Talk:Zoroastrianism/Archive 4

message: This is the worst religion to do a term paper on! I am working my tail off to get information!!!!
The words "Jesus Loves You" (vandalism) appear and I cannot work out how to delete them or how they were put there. Someone with better knowledge should sort this oout asap. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.152.174.124 (talk) 04:21, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  First Line 

message: Would people please refrain from fiddling with the lede (lead) sentence? Much thought has gone into the "Zoroastrianism is the name of the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to prophet Zoroaster (Zarathushtra, Zartosht). Mazdaism is the name of the religion that acknowledges the supremecy of Ahura Mazda, proclaimed by Zoroaster to be the one uncreated Creator of all (God).". 
In this form, the lede is both historically and doctrinally correct and will not offend any sensibilities. It is not as precise as it could be, but it fulfills its purpose without stepping on any toes. The reason Mazdaism occurs in the lede is because Mazdaism is a redirect to Zoroastrianism, which is ok for now since in the context of (at least) modern Zoroastrianism, the two are synonymous. 
The typical (repeatedly inserted) additions listed below (usually by anon editors) are either  downright wrong, specious, or misleading:
* "Zoroastrianism is monotheistic"
: Zoroastrianism was not always monotheistic. If an established scholar of Zoroastrian history has determined otherwise, then a citation would be in order, and should include a definition of monotheism that does not conflict with other WP articles. Until then, don't propagate the myth.
* "Zoroastrianism is the oldest monotheistic religion"
: This cannot be stated as fact. The closest that can be stated as fact would be "Z. is counted among the oldest practiced religions" or "Zoroastrianism has been established as the oldest of the practiced credal religions".
* "Mazdaism is the native name of the religion" 
: It is not. (whatever "native" is supposed to mean).  -isms are in any case not non-English. 
* The use of Mazdyasnian or Mazdan or Mazdaist as an adjective.
: In the english language, the adjective is "Mazdean".
* "Zoroastrianism <equals/is also known as/etc> Mazdaism"
: When stating this, take into consideration that 1) Zoroastrianism is synonymous with Mazdaism ONLY in the present-day form of the religion. 2) A belief in Ahura Mazda predates Zoroastrianism by at least several centuries. 3) Mazdaism continued to be practiced independantly of Zoroastrianism until at least the 3rd c. BCE. 4) Mazdaism was definitely not synonymous with Sassanid-era Zoroastrianism.
* Dates for Zoroaster.
: This article is on Zoroastrianism, not on Zoroaster, where the issue is explained at length, and can in no way can be adequately parenthesized, eg. "(12th, else 18th, else 6th century BCE)". For heaven's sake, leave well enough alone. When/Where/How Zoroaster was born/lived/died is entirely irrelevant to a brief description of the religion he founded, and belongs under Zoroaster.
Besides, a lede sentence should be *short* and to the point. Nothing but the simplest terms (that need no further explanation) should be in the lede. -- Fullstop 10:47, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lede sentence 

message: If the ref could be in Footnote style or cite.php style it would be easier to double-check the info.
Plus it is needed for FA status. Lincher 15:56, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  GA reinstated 

message: I question the American English pronunciations given in this article, and I'm not sure the British English pronunciations are precisely correct, either.  I would have written the American English pronunciation of "Zoroastrianism" (based on General American) as /'zo:-ro-'ae-stri-ən-'Izm/ and the American English pronunciation of Mazdaism as /'mɑ:z-də-'Izm/, where ɑ is the IPA symbol for the "a" in "father" or the "o" in "bother," and I is being used for the IPA symbol for the "i" as in "it."   -- Bob (19:04, 22 June 2006 141.156.125.226)
I'm beginning to think there is no one 'correct' way to pronounce Zoroastrianism. In my own pronunciation, I drop the second o altogether and my 'Zor' rhymes with "roar". As in zoɹ-æs-trɪn-ɪzm
* OED draft 3/2001 has /'zɒrəʊ'æstrɪən'ɪz(ə)m/ (presumably RP, "Zoroastrian" + "ism" ?)
* Random House 2nd ed. has RHD: zôr'ō-as'trē-u-niz'um (=> IPA: 'zɔr'o-æs-'tri-ə-nɪz'əm ?)
* Somewhere recently I saw it pronounced as zorro-, but I can't remember where.
and for Mazdaism: 
* OED: Brit: /'mazdə(r)ɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /'mæzdəˌɪzəm/
* RHD: maz'də iz'əm (=> IPA: mæz'də ɪz'əm). 
So, while there doesn't seem to be an established pronounciation for Zoroastrianism, there appears to be some consistancy with respect to U.S. /'mæzdəˌɪzəm/. OED Brit /'mazdəɪzm/ sounds reasonable too. -- Fullstop 11:31, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Where do the U.S. pronunciations come from? 

message: This guy should not be used as a reference. He is an incredibly biased conservative Catholic. I've read his book, he offers no evidence that Zoroastrianism borrowed from Judaism. He simply says something to the effect that Jews have always been faithful to their religion (which even the bible itself says is untrue; Jews falling into idol worship for example) and have kept it under great pressure, hence they could not possibly adopt Zoroastrian beliefs. This is not evidence, this is barely speculation. Even Jews and Christians would say that Judaism was under pressure to change during the Babylonian exile, anyway.-7:06  July, 29 2006
:Ok, nuked in 72584760. 
:However, the removal of the Carroll cite left the next sentence without a context: 
:: ... the Encyclopedia Britannica states, "The debt of Israel to its Eastern neighbours in religious matters is easy to demonstrate on a few precise points of minor importance but less so in other more important points, such as dualism, angelology, and eschatology".
:Without the Carroll context, that sentence is ambiguous. As it stands, the EB appears to be making a comparison between Judaism and Islam, which is then irrelevant to the Zoroastrianism article.
:Does anyone have something that backs up what Carroll said about the Israelites having influenced Zoroastrians during the time of captivity? Or anything else to balance out (what may be construed to be) a one-sided view? 
:-- Fullstop 11:17, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Warren H. Carroll 

message: The article states that the word Mazdaism "probably derives from Mazdayasna."  Is there any source for this claim?  In the absence of any historical evidence showing derivation (e.g. intermediate forms) the simplest explanation for Mazdaism is that it's formed in the same way as Hinduism, Buddhism, Marxism and practically every other -ism in the English language. PubliusFL 12:29, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, the phrasing currently suggests that the "ism" is possibly somehow a corruption of "yasna". I doubt that's what was intended. It's just slightly unfortunate phrasing. Paul B 12:41, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Etymology 

message: Members of the Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles are in the process of doing a re-review of current Good Article listings to ensure compliance with the standards of the Good Article Criteria. (Discussion of the changes and re-review can be found here). A significant change to the GA criteria is the mandatory use of some sort of in-line citation (In accordance to WP:CITE) to be used in order for an article to pass the verification and reference criteria. Currently this article does not include in-line citations. It is recommended that the article's editors take a look at the inclusion of in-line citations as well as how the article stacks up against the rest of the Good Article criteria. GA reviewers will give you at least a week's time from the date of this notice to work on the in-line citations before doing a full re-review and deciding if the article still merits being considered a Good Article or would need to be de-listed. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us on the Good Article project talk page or you may contact me personally. On behalf of the Good Articles Project, I want to thank you for all the time and effort that you have put into working on this article and improving the overall quality of the Wikipedia project. Agne 22:32, 25 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: On Hold/Fail: I suggest leaving the Zoroastrianism article on GA-"hold" for the moment. In its present state (25 Sept. 2006), the article needs work, in particular the History and Principal beliefs sections: History has a focus on political developments (ok, thats my fault) and Principal beliefs has too much history (also my fault, and that history is not even dealt with under History). Moreover, the substantial evolution that the religion went through over its long history is not apparent, which gives the whole article a "time bias". Some of these developments are alluded to here and there, but as an overview of the religion and how it got to be what it is, the article needs significant work. The WP:V and WP:CITE problems are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. -- Fullstop 15:33, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: There is no such option provided in the re-review process. The "on hold" feature is only for new nominations - for articles that are already GAs, the review feature is where concerns can be cleared or discussed. The above notice only concerned inline references, a detailed reassessment will follow in due course. Until then, the article remains listed as GA, unless somebody would delist it. If you believe it is not quite there at the moment, try to improve it before the re-review occurs. That said, even if the article would be delisted, it can be re-nominated later on, after the improvements are made. The bottom line is - I am removing the article from the nominations list, because it is not a new nomination. Bravada, talk - 16:03, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  GA Re-Review and In-line citations 

message: It appears that at the same time I was making my changes, someone else was vandalising the article. I tried to restore it but am not familiar enough with the Wikipedia interface to do so effectively. Please remedy this as soon as possible.
200.108.27.63 18:52, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vandalism 

message: I am concerned with some of the assumptions the article bases itself upon. I realise the topic I am concerned with is especially controversial. I would just like to mention that when laying out the core structures of a religion, the only way to maintain a kind of just neutrality for believers and non-believers is perhaps to approach belief systems phenomenologically. The so-called 'objective' position adopted is situated in opposition to "belief" and that is surely not neutral. For example, the article seems to persistently mention that some of the abrahamic faiths "borrowed" their central ideas from zoroastrianism, which quite directly opposes the understandings and positions of "believers" of these Abrahamic faiths who would regard their respective teachings as divinely received, (while they would either reject affinity with other abrahamic faiths or at least admit that have also been individually and seperately ordained for different groups and eras). A material perspective which appears to suggest that like technology, religions are random collections of rituals and beliefs which have been exchanged and borrowed etc, disrespects the understandings of believers. Finally, since the article is directed towards the global english speaking community on earth, it would be just to reflect and appease the opinions of the large majority of mankind who do indeed hold metaphysical beliefs, rather than attempt to maintain an external secular "objective" perspective, which when analysed in detail, hides significant amounts of JudeoChristian-abrahamic inheritance. 1
Please do not dismiss my concerns. I am sure they are the concerns of many
Thankyou —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.46.129.236 (talk) 00:25, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:   So you are saying because there are a large number of adherants to abrahamic religions in the Enlgish speaking world the encyclopedia should appease the  opinions of them as a priority over factual information? I cannot think of a worse way to compile an encyclopedia. Vexorg 01:31, 28 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Neutrality 

message: Wikipedia:Stub_types_for_deletion/Log/2006/December/6#.7B.7Btl.7CZoroastrianism-stub.7D.7D_.2F_.7B.7Bcl.7CZoroastrianism_stubs.7D.7D —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dangerous-Boy (talk • contribs) 23:12, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  zoro stub up for deletion 

message: I just uploaded this picture of a 5000 year old Zoroastrian temple in the Wakhan Valley of Tajikistan. I thought you guys might want to add it to this article. So here it is:
:Image:ZoroastrianTemple WakhanValley Tajikistan.jpg
Behnam 03:40, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  New uploaded picture of ancient Zoroastrian temple. 

message: It really annoying constantly finding references to BC replaced by BCE. BC doesn't mean anything (B.C. indicates a shortening), moreover B.C. is before Christ (a greek name for an oily person), whereas B.C.E. is before christian era. As this is highly inflamatory to anyone who is not a christian I would have thought this would be the last place to find such terminology.
May I remind you that the Roman calendar was finally sorted out on 26th February 1BC, which whereas Christ was born around 4BC, which makes B.C. refer to a period before the modern calendar (when all dates have to be adjusted) Mike 11:45, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Is this a joke? Paul B 12:35, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Paul, no it is not a joke. I can't see why people are starting to use "Before Christian Era" as a new notation. I'm sick and tired of reading articles and having to stop to think whether it says 4BCE or 48CE - it is no joke - try searching the internet for BC, B.C. BCE, B.C.E. and probably a few others and you'll realise that this PC notion is absurd. Historical texts will always have BC (because that is how they were written), - perhaps we should have another acronym for the 3rd millenium AD (latin for from referring to from the start of the 4yearly leap year cycle in the calednar) and call it "APC" - "after polical correctness" or even better "ACS" - after common sense. Mike 14:11, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Your original comment was written in such a way that it wasn't very clear what you were saying, especially your weird claims about "Greek for an oily person", which seemed to be rather beside the piont, since the "Christ" in question is obviously Jesus. BCE can be interpreted to mean Before Common Era or Before Christian Era. This is important to some people, not to others. BCE/CE notion is quite common in academic literature, especially on the history of religion. Paul B 14:28, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Paul, sorry for being obtuse - crestos being annointed coming derived etymologically in greek from oil - without checking it probably could be translated as "oiled". I did for a while use BCE - but it just made tables longer and at made reading documents slower. As I read a lot of historical documents from around "0"BC it is very annoying. Indeed, to search for all English documents within a century of 0BC would require the following searches: require: "0..100BC", "0..100B.C." "0..100BCE", "0..100B.C.E.", "0..100AD", "0..100A.D.", "0..100CE", "0..100C.E.", add to that spanish, etc. and you may understand why I get screaming mad that we didn't just stick with BC & AD, and explain that they had no particularly meaning but if they did it was to refer to the beginning of the modern calendar with 4yearly leap year. From a poll of British archaeologists, I understand that they are sticking to BC/AD, so as BCE has no particular benefit I suspect it won't be long before people start going back to the tried and tested method where 48BC / 48AD can't be confused (both suffixes are same length with no letters in common)whereas  4BCE is easily confused with 48CE (different length, two letters in commons, the difference letter easily confused with 8 - any communications expert will tell you this is a disaster!)Mike 21:05, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  BCE 

message: Someone recently removed the comparison of the flame to the Christian Crucifix.  I reverted it because it is an apt comparison.  I would not understand that section of the article without the comparison.  --Savant13 16:18, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comparison to Chrisitianity 

message: Are Zoroastrianists circumcised? Just curious. 62.128.42.30 06:43, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: If you meant "is there a religious commandment...," the answer would be "no." -- Fullstop 16:38, 18 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Circumcision 

message: I'd never even HEARD of this religion before I saw the name in a BBC World news article online in the sentence "Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Zoroastrians are attending the event organised by the Sant'Egidio Community, a Catholic lay organisation."  Weird....  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.235.192.165 (talk) 16:08, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Huh? 

message: There is a line in this section that says, "In Christian Theology, evil is the absence of God, as also seen in nature that Darkness is the absence of light."  Actually, that is a Neoplatonist thought, and one that has been rejected by Christian Theology for the most part.  Perhaps a better statement would be, "In Christian Theology, evil is disobedience to God."  —Preceding unsigned comment added by PneumaPilot (talk • contribs) 17:36, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Relation to Other Religions 

message: I have a question of a general nature.  Was Nietzsche referencing Zoroaster with his title Thus Spoke Zarathustra?  And if so, should this be articulated in the article or at least mentioned?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by C.H. Dowd (talk • contribs) 15:01, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: See the Zoroaster article. Paul B (talk) 15:04, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

text: Please sign (~~~~) your comments. ناهد/(Nåhed) speak! 21:10, 29 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  is zarathustra zoroaster? 

message: The section Other characteristics said:
:focus, much like the crucifix in Catholicism.
I substituted "Catholicism" for "Christianity" – none in Christianity worship the cross (it would be a very weird idea to worship an execution device, although quite usable for the uncyclopedia ;^) – and "Catholicism" just refers to the concept "a church for all". The Roman Catholics were probably those intended, but the Lutheran Catholics, the Free Catholics, the Liberal Catholics, and foremost the Anglican Catholics might feel forgotten. Said: Rursus (☻) 07:51, 22 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: There'sno such thing as a "Lutheran Catholic" et. al. All those denominations you listed vroke from the Catholic (note, large "C") church.Jersey John (talk) 19:42, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Catholic fixup 

message: Zoroastrianism
  
Main
the ancient pre-Islamic religion of Iran that survives there in isolated areas and, more prosperously, in India, where the descendants of Zoroastrian Iranian (Persian) immigrants are known as Parsis, or Parsees. In India the religion is called Parsiism.
Founded by the Iranian prophet and reformer Zoroaster in the 6th century bc, the religion contains both monotheistic and dualistic features. It influenced the other major Western religons—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For a discussion of the context in which Zoroastrianism arose, see Iranian religion.
Nature and significance
The ancient Greeks saw in Zoroastrianism the archetype of the dualistic view of the world and of man’s destiny. Zoroaster was supposed to have instructed Pythagoras in Babylon and to have inspired the Chaldean doctrines of astrology and magic. It is likely that Zoroastrianism influenced the development of Judaism and the birth of Christianity. The Christians, following a Jewish tradition, identified Zoroaster with Ezekiel, Nimrod, Seth, Balaam, and Baruch, and even, through the latter, with Christ himself. On the other hand, Zoroaster, as the presumed founder of astrology and magic, could be considered the arch-heretic. In more recent times the study of Zoroastrianism has played a decisive part in reconstructing the religion and social structure of the Indo-European peoples.
Though Zoroastrianism was never, even in the thinking of its founder, as aggressively monotheistic as, for instance, Judaism or Islām, it does represent an original attempt at unifying under the worship of one supreme god a polytheistic religion comparable to those of the ancient Greeks, Latins, Indians, and other early peoples.
Its other salient feature, namely dualism, was never understood in an absolute, rigorous fashion. Good and Evil fight an unequal battle in which the former is assured of triumph. God’s omnipotence is thus only temporarily limited. In this struggle man must enlist because of his capacity of free choice. He does so with his soul and body, not against his body, for the opposition between good and evil is not the same as the one between spirit and matter. Contrary to the Christian or Manichaean (from Manichaeism—a Hellenistic, dualistic religion founded by the Iranian prophet Mani) attitude, fasting and celibacy are proscribed, except as part of the purificatory ritual. Man’s fight has a negative aspect, nonetheless: he must keep himself pure; i.e., avoid defilement by the forces of death, contact with dead matter, etc. Thus Zoroastrian ethics, although in itself lofty and rational, has a ritual aspect that is all-pervading. On the whole, Zoroastrianism is optimistic and has remained so even through the hardship and oppression of its believers.
History » Pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion
The religion of Iran before the time of Zoroaster is not directly accessible, for there are no reliable sources more ancient than the prophet himself. It has to be studied indirectly on the basis of later documents and by a comparative approach. The language of Iran is closely akin to that of northern India, and hence the people of the two lands probably had common ancestors—the Indo-Iranians, or Aryans. The religion of the latter has been reconstructed by means of common elements contained in the sacred books of Iran and India: mainly the Avesta and the Vedas. Both collections exhibit the same kind of polytheism, with many of the same gods, notably the Indian Mitra (the Iranian Mithra), the cult of fire, sacrifice by means of a sacred liquor (soma in India, in Iran haoma), and other parallels. There is, moreover, a list of Aryan gods in a treaty concluded about 1380 bc between the Hittite emperor and the king of Mitanni. The list includes Mitra and Varuṇa, Indra, and the two Nāsatyas. All of these gods also are found in the Vedas, but only the first one in the Avesta, except that Indra and Nāñhaithya appear in the Avesta as demons; Varuṇa may have survived under another name. Important changes, then, must have taken place on the Iranian side, not all of which can be attributed to the prophet.
The Indo-Iranians appear to have distinguished, from among their gods, the daiva (Indo-Iranian and Old Persian equivalent of Avestan daeva and Sanskrit deva, related to the Latin deus), meaning “heavenly,” and the asura, a special class with occult powers. This situation was reflected in Vedic India; later on, asura came to signify, in Sanskrit, a kind of demon, because of the baleful aspect of the asura’s invisible power. In Iran the evolution must have been different: the ahuras were extolled, to the exclusion of the daevas, who were reduced to the rank of demons.
History » The reformation of Zoroaster
Zoroaster (Zarathushtra) was a priest of a certain ahura (Avestan equivalent of Sanskrit asura) with the epithet mazdā, “wise,” whom Zoroaster mentions once in his hymns with “the [other] ahuras.” Similarly, Darius I (522–486) and his successors worshipped Auramazda (Ahura Mazdā) “and the other gods who exist” or “Ahura Mazdā, the greatest god.” The two historically related facts are evidently parallel: on both sides the rudiments of monotheism are present, though in a more elaborate form with the prophet Zoroaster.
It has not yet been possible to place Zoroaster’s hymns, the Gāthās, in their historical context. Not a single place or person mentioned in them is known from any other source. Vishtāspa, the prophet’s protector, can only be the namesake of the father of Darius, the Achaemenid king. All that may safely be said is that Zoroaster lived somewhere in eastern Iran, far from the civilized world of western Asia, before Iran became unified under Cyrus II the Great. If the Achaemenids ever heard of him, they did not see fit to mention his name in their inscriptions nor did they allude to the beings who surrounded the great god and were later to be called the amesha spentas, or “bounteous immortals”—an essential feature of Zoroaster’s doctrine.
Religion under the Achaemenids was in the hands of the Magi, whom Herodotus describes as a Median tribe with special customs, such as exposing the dead, fighting evil animals, and interpreting dreams. Again, the historical connection with Zoroaster—whom Herodotus also ignores—is a hazy one. It is not known when Zoroaster’s doctrine reached western Iran, but it must have been before the time of Aristotle (384–322), who alludes to its dualism.
Darius, when he seized power in 522, had to fight a usurper, Gaumata the Magian, who pretended to be Bardiya, the son of Cyrus the Great and brother of the king Cambyses. This Magian had destroyed cultic shrines, āyadanas, which Darius restored. One possible explanation of these events is that Gaumata had adopted Zoroastrianism, a doctrine that relied on the allegiance of the common people, and therefore destroyed temples or altars to deities of the nobility. Darius, who owed his throne to the support of some noblemen, could not help favouring their cult, although he adopted Auramazda as a means of unifying his empire.
Xerxes, successor to Darius, mentioned in one of his inscriptions how at a certain (unnamed) place he substituted the worship of Auramazda for that of the daivas, which does not mean he opposed the daeva cult as such, as a true Zoroastrian would have done, but only that he eradicated somewhere—probably in Babylon—the cult of deities alien to the religion of the ahuras. It points to a change of attitude, compared with Cyrus’ tolerance of alien religions, such as the Babylonian or the Jewish religions.
From Artaxerxes II (404–359/358) onward, the inscriptions mention, besides Auramazda, Mithra and the goddess Anahita (Anahit), which proves only a change of emphasis, not the appearance of new deities.
History » The Arsacid period
In consequence of Alexander’s conquest, the Iranian religion was almost totally submerged by the wave of Hellenism. At Susa, for instance, which had been one of the capital cities of the Achaemenids but where the religion of Auramazda was not indigenous, the coinage of the Seleucid and Arsacid periods does not represent a single Iranian deity.
Then the Iranian religion gradually emerged again. In Commagene in the middle of the 1st century bc, gods bear combinations of Greek and Iranian names: Zeus Oromazdes, Apollo Mithra, Helios Hermes, Artagnes Herakles Ares. The first proof of the use of a Zoroastrian calendar, implying the official recognition of Zoroastrianism, is found some 40 years earlier at Nisa (near modern Ashkhabad in Soviet Turkmenistan). By then some form of orthodoxy must have been established in which Auramazda and the entities (powers surrounding him) adjoin other gods such as Mithra, the Sun, and the Moon.
In Persis (modern Fars), from the beginning of the Christian Era to the advent of the Sāsānians (early 3rd century ad), any allusion to the fire cult disappears. The coins seem to indicate, in not showing the fire altar, that the prince had lost interest in the Iranian religion.
History » The Sāsānian period
With Ardashīr, the future founder of the Sāsānian dynasty, the situation was different; and this may suggest that his religious zeal—as a hereditary priest of Staxr (Istaxr)—may have helped him seize power in his native province, even before he started attacking his Arsacid suzerain, Artabanus V.
Two persons are recorded, in different sources, as helping to establish Zoroastrianism under the first Sāsānians: Kartēr and Tansar. Whereas Kartēr is known through contemporary inscriptions, most of which were written by himself, Tansar (or Tosar) is only remembered in later books. The latter tell us that Tansar, an ehrpat, or theologian, undertook the task, under Ardashīr’s command, of collecting the sacred texts and fixing the canon. Kartēr, who was already active under Ardashīr I but more so under Shāpūr and his successors, recounted his brilliant career, which reflects the birth of a hierarchy. He was still an ehrpat under Shāpūr, as he restored the “Mazdean religion . . . in the land of non-Iran reached by the horses and men of the king of kings.” Under Hormizd he was made “magupat of Ormazd,” a term apparently created for him and meaning “chief of the Magians of Auramazda.” Under Bahrām I (ad 273–276), Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, who had enjoyed a degree of tolerance under the two preceding kings, was sacrificed to the interests of Zoroastrianism and died in prison. Bahrām II named Kartēr “Saviour of the Soul of Bahrām,” elevated him to the rank of the “grandees of the realm,” and gave him the additional titles of “judge of the empire,” “master of rites,” and “ruler of the fire of Anahit-Ardashīr at Staxr and of Anahit the Dame.” Promoted to the apex of his career, Kartēr persecuted “Jews, Buddhists, Brahmins, Nasoreans [Judeo-Christians?], Christians, Maktaks [Mandeans, Manichaeans?], and Zandīks [Mazdean heretics].” Narses (293–302), who began his struggle for power when Bahrām II was still on the throne, seems to have recovered the title of chief of the Staxr temple that his predecessor and adversary had surrendered to Kartēr. Under Shāpūr II, the high priest Aturpāt, at a council summoned to fix the text of the Avesta, proved the truth of his doctrine by submitting to the ordeal of molten metal poured on his breast and was victorious over all kinds of sectarians and heretics.
Under Bahrām V (420–438), presumably, the title magupatān magupat (chief magus of the chief magi) was created. Under Qobād (or Kavādh; 488–496 and 498/499–531), Iran traversed its gravest social and religious crisis under the impact of Mazdak. This reformer, whose doctrines were partly inspired by those of Mani, was granted an interview by Qobād—as Shāpūr I had received Mani a long time before, but with a more decisive success. Perhaps the King hoped that by abolishing property and the family he would reign over a docile mass. The Mazdakites favoured the abolition of all social inequalities, chiefly of private property, the main cause of all hatred. Everything was to be held in common, including women. These views directly threatened the rich as well as the Mazdean clergy, who soon understood this. Qobād was dethroned and replaced by his brother Jāmāsp. After two years in exile, Qobād recovered his throne, but he had been cured of his egalitarian views and decided to liquidate the Mazdakites.
Khosrow I continued the work of his father, Qobād, and thus the Mazdakite upheaval made way for a strong state and an established Mazdean Church. The religious books give Khosrow the unique title of Anōsharvan, “with the immortal soul,” probably for having crushed Mazdakism and for enabling the “good religion” to triumph.
Khosrow II (590/591–628) married a Christian woman and may have been a Christian himself. He was superstitious and dabbled in astrology.
History » Post-Islāmic Iranian Zoroastrianism
Islām won a decisive victory at al-Qādisīyah in 635 over the armies of Yazdegerd III, the last Sāsānid. Islām, in principle, tolerated the ancient religion, but conversions by persuasion or force were massive in many provinces. Zoroastrianism fomented rebellion and brought persecutions upon itself. There were pockets of survival, notably in Persis, the ancient centre of the Achaemenian and Sāsānian empires. Books were produced to save the essentials of the religion from a threatened disaster. The disaster did occur but exactly why and how is not known. Zoroastrians, called Gabars by the Muslims, survived in Iran as a persecuted minority in small enclaves at Yazd and Kerman.
History » The Parsis in India
From the 10th century onward, groups of Zoroastrians emigrated to India, where they found asylum in Gujarāt. Their connection with their coreligionists in Iran seems to have been almost totally broken until the end of the 15th century. Reestablished in 1477, the connection was kept up chiefly in the form of an exchange of letters until 1768. Under British rule, the Parsis, who previously had been humble agriculturists, started to enrich themselves through commerce, then through industry. They became a most prosperous and “modern” community, centred in Bombay. Formerly they had adopted the language (Gujarati) and the dress of their Hindu milieu. Later they adopted British customs, British dress, the education of girls, and the abolition of child marriage. In their enterprises as well as in their charities they followed the example of the West. From the 19th century on, they were able to help their less favoured brethren in Iran, either through gifts or through intervention with the government.
They also adapted themselves to their Indian culture by minimizing what was repugnant to the Hindus, namely, blood sacrifice; and they surrendered to some extent to the vogue of astrology and to theosophy. On the other hand, ever since they were attacked by Christian missionaries for their dualism, they have been emphasizing the monotheistic aspect of their doctrine.
Beliefs and mythology » Sources
Only the hymns, or Gāthās, are attributable to Zoroaster. They are written in various metres and in a dialect different from the rest of the Avesta, except for seven chapters, chiefly in prose, that appear to have been composed shortly after the prophet’s demise. All these texts are embedded in the Yasna, which is one of the main divisions of the Avesta and is recited by the priests during the ceremony of the same name, meaning “sacrifice.” The Visp-rat (“All the Judges”) is a Yasna augmented here and there by additional invocations and offerings to the ratus (lords) of the different classes of beings. The Vidēvdāt, or Vendidad (“Law Rejecting the Daevas”), consists of two introductory sections recounting how the law was given to man, followed by 18 sections of rules. The Siroza enumerates the deities presiding over the 30 days of the month. The Yashts (hymns) are each addressed to one of 21 deities such as Mithra, Anahita, or Verethraghna. The Hadhoxt Nask (“Section Containing Sayings”) describes the fate of the soul after death. The Khūrda Avesta, or Small Avesta, is made up of minor texts.
The Avesta is, therefore, a collection of texts compiled in successive stages until it was completed under the Sāsānians. It was then about four times larger than what has survived. A summary of its 21 books, or Nasks (of which only one is preserved as such in the Vidēvdāt), is given in one of the main treatises written during the brief Zoroastrian renascence under Islām in the 9th century; the Dēnkart, the “Acts of the Religion.” It is written in Pahlavi, the language of the Sāsānians.
Other works in Pahlavi include, besides a translation and commentary on the Avesta, the Bundahishn (“Primal Creation”), a cosmology. Most Pahlavi books are anonymous, such as Mēnōk-i Khrat (“Spirit of Wisdom”), a lucid summary of a doctrine based on reason, and the Book of Artāy Virāf, which describes Virāf’s descent into the netherworld as well as heaven and hell and the pleasures and pains awaiting the virtuous and the wicked. There are also a few signed works, such as those of the two brothers Zātspram and Mānushchihr, or Mardān-Farrukh’s Shkand-Gumānīk Vichār (“Final Dispelling of Doubts”), an apology of the Mazdean religion directed against Manichaeism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islām.
Finally, there are Zoroastrian books written in Persian, either in verse or in prose. The latter include the correspondence exchanged between Zoroastrians of Iran and India and the treatise entitled ʾOlemā-ye Islām (“The Doctors of Islām”), with decidedly Zurvanite tendencies.
Beliefs and mythology » God
Zoroaster’s silence on Mithra is not easy to interpret. Since this god was closely associated with Varuṇa in India and with Varuṇa’s likely substitute in Iran, Zoroaster can hardly have ignored one-half of this divine pair without a definite purpose. Otherwise, it might be presumed that Mithra was included in the formula “Mazdā and the [other] ahuras”; however, Mithra is called in the Later Avesta (non-Gāthic) an ahura; so is Apām Napāt, a fire or brightness in the waters, corresponding to the Vedic Apām Napāt. As for Verethraghna (the entity or spirit of victory), it seems that since he took over the function of Indra, who was a daeva, he could not be called an ahura; but in order to mark his belonging to the world of ahuras he was called ahuradāta, “created by an ahura.”
It is in the framework of the religion of the ahuras, hostile to the cult of the daevas, that Zoroaster’s message should be understood. He emphasized the central importance of his god, the wise Ahura, by portraying him with an escort of entities, the powers of all the other gods, in an array against the forces of evil.
The moral dualism expressed in the opposition Asha–Druj (truth–falsehood) goes back at least to Indo-Iranian times, for the Veda knows it too, as ṛta-druh, although the contrast is not as sharply defined as in the Avesta. Between these two principles, the Twin Spirits made an ominous choice, the Bounteous One becoming in thoughts, words, and deeds a partisan of Asha, ashavan, while the other became dregvant, partisan of the Druj. After them it was the daevas’ turn; they all chose wrongly. Ever since, the daevas have tried to corrupt man’s choice also.
To the army of the ashavans, headed by the Bounteous Spirit, was counterposed the host of the dregvants, under the Destructive Spirit, Angra Mainyu. Each combatant faced his exact counterpart: the Good Mind opposing the Bad Mind and Aramaiti being countered by Taromaiti.
In this battle, the whole material universe is, through the entities, potentially enrolled, the Bounteous Spirit being the patron of man, Asha of fire, the Good Mind of the Ox, the Dominion of the metals, Aramaiti of the earth, Integrity and Immortality of the waters and plants. Moreover, since the entities are at once divine and human (because both the spiritual and material qualities of man partake of divine), everyone faithful to the wise Ahura can commune with him.
After Zoroaster, considerable changes occurred in the theology he had professed. The entities were reduced to mere deities, which were even separated into male and female. Never again were their names used to designate human faculties. This is probably a consequence of the resurgence of the ancient gods.
It is not known to what extent Zoroaster’s system was meant to be exclusively the cult of Ahura Mazdā. In the Later Avesta all the gods he had ignored emerged again, such as Mithra, Airyaman (whom he had replaced by Sraosha), Anahita, Apām Napāt, Verethraghna, and Vayu. This vast pantheon, still nominally headed by Ahura Mazdā, is similar to the compromise that Darius, according to the interpretation cited above, made between the cult of Auramazda and that of the gods of the nobility.
Not only did Zoroaster’s theology thus lose its exclusive position, but an internal change also modified its equilibrium and even threatened its very essence. The Bounteous Spirit was almost completely reabsorbed into Ahura Mazdā. Whereas in a Yasht the two Spirits fought each other, in the Vidēvdāt Ahura Mazdā and the Destructive Spirit opposed each other by creating, respectively, the good and the bad things. This profoundly affected Zoroaster’s system, for Ahura Mazdā could no longer be the father of the Twin Spirits; he now faced, on equal terms so to speak, a sort of antigod. This alteration probably dates back at least to the 4th century bc, for Aristotle said in the Peri philosophias (“On Philosophy”) that the Magi preached the existence of two principles, Oromasdes and Areimanios.
Beliefs and mythology » Cosmogony
In the cosmogony as expounded in the Bundahishn, Ormazd (Ahura Mazdā) and Ahriman are separated by the void. They seem to have existed from all eternity, when Ahriman’s invidious attack initiates the whole process of creation. The question of their origin is ignored, but it was implied, ever since Ormazd had taken the place of his Bounteous Spirit in the struggle against the Destructive Spirit. Since Ahura Mazdā could no longer be the father of the two adversaries, the question of their origin was inevitable.
A solution was provided by Zurvanism; it is Zurvān (Time) who is the father of Ormazd and Ahriman. But this solution upset the very essence of Mazdaism and was therefore condemned as heretical. Zurvanism was widely accepted, however, perhaps even prevalent, in Sāsānian times. Traces of it are found in Mazdean orthodoxy, some features of which cannot otherwise be explained.
In Mazdean orthodoxy, when Ormazd created the material world, he first produced from Infinite Light a form of fire, out of which all things were to be born. This form of fire is “bright, white, round, and visible from afar.” Gayōmart, the Primal Man, was also conceived as spherical, in the image of the sky. Mānushchihr writes that “Ormazd, the lord of all things, produced from Infinite Light a form of fire whose name was that of Ormazd and whose light was that of fire.” This phrase can be accounted for only as a clumsy adaptation of a Zurvanite text that must have said, in effect, that Zurvān created Ormazd.
The Mazdean quaternity can hardly be explained except as an adaptation of the Zurvanite one. The latter is attested in several texts citing, besides Zurvān, three other names given as those of separate gods but that must be hypostases (essences) of the first one, also called in Manichaeism the god with four faces. Among the various forms under which the Zurvanite quaternity manifested itself, the one associating Zurvān with Light, Power, and Wisdom seems to be the origin of the Mazdean quaternity. Ormazd, in the Bundahishn, has three other names, namely Time, Space, and Religion. To obtain this quaternity, it was sufficient to replace Zurvān by Time, Light by Space, Wisdom by Religion, and Power by Ormazd and to put the latter at the end of the series.
The Mazdean quaternity is reflected in the calendar at Nisa in 90 bc. The Zurvanite speculation that preceded it probably dates back to the first centuries of the Arsacid period and thus was born in the wake of Hellenism and in connection with the spread of astrology.
Beliefs and mythology » Cosmology
In order to vanquish Ahriman, Ormazd created the world as a battlefield. He knew that this fight would be limited in time—it would last 9,000 years—and he offered Ahriman a pact to that effect. After they had created their respective material creations, Ahriman’s first attack was defeated by Ormazd with the help of the Ahuna Vairya prayer (the most sacred Zoroastrian prayer), and he lay prostrate for another period of 3,000 years, the second in a total of four. He was then stirred up by the prostitute (Primal Woman) and went back to the attack, this time in the material universe. He killed the Primal Bull, whose marrow gave birth to the plants and whose semen was collected and purified in the moon, whence it would produce the useful animals. Ahriman then killed Gayōmart, the Primal Man, whose body produced the metals and whose semen was preserved and purified in the sun. A part of it would produce the rhubarb from which the first human couple would be born.
The first human couple were perverted by Ahriman, and it is only with the advent of Zoroaster, after 3,000 years, that Ahriman’s supremacy came to an end. Ormazd and Ahriman then fight on equal terms until Ormazd, at the end of the last 3,000 years, finally will triumph.
Beliefs and mythology » Concepts of man
The idea of man as a microcosm, already illustrated in the cosmogony, is further developed in the Bundahishn .
As a result of the aggressor’s attack, man is mortal. But he does not die altogether. There are five immortal parts in him: ahu (“life”), daēnā (“religion”), baodah (“knowledge”), urvan (“soul”), and fravashi (“preexistent souls”). The latter term seems literally to mean “preeminent hero.” The conception that caused this term to be applied to the “manes” (spirits) or pitarah of Iran is that of a defensive, protective power that continues to emanate from a chief even after death. This originally aristocratic notion seems to have been vulgarized in the same way as, in Greece, any dead person came to be considered a hero, or, in Egypt, an Osiris. Zoroaster ignored the fravashi, but he was familiar with the daēnā. The latter term meant “religion” in both its objective and subjective senses.
Indian and Iranian beliefs in the afterlife have many features in common, probably dating back to the Indo-Iranian period: a feminine encounter, a bridge with dogs watching it, a heavenly journey. In the ancient Indian texts, the Upaniṣads, the soul is welcomed in heaven by 500 apsaras (cloud maidens). In Iran the soul meets his own religion (daēnā) in the form of a beautiful damsel if he has lived justly; otherwise, he meets a hideous hag.
Either before this encounter or after, according to the various texts, the soul must cross a bridge. This, with the young girl and the gods, is attested in India in the Yajurveda and the Upaniṣads. In the Gāthās it is called the Bridge of the Requiter. It leads the good souls to paradise, but the bad ones fall into hell.
The soul has also to undergo a judgment; it appears before Mithra and his two companions, Sraosha and Rashnu. Finally it ascends through successive stages representing respectively his good thoughts (the stars), good words (the moon), and good deeds (the sun) to the paradise (of infinite lights). In the Veda it is said only that the sojourn of the good deed is beyond the path of the sun. In paradise the soul is led by Vohu Manah, the Good Mind, to the golden throneof Ormazd.
Hell also has, symmetrically, four levels. And there is, for the souls whose good actions exactly balance their evil ones, an intermediate place.
Beliefs and mythology » Eschatology
Zoroaster used to invoke saviours who, like the dawns of new days, would come to the world. He hoped himself to be one of them. After his death, the belief in coming saviours developed. Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) was expected to return, if not personally, at least in the form of his three sons who would be born, at intervals of a thousand years, from his semen. The last of these saviours, Astvat-ereta, or justice incarnate, was also simply called the Saviour (Saoshyans).
Only in the Pahlavi books is this theme systematically developed. It is dominated by the idea of a final return to the initial state of things. The first human couple had at first fed on water, then on plants, on milk, and at last on meat. The people in the last millennia will, at the advent of the three successive saviours, abstain in the reverse order from meat, milk, and plants to keep finally only water. The primeval combatants also have their counterparts at the end of time. The dragon that was killed in order to liberate the imprisoned waters will appear again at the resurrection to be killed by another hero. In the last great struggle, the host of good and the host of evil will vie with each other, and each soldier of Ormazd will defeat and kill his own special adversary. This will restore the state of peace that had prevailed initially. The wicked will then submit to an ordeal of molten metal and fire. Fire and Airyaman will cause the metals of the mountains to melt and to flow down as a river of fire. The whole of resuscitated mankind must traverse it; it will burn only the wicked, whereas to the just it will be as sweet as warm milk. The suffering of the wicked will last only three days, however, after which all mankind will enjoy much happiness. On the flattened earth (for the metal will fill in all the valleys), men and women, henceforth shadowless since they are sinless, will taste the bliss of family life. Hell will be sealed forever, and Ahriman will be either powerless or annihilated.
Practices and institutions » Priesthood
The Magians, though not originally Zoroastrian, apparently became acquainted with the prophet’s teachings not later than the 4th century bc. They had the monopoly on religion at the Achaemenian court. The term magus was still used in the Arsacid period. Thereafter, under the Sāsānians, a hierarchy developed, with the creation of the magupat, or chief of magi, and of its superlative magupatān magupat (coined on the model of shāhanshāh, “king of kings”). The ehrpat, originally a religious teacher, was especially entrusted with the care of the fire. The modern equivalent of the word, herbad or ervad, designates a priest of the lower degree, who in the more important ceremonies only acts as the assistant priest. Above him is the mobed. Ranked above all of these functionaries is the dastūr, a kind of bishop, who directs and administers one or more important temples. Priesthood is hereditary, but all priests have to go through one or more ceremonies of investiture over and above those practiced by all the faithful.
Practices and institutions » Ceremonies
All young Parsis must be initiated when they reach the age of seven (in India) or 10 (in Persia). They receive the shirt (sadre) and the girdle (kusti), which they are to wear their whole life.
There are three types of purification, in order of increasing importance: the padyab, or ablution; the nahn, or bath; and the bareshnum, a complicated ritual performed at special places with the participation of a dog—whose left ear is touched by the candidate and whose gaze puts the evil spirits to flight—and lasting several days.
Penance entails reciting the patet, the firm resolve not to sin again, and the confession of sins to a dastūr or to an ordinary priest if a dastūr is not obtainable.
The chief ceremony, the Yasna, essentially a sacrifice of haoma (the sacred liquor), is celebrated before the sacred fire with recitation of large parts of the Avesta. There also are offerings of bread and milk and, formerly, of meat or animal fat.
The sacred fire must be kept burning continually and has to be fed at least five times a day. Prayers also are recited five times a day. The founding of a new fire involves a very elaborate ceremony. There are also rites for purification and for regeneration of a fire.
Practices and institutions » Burial rites
After death, a dog is brought before the corpse; it should preferably be a “four-eyed” dog (i.e., it should have a spot above each eye, as this is said to increase the efficacy of its look). The rite is repeated five times a day. After the first one, fire is brought into the room where it is kept burning until three days after the removal of the corpse to the Tower of Silence. The removal must be done during the daytime.
The interior of the Tower of Silence is built in three concentric circles, one each for men, women, and children. The corpses are exposed there naked. The vultures do not take long—an hour or two at the most—to strip the flesh off the bones, and these, dried by the sun, are later swept into the central well. Formerly the bones were kept in an ossuary, the astodān, to preserve them from rain and animals. The morning of the fourth day is marked by the most solemn observance in the death ritual, for it is then that the departed soul reaches the next world and appears before the deities who are to pass judgment over it.
Practices and institutions » Festivals
Festivals, in which worship is an essential part, are characteristic aspects of Zoroastrianism, a faith that enjoins on man the pleasant duty of being happy. The principal festivals in the Parsi year are the six seasonal festivals, Gahānbārs, and the days in memory of the dead at year’s end. Also, each day of the month and each of the 12 months of the year is dedicated to a deity. The day named after the month is the great feast day of that particular deity.
The New Year festival, Nōrūz, is the most joyous and beautiful of Zoroastrian feasts, a spring festival in honour of Rapithwin, the personification of noonday and summer. The festival to Mithra, or Mehragān, was traditionally an autumn one, as honoured as the spring feast of Nōrūz.
Practices and institutions » Ethics
The precepts of Mazdean ethics focus upon the maintenance of life and the fight against evil. In order to maintain life one must earn one’s living by means of cattle raising and agriculture, and one must procreate. To fight against evil is to combat the demons and whatever beings, men or animals, belong to them. The two points of view seem to coincide, considering that the forces of evil are the forces of death: good is opposed to evil as light is to darkness, as life is to nonlife. The life precepts can be transposed into fight precepts; for instance, eating and drinking are interpreted by Zātspram as a struggle against the she-demon Āz, “Concupiscence.” The two points of view, however, are also contradictory: how can man fight the forces of evil without suppressing certain lives, such as baleful animals? The second viewpoint prevails: Iran ignores, even in theory, the universal respect of life that is preached by Buddhism or that justifies the vegetarian diet of Brahmanic India.
Social reasons (e.g., the desire to maintain family privileges) apparently explain the development of consanguineous marriage, an acute form of endogamy.
Future life should be determined by the balance of the good and evil deeds, words, and thoughts of the whole life. This principle, however, is tempered to allow for human weakness. All faults do not have to be registered or weighed forever on the scales. There are two means of effacing them: confession and the transfer of supererogatory merits (the equivalent of the Roman Catholic “Treasury of Merits” of Christ and the saints). The latter is the justification for the prayers and ceremonies for the departed.
Iconography
There is no Zoroastrian art. Be it in the Achaemenid, Arsacid, or Sāsānian period, Iranian art was predominantly royal. Only one god is represented during the first period: Auramazda, as a winged disk hovering above the king. It is known, however, that Artaxerxes II introduced statues of Anahita into her temples, after the Greek fashion. In the Arsacid period, Greek models also served for the representations of Iranian gods ordered by the kings on reliefs or coins. In the Sāsānian period, deities were represented only in the giving of the royal investiture, as is the case with Ormazd and Anahita at Naqsh-e Rostam, or Ormazd and Mithra at Taq-e Bostan. The frequency of the bullman in Achaemenid and Sāsānid iconography may be due to the obviously royal character of this personage: on seals he wears a crown, and the Pahlavi text calls him Gopatshāh, “King of Gopat.”
Relation to other religions
The debt of Israel to its Eastern neighbours in religious matters is easy to demonstrate on a few precise points of minor importance but less so in other more important points, such as dualism, angelology, and eschatology.
Isaiah 40–48 offers striking parallels with the Gāthā 44:3–5, as has been shown by Morton Smith. Besides the common procedure of rhetorical questions, there is the notion of a god who has created the world and, notably, light and darkness. The very idea of a creator god may be common to all of the western part of the Semitic world. But the notion that God created light and darkness appears in both prophets. It is true that Zoroaster associates light and darkness only to waking and sleep and that no Iranian text says that God created good and evil. Nevertheless, the juxtaposition, in Isaiah, of light–darkness with good–evil sounds remarkably Iranian.
After the exile, the traditional hope in a messiah-king of the House of David who would reestablish Israel as an independent nation and make it triumph over all enemies gave way gradually to a concept at once more universal and more moral. The salvation of Israel was still essential, but it had to come about in the framework of a general renewal; the appearance of a saviour would mean the end of this world and the birth of a new creation; his judgment of Israel would become a general judgment, dividing mankind into good and evil. This new concept, at once universal and ethical, recalls Iran so strongly that many scholars attribute it to the influence of that country. John R. Hinnells has seen this influence especially in the saviour’s defeat of the demons, his gathering of men for the judgment scene, his raising of the dead, and his administration of the judgment. The occasion of this influence, according to Hinnells, may be found in the contacts between the Jews and the Parthians that were initiated in the 2nd century bc but that reached a climax in the middle of the 1st century bc.
Although Pythagoras cannot have been a pupil of Zoroaster, there are striking similarities of doctrine between Iran and Greece. Anaximander’s world picture corresponds to that of the Avesta. Heracleitus seems to have been impressed, in Ephesus, by the practices of the Magi, if not by their theory on the fiery nature of the soul. This would account for the emergence, in 5th-century Greece, of the belief in the heavenly fate of the soul.
The search for an Iranian background to Gnosticism must be placed in a new perspective if the recent view that Gnosticism is really a Christian heresy is accepted.
Conclusion
Zoroastrianism is not the purely ethical religion it may at first seem. In practice, despite the doctrine of free choice, a Zoroastrian is so constantly involved in a meticulous struggle against the contamination of death and the thousand causes of defilement, and against the threat, even in his sleep, of ever-present demons, that he does not often believe that he is leading his life freely and morally.
Apart from this attitude, the belief in the power of destiny sometimes culminates in fatalism. The latter is easily associated with Zurvanism, itself sometimes tainted with materialism. In the Mēnōk-i Khrat, it is stated that “though one be armed with the valour and strength of wisdom and knowledge, yet it is not possible to strive against fate.” On the whole, however, as R.C. Zaehner notes, “the theological premises” of Zoroastrianism “are based on an essentially moralistic view of life.”
  
--Xenovatis (talk) 16:23, 24 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Britannica Info