Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/257

This page has been validated.
224
YAZATAS

and for the glory of his country, name and fame in this world, as well as the shining, all-happy paradise of the righteous.[1] Whoso does not treat the fire well displeases Ahura Mazda.[2] Zarathushtra blesses King Vishtaspa that he may be as resplendent as the fire.[3]

His work. When Mithra goes on his usual round in his golden chariot, Atar drives behind him along with the other divine personifications.[4] Like Agni who knows the paths leading to the gods,[5] Atar shows the most upright path to those who lie not unto Mithra.[6] When Angra Mainyu breaks into the creation of righteousness, Atar in company with Vohu Manah opposes the malice of the Evil Spirit.[7] When Yima, reft of his senses through the Kingly Glory, revolts from Ahura Mazda, the Glory departs from him and he falls to destruction.[8] It can well be imagined that the monster Azhi Dahaka should strive to capture the departed Glory, but Atar intervenes and vanquishes him.[9]

What causes grief to Atar. Angra Mainyu has created the inexpiable crime of burning or cooking dead matter,[10] and the Vendidad enjoins capital punishment for those who commit it.[11] We are informed that the Persians considered it a mortal sin to defile fire by blowing it with the mouth, or by burning dead matter over it.[12] The Achaemenian monarch Cambyses roused the indignation of his countrymen when he burnt the corpse of King Amasis at Sais.[13] It is, therefore, a crime to bring back fire into a house in which a man has died, within nine nights in winter and a month in summer.[14] Highly meritorious is the deed of bringing to the fire altar the embers of a fire desecrated by dead matter, and great shall be the doer's reward in the

  1. ↑ Ys. 68. 4–6; Ny. 5. 10–12.
  2. ↑ TdFr. 22, 23.
  3. ↑ Yt. 22. 4.
  4. ↑ Yt. 10. 127.
  5. ↑ RV. 10. 98. 11.
  6. ↑ Yt. 10. 3.
  7. ↑ Yt. 13. 77, 78.
  8. ↑ Yt. 19. 34–36, 38.
  9. ↑ Yt. 19. 46–50.
  10. ↑ Vd. 1. 16.
  11. ↑ Vd. 8. 73, 74.
  12. ↑ Strabo, p. 732; Ctesias, Persica, 57; Nicolas Damascenus, Frag. 68. FHG. 3. 409.
  13. ↑ Herodotus, 3. 16.
  14. ↑ Vd. 5. 43, 44.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.