The History of Antiquity, Vol. 5 (of 6)

230

"Yaçna," 30, after Hübschmann's rendering.

231

"Yaçna," 33, 8.

232

"Yaçna," 31, 6.

233

"Yaçna," 34, 1.

234

"Yaçna," 50, 7.

235

"Yaçna," 34, 11.

236

"Yaçna," 41, 10, 11; cf. 57, 20.

237

"Yaçna," 43, 18.

238

"Yaçna," 44, 5. The passages in the text concerning Haurvatat and Ameretat are given after Darmesteter, "Haurvatat et Ameretat," p. 35 ff.

239

"Yaçna," 31, 18.

240

"Yaçna," 47, 1.

241

"Yaçna," 47-49, according to Haug's translation.

242

"Yaçna," 31, 3, 19; 33, 3; 46, 7.

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 God and the devil owed their origin to eternity. In the Avesta Zrvana akarana does not assume 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 gods, 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 god 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, space and time respectively; from this One arose the good and evil god, 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 passage called the daughter of Auramazda and Armaiti; "Yaçna," 44, 4; "Vend." 19, 45; "Ashi Yasht," 16.

247

"Tistar Yasht," 50.

248

"Vend." 19, 40; "Yaçna," 56, 10, 2.

249

"Vispered," 23, 1.

250

"Yaçna," 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.