270 THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL^ D.D.^ ON MITHRAISM. 



were held to be on the side of Ormazd, and the seven planets* 

 on that of Ahriman. This distinction does not seem to have 

 been emphasized in the West.j 



Mithraism undoubtedly, like every other religion, taught men 

 the certainty of an after-life. We have seen that with this in 

 Western Mithraism was connected belief in transmigration. 

 How that transmigration was to end, and what form of happiness 

 was to be finally enjoyed, we do not know. There are difhculties 

 in connecting the doctrine of metempsychosis with belief in a 

 resurrection. Yet TertullianJ and some other Christian writers 

 use the latter word in connexion with Mithraism. We may 

 therefore suppose that Western Mithraists still held something 

 of the eschatology of later Zoroastrianisni. According to the 

 latter, the 9,000 years' contest§ between Ormazd and Ahriman 



^ Dtnd i Mahiog i Khirad, cap. viii, 17-21 : " Every good and the 

 reverse which happen to mankind, and also to the other creatures, happen 

 tlirough the seven [planets] and the 12 [constellations]. And those 12 

 constellations are such as in revelation are the 12 chieftains who are on the 

 side of Afiharmazd, and those 7 planets are called the 7 chieftains who 

 a> e on the side of Aharman. These 7 planets i)ervert every creature and 

 creation, and deliver [them] up to death and every evil. And, as [it 

 were], those 12 constellations and 7 planets are organising and managing 

 the world." Cf. Stkaiid-Gitmdnik Vijdr, cap. iv, 28-45. (From S.B.E. 

 version.) 



t At least, if the 'ATraOavaTia/io^ be really a Mithraic work. In p. 10, 

 lines 15 and 16, of the 2nd Ed., mention is made of oi eirra aOauajoi deoi 

 7GV Koa/biov, and these Albrecht Dieterich holds to be the planet-gods 

 (p. 69). 



X jDe Praescript. Haer.^ cap. 40 : quoted^ p. 267 above, note t. 



§ Bitndahishnth, §§ 3-5 : "Therefore Ormazd said to the Evil Spirit, 

 * I appoint for the contest a period, in mixture (of good and evil), of 9,000 

 >ears.' For he knew that, in that period, he would render the Evil 

 Spirit impotent. Then the Evil Spirit,^throngh blindness and ignorance, 

 agreed to that treaty. ... It was Ormazd who, through omniscience, 

 knew tliat, of these 9,000 years, 3,000 would pass according to Ormazd's 

 will, 3,000 years in a mixture of the will of Ormazd and Ahriman, and 

 finally for 3,000 years that the Evil Spirit^will be powerless, he will be 

 restrained from working opposition. Then Ormazd repeated the prayer 

 Ahuna Vairya^ he pronounced Yathd Ahii Vairyo^^ (the first words of the 

 Ahuna Vairya) "in 21 words. Thereupoi- he showed to the Evil Spirit 

 the accomplishment of his own victory, the defeat of the Evil Spirit, 

 the destruction of the demons, the resurrection, the final" {i.e., future) 

 *'body the unopposedness of the creations for ever and ever. And the 

 Evil Spirit, because he beheld his own defeat and the destruction of the 

 demons, became disheartened : he fell back into thick darkness. . . . 

 He remained in dejection for 3,000 years. During Ahriman's dejection, 

 Ormazd made the creation. He first j^roduced Yohu Mano, who was the 



