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The following is one of the most importantparts of the ancient, Zoroastrian�Gathas �of the prophet Zarathustra. Alan Williams quoted verse 3 in the programme; below the full text of this yasna is given (translated by S. Insler, The Gathas� of Zarathustra, Acta Iranica 8, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1975, 33-5).
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Yasna 30
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1. (to the adherents). Yes, to those (of you) seeking[1], I shall speak of those things which are to be borne in mind ��� even by one who already knows ��� through both praise and worship for the very Wise Master of good thinking and for truth, which things are to be looked upon in joy throughout your days.
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2. Listen with your ears to the best things. Reflect with a clear mind ��� man by man for himself ��� upon the two choices of decision, being aware to declare yourselves to Him before the great retribution[2].
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3. Yes, there are two fundamental spirits, twins which are renowned to be in conflict. In thought and in word, in action, they are two : the good and the bad. And between these two, the beneficent have correctly chosen, not the maleficent.
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4. Furthermore, when these two spirits first came together, they created life and death, and how, at the end, the worst existence shall be for the deceitful but the best thinking[3] for the truthful person.
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5. Of these two spirits, the deceitful one chose to bring to realization the worst things. (But) the very virtuous spirit, who is clothed in the hardest stones[4], chose the truth, and (so shall those[5]) who shall satisfy the Wise Lord continuously with true actions.
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6. The gods[6] did not at all choose correctly between these two, since the deceptive one[7] approached them as they were deliberating. Since they chose the worst thought, they then rushed into fury, with which they have afflicted the world and mankind.
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7. But to this world He[8] came with the rule of good thinking and of truth, and (our) enduring piety gave body and breath (to it). He shall be here for the protection of the (faithful), just as He shall be the first (to do so) during the requitals with the (molten) iron.[9]
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8. (to the Wise Lord). And thus, when the punishment for these sinners shall come to pass, then, for Thee, Wise One, shall the rule of good thinking be at hand, in order to be announced to those, Lord, who shall deliver deceit into the hands of truth.
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9. Therefore may we be those who shall heal this world! Wise One and ye other lords, be present to me with support and with truth, so that one shall become convinced even where his understanding shall be false.
Notes
[1] to know.
[2] This is the time of the final judgment.
[3] Best thinking here is an abbreviation for the House of Best Thinking, a metaphor for heaven.
[4] Intention is that truth is enduring and unchanging like stone.
[5] among you mortals.
[6] By 'gods' Zarathushtra refers to those other divinities who stand outside the system formed by Ahura Mazd���� and his forces, and who are worshipped by the proponents of the old, traditional religious system now so fully enveloped by deceit.
[7] The evil spirit spoken of previously.
[8] Ahura Mazd����, the Wise Lord.
[9] The test of truth during the final judgment.
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10. For then shall descend the destruction of the prosperity of deceit, and there shall be yoked from the good dwelling place of good thinking[11] the swiftest steeds[12], which shall race ahead unto the good fame of the Wise One and of truth.
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11. (to the adherents). Men, when ye learn those commandments which the Wise One has posed, when ye learn (there is) both a way of easy access and one with no access, as well as long destruction for the deceitful but salvation for the truthful, then each one (of you) shall abide by (all) these commandments. Wish it so.
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Notes
[10] concerning our ultimate goal.
[11] Metaphor for the community of the faithful and the truthful.
[12] Metaphor for the faithful and truthful themselves.
The following is the text of Plutarch (c.45- c.125 CE) on Zoroastrian dualism, referred to by Alan Williams in the programme, namely ����45 - 46 of De Iside et Osiride ('On Isis and Osiris', from John Gwyn Griffiths De Iside et Osiride, University of Wales Press, Cambridge, 1979, 191. Plutarch got many details about Zoroastrianism right, and his understanding of Zoroastrian dualism is intelligent and sympathetic, though he was wildly out in following the traditional, implausibly early, Greek date of Zoroaster (the Greek form of the Iranian name Zarathushtra). See the discussion in Albert de Jong, Traditions of the Magi, Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin Literature, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1997, 165 ff.)
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From Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride (early 2nd century CE):
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45. Life and the cosmos... are compounded of two opposite principles and of two antithetic powers, one of which leads by a straight path to the right, while the other reverses and bends back. For if nothing comes into being without a cause, and if good could not provide the cause of evil, then nature must contain in itself the creation and origin of evil as well as good.
46. This is the view of the majority and of the wisest; for some believe that there are two gods who are rivals, as it were, in art, the one being the creator of good, the other of evil; others call the better of these a god and his rival a daemon, as, for example, Zoroaster the Magian, who lived so thy record, five thousand years before the Siege of Troy. He used to call the one Horomazes (Ahura Mazd�� 'the Wise Lord') and the other Areimanius (Angra Mainyu 'the hostile spirit'), and showed also that the former was especially akin, among objects of perception, to light, and the latter, on the contrary, to darkness and ignorance...
Further Reading
M. Boyce, Zoroastrians. Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1979
A History of Zoroastrianism I: The Early Period, E.J.Brill, Leiden 1975
A History of Zoroastrianism II: Under the Achaemenians, E.J.Brill, Leiden 1982
M. Boyce & F. Grenet
A History of Zoroastrianism II: Under the Achaemenians, E.J.Brill, Leiden, 1982
W. Burkert The Orientalizing Revolution. Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, Cambridge MA 1995
S. Insler The G����th����s of Zarathustra, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1975
A. de Jong, Traditions of the Magi, Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin Literature, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1997
Links
http://www.zoroastrianism.com/
http://www.avesta.org/avesta.html
http://www.sacred-texts.com/zor/
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