242 REV. PROF. JAMES HOPE MOULTON, D.LIT., D.C.L., ETC., ON 



familiar picture which he retained, not a crucial conception of 

 his own thought. Nor does he bring the Bridge into any 

 relation with that other inherited emblem of the Molten Metal. 

 We might conjecture that he thought of the latter as an ordeal, 

 by which the Separater did his work. The Pahlavi theologians 

 separated the two altogether, removing the Molten Metal to 

 the future Renovation, when the damned will return from ages 

 of penal suffering, to be finally cleansed by the burning flood. 

 Zarathushtra in his Hymns is not compiling a treatise, and we 

 must not press his silences too far. But it does not seem that 

 we should solve the inconsistency in this way. The Bridge and 

 the Metal are only imagery for him, and we need not drag them 

 into system, any more than we should try to paint the imagery 

 of our own Apocalypse of John. 



I may leave at this point the special doctrine of Retribution, 

 and turn to the principles governing the Judgment as a whole. 

 I referred just now in 'a sentence to the Weighing before the 

 Bridge. This was an old Iranian idea. In Persian jurisprudence 

 a culprit was always supposed to be judged on the balance of 

 his whole record, being acquitted if his good deeds outweighed 

 the bad. Since, moreover, the idea was ethical, we should 

 expect to find Zarathushtra accepting it. In that case we 

 should regard the " Separater " as essentially a Judge of souls, 

 like Minos, Aeacus and Rhadamanthys in Greek mythology, 

 whose work it is to divide the good from the bad. The Iranian 

 tradition was ready with the names of the triad of angels who 

 preside over the weighing. The chief of them was the Light- 

 genius Mithra, who in the Later Avesta takes a role which 

 Zarathushtra himself might have warmly approved. But in 

 the Prophet's day Mithra was the chief divinity of savage 

 nomads who oppressed the settled agricultural population, and 

 Zarathushtra will not acknowledge him: indeed, as I personally 

 believe, he made him chief of the Daevas, the old Aryan nature- 

 powers whom the reformer dethroned and made into demons. 

 The " Separater " before the Bridge was none other than Mazdah. 

 This appears from Zarathushtra's declaration to his chief lieu- 

 tenant, Jamaspa. In Paradise, he says : 



I shall recount your wrongs . . . before him who will separate 

 the wise and the unwise through Righteousness (Asha), 

 his prudent counsellor, even Mazdah Ahura.* 



* Yasna 46 17 . 



