, II, 210).
Aban Ya,St. 6 I
hundred male horses, a thousand oxen, and ten thousand lambs.
30. 'He begged of her a boon, saying : " Grant
me this boon, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Sura
Anahita ! that I may make all the seven Karshvares
of the earth empty of men."
31. 'Ardvi Sura Anahita did not grant him that
boon, although he was offering libations, giving gifts,
sacrificing, and entreating her that she would grant
him that boon.
' For her brightness and glory, I will offer her a sacrifice ....
32. 'Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathujtra ! unto Ardvi Sura Anahita ....
33. 'To her did Thraetaona^ the heir^ of the
valiant Athwya clan, offer up a sacrifice in the four-
cornered Varena^, with a hundred male horses, a
thousand oxen, ten thousand lambs.
34. 'He begged of her a boon, saying: "Grant
me this, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Sura Ana-
hita! that I may overcome Asi Dahaka, the three-
mouthed, the three-headed, the six-eyed, who has a
thousand senses^, that most powerful, fiendish Dru^,
^ Thraetaona (Feridun), son of Athwya, conquered Azi and bound him to Mount Damavand, where he is to stay till the end of the world, when he shall be let loose and then killed by Keresaspa (Vendidad, Introd. IV, 12, 18; Bahman Ya^t III, 55 seq.; Bund. XXIX, 8 seq.).
^ Vis6-puthra=Pahlavi barbita (see £tudes Iraniennes, II,
* Cf. Vend. I, 18 and Introd. IV, 12. Modern tradition sup- poses Varena to have been the region of Ghilan (very likely on account of its proximity to Mazandaran and Mount Damavand).
* See Yt. X, 82, note.
62 YASTS AND stROZAHS.
that demon, baleful to the world, the strongest
Drii^ that Angra Mainyu created against the mate-
rial world, to destroy the world of the good prin-
ciple ^ ; and that I may deliver his two wives,
Savanghava/^ and Erenavai^ who are the fairest
of body amongst women, and the most wonderful
creatures in the worlds"
35. ' Ardvi Sura Anahita granted him that boon,
as he was offering libations, giving gifts, sacrificing,
and entreating that she would grant him that boon.
' For her brightness and glory, I will offer her a sacrifice ....
36. ' Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathu^tra ! unto Ardvi Sura Anahita ....
37. 'To her did Keresaspa *, the manly-hearted, offer up a sacrifice behind the Vairi Pisanah ^ with a
1 Cf. Yt. XIX, 37.
^ The two daughters of Yima, who had been ravished by Asi : they are called in the Shah Namah Shahrinaz and Arnavaz (see £tudes Iraniennes, II, 213, Savanghava/i' et Erenava/^). Thraetaona delivered them, and then married them ; he had a son, Airyu, from Arnavaz, and two sons from Shahrinaz, Tura and Sairima; Airyu, Tura, and Sairima became the kings of Iran, Turan, and Rum.
3 Cf Yt. IX, 14; XV, 24; XVII, 34.
* Keresaspa (Garshasp), one of the greatest heroes in the Avestean romance, although Firdausi has all but passed him over in silence. See his feats, Yt. XIX, 38 seq. ; cf Yt. V, 27 seq. ; Yasna IX, 10 (29); Vend. I, 10 (36).
^ The Pi^in valley, south of Cabool. It was in the land of Cabool that the Keresaspa legend had its rise, or at least it was localised there. It is in the plain near the Pi^in valley that Keresaspa lies asleep, till the end of the world comes (see Yt XIII, 61, note).
ABAN VAST. 6^,
hundred male horses, a thousand oxen, ten thousand lambs.
2)S. 'He begged of her a boon, saying: "Grant me
this, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Sura Anahita !
that I may overcome the golden-heeled Ga7zdarewa\
thouo-h all the shores of the sea Vouru-Kasha are
boiling over ; and that I may run up to the strong-
hold of the fiend on the wide, round earth, whose
ends lie afar."
39. 'Ardvi Sura Anahita granted him that boon,
as he was offering libations, giving gifts, sacri-
ficing, and entreating that she would grant him that
boon.
' For her brightness and glory, I will offer her a sacrifice ....
^ A Parsi poem, of a very late date, gives further details about Gandarewa. It was a monster who lived ' in the sea, on the moun- tain, and in the valley/ he was called Pashnah zarah, because the sea did not go above his heel (a misinterpretation of his Avestean epithet zairi pashna, golden-heeled, the Zend zairi being mis- taken for the Persian zarah i', sea); his head would rise to the sun and rub the sky ; he could swallow up twelve men at once. Keresaspa fought him for nine days and nine nights together ; he drew him at last from the bottom of the sea and smashed his head with his club: when he fell on the ground, many. countries were spoiled by his fall (Spiegel, Die traditionnelle Literatur der Parsen, p. 339, and West, Pahlavi Texts, II, pp. 369 seq.).
In the Vedic mythology the Gandharva is the keeper of Soma, and is described now as a god, now as a fiend, according as he is a heavenly Soma-priest or a jealous possessor who grudges it to man. What was the original form of the myth in Mazdeism is not clear. In the Shah Namah he appears as the minister of Azi Dahaka. Cf Yt. XV, 27 seq., and Ormazd et Ahriman, pp. 99, note 5 ; 215, note i .
64 YA^-TS AND sIroZAHS.
40. ' Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathujtra ! unto this spring of mine, Ardvi Sura Anahita ....
41. * To her did the Turanian murderer, Frangra-
syan^, offer up a sacrifice in his cave under the
earth ^, with a hundred male horses, a thousand
oxen, ten thousand lambs.
42. 'He begged of her a boon, saying: "Grant
me this, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Sura Ana-
hita ! that I may seize hold of that Glory "\ that is
waving in the middle of the sea Vouru-Kasha ^ and
^ Frangrasyan (Afrasyab) was king of Turan for two hundred years. The perpetual struggle between Iran and Turan, which lasts to this day, was represented in the legend by the deadly and endless wars between Afrasyab and the Iranian kings from Mino- ^ihr down to Kai Khosrav (Kavi Husravah). The chief cause of the feud was the murder of Syavakhsh (Syavarshana) by Afrasyab ; Syavakhsh, son of Kai Kaus (Kava Usa), having been exiled by his father, at the instigation of his mother-in-law, took refuge with Afrasyab, who received him with honour, and gave him his daughter in marriage : but the fortune of Syavakhsh raised the jealousy of Afrasyab's brother, Karsivaz (Keresavazda), who by means of calumnious accusations extorted from Afrasyab an order for putting him to death (see Yt. XIX, 77). Syavakhsh was revenged by his son, Kai Khosrav, the grandson of Afrasyab (Yt. IX, 22).
^ Ha;/kane: Firdausi speaks of a cave on the top of a moun- tain, near Barda (on the frontier of Adarbai^an), where Afrasyab, when defeated, took refuge, and was discovered by Kai Khosrav ; that cave was called 'the cave of Afrasyab' (hang i Afrasiab; Shah Namah, IV, 196). In an older form of the legend, that cave was a palace built under-ground, with walls of iron and a hundred columns : its height was a thousand times a man's size (Aoge- maid^, § 61 ; cf Bund. XII, 20: see Etudes Iraniennes, II, 225, Le Hang d' Afrasyab).
" Yt. XIX, 56'seq.
Aban Yast. 65
that belongs to the Aryan people, to those born and
to those not yet born, and to the holy Zarathiutra."
• 43. 'Ardvi Sljra Anahita did not grant him that
boon.
' For her brightness and glory, I will offer her a sacrifice . . , .
44. ' Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathujtra ! unto this spring of mine, Ardvi Sura Anahita ....
45. 'To her did the great, most wise Kavi Usa^
offer up a sacrifice from Mount Erezifya^, with a
hundred male horses, a thousand oxen, ten thousand
lambs.
46. 'He begged of her a boon, saying: "Grant
me, this, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Sura And-
hita ! that I may become the sovereign lord of all
countries, of the Daevas and men, of the Yatus and
Pairikas, of the oppressors, the blind and the deaf."
47. 'Ardvi Sura Anahita granted him that boon,
as he was offering libations, giving gifts, sacrificing,
and entreating that she would grant him that boon.
' For her brightness and glory, I will offer her a sacrifice ....
48. ' Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathujtra ! unto this spring of mine, Ardvi Sura Anahita ....
49. 'To her did the gallant Husravah^ he who
' Kavi Usa (Kai Kaus), the son of Kavi Kavata (Kai Kobad) and the father of Syavakhsh (see p. 64, note i), was the second king of the Kayanian dynasty.
^ Mount Erezifya has been supposed to be the same as the
Sariphi Monte s in Ptolemaeus, which stretch between Margiana
and Ariana (Burnouf, Commentaire sur le Yasna, p. 436).
' Kai Khosrav ; cf. p. 64, notes 1 and 2.
66 YA^-TS AND SIROZAHS.
united the Aryan nations into one kingdom \ offer
up a sacrifice behind the A^ae/^asta lake ^, the deep
lake, of salt waters ^, with a hundred male horses, a
thousand oxen, ten thousand lambs.
50. 'He begged of her a boon, saying: "Grant me
this, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Siira Anahita !
that I may become the sovereign lord of all coun-
tries, of Daevas and men, of the Yatus and Pairikas,
of the oppressors, the blind and the deaf; and that
I may have the lead in front of all the teams * and
that he may not pass through ^ the forest ^, he, the
murderer'^, who now is fiercely^ striving against me ^
on horseback ^'^."
51. 'Ardvi Sura Anahita granted him that boon,
as he was offering libations, giving gifts, sacrificing,
and entreating that she would grant him that boon.
' For her brightness and glory, I will offer her a sacrifice ....
52. ' Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathu^-tra ! unto this spring of mine, Ardvi Sura Anahita ....
53. 'To her did the valiant warrior Tusa^^ offer
^ Doubtful.
^ A lake in Adarbai^an, with salt water : fish cannot live in it (Bundahii- XXII, 2). It is the same as Lake Urumiah. Its name is miswritten in Firdausi (Khan^ast for ^e^ast, o.»,^s^^ for
^ Doubtful; see Etudes Iraniennes, II, uruyapa, p. 1^9.
* In pursuing his adversary. ^ Doubtful (cf Yt. XV, 32).
* The White Forest (ibid.). '' Aurvasara (ibid.).
* Doubtful. ^ Trying to flee and escape. ^° Possibly, ' vieing in horses ' (for the swiftness of the race) :
cf. Yt. XIX, 77.
" Tusa, in the Shah Namah Tus; one of the most celebrated
Pahlavans of Kai Khosrav; he was the son of king Naotara
(Nodar).
ABAN YA^T. d']
worship on the back of his horse \ begging swift-
ness for his teams, health for his own body, and
that he might watch with full success ^ those who
hated him, smite down his foes, and destroy at one
stroke his adversaries, his enemies, and those who
hated him ^
54. 'He begged of her a boon, saying: "Grant me
this, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Sura Anahita !
that I may overcome the gallant sons of Vaesaka^,
by the castle Khshathro-saoka, that stands high up
on the lofty, holy Kangha^; that I may smite of the
Turanian people their fifties and their hundreds,
their hundreds and their thousands, their thousands
and their tens of thousands, their tens of thousands
and their myriads of myriads."
55. 'Ardvi Sura Anahita granted him that boon *',
as he was offering libations, giving gifts, sacrificing,
and entreating that she would grant him that boon.