Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/104

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IN OLD IRÂN.
89

This revelation plainly indicates how abhorrent the practice of promiscuous intercourse between the sexes, was to the idea of the early Zoroastrians, and that it was to be expressly the teaching of a heretic who was to rise for the annihilation of the social morality of the Sâsânian Irân, and to preach to the imbecile monarch Kôbâd I., what, according to Ahuramazdian revelation, was the detestable doctrine of sexual intercourse between the next-of-kin. Such was not the creed of Zoroastrism, but of its opponents and enemies, of Mazdak and his immoral beastly followers.

IV.—Finally, in support of the theory that the Avesta comprehends a purer and nobler idea of the marriage-relationship, no better proof could be adduced than a stanza in the Gâthâs, wherein, according to Dr. Geiger, the bond of marriage is regarded "as an intimate union founded on love and piety." This stanza must have formed part of the marriage formula which seems to have been recited by Zoroaster on the occasion of the celebration of the marriage

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