The History of Antiquity Volume V Part 10

[243] Plut. "De Isid." 46.

[244] From the invocation of the time without limit, _Zrvana akarana_, in the Avesta (p. 79), some have sought to draw the conclusion, that this is the supreme principle, and that Auramazda and Angromainyu proceeded from it. This is no less incorrect than if it were maintained that according to the Christian dogma G.o.d and the devil owed their origin to eternity. In the Avesta Zrvana akarana does not a.s.sume an important place either at the creation or in the worship. I have already remarked above, that the spirits of light are called in the Rigveda sons of Aditi, _i.e._ of the unlimited, the eternal. Parallel similitudes which, however, mean no more than the eternity of the G.o.ds, could be made even among the Arians of Iran. But there is a difference between speaking in similes, and derivation from a principle. The faith of Iran was not a philosophical system, but a religion; a religion cannot combine the good and evil G.o.d into one unity. It is only when speculation becomes master over religion, that conceptions of this kind can find a place; and this speculation, which sought for primeval cosmical unity, arrived as a fact at an identical origin for the good and evil spirit; but this was not the case with the Avesta. Centuries after the establishment of the canon we find the oldest form of such teaching in a demand made to the Armenian Christians that they should join the faith of Auramazda. In this we are told that the great deity Zrovan had sacrificed for a thousand years, and had received two sons, Ormuzd and Ahriman. The first had created heaven and earth, the other had opposed him with evil works. About the same time Theodorus of Mopsuestia in Cilicia (Phot. "Biblioth." p. 63, ed. Bekker), tells us: "Zoroaster called the creator of all things Zaruam, and described him as fate;" and in the sixth century Damascius ("De prim. princip." p. 384) writes: "The Magi and the whole Arian nation call the Whole and One in thought, s.p.a.ce and time respectively; from this One arose the good and evil G.o.d, Oromasdes and Areimanius, or as others say light and darkness were divided before these." The sect of the Zarvanites, who deviated from the faith of Zoroaster, inasmuch as they carried these principles still further, has been already mentioned (p. 67).

[245] "Mihr Yasht," 123.

[246] Ashi vanguhi is in one pa.s.sage called the daughter of Auramazda and Armaiti; "Yacna," 44, 4; "Vend." 19, 45; "Ashi Yasht," 16.

[247] "Tistar Yasht," 50.

[248] "Vend." 19, 40; "Yacna," 56, 10, 2.

[249] "Vispered," 23, 1.

[250] "Yacna," 44, 4; 46, 2; 13, 6; "Vend." 19, 45; Haug, "Essays," p.

231.

[251] Spiegel, "Eran," 1, 435.

[252] Darmesteter, "Haurvatat et Ameretat," p. 68, 81 ff.

[253] "Vend." 19, 30-34, 54.

[254] "Din Yasht," 2.

[255] "Rashnu Yasht," 8.

[256] Burnouf, _l. c._ p. 417, 468.

[257] "Gosh Yasht;" Yacna, 29; 39, 1.

[258] "Vend." 19, 111, 112; 22, 22.

[259] Herod. 7, 40, 55; Xenoph. "Cyr. inst." 8, 3, 12; Curtius, 3, 3, 8; 4, 48, 12. Dio Chrysost. 2, 60, ed. Dindorf.

[260] p. 732.

[261] "Khorshed Yasht," in De Harlez, "Avesta," p. 34.

[262] 10, 17, 18.

[263] "Zamyad Yasht," 96; Darmesteter, _l. c._ p. 10.

[264] "Vend." 18, 38.

[265] "Vend." 19, 6, 146.

[266] Burnouf, "Journ. Asiatic," 1845, p. 433.

[267] "Vend." 10, 23. Windischmann, "Zoroastrische Studien," s. 138.

[268] "Vend." 19, 147.

[269] "Vend." 4, 139.

[270] "Vend." 12, 65, 71; 14, 9 ff.; Plut. "De Isid." c. 46; Agath. 2, 24.

[271] Plut. "De Isid." c. 46.

[272] "Vend" 18, 34-37; 64-69.

[273] Cf. "Bundehesh," c. 19.

[274] "Yasht Farvardin," 109; "Yasht Bahram," 19-21.

[275] Kuhn, "Herabkunft des Feuers," s. 125; Darmesteter, _loc. cit._ p.

55. cinmurv has arisen out of _caena (cin), i.e._ eagle, and _meregha_, "bird;" Middle Pers. _murv_; New Pers. _murgh_. In New Pers. cinmurv becomes Simurgh.

[276] Isaiah xlvi. 11. In Aeschylus also an eagle represents the Persians and a falcon the h.e.l.lenes; "Pers." 205-210.

[277] "Cyri inst.i.t." 7, 1, 4.

[278] 3, 7.

[279] "Vend." 18, 137, 138, 149.

[280] Xenophon, "Cyri inst.i.t." 8, 3, 11, 24; Athen. p. 145; Arrian, "Anab." 6, 29.

[281] "Yacna," 10. 38, 11, 16. Strabo, p. 732, tells us that the deity of the Persians received nothing from the sacrifice.

[282] What Herodotus tells us of the sacrifice of girls and boys by the Magi in Thrace contradicts his own statement that the Magi did not venture to kill any one, and the whole conception of the Avesta. If Cambyses is said to have caused twelve Persians to be buried alive, this is not to be regarded as a sacrifice, but as a barbarous form of execution, which occurs also under the Sa.s.sanids. What Herodotus says of the fourteen boys offered by Amestris as a sacrifice, if true, must have its origin in some other superst.i.tion, not in the Avesta; and the actions of Amestris and Parysatis in this direction, as recorded by Ctesias, were in any cases crimes, not sacrifices.

[283] Strabo, p. 732.

[284] Fragm. 16, ed. Muller.

[285] 1, 131.

[286] Strabo, p. 733.

[287] Windischmann has shown, "Abh. Bair. Akad. phil. philol. Kl." 8, 90, 120, that, [Greek: Amardatos] must be read for [Greek: Anandatos].

[288] "Vend." 7, 132-136; 19, 90-100.

[289] "Vend." 19, 89.

[290] "Vend." 18, 68, 69.

[291] "Vend." 19, 108.