Zoroaster

Detail of The
School of Athens by Raphael, 1509, showing Zoroaster (left,
with star-studded globe).
Ahura Mazda and Ahriman
Zarathustra "Zoroaster Hymns of
the Zend Avesta"
Zoroaster, Old
Iranian Zarathushtra, or Zarathustra (b. c. 628 bc,
probably Rhages, Iran—d. c. 551, site unknown),
Iranian religious reformer and founder of
Zoroastrianism, or Parsiism, as it is known in
India. (See Zoroastrianism; Parsi.)
Life.
A major personality in the history of the religions
of the world, Zoroaster has been the object of much
attention for two reasons. On the one hand, he
became a legendary figure believed to be connected
with occult knowledge and magical practices in the
Near Eastern and Mediterranean world in the
Hellenistic Age (c. 300 bc–c. ad 300). On the other
hand, his monotheistic concept of God has attracted
the attention of modern historians of religion, who
have speculated on the connections between his
teaching and Judaism and Christianity. Though
extreme claims of pan-Iranianism (i.e., that
Zoroastrian or Iranian ideas influenced Greek,
Roman, and Jewish thought) may be disregarded, the
pervasive influence of Zoroaster’s religious thought
must nevertheless be recognized.
The student of
Zoroastrianism is confronted by several problems
concerning the religion’s founder. One question is
what part of Zoroastrianism derives from Zoroaster’s
tribal religion and what part was new as a result of
his visions and creative religious genius. Another
question is the extent to which the later
Zoroastrian religion (Mazdaism) of the Sāsānian
period (ad 224–651) genuinely reflected the
teachings of Zoroaster. A third question is the
extent to which the sources—the Avesta (the
Zoroastrian scriptures) with the Gāthās (older
hymns), the Middle Persian Pahlavi Books, and
reports of various Greek authors—offer an authentic
guide to Zoroaster’s ideas.
A biographical
account of Zoroaster is tenuous at best or
speculative at the other extreme. The date of
Zoroaster’s life cannot be ascertained with any
degree of certainty. According to Zoroastrian
tradition, he flourished “258 years before
Alexander.” Alexander the Great conquered
Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenids, a
dynasty that ruled Persia from 559 to 330 bc, in 330
bc. Following this dating, Zoroaster converted
Vishtāspa, most likely a king of Chorasmia (an area
south of the Aral Sea in Central Asia), in 588 bc.
According to tradition, he was 40 years old when
this event occurred, thus indicating that his
birthdate was 628 bc. Zoroaster was born into a
modestly situated family of knights, the Spitama,
probably at Rhages (now Rayy, a suburb of Tehrān), a
town in Media. The area in which he lived was not
yet urban, its economy being based on animal
husbandry and pastoral occupations. Nomads, who
frequently raided those engaged in such occupations,
were viewed by Zoroaster as aggressive violators of
order, and he called them followers of the Lie.
Zoroaster’s teachings.
According to the sources, Zoroaster probably was a
priest. Having received a vision from Ahura Mazdā,
the Wise Lord, who appointed him to preach the
truth, Zoroaster apparently was opposed in his
teachings by the civil and religious authorities in
the area in which he preached. It is not clear
whether these authorities were from his native
region or from Chorasmia prior to the conversion of
Vishtāspa. Confident in the truth revealed to him by
Ahura Mazdā, Zoroaster apparently did not try to
overthrow belief in the older Iranian religion,
which was polytheistic; he did, however, place Ahura
Mazdā at the centre of a kingdom of justice that
promised immortality and bliss. Though he attempted
to reform ancient Iranian religion on the basis of
the existing social and economic values, Zoroaster’s
teachings at first aroused opposition from those
whom he called the followers of the Lie (dregvant).
Ahura Mazdā and the Beneficent Immortals.
Zoroaster’s teachings, as noted above, centred on
Ahura Mazdā, who is the highest god and alone is
worthy of worship. He is, according to the Gāthās,
the creator of heaven and earth; i.e., of the
material and the spiritual world. He is the source
of the alternation of light and darkness, the
sovereign lawgiver, and the very centre of nature,
as well as the originator of the moral order and
judge of the entire world. The kind of polytheism
found in the Indian Vedas (Hindu scriptures having
the same religious background as the Gāthās) is
totally absent; the Gāthās, for example, mention no
female deity sharing Ahura Mazdā’s rule. He is
surrounded by six or seven beings, or entities,
which the later Avesta calls amesha spentas,
“beneficent immortals.” The names of the amesha
spentas frequently recur throughout the Gāthās and
may be said to characterize Zoroaster’s thought and
his concept of god. In the words of the Gāthās,
Ahura Mazdā is the father of Spenta Mainyu (Holy
Spirit), of Asha Vahishta (Justice, Truth), of Vohu
Manah (Righteous Thinking), and of Armaiti (Spenta
Armaiti, Devotion). The other three beings
(entities) of this group are said to personify
qualities attributed to Ahura Mazdā: they are
Khshathra Vairya (Desirable Dominion), Haurvatāt
(Wholeness), and Ameretāt (Immortality). This does
not exclude the possibility that they, too, are
creatures of Ahura Mazdā. The good qualities
represented by these beings are also to be earned
and possessed by Ahura Mazdā’s followers. This means
that the gods and mankind are both bound to observe
the same ethical principles. If the amesha spentas
show the working of the deity, while at the same
time constituting the order binding the adherents of
the Wise Lord, then the world of Ahura Mazdā and the
world of his followers (the ashavan) come close to
each other. The very significant eschatological
aspect of Zoroastrianism is well demonstrated by the
concept of Khshathra (Dominion), which is repeatedly
accompanied by the adjective Desirable; it is a
kingdom yet to come.
Monotheism and dualism.
The conspicuous monotheism of Zoroaster’s teaching
is apparently disturbed by a pronounced dualism: the
Wise Lord has an opponent, Ahriman, who embodies the
principle of evil, and whose followers, having
freely chosen him, also are evil. This ethical
dualism is rooted in the Zoroastrian cosmology. He
taught that in the beginning there was a meeting of
the two spirits, who were free to choose—in the
words of the Gāthās—“life or not life.” This
original choice gave birth to a good and an evil
principle. Corresponding to the former is a Kingdom
of Justice and Truth; to the latter, the Kingdom of
the Lie (Druj), populated by the daevas, the evil
spirits (originally prominent old Indo-Iranian
gods). Monotheism, however, prevails over the
cosmogonic and ethical dualism because Ahura Mazdā
is father of both spirits, who were divided into the
two opposed principles only through their choice and
decision.
The Wise Lord,
together with the amesha spentas, will at last
vanquish the spirit of evil: this message, implying
the end of the cosmic and ethical dualism, seems to
constitute Zoroaster’s main religious reform. His
monotheistic solution resolves the old strict
dualism. The dualist principle, however, reappears
in an acute form in a later period, after Zoroaster.
It is achieved only at the expense of Ahura Mazdā,
by then called Ohrmazd, who is brought down to the
level of his opponent, Ahriman. At the beginning of
time, the world was divided into the dominion of the
good and of the evil. Between these, each man is
bound to decide. He is free and must choose either
the Wise Lord and his rule or Ahriman, the Lie. The
same is true of the spiritual beings, who are good
or bad according to their choices. From man’s
freedom of decision it follows that he is finally
responsible for his fate. Through his good deeds,
the righteous person (ashavan) earns an everlasting
reward, namely integrity and immortality. He who
opts for the lie is condemned by his own conscience
as well as by the judgment of the Wise Lord and must
expect to continue in the most miserable form of
existence, one more or less corresponding to the
Christian concept of hell. According to Avestan
belief, there is no reversal and no deviation
possible once a man has made his decision. Thus, the
world is divided into two hostile blocks, whose
members represent two warring dominions. On the side
of the Wise Lord are the settled herdsmen or
farmers, caring for their cattle and living in a
definite social order. The follower of the Lie (Druj)
is a thieving nomad, an enemy of orderly agriculture
and animal husbandry.
Eschatological teachings.
The Gāthās, the early hymns, many of which may have
been written by Zoroaster, are permeated by
eschatological thinking. Almost every passage
contains some reference to the fate awaiting men in
the afterlife. Each act, speech, and thought is
viewed as being related to an existence after death.
The earthly state is connected with a state beyond,
in which the Wise Lord will reward the good act,
speech, and thought and punish the bad. This motive
for doing good seems to be the strongest available
to Zoroaster in his message. After death, the soul
of man must pass over the Bridge of the Requiter (Činvat),
which everyone looks upon with fear and anxiety.
After judgment is passed by Ahura Mazdā, the good
enter the kingdom of everlasting joy and light, and
the bad are consigned to the regions of horror and
darkness. Zoroaster, however, goes beyond this,
announcing an end phase for the visible world, “the
last turn of creation.” In this last phase, Ahriman
will be destroyed, and the world will be wonderfully
renewed and be inhabited by the good, who will live
in paradisiacal joy. Later forms of Zoroastrianism
teach a resurrection of the dead, a teaching for
which some basis may be found in the Gāthās. Through
the resurrection of the dead, the renewal of the
world bestows a last fulfillment on the followers of
the Wise Lord.
Cultic reforms.
Zoroaster forbade all sacrifices in honour of
Ahriman or of his adherents, the daevas, who from
pre-Zoroastrian times had degenerated into hostile
deities. In the prevailing religious tradition,
Zoroaster probably found that the practice of
sacrificing cattle, combined with the consumption of
intoxicating drinks (haoma), led to orgiastic
excess. In his reform, Zoroaster did not, as some
scholars would have it, abolish all animal sacrifice
but simply the orgiastic and intoxicating rites that
accompanied it. The haoma sacrifice, too, was to be
thought of as a symbolic offering; it may have
consisted of unfermented drink or an intoxicating
beverage or plant. Zoroaster retained the ancient
cult of fire. This cult and its various rites were
later extended and given a definite order by the
priestly class of the Magi. Its centre, the eternal
flame in the Temple of Fire, was constantly linked
with the priestly service and with the haoma
sacrifice.
Influence and assessments.
After the conversion of Vishtāspa to such teachings,
Zoroaster remained at the court of the king. Other
officials were converted, and a daughter of
Zoroaster apparently married Jāmāsp, a minister of
the king. According to tradition, Zoroaster lived
for 77 years, thus indicating that he died about 551
bc. After his death, many legends arose about him.
According to these legends, nature rejoiced at his
birth, and he preached to many nations, founded
sacred fires, and fought in a sacred war. He was
viewed as a model for priests, warriors, and
agriculturalists, as well as a skilled craftsman and
healer. The Greeks regarded him as a philosopher,
mathematician, astrologer, or magician. Jews and
Christians regarded him as an astrologer, magician,
prophet, or arch heretic. Not until the 18th century
did a more scholarly assessment of Zoroaster’s
career and influence emerge.
The Most Rev. Franz
Cardinal König