Iranian Mythology

Though we must congratulate the Warners for their illuminating prefaces to the various chapters of their translation of the Shahnamah, it is evident that too little has thus far been done to connect the Persian epic with Avestic myths.

None the less, the value and the interest presented by a study of Iranian mythology is of high degree, not merely from a specialist's point of view for knowledge of Persian civilization and mentality, but also for the material which it provides for mythologists in general. Nowhere else can we so clearly follow the myths in their gradual evolution toward legend and traditional history. We may often trace the same stories from the period of living and creative mythology in the Vedas through the Avestic times of crystallized and systematized myths to [254] the theological and mystic accounts of the Pahlavi books, and finally to the epico-historic legends of Firdausi.

There is no doubt that such was the general movement in the development of the historic stories of Iran. Has the evolution sometimes operated in the reverse direction? Dr. L. H. Gray, who knows much about Iranian mythology, seems to think so in connexion with the myth of Yima, for in his article on "Blest, Abode of the (Persian)," in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, ii. 702-04 (Edinburgh, 1909), he presents an interesting hypothesis by which Yima's successive openings of the world to cultivation would appear to allude to Aryan migrations. It has seemed to me that this story has, rather, a mythical character, in conformity with my interpretation of Yima's personality; but in any event a single case would not alter our general conclusions regarding the course of the evolution of mythology in Persia.

Another point of interest presented by Iranian mythology is that it collects and unites into a coherent system legends from two sources which are intimately connected with the two great racial elements of our civilization. The Aryan myths of the Vedas appear in Iran, but are greatly modified by the influence of the neighbouring populations of the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates Sumerians, Assyrians, etc.

Occasional comparisons of Persian stories with Vedic myths or Babylonian legends have accordingly been introduced into the account of Iranian mythology to draw the reader's attention to curious coincidences which, in our present state of knowledge, have not yet received any satisfactory explanation.

In a paper read this year before the American Oriental Society I have sought to carry out this method of comparison in more systematic fashion, but studies of such a type find no place in the present treatise, which is strictly documentary and presentational in character. The use of hypotheses has, therefore, been carefully restricted to what was absolutely required to present a consistent and rational account of the myths and to [255] permit them to be classified according to their probable nature. Due emphasis has also been laid upon the great number of replicas of the same fundamental story. Throughout my work my personal views are naturally implied, but I have sought to avoid bold and hazardous hypotheses.

It has been my endeavour not merely to assemble the myths of Iran into a consistent account, but also to give a readable form to my expose, although I fear that Iranian mythology is often so dry that many a passage will seem rather insipid. If this impression is perhaps relieved in many places, that happy result is largely due to the poetic colouring of Darmesteter's translation of the Avesta and of the Warners version of the Shahnamah.

The editor of the series has also employed his talent in versifying such of my quotations from the Avesta as are in poetry in the original.

In so doing he has, of course, adhered to the metre in which these portions of the Avesta are written, and which is familiar to English readers as being that of Longfellow's Hiawatha, as it is also that of the Finnish Kalevala. Where prose is mixed with verse in these passages Dr. Gray has reproduced the original commingling. While, however, I am thus indebted to him as well as to Darmesteter, Mills, Bartholomae, West, and the Warners for their meritorious translations, these versions have been compared in all necessary cases with the original texts.

My hearty gratitude is due to Professor A. V. Williams Jackson, who placed the library of the Indo-Iranian Seminar at Columbia University at my disposal and gave me negatives of photographs taken by him in Persia and used in his Persia Past and Present.

It is this hospitality and that of the University of Pennsylvania which have made it possible for me to pursue my researches after the destruction of my library in Louvain. Dr. Charles J. Ogden of New York City also helped me in many ways. For the colour-plates I am indebted to the courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where the Persian manuscripts of the Shahnamah were generously placed [256] at my service; and the Open Court Publishing Company of Chicago has permitted the reproduction of four illustrations from their issue of The Mysteries of Mithra.

A. J. CARNOY. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1 November, 1916.

Introduction

[259] ETHNOLOGICALLY the Persians are closely akin to the Aryan races of India, and their religion, which shows many points of contact with that of the Vedic Indians, was dominant in Persia until the Muhammadan conquest of Iran in the seventh century of our era. One of the most exalted and the most interesting religions of the ancient world, it has been for thirteen hundred years practically an exile from the land of its birth, but it has found a home in India, where it is professed by the relatively small but highly influential community of Parsis, who, as their name ("Persians") implies, are descendants of immigrants from Persia.

The Iranian faith is known to us both from the inscriptions of the Achaemenian kings (558-330 B.C.) and from the Avesta, the latter being an extensive collection of hymns, discourses, precepts for the religious life, and the like, the oldest portions dating back to a very early period, prior to the dominion of the great kings. The other parts are considerably later and are even held by several scholars to have been written after the beginning of the Christian era. In the period of the Sassanians, who reigned from about 226 to 641 A.D., many translations of the Avesta and commentaries on it were made, the language employed in them being not Avesta (which is closely related to the Vedic Sanskrit tongue of India), but Pahlavi, a more recent dialect of Iranian and the older form of Modern Persian.

A large number of traditions concerning the Iranian gods and heroes have been preserved only in Pahlavi, especially in the Bundahish, or "Book of Creation." Moreover the huge epic in Modern Persian, written by the great poet Firdausi, who died about 1025 A.D., and known under the name [260] of Shahnamah, or "Book of the Kings," has likewise rescued a great body of traditions and legends which would otherwise have passed into oblivion; and though in the epic these affect a more historical guise, in reality they are generally nothing but humanized myths.

This is not the place to give an account of the ancient Persian religion, since here we have to deal with mythology only. It will suffice, therefore, to recall that for the great kings as well as for the priests, who were followers of Zoroaster (Avesta Zarathushtra), the great prophet of Iran, no god can be compared with Ahura Mazda, the wise creator of all good beings. Under him are the Amesha Spentas, or "Immortal Holy Ones," and the Yazatas, or "Venerable Ones," who are secondary deities. The Amesha Spentas have two aspects. In the moral sphere they embody the essential attainments of religious life: "Righteousness" (Asha or Arta), "Good Mind" (Vohu Manah), "Desirable Kingdom" (Khshathra Vairya), "Wise Conduct" and "Devotion" (Spenta Armaiti), "Perfect Happiness" (Haurvatat), and "Immortality" (Ameretat).

In their material nature they preside over the whole world as guardians: Asha is the spirit of fire, Vohu Manah is the protector of domestic animals, Khshathra Vairya is the patron of metals, Spenta Armaiti presides over earth, Haurvatat over water, and Ameretat over plants.

1. MITHRA

The Iranian god of light with the solar disk about his head. From a coin of the Indo-Scythian king Huviska. After Stein, Zoroastrian Deities on Indo-Scythian Coins, No. I. See pp. 287-88.

2. APAM NAPAT

The "Child of Waters." The deity is represented with a horse, thus recalling his Avestic epithet, aurvat-aspa ("with swift steeds"). From a coin of the Indo-Scythian king Kaniska. After Stein, Zoroastrian Deities on Indo-Scythian Coins, No. III. See pp. 267, 340.

3 MAH

The moon-god is represented with the characteristic lunar disk. From a coin of the Indo-Scythian king Huviska. After Stein, Zoroastrian Deities on Indo-Scythian Coins, No. IV. See p. 278.

4. VATA OR VAYU

The wind-god is running forward with hair floating and mantle flying in the breeze. From a coin of the Indo-Scythian king Kaniska. After Stein, Zoroastrian Deities on Indo-Scythian Coins, No. V. See pp. 299, 302.

5. KHVARENANH

The Glory, here called by his Persian name, Farro, holds out the royal symbol. From a coin of the Indo-Scythian king Huviska. After Stein, Zoroastrian Deities on Indo-Scythian Coins, No. VI. See pp. 285, 304-05, 311, 324, 332-33, 343.

6. ATAR

The god of fire is here characterized by the flames which rise from his shoulders. From a coin of the Indo-Scythian king Kaniska. After Stein, Zoroastrian Deities on Indo-Scythian Coins, No. VII. See pp. 266-67.

7. VANAINTI (UPARATAT)

This goddess, "Conquering Superiority," is modelled on the Greek Nike ("Victory"), and seems to carry in one hand the sceptre of royalty, while with the other she proffers the crown worn by the Iranian kings. From a coin of the Indo-Scythian king Huviska. After Stein, Zoroastrian Deities on Indo-Scythian Coins, No. VIII.

8. VERETHRAGHNA

On the helmet of the war-god perches a bird which is doubtless the Vareghna. The deity appropriately carries spear and sword. From a coin of the Indo-Scythian king Kaniska. After Stein, Zoroastrian Deities on Indo-Scythian Coins, No. IX.

The Amesha Spentas constitute Ahura Mazda's court, and it is through them that he governs the world and brings men to sanctity. Below Ahura Mazda and the Amesha Spentas come the Yazatas, who are for the most part ancient Aryan divinities reduced in the Zoroastrian system to the rank of auxiliary angels. Of these we may mention Atar, the personification of that fire which plays so important a part in the Mazdean cult that its members have now become commonly, though quite erroneously, known as "Fire-Worshippers"; and by the side of the genius of fire is found one of water, Anahita.

Mithra is by all odds the most important Yazata. Although [261] pushed by Zoroaster into the background, he always enjoyed a very popular cult among the people in Persia as the god of the plighted word, the protector of justice, and the deity who gives victory in battle against the foes of the Iranians and defends the worshippers of Truth and Righteousness (Asha). His cult spread, as is well known, at a later period into the Roman Empire, and he has as his satellites, to help him in his function of guardian of Law, Rashnu ("Justice") and Sraosha ("Discipline").

Under the gods are the spirits called Fravashis, who originally were the manes of ancestors, but in the Zoroastrian creed are genii, attached as guardians to all beings human and divine.

It is generally known that the typical feature of Mazdeism is dualism, or the doctrine of two creators and two creations. Ahura Mazda (Ormazd), with his host of Amesha Spentas and Yazatas, presides over the good creation and wages an incessant war against his counterpart Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) and the latter's army of noxious spirits.

The Principle of Evil has created darkness, suffering, and sins of all kinds; he is anxious to hurt the creatures of the good creation; he longs to enslave the faithful of Ahura Mazda by bringing them into falsehood or into some impure contact with an evil being; he is often called Druj ("Deception"). Under him are marshalled the daevas ("demons "), from six of whom a group has been formed explicitly antithetic to the Amesha Spentas. Among the demons are Aeshma ("Wrath, Violence"), Aka Manah ("Evil Mind"), Bushyasta ("Sloth"), Apaosha ("Drought"), and Nasu ("Corpse"), who takes hold of corpses and makes them impure, to say nothing of the Yatus ("sorcerers") and the Pairikas (Modern Persian pan, "fairy"), who are spirits of seduction. The struggle between the good and the evil beings, in which man takes part by siding, according to his conduct, with Ahura Mazda or with his foe, is to end with the victory of the former at the great renovation of the world, when a flood of [262] molten metal will, as an ordeal, purify all men and bring about the complete exclusion of evil.

Dualism, having impregnated all Iranian beliefs, profoundly influenced the mythology of Iran as well or, more exactly, it was in their mythology that the people of ancient Persia found the germ that developed into religious dualism.