Zoroaster

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Details on Zoroaster

Zoroaster is the name of the founder of Zoroastrianism, an early religion pitting good against evil that has influenced Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Gnosticism, and Buddhism, and, perhaps, Pre-Socratic philosophy. Zoroastrian is referred to as the oldest monotheistic religion. Its god is the same Ahura Mazda 'Wise Lord' that was a member of the existing Persian pantheon.

Although statements about Zoroaster are subject to controversy, he is generally considered to have been a priest (zaotar) living in Central Asia, perhaps east or west of the Caspian Sea. In time, he came to the court of King Vishtaspa, who may have lived in modern Afghanistan, and who, at any rate, was converted to Zoroaster's new religion. Zoroaster had a divine vision that led him to reform existing religious practices. His verses are thought to include descriptions of this vision. The only god he worshiped was the creator Ahura Mazda "Lord Wisdom'.

The Oxford Companion to World Mythology provides a synopsis of the quasi-miracles surrounding the birth of Zoroaster: His mother, Dughda (or Dughdhova whose name means 'Who has milked white cows'), dreamed that spirits fought for control of the baby while he was still in her womb. When the baby was born, he laughed instead of crying. The local king wished to kill the baby because he presented a possible future threat, but the assassin's hand was paralyzed before he could kill the child. The cattle the king sent to trample Zoroaster didn't hurt him. Miracles didn't end with his birth. It is thought that Zoroaster will return one day to be the savior or saoshyant.

When Zoroaster lived is one of the more controversial questions. The Islamic tradition, from al-Biruni, among other sources, date Zoroaster to precisely 258 years before Alexander the Great; in other words -- and without tying to figure out why the year marking Alexander's reign is given as 330 -- 588 B.C. Some literary evidence, including Greek historical writing, suggests he lived in the first half of the 6th century B.C. Zoroaster is said to have had contact with Pythagoras (fl. 6th century B.C.). He is also credited with influencing another Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher, Heraclitus. He couldn't have influenced either of these philosophers if he was born at the 1200 B.C. end of the range of possible dates or even at the most popular date: Some linguistic evidence of the scriptural writings ascribed to Zoroaster (the Gathas) suggests he lived about 1000 B.C., which is probably the date most popular with today's scholars.

It is thought that he lived for about 75 years.

Zoroaster's new (or reformed) religion came within an existing Indo-Iranian tradition. Some say Zoroastrianism was in response to existing polytheistic religion; others, that it reformed existing monotheistic ones. The religion is named Zoroastrianism after its founder.

Zoroastrianism posits a supreme omnipresent, omniscient, benevolent deity called Ahura Mazda who created everything. There are other spiritual figures or attributes ranged along with Ahura Mazda in support of the good. These are Spenta Mainyu and the Amesha Spentas (good mind, truth, piety, holy dominion, well-being, and eternal bliss). There are other spiritual figures, the daevas, who are evil and so help the prince of evil, Ahriman (and other names) thwart truth and righteousness.

Zoroastrianism was the main religion of the Achaemenid Empire at least by the time of Darius (522-486 B.C.), remaining the state religion of the Persians until the Muslim Arabs defeated the Sassanids in the 7th century A.D.

Zoroastrianism is still practiced, in small pockets, especially in India and Iran, by the Parsis. There are similarities between the sacred writing of the Vedas of India and the sacred writing of Zoroaster, the Gathas.

Zoroaster is based on the Greek: Ζωροάστρης. Zarathuštra is his Iranian name and is familiar through the writings of the philosopher Nietzsche.

Other names that may refer to the Persian prophet are: Zartosht, Zaratas, Zarathushtra, and Zares.

The sacred writing of Zoroastrianism is called the Avesta. Much of the original writing was destroyed in Alexander the Great's 331 B.C. fire in Persepolis. Later, more was added to the Avesta, in Pahlavi, which was not the language of the original.

Of the early material, written in a language called Avestan or Gathic Avestan, the 238 stanzas of the 5 Gathas were written by or about Zoroaster, at least in part, so that this "hymnic poetry" is called "the words of the prophet." Zoroaster may also have written other, liturgical rhythmic prose scriptures (Yasna Haptanhaiti).

Clarisse Herrenschmidt describes the Gathas as "addressed to the gods about the ritual that men perform for their attention, [that] are themselves words that accompany the ritual."

• _{"Approaches to Zoroaster's Gathas"
  Ilya Gershevitch
  Iran, 1995.}
  
• _{"Dualism in Iranian and Christian Traditions"
  François de Blois
  Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2000.}
  
• _{"The Greek Origin of the Sixth-Century Dating of Zoroaster"
  Peter Kingsley
  Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1990.}
  
• _{History of the Persian Empire, by A.T. Olmstead (1948).}
  
• _{"On Mysticism and Esotericism among the Zoroastrians"
  James R. Russell
  Iranian Studies, 1993.}
  
• _{"On the Literary Structure of the Older Avesta"
  Almut Hintze
  Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2002.}
  
• _{"Zarathustra's Ritual: Conserving a Charismatic Domination?"
  Clarisse Herrenschmidt
  History of Religions, Aug., 2003.}
  
• _{"Zoroaster the Priest Zoroaster the Priest"
  Mary Boyce
  Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1970.}
  

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