THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, D.D., ON MITHRAISM. 271 



was to end in ihe final triumph of the Good Principle and the 

 destruction of Ahriman and all his assistants and evil creatures. 

 (This is prohably a very old Aryan myth, for it reappears in a 

 somewhat different form in the Eddas of Scandinavia.)* Then 

 comes Saoshyans and raises the dead. " First the bones of 

 Gayomardf are raised up, then those of Mashya and Mashyoi, 

 then those of the rest of mankind. In the fifty-seven years of 

 SoshyansJ they prepare all the dead, all mankind arise ; who- 

 ever is righteous and whoever is wicked, every human creature 

 do they arouse from the place where its life§ departs." The 

 whole world will then be restored to its original state of happi- 

 ness, and the just will be immortal. Such was the Zoroastrian 

 view, but how much of it was held by the Western Mithraists 

 we have no means of knowing. For, as has been said above, the 

 Western form of the religion had lost so much that was good 

 in Zoroastrianism and adopted so much that was bad from other 

 faiths, losing sight of the eternal and necessary opposition 

 between Ahura Mazda and Ahro Mainyus for one thing, and 

 adopting the worship of the latter and of many impure deities, 

 that it would be rash to conclude that it had retained in its 

 full grandeur the Zoroastrian doctrine of the final victory of the 

 good and true. 



It has been held by some that, before ultimately becoming 

 extinct; Mithraism exercised a considerable influence upon 

 Christianity. This may be admitted with regard to sculpture 

 and painting. Possibly, too, the term " Father " {jpater) as 

 applied to a Christian presbyter has the same source. || The 

 same influence may have favoured the admission of the sacerdotal 

 idea, which Bishop Lightfoot isIF undoubtedly correct in tracing 



prosperity of Ormazd's creation." ^ Elsewhere the Bull is said to have 

 been the first creature made by Ormazd. It is nowhere said that he 

 first produced Mithra, as is sometimes asserted. Indeed, this is contrary 

 to the Avesta, which represents Mithra as son of Ormazd and Spenta 

 Armaiti. As for the date of the Bund., vide De Harlez, Manuel de la 

 langue pehlvie, p. 85. 



Gylfaginning (Wilken's Ed. of old Norse text), cap. liii : Voluspa, §§ 

 61-66. 



t Gay6mard {Cow-man\ in the Avesta Gai/o-meretan, is the first man 

 created : Mashya and his wife Mashyoi (called also Matro and Matrdyao) 

 sprang up at his death {Band. ch. xv.) 



X Pahlavi form of Saoshyam. 



§ Blind, ch. XXX (or xxxi.) § 6. 



J I Contrast our Lord's command, Matt, xxiii, 9. 



if Dissertation on the Christian Ministry. 



