ART. 11. PARSEE CEREMONIAL OBJECTS — CASANOWICZ. 5 



Ormuzd, and the conflict between them is extended from the moral 

 sphere — the antithesis of good and evil as a fact in human life — to 

 the physical realm. The ethical dualism hardened into a theological 

 dualism. Over against Ormuzd stands Ahriman as an evil being of 

 supernatural power at the head of the host of malevolent spirits, the 

 cause of all that is evil and noxious in the world. Each of the 

 amshaspands has for an opponent some archfiend (Akemmano, An- 

 dra, Saurva, Taro-Maiti, Tauru, Zairirica, and Aeshma (r=Asmodeus, 

 Tobit iii, 8; vi, 15). Below these stand the daevas, drujes, pairikas 

 (peris), yatus, etc. Unceasing warfare goes on between these oppo- 

 site powers. Ormuzd makes: Ahriman mars. The one dwells in 

 endless light, the other in eternal darkness. To Ahriman are at- 

 tributed the creation of all evil things. He created the killing cold 

 of winter and the intemperate heat; serpents, locusts, ants, rapine, 

 and lust; magic and witchcraft; pride, doubt, and unbelief; evil 

 spirits, demons, and men of devilish character, beasts of prey and 

 noxious vermin ; floods and droughts ; and the nine hundred and 

 ninety-nine diseases the flesh is heir to are Ahriman's inventions. 



The dualism implied in the Zoroastrian doctrine is saved from be- 

 ing a dyo-theism in so far as Ahriman is never the equal of Ormuzd. 



Ahriman is neither omniscent nor almighty. He possesses only 

 "backward knowledge"; he can not foresee. Hence, he is always too 

 late in his machinations. Moreover, Ormuzd's limitation of power is 

 merely temporary. Ahriman is coeval with Ormuzd but not co- 

 eternal. His doom is fixed. At the last judgment his creatures 

 will perish and he himself will be banished from the regenerated 

 earth.* 



The Parsees protest against the imputation of dualism to their 

 theological system. The primeval principles of good and evil (Vo- 

 humano and Akemmano, or Spenta-Mainyu and Angra-Mainyu), 

 the Parsees claim, were, though opposed to each other, united in 

 every existing being, even in Ahura-Mazda himself, and by their 

 union produced the world of material things and of spiritual exist- 

 ences, while the Dastoor (high priest) Rastamji declares: "By 

 angra-mainyu nothing is meant but man's evil spirit or thought. 

 Man receives from Ahura-Mazda the gifts of superior powers, abuses 



* " The dualism of Zoioastrianism is an attempt to accouut for the evil of the present 

 world, physical as well as moral, upon the premises of an ethical theism which can not 

 admit that God is the author of any kind of evil. But because God is almighty as well as 

 perfectly good, it can as little admit that evil, even In hell, is a permanent factor in the 

 universe. The Zoroastrian theologians were concerned with the solution of the ethical 

 problem rather than with the remoter problem which their solution raised. The evil 

 spirit appears on the scene lilje a diabolua ex machina ; whether he was eternal they do 

 not seem to have asked, nor would they probably have been much disturbed if their logic 

 had carried them to that conclusion, for since they did not define God metaphysically as 

 the infinite and eternal, but as the good, an eternal devil would not thereby become God." 

 (George Foot Moore, History of Religions, New York, 1913, vol. 1, p. 405.) 



