will be vanquished by Vohu Manah at the end of the present cycle.[1]
Druj
The embodiment of wickedness. In his inscriptions, Darius concentrates all evil in Drauga or Lie, as the Gathas did in Druj. Druj is feminine in gender and, like other demons, is a spirit.[2] This evil genius of Wickedness of the Gathic period preserves her original traits in the Yasna and Yasht literature, but it seems, if we judge rightly, that she gradually undergoes a transformation in the Vendidad. The Gathic prayer of the faithful to enable the true believer to smite Druj, and thereby to weaken the Kingdom of Wickedness, is still echoed in the first part of the Avestan period.[3] The house-lord, for example, invokes Asha to drive away Druj from his house, and the faithful asks for strength to enable him to smite Druj, while he likewise implores the good Vayu to remove the fiendish Druj.[4] King Vishtaspa, as a champion warring against all that is evil, drove away Druj from the world of Righteousness;[5] and even Ahura Mazda himself acknowledges that had not the Fravashis helped him, Druj would have overpowered the entire world.[6] In the same manner we can conceive why Mithra should be invoked by cattle that have been led astray to the den of Druj by the wicked.[7] Druj is designated as of evil descent and darkness,[8] and devilish by nature.[9] Her abode is in the north.[10]
In her burrows gathered the demons.[11] It is through the help of the religion of Mazda that the Druj can be driven away from the world; this is expressly the saying of Ahura Mazda to his prophet.[12] At the final renovation Saoshyant, the saviour, will overcome the Druj among mankind;[13] she will then perish utterly and forever with her hundred-fold brood.[14]
Other Drujes. The Gathas knew but one Druj, the one that works in opposition to Asha. In the Later Avestan texts Druj
- ↑ Yt. 19. 96.
- ↑ Yt. 1. 19; 11. 3; 13. 71.
- ↑ Ys. 61. 5; Yt. 1. 28.
- ↑ Ys. 60. 5; Yt. 24. 25; Vd. 20. 8.
- ↑ Yt. 19. 93.
- ↑ Yt. 13. 12, 13.
- ↑ Yt. 10. 86.
- ↑ Yt. 19. 95.
- ↑ Ys. 9. 8; 57. 15; Yt. 5. 34; Vd. 8. 21; 18. 31 f.
- ↑ Yt. 3. 17; Vd. 8. 21.
- ↑ Vd. 3. 7.
- ↑ Vd. 19. 12, 13.
- ↑ Yt. 13. 129.
- ↑ Yt. 19. 12, 95.
