Zoroaster

Zoroaster Basics
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.

Although statements about Zoroaster are subject to controversy, he is generally considered to have been a priest (zaotar) living in northern Persia who had a vision that led him to reform existing religious practices. Zoroaster worshiped the creator god 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, 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. Some linguistic evidence of the scriptural writings ascribed to Zoroaster (the Gathas) suggests he lived about 1000 B.C. 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.), which obviously would be impossible were he born at the 1200 B.C. end of the range of possible dates. He is also credited with influencing another Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher, Heraclitus.

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, omnipotent deity called Ahura Mazda (Auramazda) who created everything. There are other spiritual figures ranged along with Ahura Mazda in support of the good, and others, the daevas, who are evil and so help the prince of evil, Ahriman (and other names).

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, especially in India and Iran, by the Parsis.

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.}
  
• _{"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.}