ZOROASTER (so the Greeks pro nounced the name of ZARATHUSIITRA) , the founder or reformer of the ancient religion of the Parsees. He appears as a historical person only in the earliest portion of the Avesta. the Cathie hymns, where the aspirations, hopes, and fears of an actual human agent are unmis takably present. His name means "Bay camels." His father was Pourusaspa, "Many horses"; his wife was Hvogvi (i. e., of the Hvogvas) ; his daughter was Pouru-chista, the Discreet. His family name was Spitama. This much we may accept from the statement of documents, but as soon as we leave the last Giitha, which was the wedding song of his daughter, we have no reliable data. Whether he was born in Ragha, the "Zarathushtrian" province (possibly later so called from its having become a political and ecclesiastical center), or nearer the scene represented in the Vendidad (chap. i.), where countries to the E. are mentioned (so more prob ably), or, again, whether Atropatene was his home, one thing seems certain, which is that all the persons named in the Gfithas belong beside him. Notwith standing Yasna, xlvi. 1. with its "to what land (district) shall I turn?" which probably gave rise to the erroneous opinion, he was no immigrant or emi grant going prophetically from country to country; for such a career at such an age would have been soon cut short by his execution. He is thoroughly at home
and among his relatives in the Gathas. As the center of a group of chieftains, one of whom was the king Vishtfispa ("Horse-owner"?), he was carrying on with varying success a political military, and theological struggle for the defense or wider establishment of a holy agricul tural state, whose laws and principles encouraged pastoral labor, tillage, and thrift, as against the freebooting tenden cies of Turanian and Vedic aggressors. In the course of his career he composed religious-political hymns, the Gathas, of which we have now only fragments sur viving in meters which appear (or re appear) in the Rik and in other parts of the Veda. The period in which he lived is even more uncertain than that of Homer, but cannot be placed later than 800 B. c., and may be greatly earlier. See PARSEES.