017 



ZOROASTER. 



ZORRILLA, Y MORAL DON JOS& 



019 



be paed twenty years in the deep caves of the mountain Elbrooz 

 (Pliuy mentions tbia with a slight alteration, ' ilist. Nat,' xi, c. 42) 

 before he went to the court of Gusbtasp, at which period ho is said to 

 have been only thirty years of age (Hyde, p. 330, on the authority of 

 Shahristani). His having secluded himself from the society of men 

 for a great number of years, is a fact corroborated by many inde- 

 pendent authorities. It was in his retirement that the will of the 

 Supreme Being was made known to him, and as this portion of Zoroa- 

 ster's life is the one upon which the Fames rest most of the evidence 

 of the truth of his divine mission, we shall relate it according to the 

 Zenlusht-namch. It must be observed that Zoroaster's journey to the 

 mountain Elbrooz is by the Parsee authors invariably called the 

 prophet's journey to heaven, where he received his instructions from 

 Ormuzd (i. e. the Zend-Avesta and the sacred fire). Then (says the 

 Zerdusht-nameh, c. 22) Bahman, radiant like thn sun, and with his 

 head covered by a veil, appeared before Zoroaster, by the command of 

 Ormuzd, and said, " Who art thou ? What dost thou want?" Zoroa- 

 ster answered, " I seek only what is agreeable to Ormuzd, who has 

 created the two worlds, but I know not what he wants with me. 

 Thou, who art pure, show me the way of the law." These words 

 pleased Bahman. "Rise," said he, "to go before God; there thou 

 shalt receive the answer to thy request." Zoroaster rose and followed 

 Bahman, who said, "Shut thine eyes, and walk swiftly." When 

 Zoroaster opened his eyes, he saw the glory of heaven ; the angels 

 came to meet him, and with thorn he approached Ormuzd, to whom 

 he addressed his prayer. From him and the other six Amshnspands 

 (or heavenly ministers) he received the following instructions; Or- 

 muzd himself said to Zoroaster, " Teach the nations that my light is 

 hidden under all that shines. Whenever you turn your face towards 

 the light, and you follow my command, Ariman (the evil spirit) will 

 bo seen to fly. In this world there is nothing superior to light." He 

 then handed to him the Zend-Avesta with the injunction to declare 

 it before Qushtasp. Bahman, the Amshaspand presiding over the 

 animals, surrendered his office to Zoroaster, and gave him the neces- 

 sary directions. Ardibehesht, Shaherawar, Isfendermad, Khourdacl, 

 and Amerdad followed the example of Bahman, and Zoroaster returned 

 to the world to overthrow the false doctrines which were upheld by 

 magicians and had brought misery upon mankind. This fanciful 

 story, which is gravely repeated by most of the authors on the life of 

 Zoroaster, was evidently invented for the purpose of filling up the 

 chasm which the twenty years of seclusion would have left. 



Zoroaster first saw Gushtasp at Balkh, and he soon led this prince 

 to become a zealous and powerful propagator of his faith. The Ziuat- 

 al-Tawarikh states that Asfandiyar, the son of Gushtasp, was the first 

 convert of Zoroaster; and that his father was persuaded by the 

 eloquence of his son to follow his example. However, the new 

 doctrine, which Zoroaster said had been revealed to him from above, 

 spread rapidly in the province of Azerbijan (i. e. ' the house of fire'). 

 Gushtasp introduced it into every part of his dominions, and ordered 

 12,000 cow-hides to be tanned fine that the precepts of his new faith 

 might be written on them. These parchments were deposited in a 

 vault hewn out of a rock in Persepolis. He appointed holy men to 

 guard them ; and it was commanded that the profane should be kept 

 at a distance from the sacred book (Malcolm, i. p. 45). The powerful 

 protection of the king enabled Zoroaster to introduce his doctrine 

 farther than the kingdom of Iran ; we hear of his journeys into Chal- 

 dsca, and that Pashuran, the second son of Gushtasp, was sent by him 

 into Varjamgherd in order to propagate his new religion. He also 

 tried to gain proselytes in India, and succeeded in converting a learned 

 Brahmin (Tchengrighatchah, according to Anquetil, vol. i., c. 2, p. 70), 

 who went back into his native country with a great number of priests. 

 Temples of Fire, or Atesh-gahs, were erected in all parts of the empire 

 at the expense of Gushtasp, whose zeal in imposing the Zend-Avesta 

 not only on his owu subjects, but also on those of the neighbouring 

 niouarchs, at last engaged him in a war with Arjasp, king of Turan. 

 Zoroaster was undoubtedly the chief instigator of this war, which was 

 protracted beyond his life-time, and finally ended in a victory gained 

 by Asfaudiyar over tho Turanians, who, in the exultation of a first 

 success, had determined on putting to death all the followers of 

 Zoroaster. The prophet died in the year B.C. 513, about seventy -six 

 years of age, a few months before the general massacre of the fire- 

 worshippers had been resolved upon by Arjasp. Some authorities 

 quoted by Hyde, pp. 323 and 329, say that he was murdered during 

 the persecution. 



Tho whole history of Zoroaster, when divested of all extraneous 

 matter, can be reduced to the following statement : The ancient 

 religion which Djamshid had established in Iran had become merely 

 traditional and lost its influence over the nation ; new sects had 

 sprung up in every direction ; Hindoos and Chaldseans were endeavour- 

 ing to introduce their own religion, when Zoroaster appeared. It is 

 evident that the worship of elements had been established in his 

 native province, before he produced his great reform in the adjacent 

 empire ; he therefore seems to have restored the religion of his ances- 

 tors to a state of greater purity and adapted it to the exigencies of tho 

 nation where he was the first to promulgate it. 



What we have said hitherto rests entirely on the authority oi 

 Eastern authors it has no claim to historical accuracy; but it con 

 tains more than can be gathered from classical writers. The Life 01 



Zoroaster, prefixed to Anquetil du Perron's Zend-Avesta, is a compen- 

 dium of all the extravagant stories which have been invented about 

 Zoroaster. 



From the different dates assigned to Zoroaster by Greek and Latin 

 authors, many modern authors were led to believe that there were 

 no less than six men of that name ; but this opinion has been satis- 

 'actorily refuted by Hyde, in his ' Veterum Persarum et Majorum 

 teligionis Historia ; ' and lately by Pastoret, in his ' Zoroastre, Cou- 

 'ucius, et Mahomet compares.' For an ingenious endeavour to prove 

 ;hat there were more than one Zoroaster wo refer to Stanley's 'Historia 

 Philosophise ' (Pars xiii., Sect, i., c. 2) ; and to Bryant's ' Analysis of 

 Ancient Mythology,' vol. ii., p. 388, where almost all the passag. s 

 ;hat can be found in ancient authors relating to Zoroaster are very 

 carefully put together. 



Again, there were writers who identified Zoroaster with Moses, 

 among whom Huet is the most prominent (' Demonstratio Evangelica.' 

 Prop, iv., c. 5) ; others again have supposed that Zoroaster was born in 

 Palestine, or that he passed his early youth in that country and 

 earned his subsistence by becoming a servant to a Jewish prophet 

 (Hyde, p. 316). Abu-1-faraj states this prophet to have been Elijah, 

 Hyde thought he was Esdras, while Prideaux conjectures that Zoro- 

 aster had been servant to Ezekiel. It is scarcely necessary to observe 

 that these conjectures are utterly vain and quite useless. There was 

 only one Zoroaster or Zerdusht, who lived in the time of Gushtasp and 

 effected a great reform. 



The leading doctrines propagated by Zoroaster were the following : 

 He taught that God existed from all eternity, and was like infinity 

 of time and space. There were, he averred, two principles in the 

 universe good and evil; the one was termed Orinuz'1, or the good 

 principle, the presiding agent of all good ; the other, Ariruan, the lord 

 of evil. Each of these had the power of creation, but that power was 

 exercised with opposite designs; and it was from their united action 

 that an admixture of good and evil was found in every created thing. 

 The angels of Ormuzd sought to preserve the elements, the seasons, 

 and the human race, which the infernal agents of Ariman wished to 

 destroy. But the power of good alone, the great Ormuzd, was eternal, 

 aud must therefore ultimately prevail. Light was the type of the 

 good spirit, darkness of the evil spirit ; and, as stated above, God said 

 to Zoroaster, " My light is concealed under all that shines." Hence 

 the disciple of that prophet, when he performs his devotions in a 

 temple, turns towards the sacred fire that burns upon its altar ; and 

 when in the open air, towards the sun, as the noblest of all lights, aud 

 that by which God sheds his divine influence over tho whole and per- 

 petuates the works of his creation. [ARIMANES.] 



Zoroaster, we are told, was a great astrologer and magician ; and it 

 is even stated by Porphyrius that Darius was so proud of having been 

 initiated into the mysteries of the art by Zoroaster himself, that he 

 ordered it to be inscribed on his tomb. 



After his death the religion he introduced was disturbed by a 

 thousand schisms ; many reforms were introduced; but it gradually 

 sank to a mere idolatrous worship of the fire and the sun ; the wor- 

 shippers were persecuted when Mohammedan rulers had possessed 

 themselves of Iran'; they first fled into the mountains, and at last left 

 the country and settled iu Guzerat, where they are to this day but 

 greatly diminished in number. 



(Hyde, Veterum Persarum et Magorum Religionis Historia, Oxford, 

 1760; Anquetil du Perron, Zend- Jf vesta, Paris, 1771; Pastoret, Zoro- 

 aster, Confucius, et Mahomet compares : Malcolm's History of Persia ; 

 Bayle, Diction. Ifistorique, has a long aud curious article on Zoro- 

 aster.) 



* ZORRILLA, Y MORAL DON JOSE, the most popular living poet 

 of Spain, is a native of Valladolid, where he was boru on the 21st of 

 February 1817. His father, who held important posts in the magis- 

 tracy, was transferred from Valladolid to Burgos, to Seville, aud in 

 1827 to Madrid, where his son, who of course accompanied him in his 

 migrations, was sent to the Seminary of Nobles in that city. In early 

 life he showed a strong partiality for the theatre and poetry, and he 

 was fond of reading two very different books, Chateaubriand's ' Spirit 

 of Christianity' and the Bible. His father, who intended him for the 

 legal profession, sent him to study law at Toledo ; but Zorrilla spent 

 much of his time in rambling about the city and writing verses. In 

 the sequel, when going to Valladolid to pursue the same study, he 

 entirely neglected it for poetry, making his first appearance as an 

 author in the pages of ' El Artista,' a periodical of that city, he was 

 sent to his father at Lerma, under tho charge of a muleteer who was 

 bound for that towu, and was so apprehensive of the reception he was 

 likely to meet with, that on their stopping at the house of one of his 

 relations on the road, he gave tho muleteer the slip, borrowed a horse 

 of his relative without the owner's leave, and rode back to Valladolid, 

 and thence to Madrid. For ten months he eluded all the efforts to 

 trace him made by his family, and then suddenly burst into the public 

 notice at the funeral of the poet Larra [LAURA]. Roca de Togores 

 had just concluded a funeral oration on the deceased, "when," says 

 Nicomedes Pastor Diaz, who was one of the mourners, "from the 

 midst of us and as if he had sprung from the sepulchre, we saw 

 appear a youth, almost a boy, who was unknown to us all. His 

 countenance was pallid ; he cast a sublime glance first at the tomb, 

 and then at the sky, and raising a voice that sounded iu our ears for 



