ZEND LANGUAGE religion, is believed to be the northeastern part of Iran, in or not far from Bactria, which is also the principal scene of action of the Per- sian legendary history. The Zend, or litera- ture auxiliary to and explanatory of the Avesta, consists chiefly of its translated text with ac- companying glosses, and also a few independent works in the same language, the Huzvaresh or literary Pehlevi, as the 'BundehesTi and the Din-hart, of much later date. It is an im- portant aid to the understanding of the Aves- ta ; yet its interpretation is not to be im- plicitly accepted. (See Spiegel, Einleitung in die traditionellen Schriften der Parsen, 2 vols. 8vo, Leipsic, 1856-'60, and Haug, "Essay on Pahlavi," London, 1870.) That part of the Zoroastrian literature which is composed in the so-called Parsee dialect is of still more modern date and limited extent. Glosses or interpretations of the Avestan texts, called Pa-Zend, versions of certain portions of them and of Pehlevi texts, sundry invocations and ascriptions of praise, and expositions of Par- see doctrine, constitute nearly its whole sub- stance. Spiegel has published (Leipsic, 1851) a Parsee grammar, with considerable passages of texts appended. After the settlement of the Parsees in India, a Sanskrit version was made by Neriosengh of the Yacna and some other parts of the Avestan text ; it has been pub- lished in a Latin transliteration by Spiegel (Leipsic, 1861). In recent times also learned and enlightened Parsees have been active in editing and commenting their scriptures, and rendering them accessible in the present ver- nacular of their community, the Guzeratee lan- guage. Spiegel has published a translation of the whole Avesta into German (English ed. by A. H. Bleek, London, 1864), and a commentary on both text and translation (2 vols., 1865-'8). The difficulties which attend the understand- ing of the Avesta are greater even than those which beset the Veda; the methods to be pur- sued, and the part to be assigned to the differ- ent sources of auxiliary knowledge, are still unsettled, the foremost scholars holding very different views. Spiegel's Erdnische Alter- thumslcunde (2 vols., Leipsic, 1872-'3) is an elaborate discussion of the ancient Persian his- tory and religion. (See ORMUZD.) ZEND LANGUAGE. See ZEND-AVESTA. ZENICK. See SUKICATE. ZENITH (Arabic), that point in the heavens which is precisely over the head of the ob- aerver. The point directly opposite under his feet is called the nadir. ZENO, a Greek philosopher, born in Elea, in southern Italy, about 490 B. C. He was a pupil of Parmenides, and resided at Elea all his life, with the exception of occasional visits to Athens as a teacher, having Pericles and other wealthy men among his scholars. Having en- gaged in a conspiracy against a tyrant of Elea, he was made a prisoner and called upon to denounce his accomplices. In reply he is said to have named all the personal friends of the ZENO 811 tyrant, and to have then thrown in his face his own tongue that he had just bitten off. He was thereupon tortured and put to death. He was the first of the Eleatic school to write in prose, and Aristotle calls him the inventor of dialectics. He contended that there is in real- ity no such thing as motion. (See ELEATIO SCHOOL.) None of his works are extant. ZENO, a Greek philosopher, founder of the stoic school, born at Gitium in the island of Cyprus about 358 B. 0., died in Athens about 260. His father, according to Diogenes Laer- tius, was a merchant, and he followed the same profession until he lost a ship with a rich cargo. Henceforth he devoted himself to philosophy. At first he attached himself to Crates, but af- terward sought the instruction s of Stilpo, from whom he went to Diodorus Cronus, the great dialectician of the Megarean school, after which he followed the lectures of Xenocrates and Po- lemon, who had succeeded Plato at the acad- emy. About 310 Zeno opened his own school, which took its name from being held under the 2rcd Homier] or painted porch. (See STOICS.) To avoid a crowd, he required the payment of a small sum from his disciples, among whom was the king of Macedon Antigonus Gonatas, while Ptolemy Philadelphia of Egypt ordered his ambassadors at Athens to take down the words of the philosopher that they might be reported to him. He was at the head of his school for half a century, respected for the austerity of his life and the boldness of his language. There is a story that the Athenians, from their great confidence in his integrity, intrusted to him the keys of their citadel; and after his death, at the age of 98, according to Diogenes, they decreed that by exciting the youth to wisdom and virtue, and giving in his own life an example thereof, he had deserved well of the republic, wherefore they awarded to him a golden chaplet and a public tomb in the Ceramicus. Of his writings only a few fragments remain. ZENO, an emperor of the East, who reigned from A. D. 474 to 491. He was an Isaurian by birth, married the daughter of Leo I., com- manded the imperial guards and armies, and was made consul in 469. He procured the as- sassination of Aspar, the minister of Leo, in 471 ; and on the death of Leo in 474, his own son, aged three years, was proclaimed emperor as Leo II., with himself as coregent. His son dying the same year, Zeno became emperor. He was driven out of his capital by Basiliscus, who was proclaimed emperor in 475, but re- gained Constantinople in 477 by buying over Harmatius, the nephew and general of Basilis- cus, who was deposed and died shortly after- ward. Zeno now gave himself up to pleasure, while the government was carried on by Illus, sole consul and minister. In 478 a Gothic in- vasion was bought off"; in 479 a revolt in Con- stantinople was put down by corrupting the , troops engaged ; a second Gothic invasion was bought off, and a third was repelled by pur-
