daeva (Modern Persian div), while the Aryans of India gave the name of diva to their good spirits, the spirits of light. An alternative designation for deity in the Rig-Veda is asura. In the later hymns of the Rig Veda and in later India, only evil spirits are called asuras, while in Iran the corresponding word ahura was, and is, the designation of God the Lord. Ahura indicates the more sublime and awful divine character, for which man entertains reverence and fear : daeva denotes the kind gods of light, the anthropomorphic deities. Zoroaster elevated the conception of the Ahura, and he degraded the daivas (daevas) to the rank of malicious powers and devils. In one Ahura, he concentrated the whole of the divine character, and conferred upon it the epithet of "the wise" (mazdao). The Wise Lord (Ahuro
Ormazd) is the primaeval spirit ual being, the All-father, who was existent before ever the world arose. From him that world has emanated, and its course is gov erned by his foreseeing eye. His guiding spirit is the Holy Spirit, which wills the good : yet it is not free, but restricted, in this temporal epoch, by its antagonist and opin twin-brother (Yasna, 3o, 3), the Evil Spirit (angrO mainyush, Ahriman), who in the beginning was banished by the Good Spirit by means of the famous ban contained in Yasna, 45, 2, and since then drags out his existence in the darkness of Hell as the principle of ill. In the Gathas the Good Spirit of Mazda and the Evil Spirit are the two great opposing forces in the world, and Ormazd himself is to a certain extent placed above them both. Later the Holy Spirit is made directly equivalent to Ormazd; and then the great watch word is : "Here Ormazd, there Ahriman!" The very daevas are only the inferior instruments, the corrupted children of Ahriman, from whom come all that is evil in the world. The daevas, at tacked by Zoroaster as the enemies of mankind, are still, in the G5.thas, the perfectly definite gods of old popular belief—the idols of the people. Zoroaster regarded them as spurious deities, and their priests and votaries as idolaters and heretics. In the later, developed, system the daevas are the evil spirits in general, and their number has increased to millions. Some have names; and among them the old Aryan divinities emerge here and there, e.g., Indra and Naonhaitya. With some, of course, such as the god of fire—the connection with the good deity was indissoluble. Other powers of light, such as Mitra the god of day (Iranian, Mithra), survived in popular belief till the later system incorpo rated them in the angelic body. The authentic doctrine of the Gathas had no room either for the cult of Mithra or for that of the Haoma. Beyond the Lord and his Fire, the Gathas only recognize the archangels and certain ministers of Ormazd, who are personifications of abstract ideas. The essence of Ormazd is Truth and Law (asha = Vedic rta) : this quality he embodies, and its personification (though conceived as sexless) is always his constant companion. The essence of the wicked spirit is false hood : and falsehood, as the embodiment of the evil principle, is more frequently mentioned in the Gath5.s than Ahriman himself.
Zoroaster says that he had received from God a commission to purify religion ( Yasna, 44, 9) from the grossly sensual elements of daeva worship. This self-contained theory of the universe and logical dualistic principle were destined to terminate in mono theism. Later sects sought to rise from it to a higher unity in other ways. Thus the Zarvanites represented Ormazd and Ahri man as twin sons proceeding from the fundamental principle of all—Zrvana Akarana, or limitless time.
Ethically, too, the new doctrine stands on a higher plane, and represents, in its moral laws, a superior civilization. It is the re ligion of the settled grazier and the peasant, while the ruder daeva-cult holds its ground among the uncivilized nomadic tribes, who sacrificed the cow, the gift of Ormazd to man, a sacred animal.
may be summarized as follows : At the beginning of things there existed the two spirits who represented good and evil (Yasna, 3o, 3). Both spirits possess creative power, which manifests itself positively in the one and negatively in the other. Ormazd is light and life, and creates all that is pure and good—in the ethical world of law, order and truth. His antithesis is darkness, filth, death and produces all that is evil in the world. Until then the two spirits had counter balanced one another. The ultimate triumph of the good spirit is an ethical demand of the religious consciousness and the quint essence of Zoroaster's religion.
The evil spirit with his wicked hosts appears in the Gathas much less endowed with the attributes of personality and individu ality than does Ahura Mazda. Within the world of the good Ormazd is Lord and God alone. In this sense Zoroastrianism is often referred to as the faith of Ormazd or as Mazdaism.
Ormazd in his exalted majesty, the ideal figure of an Oriental king, has in conjunction with himself a number of genii—for the most part personifications of ethical ideas. These are his crea tures, his instruments, servants and assistants. They are compre hended under the general name of amesha spentd ("immortal holy ones") and are the prototypes of the seven amshaspands of a later date. These are—(I) Vohu Mano (dpota), good sense, i.e., the good principle, the idea of the good, the principle that works in man inclining him to what is good; (2) Ashem, after words Ashem Vahishtem (Plutarch's caliOeta), the genius of truth and the embodiment of all that is true, good and right, upright law and rule—ideas practically identical for Zoroaster; (3) Khshathrem, afterwards Khshathrem Vairim (€1'woyla), the power and kingdom of Ormazd, which have subsisted from the first but not in integral completeness, the evil having crept in like tares among the wheat : the time is yet to come when it shall be fully manifested in all its unclouded majesty; (4) Armaiti (Ootlita), due reverence for the divine, verecundia, spoken of as daughter of Ormazd and regarded as having her abode upon the earth; (5) Haurvatat
perfection; (6) Ameretat, immortality. Other ministering angels are Geush Urvan ("the genius and de fender of animals"), and Sraosha, the genius of obedience.
As soon as the two separate spirits (cf. Bundahish, 1, 4) en counter one another, their creative activity and at the same time their permanent conflict begin. The history of this conflict is the history of the world. All creation divides itself into that which is Ahura's and that which is Ahriman's.
In the soul of man is the object of the war. Man is a creation of Ormazd, who therefore has the right to call him to account. But Ormazd created him free in his determinations and in his actions, wherefore he is accessible to the influences of the evil powers. Man takes part in this conflict by all his life and activity in the world. By a true confession of faith, by every good deed, word and thought, by continually keeping pure his body and his soul, he impairs the power of Satan and strengthens the might of good ness, and establishes a claim for reward upon Ormazd; by a false confession, by every evil deed, word and thought and defilement, he increases the evil and renders service to Satan.