Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/433

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EVIL

like a shuttlecock, influenced now by Vohuman, now by Akoman. The man whose will is ruled by Akoman fails to discriminate between good and evil,[1] for the friendship of Akoman makes one vicious,[2] and he who entertains Akoman as his guest turns out to be wicked.[3] Such a man courts spiritual destruction.[4] When Akoman prevails over Vohuman in the mind of man, his intelligence becomes blunted and he loses greatness in both the worlds,[5] inasmuch as righteousness flees from him and he is steeped in sin.[6] He is even spoken of as introducing physical evil in the world,[7] even as he brings evil knowledge of religion to man's mind,[8] and makes him miserable.[9]

Druj

The change wrought in the conception of her work. This personification of wickedness and deceit has by this time lost her distinctive individuality, and consequently she no longer remains an exclusive rival of Artavahisht, or Best Righteousness. In fact her name is not mentioned as Ahriman's counter-creation against Artavahisht. Indar, as we shall see in the sequel, usurps her place as Artavahisht's recognized adversary Druj no longer in the Pahlavi period stands exclusively as the class designation of the female demons, which in earlier times was her chief characteristic. The term is at times promiscuously applied to male and female demons alike; in fact it now designates demon in general. Ahriman himself is most frequently termed Druj; and several demons are simultaneously termed divs as well as drujes in one and the same text.[10] The evil passions of man are personified as drujes.[11] These abide in man to pervert his nature,[12] for Ahriman has created the drujes;[13] he is their leader,[14] and is himself the arch-druj.

  1. Dk., SBE., vol. 37, bk. 9. 30. 8, p. 243.
  2. Dk., vol. 6, p. 357.
  3. Dk., vol. 10, bk. 6. 78, p. 21; 87, p. 25; vol. 11, bk. 6. 193, p. 69.
  4. Dk., vol. 6, p. 410.
  5. Dk., vol. 1, p. 28; vol. 3, p. 152.
  6. Dk., vol. 1, p. 28.
  7. Dk., vol. 6, p. 411.
  8. Dk., vol. 6, p. 414.
  9. Dk., vol. 8, p. 466.
  10. Bd. 28. 11, 13, 14, 20, 33.
  11. Mkh. 41. 8–11.
  12. Dd. 94. 1.
  13. Bd. 1. 10.
  14. Dk., vol. 7, p. 458.