Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/455

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LIFE AFTER DEATH

The foulest food served to the sinners. The most fetid, putrid, and disgusting kinds of food are given to the sinners in hell,[1] and these the wretched creatures devour in quantities, but yet remain eternally hungry and thirsty.[2] Brimstone and lizard,[3] poison and the venom of snakes, scorpions, and other noxious creatures,[4] blood and filth, bodily refuse and excrement, impurity and menstrual discharge, dust and human flesh, dirt and ashes, form the variety of dishes that the infernal caterer supplies to the inmates of hell.[5]

Duration of punishment in hell. Mashya and Mashyoi, the first human couple, broke the divine commandment and lied unto Ahura Mazda; they were sent to hell, and will remain there until the Renovation.[6] When a convert from Zoroastrianism to some other faith dies, his soul is sentenced to the sufferings of hell until the day of Resurrection.[7] Punishment of long duration,[8] or forever and eternal suffering are the expressions most frequently met with in connection with the duration of the souls in hell.[9] This, however, refers only to the end of the cycle, the period of Renovation, when the world will be regenerated and all the sinners saved by the compassionate Lord. Ahura Mazda will not allow even the worst of the sinners to fall permanently into the hands of the Evil Spirit.[10]

The souls find the time so slowly moving and tedious that when they have passed only three days and nights in the torments of hell, or sometimes even a single day, they feel as if nine thousand years had elapsed and as if it were already time for the day of Resurrection to come and bring them release from the prison of the inferno.[11]

  1. ↑ Mkh. 2. 190.
  2. ↑ Dd. 32. 8, 9.
  3. ↑ Bd. 28. 48.
  4. ↑ Mkh. 2. 191, 192.
  5. ↑ AV. 20. 1, 2; 23 1–3; 27. 1, 2; 35. 1, 2; 38. 1, 2; 39. 1, 2; 46. 1, 2; 51. 1, 2; 59. 1, 2; 83. 1; 91. 1; 98 1.
  6. ↑ Bd. 15. 9.
  7. ↑ Dd. 41. 6.
  8. ↑ Mkh. 2. 186.
  9. ↑ Dd. 13. 4; Dk., vol. 2, p. 83; vol. 3, p. 141; vol. 4, p. 264, 270; vol. 6, p. 355, 407; vol. 7, p. 432, 495; Mkh. 2. 193; 40. 31; AV. 64. 13; 87. 9.
  10. ↑ SLS. 8. 23; Dd. 75. 4; Sg. 4. 100, 101; 12. 59; Dk., vol. 9, p. 627.
  11. ↑ AV. 18. 11; 54. 10, 11.
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