PERSIAN MYTHOLOGY.
THE COMMON SOURCE OF MYTHOLOGY—MYTHICAL MOUNTAINS—RIVERS—MYTHICAL BIRDS—
AHŪRA MAZDA—ATAR—THE STORM GOD—YIMA—THE CHINVAT BRIDGE—MITHRA—
RÉSUMÉ.
We have briefly sketched in the preceding chapter the more tolerable
features of a mythology which is evidently the common source of the
later pantheons. The picture of human sacrifices, and practices which
are still more revolting, have been avoided, as unnecessary to the
general purpose, while the poetic figures of these ancient myths are
dwelt upon with peculiar pleasure.
Persian civilization was to a great extent the product of Babylonian
elements, and her mythology was born of that type of sensual idolatry
too gross for description. But the Persians were a poetic people, and in
their hands these ancient myths were refined and somewhat elevated. The
hideous idols called sun-images, which were used in the worship of
Chemosh, gave place to the adoration of the sun itself, as the great
source of all physical light. It was by the hand of Persia that the
sacred bull of Egypt was smitten down, and also the golden couch of
Baal, with all its attendant horrors. But even Persia is accused of
having at times practiced the horrible rite of human sacrifice, and the
Babylonian Venus found admission, even among the people whose king had
stabbed the Egyptian Apis, and overturned his shrine.[113]
Persia was a land of extremes, and the richest part of her dominions was
fated to lie beneath the early snows, and feel the severity of winter,
while the central portion of the country was one vast desert, whose
scorching simoons were as much to be dreaded as the snows of her
northern table-lands. The early settlers of Īrān, therefore, were forced
to win their bread and develop their resources by the most arduous
labor, and the dreamy mythology of the Hindūs gave way in their minds to
the sterner conflict between good and evil.
The opposition between light and darkness became a prominent feature of
their mythology, for the battles which raged in Hindū skies between
Indra, the storm king, and his constant enemy, Vṛitra, became to the
sons of Īrān a personal strife with the powers of nature, and instead of
dreaming of a contest in the clouds, they sang of the daily battle in
lives which were crowded with hardship. Hence it is that Ormazd and
Ahriman, in their continual strife, form the background of the national
mythology, although Persia took the sun for her emblem, and called her
kings by his royal name; a flashing globe was the signal light above the
imperial tent, and the golden eagle was perched upon the ensign that led
the Persian troops to victory.
MYTHICAL MOUNTAINS.
The silent mountains standing calmly beneath the skies of blue, while
the ages come and go, always command the reverence of the human heart.
With forests around their feet, the gray peaks reach upward to dim and
ashen heights, where the white snow lies unpolluted by the foot of man.
Their frost-crowns gleam in the sunlight of noon, or change to tints of
opal and crimson light beneath the farewell fires of the setting sun. No
wonder, then, that in the fables of all people the gods are enthroned on
wondrous heights. The old Assyrian kings wrote upon their strange
tablets of “the world mountain,” which, although rooted in hades, still
supported the heavens with all their starry hosts. The world was bound
to it with a rope, like that with which the sea was churned in the later
Hindū legend, for the lost ambrosia of the gods,[114] or like the golden
cord of Homer with which Zeus proposed to suspend the nether earth,
after binding the cord about Olympus.[115] This mythical mountain was
the abode of the gods, and it was this of which the Babylonian king
said:
“I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will sit upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the
north;
I will be like the Most High.”[116]
It was between the “Twin Mountains” that the sun passed in its rising
and setting, and the rocky gates were guarded by the “scorpion men,”
whose heads were at the portals of heaven, and their feet in hell
beneath.[117]
In the mythology of the Hindūs, Mount Meru rises in her solitary
grandeur in the very centre of the earth to the height of sixty-four
thousand miles; and there on her sun-kissed crown, amidst gardens of
fabulous beauty, and flowers that never of winter hear—where the skies
are of rose and pearl, and the dreamlike harmonies of far-off voices are
borne upon the air, we find the heaven of Indra, the abode of the
gods.[118]
Among the Greeks the gates of Olympus open to receive the imperial
throng, when
“The gods with Jove assume their thrones of gold.”
When the chambers of the east were opened, and floods of light were
poured upon the peak, the Greek poet dreamt that:
“The sounding hinges ring on either side,
The gloomy volumes pierced with light divide,
The chariot mounts, where deep in ambient skies
Confused Olympus’ hundred heads arise—
Where far apart the Thunderer fills his throne
O’er all the gods, superior and alone.”
But even the storm-swept heights of Olympus, where the chariots of the
gods were crushed to fragments beneath the lightnings of Jove, were not
lofty enough for the spirit of the Norseman. Odin’s Valhal, with its
roof of shields and walls of gleaming spears, lies in heaven itself, and
higher still is Gimle, the gold-roofed hall of the higher gods. Far away
to the northward, on the heights of the Nida mountains, stands a hall of
shining gold which is the home of the Sindre race.[119] These are they
who smelt earth’s gold from her rough brown stone, and flashing through
her crystals, the tints which are hidden in the hearts of the roses,
they are changed to rubies and garnets. These are they who make the
sapphires blue with the fresh lips of the violet, and mould earth’s
tears into her purest pearls.
In Persian mythology we find a trace of “the world mountain” of the old
Assyrian kings, as well as a thought which is akin to the vine-clad
bowers of Meru, the shining gates of Olympus, and the Nida mountains of
the Norsemen, for here the Qāf mountains surround the world after the
manner of the annular system described in the Mahā-Bhārata.[120] This
mythical range is pure emerald, and although it surrounds the world, it
is placed between two of the horns of a white ox, named Kornit or
Kajūta. He has four thousand horns, and the distance from one horn to
another could not be traversed in five hundred years. These mountains
are the abode of giants, fairies and peris, while their life-giving
fountains confer immortality upon those who taste of their waters.
The highest portion of the emerald range is the Alborz,[121] where the
fabled Sīmūrgh builds her colossal nest of sandal wood, and the woven
branches of aloe and myrtle trees. Mount Alborz is represented as
standing upon the earth, while her crown of light reposes in the region
far beyond the stars. It is Hara-Berezaita (the lofty mountain)—the
sphere of endless light, where the supreme god of Persian mythology
dwells in his own temple which is the “abode of song.” This is the
“Mother of Mountains” and from it have grown all the heights that stand
upon the earth; it is the fabled center of the world, and around it the
sun, moon and stars revolve. Hence, in the Vendīdad[122] we find the
following hymn:
“Up, rise and roll along, thou swift horsed sun,
Above Hara-Berezaita and produce light for the world.
Up, rise up, thou moon—
Rise up, ye stars, rise up above Hara-Berezaita
And produce light for the world,
And mayest thou, O man, rise up along the path made by Mazda—
Along the way made by the gods,
The watery way they opened.”
RIVERS.
In the mythology of every people we find mystic rivers in connection
with the worship of their divinities. They are winding everywhere
through the enchanted land of fable. Often born in the highlands of the
celestial mountains, they are represented as coming down to earth with
the glint of the sunlight on their waves. The great river of Egypt,
which is supposed to give life to the gods as well as men, is thus
fabled to have sprung from the mountains of the sky, and a “Hymn to the
Nile,” recorded on a clay tablet, begins with the words:
“Adoration to the Nile!
Hail to thee, O Nile!
Who comest to give life to Egypt!
Thou givest the earth to drink, inexhaustible one!
Thou descendest from the sky.”[123]
In Greek mythology, we find the river ocean flowing around the earth,
with its calm current unbroken by storm, and unswerved by the angry
tempest. The sea, with her sun-kissed billows, received her waters from
this unfailing fountain, and far beyond the northern mountains, where
the “golden gardens” gleamed in the sunlight and the winds were rocked
to sleep, there lived a happy people, where sorrow could not enter and
death would never come.
Among the Hindūs, the sacred Ganges flowed at first only through the
blue fields of heaven, and fell to the earth from the divine feet of
Vishnū:
“And white foam clouds and silver spray
Were wildly tossed on high,
Like swans that urge their homeward way
Across the autumn sky.”
The Norseman also sings of heavenly rivers, as well as the Ifing, which
flows in a never-freezing current between the world of men and the world
of gods; he sings, too, of the river Gyöll, which flows nearest to the
gates of Hel,[124] and over whose golden bridge the countless bands of
the dead are passing.
In Persian mythology there is a crystal stream which gushes from a
golden precipice of the mythical mountain and descends to the earth from
the heavens, as does the celestial Gangā of the Hindūs. This is the
heavenly spring from which all the waters of the earth come down.... It
is the Ardvi Sūra Anāhita which ever flows in a life-giving current,
bringing blessings unto man and receiving in return the sacrifices of
the material world.
This river has a thousand cells and a thousand channels, and each of
these extend as far as a swiftly mounted horseman can ride in forty
days; in each channel there stands a palace gleaming with an hundred
windows and a thousand columns; these palaces are surrounded with ten
thousand balconies founded in the distant channels of the river, and
within their courts are luxurious beds, “well scented and covered with
pillows.” In the golden ravines around these palace halls are the
wondrous fountains of the Ardvi Sūra Anāhita, and the stream rushes down
from the summit of the mountain with a volume greater than all the
rivers of earth, and falls into the bosom of the celestial sea that lies
at the foot of the Hara-Berezaita. When the waters of the river fall
into the Vourū-Kasha, the waves of the sea boil over the shores, and the
billows chant a song of welcome.
This celestial spring, with its mighty torrent of waters, is personified
as a beautiful goddess[125]—a maiden tall and shapely, who is born of a
glorious race. She is stately and noble, strong as the current of a
mighty river, and pure as the snows that lie on the mountain’s crown.
Her beautiful arms are white and thick, her hair is long and luxuriant,
for she is large and comely, radiant with the glory of a perfect
womanhood.
This glorious maid of the mountain has four white horses, which were
made for her by Ahūra Mazda; one is the snow, and one is the wind, while
the others are the rain and the cloud; thus it happens that ever upon
the earth it is snowing, or the rain is somewhere coming down to gladden
the flowers with refreshing touch.
The beautiful goddess springs from a golden fissure in the highest peak,
and mounting her chariot draws the reins above her white steeds and
drives them down the steep incline, which is a thousand times the height
of a man, and continual sacrifice is offered to her brightness and
glory.
Clothed with a golden mantle and wearing a crown radiant with the light
of an hundred gems, she comes dashing down the mountain side, thinking
in her heart: “Who will praise me? Who will offer me a sacrifice with
libations?”
The cloud-sea represents the “dewy treasures” of the Hindūs—the rains
which are held in the reluctant cloud, and only drawn therefrom by the
lightning bolts of Indra, who is assisted in the battle by the Maruts
when they “harness their deer for victory.”[126] The Persian Vendīdad
represents a continual interchange between the waters of the earth and
sky.
“As the Vourū-Kasha is the gathering place of the waters
Rise up, go up the ærial way and go down upon the earth....
The large river that is known afar
That is as large as all the waters of earth
Runs from the height down to the sea, Vourū-Kasha.”[127]
MYTHICAL BIRDS.
Birds have always held a prominent place in the various mythologies.
Among the Assyrians, the _zu_ or vulture was the symbol of the “god of
the storm-cloud,” who was believed to have stolen the laws and
attributes of Bel for the benefit of mankind, and to have been punished
for the theft by transformation into a vulture.[128]
In Egyptian mythology, the tablets represent Isis as a bird. “For she is
Isis, the charmer, the avenger of her brother, who seeks him without
failing, who traverses the earth with lamentations, without resting
before she has found him—creating the light with her feathers, producing
the wind with her wings, celebrating the sacred dances, and depositing
her brother in the tomb ... raising the remains of the god, with
immovable heart ... she makes him grow, his arm becomes strong in the
great dwelling.”[129]
In the Hindū poem of the Rāmāyaṇa, during the banishment of the innocent
and beautiful Sīta, the pitying birds dipped their pinions in the sacred
waters of the Ganges, and fanned her feverish face, that she might not
faint with the heat.[130] In the same poem we have also descriptions of
Garuḍa, the eagle-steed of Vishṇu, and Sampati, the sacred vulture, who
gave information concerning the demon king that carried away the
beautiful princess. Hindū mythology also contains “the celestial birds,”
who were acquainted with right and wrong, and who, in one of the Purāṇas
answered the questions of the sages, and also gave an account of the
creation.
In northern Europe we find a wondrous eagle, who sits amongst the
branches of the Ygdrasil—that beautiful tree of Norse mythology, whose
three great roots strike downward among the Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians,
and Germans. This great ash tree spreads its life-giving arms through
the heavens, and on the topmost bough is the eagle “who knows many
things,” and between his eyes sits the keen-eyed hawk, Vedfolner.[131]
We have also the Griffin of chivalry, the fabulous monster, half bird
and half lion, that protected the gold of the Hyperborean regions from
the one-eyed Arimaspians, and the Phœnix of Egyptian fable—the bird
of gold and crimson plumage, that is burned upon her nest of spices
every thousand years, and as often springs to life from her ashes. The
Turks have their Kerkes, and the Japanese their Kirni, while China
exhibits a nondescript dragon, which is a combination of bird and
reptile. In the Greek Iliad we have the imperial bird of Jove—“Strong
sovereign of the plumy race” bearing a signal from the god. Among the
Persian myths we find the Karmak, a gigantic bird “which overshadowed
the earth, and kept off the rain until the rivers were dried up.” And
the law was brought to the Var of Yima by the bird Karśipta who recites
the Avesta in the language of birds.
The raven was sacred to Apollo, and in Persia the priests of the sun
were named ravens. In the Avesta this bird is called “the swiftest of
all—the highest of the flying creatures ... he alone of all living
things—he or none—overtakes the flight of an arrow, however well it has
been shot; he grazes in the hidden ways of the mountains, he grazes in
the depths of the vales, he grazes on the summit of the trees listening
to the voices of the birds.”[132] Again it is said of the Vārengaṇa or
raven: “Take thou a feather of that bird, with that feather thou shalt
rub thine own body—with that feather thou shalt curse thine enemies; if
a man holds a bone of that strong bird, no one can smite or turn to
flight that fortunate man. The feather of that bird of birds brings him
help, it brings unto him the homage of men, it maintains him in
glory.”[133] It is said that the glory departed from Yima three times in
the shape of a raven, and the raven is also one of the incarnations of
the genius of Victory.
The Saēna, which, in later literature, is the Sīnamrū or Sīmūrgh,
occupies an important place in Persian mythology. His resting place is
on the Jaḍ-bēsh, or the tree of the eagle; this tree is the bearer of
all seeds, and when the Sīmūrgh leaves it in his flight, a thousand
twigs will shoot from the tree, and when he returns and alights thereon,
he breaks off the thousand twigs, and sheds the seed from them. Then the
bird Chaṉmrōsh who always sits near, watching the tree, will collect
the seed which falls from the Jaḍ-bēsh, or tree of all seeds, and carry
it to the fountain where Tishtar (or Tiśtrya) receives the waters, so
that Tishtar may gather the seed of all kinds with the waters, and may
shower it down upon the world with the rain.[134]
The Sīmūrgh was the son of Ahūm-stut, who was perhaps “the holy falcon—
praiser of the lord.” He builds his nest amidst the cliffs of Mount
Alborz, and the gigantic structure is woven with the branches of the
aloe and the fragrant sandal-wood. Around it gleam the white cliffs in
the sunlight, and precious stones lie beneath it, for it is far beyond
the reach of man. The Sīmūrgh became, in later literature, a mythical
incarnation of supreme wisdom.
AHŪRA-MAZDA.
This deity is represented as the supreme god of the Persians, the
creator of the other gods, and the ruler of them all.
The word Ahūra appears to have much kinship with Asūra, of the Hindū
mythology. In the early portions of the Ṛig-veda this word has a good
meaning, but in the latter part of the same work the Asūra is
represented as a black demon, who committed fearful devastation until he
was defeated by Indra. Among the Persians, Asūra, or Ahūra is pictured
as the sky-god, who is represented among the Hindūs as Varuṇa, who looks
down from heaven with his countless starry eyes and “wields the universe
as the gamesters handle dice.”[135]
The heaven of Ahūra-Mazda surrounds the highest peaks of the “Lofty
Mountain” in the upper air, and it is called the “Abode of Song.” It is
said “the maker Ahūra-Mazda has built a dwelling on the Hara-Berezaita,
the bright mountain around which the daily stars revolve.... With his
arms lifted up towards immortality, Mithra, the lord of wide pastures,
drives forward a beautiful chariot, wrought by Ahūra-Mazda and inlaid
with stars.”[136]
The attributes of Ahriman, the serpent, or evil principle, became
personified, and the various forms of falsehood, darkness and death
became abstract demons. So, also, Ahūra-Mazda was afterward worshipped
as a multitude of deities, and thus it happened that victory,
benevolence, sovereignty, and even health were each worshipped as a
separate divinity, and gathered together in the heavenly councils as a
band of Yazatas or angels. These are numbered by thousands, but the one
demanding the greatest reverence is
ATAR.
This is the god of fire. He was called the “most great Yazata,” and as
such he commanded the undying worship of the Persian devotee.
The first duty of each Pārsī householder was to cherish the sacred fire
upon his own hearth, feeding it only with delicate bits of fragrant
sandal wood, while the fires in the temples were committed to the care
of the priests. Atar is the Persian form of the Hindū Agni, the guardian
of the home, and the symbol of social union.
The cypress tree was planted in front of their fire temples, and when it
had reached a towering height, it was surrounded by a gilded palace like
a sheath of flame,[137] while more simple altars arose from their
mountain tops and blazed with the sacred symbol.
THE STORM GOD.
The Persian myth of the struggle of Tiśtrya with Apaosha, the drouth
fiend, in order to obtain rain, is merely another form of the battle of
the elements in the Ṛig-veda, when Indra rides forth to the conflict and
shoots his arrows into the gathering clouds.
The early idolaters worshipped the host of heaven, and from this
doubtless arose the worship of the star Sirius as the storm god—Tiśtrya.
The rising of this star to a prominent position marks the period of the
ever welcome rains, when the parched earth drinks in the refreshing
flood, and the flowers spring from the soil.
The dog-days are supposed to represent the time of Tiśtrya’s great
conflict with Apaosha, and the battle is long and closely contested
before he conquers his foe.
The storm god comes into the arena in three different forms; he first
attacks the foe in the form of a beautiful youth, then as a bull with
golden horns, and at last as a white horse with golden caparison and
golden ears. The drouth fiend is represented as a black horse, and “They
meet together hoof against hoof, they fight for three days and three
nights, and then the Deva[138] proves too strong for bright and glorious
Tiśtrya; he overcomes him.” Tiśtrya then flees from the sea and cries
out: “Oh Ahūra-Mazda, men do not worship me with sacrifice and praise,
invoking me by my own name; should they worship me with sacrifice and
praise, invoking me by my own name as the other Yazatas are invoked,
they would bring me the strength of ten horses, of ten camels, ten
bulls, ten mountains and ten rivers.”
Ahūra then offers him a sacrifice, in which he is invoked by his own
name, and which gives him the strength of ten horses, of ten camels, ten
bulls, ten mountains and ten rivers, whereupon Tiśtrya returns to the
conflict, and Apaosha flies before him. The white horse being
victorious, the copious rains come down, glad brooks spring from the
rocky hillsides—they come with pearly sandaled feet, laden with love and
mercy to the sun-parched plain; hence the following hymn:
“We sacrifice unto Tiśtrya, the bright and glorious star,
For whom the longing flocks and herds and men are looking forward
When shall we see him rise up, the bright and glorious star Tiśtrya....
For whom long the standing waters and the running spring waters,
The stream waters and the rain waters?
When will the springs with a flow run to the beautiful places and
fields?[139]
And to the roots of the plants that they may grow with a powerful
growth?”
YIMA.
The Persian god of death is scarcely changed from the Hindū Yama, who is
“the king of death and the judge of the dead.” Among the Hindūs,
however, he appears as the first of men who died, while among the
Persians he has many ancestors. He offered sacrifices upon the summit of
“the beautiful mountain,” and prayed the gods to grant him power and
dominion. Thus he became a king over men and even over the Devas. As the
regions of Pluto were guarded by the three-headed dog Cerberus, and the
path of Yama was watched by two terrible dogs of the “four-eyed tawny
breed of Sarama,” so also the souls of good men are defended from the
howling and pursuing demons, by the dogs that guard
THE CHINVAT BRIDGE.
The Chinvat[140] or _K_invaḍ bridge reaches to Mount Alborz, and it is
also called the “Bridge of the Gatherer,” over which the souls of the
righteous pass easily into the abodes of bliss, while the wicked fall
from it into the den of falsehood and iniquity.
The Mohammedans call it the Al-Sirat, and it is represented in the Korān
as being finer than the thread of a famished spider and sharper than a
two-edged sword.
More beautiful by far is the Bi-frost, or rainbow arch of the Norseman—
the bridge between heaven and earth, which was also borrowed from
Chaldea:
“A link that binds us to the skies
A bridge of rainbows thrown across
The gulf of tears and sighs.”
And every day the gods come down to the judgment hall, of the Udar
fountain, at the roots of the great ash tree and ride back on heavenly
steeds across the bridge of many hues.
MITHRA.
As fire is the favorite symbol of the Persian, so the sun-gods are their
most important deities, and of these Mithra stands at the head. One of
the Sanskṛit names for the sun is Mitra, and the Persian form of the
word retains its full significance, as the pure light of day. The sun is
never without his shrine, and he is also represented in the human form.
His terrible power, especially in tropical climes, could not fail to be
recognized, and hence the Persian swore by the sun, while the temples
and images consecrated to this god of day arose in every part of the
land. Persian decrees of the fourth and fifth centuries demanded the
highest worship for the sun itself, while fire and water should receive
inferior service. Christians were persecuted for refusing to perform
these services in Armenia[141] and the Roman Emperor Julian centered his
apostasy in the philosophy which permitted him to call the sun the
living image of God and even God himself.[142]
Mithra is represented in the Avesta as riding across the broad arch of
heaven, his chariot drawn by milk-white steeds whose feet are shod with
gold and silver, while the god himself wears a golden helmet and a
silver breastplate. He is represented as “The first of the heavenly gods
who reaches over Hara, who, foremost in battle array, takes hold of the
summits, and from thence looks with a beneficent eye over the abodes of
the Āryans, where the valiant chiefs draw up their many troops in array;
where the high mountains, rich in pastures and waters, yield plenty to
the cattle; where the deep lakes with salt water stands; where the wide
flowing rivers swell and hurry.... Four stallions draw that chariot, all
of the same white color, living on heavenly food and undying.... The
hoofs of their fore feet are shod with gold, the hoofs of their hind
feet are shod with silver.”[143]
This is the Persian picture of the Hindū myth, where the god of day is
represented as coming out of the crimson chambers of the east, in his
fiery car, while his white steeds are led by the fair goddess of the
morning, wearing her garments of silver and changeful opal fire.[144]
The mythology of Mazdeism is very rich with demons, many classes of
which belong to the Indo-Īrānian period. The Vedic Yātus are found
unchanged in the Avesta, and these are demons who can assume any form
they choose. The Pairikas in the oldest Avesta are the fiendish females,
who rob the gods and men of the heavenly waters. They hover between
heaven and earth in the midst of the sea Vourū-Kasha, to keep off the
rain floods, working in harmony with Apaosha, the drouth fiend. There
are many other female demons, which it is unnecessary to describe, as
their characteristics are most revolting.
There is also a host of storm fiends, called “the running ones” on
account of the headlong course of the fiends in a storm—“the onsets of
the wounding crew.” The Devas represent demons which belong to the Indo-
European mythology, and the term originally meant “the gods in heaven.”
When they were converted into evil spirits they became “the fiends in
the heavens” or the fiends who assail the sky, but they afterwards
became the demons of lust and doubt. Death gave rise to several
abstractions, such as Saurū, which was identical in meaning as well as
name with the Vedic Sarū, “the arrow,” a personification of the arrow of
death, as a god-like being. The same idea is conveyed by Iśus, the self-
moving arrow, a designation which is perhaps accounted for from the fact
that Sarū, in India, before becoming the arrow of death, was the arrow
of lightning, with which the god killed his foe. The god of death in
another form becomes “the bone divider” who, like the Yama of the Mahā-
bhārata, holds a noose around the neck of all living creatures. In the
conflict between gods and fiends he takes an active part through the
sacrifice. The sacrifice is more than an act of worship, it is an act of
assistance to the gods. Gods, like men, need drink and food to be
strong; like men, they need praise and encouragement in order to be
brave; when not strengthened by the sacrifice they fly before their
foes.
Sraosha is the priest-god, he first tied the sticks into bundles and
offered up sacrifice to Ahūra; he first sang the holy hymns and thrice
each day and night he smites the demon crew with his uplifted club, and
thus protects the world of the living from the terrors of the night,
when the fiends rush upon the earth; it is he who protects the dead from
the terrors of death, from the assault of Ahriman. It will be through a
sacrifice performed by Ormazd and Sraosha that Ahriman will finally be
vanquished. A number of divinities sprang from the hearth of the altar,
most of them having existed during the Indo-Īrānian period. Piety, who
every day brings her offerings and prayers to the altar, was worshipped
in the Vedas as Aramati, the goddess who every morning and evening,
being anointed with sacred butter, offers herself up to Agni. She was
praised in the Avesta as an abstract genius, but there are yet a few
practices which preserve the evident traces of the old myths in relation
to her union with Atar, the fire-god. The riches that go up to heaven in
the offerings of man, and come down to earth in the gifts of the gods,
were deified as Rāta, the gift, Ashi, the felicity, and more vividly in
Parendi, the keeper of treasures, who comes on a sounding chariot, a
sister to the Vedic Puramdhi.
Thus we have seen the fabulous “world mountain” of early Babylonia
pervading the mythologies of Europe and Asia, taking the form of the
star-crowned Olympus on the Ægean sea, and of Meru, with her fadeless
flowers, in the valleys of India. In northern Europe it is represented
by the Nida mountains with their golden palaces, and in Persia by the
beautiful Hara with her crown of living light.
The Chaldean river of death, Datilla, flows also through the realms of
Grecia under the name of Styx, and in the regions of the north it
becomes the Ifing, and also the Gyöll. Again the mythical river seems to
mount upward, and like the heavenly Nile, the Ganges springs from
celestial heights and flows through the starry highlands of heaven,
while the silvery torrents of the Persian stream come pouring down from
the white summit of the Hara-Berezaita.
The early Baal, with all the unspeakable abominations attending his
worship, becomes refined in the form of Zeus or Jove, who hurls his
lightnings from the brow of Olympus, and in the Ahūra-Mazda of the
Persians, whose throne is “the lofty mountain.” Tammuz and Chemosh,
whose hideous images called forth the contempt of the prophets, appear
in the Persian pantheon as Mithra with his glittering steeds; Ashtaroth
of Sidon, and Diana of Ephesus, lay aside their revolting sensuality,
and come forth as the chaste and strong Diana of Grecian poetry, or the
fair goddess of the dawn among the Hindūs and Persians. The germs of
European and Asiatic mythology are therefore found in that cradle of
idolatry, where the image-worship of Babylonia received the rebuke of
the prophets, and where the red altars of Baal and Moloch were stained
with human blood even amidst the highest forms of early art and culture.
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Footnote 113:
The statement of Herodotus concerning the attack upon the sacred bull
is probably correct, even though the Egyptian monuments claim that
Cambyses, and also the Roman emperors, bowed down to the Egyptian
gods. We may conclude that Cambyses, in doing reverence to the gods of
Egypt, was following in the footsteps of his cool and politic father
(Cyrus), and was guided in these acts by the precedent which his
father had set in reference to the gods of Babylonia.
Footnote 114:
Hindu Literature, p. 59.
Footnote 115:
“Let down our golden everlasting chain,
Whose strong embrace holds heaven and earth and men;
I fix the chain to great Olympus height,
And the vast world hangs trembling in my sight.”—Il.viii, 19-26.
Footnote 116:
Isa. xiv, 13.
Footnote 117:
Ninth tablet of the Epic of Gisdhubar.
Footnote 118:
Hindu Literature, pp. 126-148.
Footnote 119:
Anderson—Norse Mythology, pp. 104-434.
Footnote 120:
Hindu Literature, p. 126.
Footnote 121:
Alborz, being changed into Elburz, became the name of a mountain range
on the southern shore of the Caspian sea, and Mount Demavend, its
highest peak, is looked upon as the home of the Simurgh, and it is
also the scene of many mythical adventures.
Footnote 122:
xxi.
Footnote 123:
Trans. by Paul Guieysse. Rec. of P., Vol. III, p. 48. The belief in
the celestial origin of the Nile survived in Egypt as lately as the
time of Joinville. (Histoire de Saint Louis, Chap. II.)
Footnote 124:
Hel, the world of the dead, irrespective of character.
Footnote 125:
The first record of the worship of Ardvi Sura is in a cuneiform
inscription by Artaxerxes Mnemon (404-361), in which her name is
corrupted into Anahata. Artaxerxes Mnemon appears to have been an
eager promoter of her worship, as he is said to have first erected the
statues of Venus-Anahita in Babylon, Suza, and Ecbatana, and to have
taught her worship to the Persians, the Bactrians, and the people of
Damas and Sardes (Clemens Alexandrians, Protrept. 5, on the authority
of Berosus; about 260 B.C.).
Footnote 126:
Hindu Literature, p. 39.
Footnote 127:
Vendidad, xxi.
Footnote 128:
Sayce, Lec. Rel. Babylonians, pp. 293-299.
Footnote 129:
Hymn to Osiris on the stele of Amon-em-ha. Translated by D. Mallet.
Rec. of P., IV, 21.
Footnote 130:
Hindu Literature, p. 267.
Footnote 131:
Anderson—Norse Mythology, pp. 75-190.
Footnote 132:
Bahram Yast, vii.
Footnote 133:
Bahram Yast, xiii.
Footnote 134:
Minokhirad—62 and 87. Trans. by West.
Footnote 135:
Rig-veda Sanhita—Wilson’s Trans., Vol. V, p. 102
Footnote 136:
Yast, x.
Footnote 137:
See the Bundehesh.
Footnote 138:
This word is frequently spelled Daeva.
Footnote 139:
Yast, viii.
Footnote 140:
Chinvat, the popular orthography of this word, is adopted as it
represents the pronunciation.
Footnote 141:
History of Vartan by Elisaeus (Newman’s trans.), p. 9.
Footnote 142:
Gibbon, Chap. 23.
Footnote 143:
Yast, x.
Footnote 144:
Hindu Literature, p. 27.
DIVISION II.
THE PERIOD OF THE ZEND-AVESTA.