Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/24

This page needs to be proofread.

Iran, all these conditions were most typically presented. About 1000 B.C. that region was ruled by King Vistaspa,^[1] under whom flourished the prophet Zarathushtra, the original redactor of the religion and ethical system accepted by the Persians. He gave a distinct expression to the philosophical tendencies of his age, and refined the loose polytheistic conceptions at first held by the Aryans to the complete dualism in which Ahura-Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom, and Angra-Mainyu, the Devisor of Evil, became the essential factors of a definite theological faith.^[2] On this foundation an Avesta or Bible of Mazdeism was elaborated, which laid down the law for the whole conduct of human life.^[3] Among the primitive deities most reverence had been*

↑ His actual date is unknown, and his existence at any time not certain, but Duncker surmises this period.
↑ The Iranian mythology is summarized at length by Duncker, but the person of Zoroaster is altogether shadowy, and his date can only be fixed by conjecture. He is, of course, done away with altogether by some Orientalists, e.g. Darmsteter. In later times, as among the modern Persians (Parsees), the names of the opposing gods were abbreviated to Ormuzd and Ahriman.
↑ The Persian Bible is written in a language without a name, and, it may be added, without an alphabetical character. The name Zend, however, is now firmly attached to it among Western scholars through a mistake of the first investigators, who, always finding it coupled with Avesta, thought it must apply to the language of the sacred text. It actually means commentary. Zend is a sister tongue of that spoken in the same age across the Indus, and the oldest specimens (the Gáthas of the Avesta) by slight systematic alterations can be turned into good old Sanskrit. The alphabet applied to it, as now preserved, is that of the Middle Persian or Pahlavi, which was the language spoken by the Sassanians. Old Persian, the speech of Darius and Xerxes, was written in cuneiform (Behistun inscription, etc.), like the impressions on the well-known clay tablets, etc., of the long-previous literature of Babylonia. The Avesta originally consisted of twenty-one nasks or books, but less than a quarter is now extant. There is, however, an epitome of it in the

[1] His actual date is unknown, and his existence at any time not certain, but Duncker surmises this period.

[2] The Iranian mythology is summarized at length by Duncker, but the person of Zoroaster is altogether shadowy, and his date can only be fixed by conjecture. He is, of course, done away with altogether by some Orientalists, e.g. Darmsteter. In later times, as among the modern Persians (Parsees), the names of the opposing gods were abbreviated to Ormuzd and Ahriman.

[3] The Persian Bible is written in a language without a name, and, it may be added, without an alphabetical character. The name Zend, however, is now firmly attached to it among Western scholars through a mistake of the first investigators, who, always finding it coupled with Avesta, thought it must apply to the language of the sacred text. It actually means commentary. Zend is a sister tongue of that spoken in the same age across the Indus, and the oldest specimens (the Gáthas of the Avesta) by slight systematic alterations can be turned into good old Sanskrit. The alphabet applied to it, as now preserved, is that of the Middle Persian or Pahlavi, which was the language spoken by the Sassanians. Old Persian, the speech of Darius and Xerxes, was written in cuneiform (Behistun inscription, etc.), like the impressions on the well-known clay tablets, etc., of the long-previous literature of Babylonia. The Avesta originally consisted of twenty-one nasks or books, but less than a quarter is now extant. There is, however, an epitome of it in the

[1]

[2]

[3]

Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/24

Navigation menu

Search