Discrediting Ahura Mazdā’s Rival, The Original Iranian Creator God "Apam Napāt" (or Apam Naphāt?)

Discrediting Ahura Mazdāʼs Rival The Original Iranian Creator God "Apam Napāt” The crucial verse 19.52 shows that in one of his aspects the ancient Apąm Napāt was a mighty creator -god, … but in Zoroastrianism Ahura Mazdā is venerated as supreme Creator, and Apąm Napāt thus came to be robbed of this function." Mary Boyce on "Apąm Napāṯ" Discrediting Ahura Mazdā’s Rival (or Apam Naphāt?) PDF available free of charge at or Abolala Soudavar Discrediting Ahura Mazdā’s Rival This text is freely downloadable as a PDF on academia.edu or soudavar.com Those wishing to have a paper copy in their hands are directed to LULU.com, where they can order black & white, or color copies Copyright In matters of copyright, I subscribe to the decision of the Federal Court of N.Y. (Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp., S.D.N.Y. 1999), which ruled that exact photographic copies of public domain images could not be protected by copyright because the copies lack originality; and I follow the prescription of section 107 of the US copyright law (title 17, U. S. Code), which allows "fair use" of published material for scholarly and non-profit publications. By the same token, I do not claim copyright for any of the material published in this book. ISBN : 978-1-329-48994-3 Published in 2015, by Soudavar – Houston Front cover: Sasanian silver bottle, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, on loan to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC Back cover: Apam Nap t hanging from a sun dick. Hellenistic earring. EMS Collections Design and layout of all pages, including covers, are by the author. Discrediting Ahura Mazdā’s Rival The Original )ranian Creator God "Apam Napāt" or Apam Naphāt? Abolala Soudavar Houston 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ......................................................................................................................................... iiv INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 1 PART I .......................................................................................................................................... 5 The Textual Testimony ................................................................................................................. 5 I.1 - Compromising Zoroaster's monotheistic vision................................................................ 7 I.2 - The revelatory passages .................................................................................................... 9 I.3 - The daeva problem .......................................................................................................... 11 I.4 - An hit , the anti-daev goddess ..................................................................................... 15 I.5 - Power indicators .............................................................................................................. 17 I.6 - Purifying the libations ..................................................................................................... 22 I.7 - Agents of fertility ............................................................................................................ 25 I.8 - The Burning Water .......................................................................................................... 27 I.9 - Unification through amalgamation ................................................................................. 31 PART II ....................................................................................................................................... 33 The Iconographic Evidence ......................................................................................................... 33 II.1 - From "Burning Water" to "Navel-Water" ..................................................................... 35 II.2 - Agent of fertility and life ............................................................................................... 37 II.3 - Bisotun's imbedded attack on Median ideology ............................................................ 39 II.4 - The Hellenistic resurrection of the mehr- b iconography ............................................. 41 II.5 - The Mithraic conduit ..................................................................................................... 43 II.6 - Yt.8.4 and the pairing of two celestial symbols ............................................................. 44 II.7 - Ravenna and the blend of Mithraic and Christian emblems .......................................... 46 II.8 - The mehr- b niche: From Jerash to Medina .................................................................. 48 II.9 - The mehr- b lion: From Esfah n to the Alhambra ........................................................ 50 II.10 - Apam Nap t and the reed............................................................................................. 52 II.11 - An eastern goddess promoted against the Mithra/Apam Nap t tandem ..................... 54 II.12 - An hit the anti-daeva and symbol of orthodoxy........................................................ 56 II.13 - The impact of Zoroastrian deliberations on H riti's Chinese journey ......................... 60 II.14 - The flaming pearl ......................................................................................................... 63 EPILOGUE ................................................................................................................................. 65 APPENDIX I ............................................................................................................................... 69 APPENDIX II.............................................................................................................................. 76 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 78 INDEX......................................................................................................................................... 80 Preface From the time I first read in Encyclopaedia Iranica Mary Boyce's entry on Apam Nap t (a creator god whom she thought was "robbed" of his functions by Ahura Mazd ), I saw this "robbing" as an anomaly that could hardly occur in the normal evolutionary course of religions. A creator god isn't easily demoted and replaced by another one, and religious frictions alone cannot cause such a major upheaval. It required substantial political backing from the ruling elite and the authorities in power. For me, the only event that could have caused such an upheaval was the advent of Darius and the ensuing massacre of the magi that Herodotus labelled as Magophonia. Be that as it may, what surprised me even more was the lack of further attention to such an important issue. Steeped in their etymological minutiae, Avestologists seemed to prefer to sweep under the rug the main problems of Zoroastrianism. Jean Kellens, for instance, glossed over this issue, in his 2010 lecture series at the Collège de France, by prefacing it with a mere "curieusement" remark. In the same series of lectures, he also asserted that the Greek work naphtha derived from Apam Nap t's name. If so, this too pointed to a major problem, that of an aquatic deity whose name evoked fire, with no apparent trace to be found in the Avesta. To me, there was a high chance that Apam Nap t's demotion was somehow tied to the loss of his fire attributes. The study that I have undertaken in this book demonstrates indeed that the two phenomena were interconnected, and were the result of major transformations that affected Zoroastrianism in the post-Achaemenid era. My conclusions, however, go against nonsensical theories that have permeated the sphere of Ancient Iranian Studies, and in which, many have invested intellectual capital. They try to defend the indefensible, but end up with more vagaries. Appendix I provides picturesque samples of their distorted views, expressed in a lamentation mode that transposes Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme into Avestology; savant-looking but hollow. Houston – August 2015 "The crucial verse Yašt 19.52 shows that in one of his aspects the ancient Apąm Nap t was a mighty creator-god, ‫ﺳ‬who created men, who shaped men‫( ﺴ‬yō nərə̄uš da’a, yō nərə̄uš tataša); but in Zoroastrianism Ahura Mazd is venerated as supreme Creator, and Apąm Nap t thus came to be robbed of this function." Mary Boyce " Apąm Nap ṯ" entry Encyclopaedia Iranica INTRODUCTION Understanding the Avesta - Georges Clemenceau once famously said that ‫ﺳ‬war was too important a matter to be left to the military‫ ;ﺴ‬by the same token, I feel that the Avesta is too important a text to be solely left to Avestologists, who are good technicians but may lack historical vision. In the last two decades, due to the domineering positions of Jean Kellens at the Collège de France and Prod Oktor Skjaervo at Harvard, the tendency of Avestologists has been to delve more and more into philological technicalities, at the expense of meaning and purpose. To be sure, philological considerations have much contributed to the deciphering of ancient texts, but, ultimately, the purpose of such an exercise is to produce readable and comprehensible translations. By this measure, the new trend has mostly failed. Many recent translations seem as mechanical as internetprovided translations, and beg the question whether the translator himself ever understood what he was writing. I had previously criticized some of these translations, by pointing out their errors and providing alternative translations in plain English.1 Here below, I shall produce further examples of incoherent translations that need to be reinterpreted. One cannot translate the Avesta without trying to understand what its authors had in mind. And that original intent cannot be deciphered if the Avesta is placed on too high grounds, and accorded unwarranted levels of abstraction. For, as I have recently argued, the Avesta is a corpus of texts assembled in the post-Achaemenid era with the double political motives of bringing the greatest number of people under the Zoroastrian tent, as well as exalting Ahura Mazd and Zoroaster. To do so, older hymns dedicated to a wide variety of deities were added to the Gathic core of the Avesta by judiciously sanitizing their contents, and new hymns were composed to the glory of Zoroaster by presenting him as the master of the universe.2 In what follows I shall provide further evidence for the above-mentioned contentions, which I first expounded in my recently published book, Mithraic Societies: From Brotherhood to Religion's Adversary (2014). The conclusions that I had reached therein, even though controversial, were developed in a step by step process over a period of ten years, in which each step provided the foundation for the next one. In the process, not 1 2 Soudavar 2014, 343-68. Soudavar 2014, 191-213 and 222-25. 2 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL only weaknesses and errors of contrarian theories were exposed, but the concordance of my own conclusions with a wide variety of issues were also demonstrated. In itself, that progression is indicative of validity, for if not, contradictions would have surfaced somewhere along the way. Avestologists, however, for lack of valid arguments, shun confrontation and have retreated to a self-made enclosure where they can live with the pretense that Zoroaster never existed, or that the Avesta is a wholesome un-manipulated text, in which, the older sections belong to the stratosphere of the second millennium BC and the later ones are pre-Achaemenid.3 Two words are essential to the understanding of the Avesta and the kingly ideology that prevailed in ancient Iran. The first is Av. chithra/MP chihr. For years, the word chihr—in the Sasanian kingly slogan of "chihr az yazat n"—had been translated as seed, origin, or nature, thereby conferring divine status to Sasanian kings. When I first objected to such translations in 2003, and suggested that chihr therein actually reflected the king's farr/OP khvarenah, it created much resentment; and by the time I extended it to the translation of Av. chithra (in 2006), Avestologists took it as an affront, even though, in the meantime Antonio Panaino had reached a similar interpretation for the Sasanian kingly slogan.4 With the exception of Xavier Tremblay who advocated a new fresh look on the translation of chithra in 2008 (see Appendix II), not one Avestologist dared to acknowledge the problems arising from their wrong translation of this word. As for the second word, p rsa, which constituted Darius's main claim to legitimacy when boasting to be "p rsa son of p rsa," I advocated that it designated a warrior-priest who officiated fire ceremonies. The correct understanding of this word has major implications for Avestan studies as well as Achaemenid history, and as such it has been met with silence on the surface, and negative comments in undercurrents. There again, except for Antonio Panaino who has taken my proposals into consideration,5 most scholars prefer to ignore it. They may also decide to ignore the additional proofs presented here below, but they cannot do it indefinitely. They will have to either discredit their opponents with credible arguments, or lose credibility themselves. Those who cannot see the ridicule in translating afsh-chithra as "containing the seeds of water" will At a conference held at the Collège de France, (La religion des Achéménides: confrontation des sources, Nov. 7-8, 2013), Clarisse Herrenschmidt, expressed astonishment at how the Avesta debate had culminated in a comprehensive work by Gherardo Gnoli (Gnoli 2000), which, instead of gaining acceptance and/or fostering more debates, had been relegated to oblivion, even though Gnoli had switched sides himself. 4 Panaino 2004. 5 Panaino (forthcoming). 3 3 INTRODUCTION inevitably fall on their face, perhaps by slipping on the very "seeds of water" that no one else but them could ever imagine! The choice of Avestan script - In quoting the Avesta, I shall go back to the script devised by Bartholomae, which, as Ilya Gershevitch noted, ‫ﺳ‬easily and accurately‫ﺴ‬ conveys the Avestan pronunciation.6 This is the script that the main Zoroastrian website (www.Avesta.org) uses, and where one finds easy access to all the main texts of Zoroastrian literature. It's a choice that may irritate the specialists who have adopted a new system. But my aim here is to reach as many non-Avestologists as possible, whom, I believe, can better equate Avestan words with New Persian ones through this system, and benefit from it, in the same way that I did. By any standard, it's easier to equate NP div with daêva of the old script, than with daēuua of the new script. 6 Gershevitch surmised that: "The new fashion of writing ... is by contrast ugly, uneconomic, and to laymen, whom alone it is intended to make happy (experts have no need of transcription), confusing"; Gershevitch 1995, 6. 4 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL Fig. 1 – The double-legged-ankh caricature of Apam Nap t used here as symbol of b-n f (see fig. 9a, b) PART I The Textual Testimony 6 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL Fig. 2 – An hit holding Apam Nap t' hand. Sasanian silver bottle, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, on loan to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 7 I.1 - Compromising Zoroaster's monotheistic vision Old beliefs are hard to dislodge, and new religions need time to mature. That is perhaps what Darius (r. 522-486 BC) realized when he imposed his new omnipotent god, Ahura Mazd , on Iranian nations. Darius pursued a trial and error tactic, while Xerxes (r. 486-65 BC) implemented harsher measures. Achaemenid religious policy then seems to have vacillated between old and new paradigms; and issues such as the choice of an aquatic deity remained unresolved to the very end of Achaemenid reign. After the Macedonian conquests, the Zoroastrian priesthood continued where the Achaemenids had left off. Their approach, however, was one of compromise, in order to attract the maximum number of believers to their cause. In contravention of the monotheistic vision that Zoroaster had expounded in his Gathas, the Avesta compilers had no qualm in bringing additional deities into the Zoroastrian fold. In doing so, they chose pragmatism over religious intransigence. It‫ﺶ‬s the same choice that the early Islamic propagandists were confronted with. By their doctrine, the defeated enemy had to convert to Islam or die, with the exception of the People of the Book, who could maintain their religion by paying a poll tax, the jaziyya. This exception was only meant to be available to Jews and Christians, but was extended to the Zoroastrians who also had a book—the Avesta—even though unconnected to the Abrahamic religions. It was a pragmatic decision; rather than exterminating the Zoroastrians and losing a substantial source of income, they were accepted as People of the Book if they paid the jaziyya. The early Zoroastrian priests also made a pragmatic choice. To attract a maximum number of people to their religion, they decided to incorporate popular gods into the Zoroastrian pantheon, albeit as Ahura Mazd subordinates. The most popular of all Iranian gods was Mithra who had powerful solar credentials. To do away with him, Darius, whose Mazd -worshipping fervor was no less than Zoroaster's, even tried to empower Ahura Mazd with solar attributes in Bisotun (fig. 3); his maneuver must have backfired, for that was the first and last time he presented his all-powerful Ahura Mazd with such an attribute.7 Mithra was not an easy deity to displace, and that is probably why Zoroastrians preferred incorporating him into their pantheon rather than discarding him. If Mithra was appropriated, why not do the same with all other gods in order to achieve maximum acceptance? That‫ﺶ‬s what they actually tried to do. 7 Soudavar 2010, 110-31; Soudavar 2014, 208-218. 8 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival There was, however, one god, Apam Nap t, who presented a serious problem for the Avesta compilers. He was a mighty god, an aquatic deity to whom life, and therefore creation, was originally attributed; because in the very dry conditions of the Iranian plateau water was life, and an aquatic deity was naturally perceived as the one who bestowed it.8 In monotheistic religions, God is an all-powerful abstract entity who cannot share his ultimate power, that of creation, with any other entity. With the advent of Ahura Mazd as an abstract and omnipotent god, creation had to be his prerogative, and the easiest solution was to eliminate Apam Nap t. That, however, went against the goal of attracting a large part of the general population to Zoroastrianism, since Apam Nap t was a much respected deity.9 He was also closely linked to Mithra. This linkage was so strong that, despite all attempts to break it, multiple paired symbols of them have survived to this date (see sec. II.8), including in the name and structure of the Islamic mihr b (mehr- b).10 Negating Apam Nap t would have meant negating Mithra. It was difficult to keep one and not the other. Apam Nap t had also become the underwater guardian of the khvarenah. If he was to be eliminated, a substitute aquatic deity was necessary to release the khvarenah from the waters. The aquatic female deity An hit , who is first invoked by Artaxerxes II (r. 404358 BC) in Achaemenid inscriptions, seems to have been conceived as such a substitute. Iranian bureaucratic procedures are normally very conservative, and continue from one administration to the other. Invoking Mithra and An hit , after Ahura Mazd , by Artaxerxes II was certainly a major departure from past Achaemenid practices. But more surprising is the elimination of An hit in the inscriptions of Artaxerxes III (r. 358-338 BC).11 It is clearly indicative of a major ideological conflict in the acceptance of An hit : Whether she was suitable to replace Apam Nap t or not? It‫ﺶ‬s symptomatic of a persisting dilemma that continued up to the Sasanian era, and vividly marked their shifting ideology. Orthodox kings would invoke An hit , while the less orthodox ones would portray Apam Nap t and/or Mithra, as their supporters.12 This conflict had inevitable reverberations in the Avesta. Jean Kellens, who divided Soudavar 2014, 191. Apam Nap t‫ﺶ‬s epithet of ahura (lord) lingered on in the Avesta, despite his rivalry with Ahura Mazd ; Boyce 1986. See also sec. I.8 below. 10 Soudavar 2014, 293-98. 11 Artaxerxes II (A2 Sd): … May Ahura Mazd , An hit and Mithra protect me, and whatever I have done, from all evil.‫ ﺴ‬Artaxerxes III (A3 Pa): … Artaxerxes the King says: May Ahura Mazd and Mithra protect me, and this country, and all that I have done.‫ﺴ‬ 12 Soudavar 2014,159-61. 8 9 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 9 Zoroastrian liturgies in to two bundles that he named Proto-Yasna-A and Proto-Yasna-B, primarily saw these liturgies as two sets composed in different times.13 His arguments, however, show much cross-referencing and cross-borrowing between the two, which is indicative of contemporaneity. A close analysis of the two reveals in fact two different approaches to the water-deity dilemma. In one, An hit replaced Apam Nap t as an all powerful aquatic goddess who dispensed the Aryan khvarenah, and in the other, the aquatic deity of old, i.e., Apam Nap t, was favored albeit in a subdued fashion.14 What stands out in their endeavor is how they discredited other deities, and reused them in an expanded pantheon of gods subordinated to Ahura Mazd . Their most difficult task was to find ways to reintegrate Apam Nap t (Apam Naph t?), a deity who was perceived as the main rival to Ahura Mazd , and the one who was initially branded as daeva. The subtle ways by which they achieved this is a testimony to their mastery in the art of sophistry, at a level seldom seen in the history of religions. I.2 - The revelatory passages Even though the Avesta is comprised of a series of texts that were doctored to hide, or diminish, the importance of popular Iranian deities, it nevertheless contains passages that pertain to an un-doctored past. A passage related to Zoroaster's birth, for instance, reveals the dominance of the Mithra/Apam Nap t tandem in Median kingly ideology. Indeed, to emphasize the greatness of their prophet, Avesta compilers proffered that his birth ushered in a new era of prosperity, and brought greatness to the Iranian people. To justify it, they had to pin his birthdate to an extraordinary event. The most important event that marked the early history of the Iranian people—and put them on the map so to speak—was the sack of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh by a coalition of Iranians led by the Medes, circa 614 BC.15 But the Medes who had driven Zoroaster out of his fiefdom of Raga could not be praised in conjunction with this momentous event.16 The solution was to refer to it by its religious repercussions rather than territorial conquests, i.e., by Mithra and Apam Nap t being jointly praised in a wider empire. The formation of an empire necessitated an appropriate kingly ideology, and that of Kellens 1998. Soudavar 2014, 222-25. 15 As per the "258 Axiom" of Zoroastrianism, Zoroaster started preaching at the age of thirty, 258 years before the advent of Alexander. His birthday can therefore be calculated to the year 618 BC, i.e., some four years before the fall of Nineveh. 16 Soudavar 2014, 233-41. 13 14 10 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival the Medes seems to have been built on the supremacy of a deity pair, Mithra and Apam Nap t, who controlled two different realms: Mithra was a sun god who presided over daytime, while Apam Nap t was an aquatic god who presided over nighttime. They had similar but complementary functions. Full authority was predicated on the backing of both. With the formation of the Median Empire, this Iranian deity pair received recognition beyond Iranian nations, and into conquered territories. It is thus that in the Farvardin Yasht, the expanded recognition that befell these two deities was attributed to the auspicious birth of Zoroaster: Yt.13:94 Let us rejoice, for a priestly man is born, the Spitamid Zarathushtra... From now on the good Mazdean Religion will spread through all the seven Climes of the Earth Yt.13:95 From now on, Mithra … will promote all supreme authorities of the nations and will pacify those in revolt. From now on, strong Apam Nap t will promote all the supreme authorities of the nations and will subjugate all those in revolt Such an artifice only became available to Zoroastrianism when it shed aside its monotheistic outlook and expanded its pantheon to include Mithra and Apam Nap t, as Ahura Mazda subordinates. Nevertheless, it betrays a pre-existing conception that divided the world into two realms, each presided by its own deity. Hence, two deities performing the same tasks: Mithra operating in daytime, and Apam Nap t in nighttime, both dealing with the same political issues of upholding authority and crushing revolt. In another instance, the author of Yt.19.52 characterizes Apam Nap t with a legend of old, "who created men, who shaped men," which qualified him as a creator; it echoes the powers of the Vedic Ap m Nap t, who was also a creator god in his own context.17 Without this slip of the tongue we may have never been able to assess the Iranian Apam Nap t's past importance and the reason for his demotion. He had creative powers that clashed with those of Ahura Mazd , whom later Zoroastrianism was promoting as the 17 On the Iranian Apam Nap t, Mary Boyce wrote: "The crucial verse Yašt 19.52 shows that in one of his aspects the ancient Apąm Nap t was a mighty creator-god, ‫ﺳ‬who created men, who shaped men‫( ﺴ‬yō nərə̄uš da’a, yō nərə̄uš tataša); but in Zoroastrianism Ahura Mazd is venerated as supreme Creator, and Apąm Nap t thus came to be robbed of this function." On the Vedic Ap m Nap t, she described him as the one ‫ﺳ‬who has created all beings through his power as Asura‫( ﺴ‬Rigveda 2.35.2); Boyce 1986. Kellens, however, says: "La relative yō nərš tataša ‫ ﺩ‬qui a taillé les hommes ‫ ﺪ‬lui attribue curieusement une activité anthropogonique qui est en principe l‫ﺶ‬apanage exclusif d‫ﺶ‬Ahura Mazd . Or tout ceci traduit des conceptions qui sont également repérables dans les hymnes védiques d‫ﺶ‬Ap m Nap t"; Jean Kellens lecture of Dec. 17, 2010. THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 11 unique creator.18 An Apam Nap t who "created men," had really no place in the pantheon that later Zoroastrian priests constructed. While Mithra was sanitized, and integrated into the Zoroastrian pantheon through a dedicated hymn (Mehr Yasht, Yt.13), Apam Nap t was stripped of his, and only referred to here and there, mostly within hymns dedicated to other deities. Also, by aggrandizing the role of Zoroaster, Zoroastrian priests hoped to achieve greater status for themselves. Thus, the ultimate khvarenah, i.e., the Aryan khvarenah, was taken away from kingship and allocated to Zoroaster. It was done indirectly and through the bias of utterances by the arch-enemy of Iran, Afr siy b, who sought the Aryan khvarenah from the deity guarding it underwater. Oddly the khvarenah guardian differs from one liturgy to the other. In Yt.19, the Aryan khvarenah is guarded and/or released by Apam Nap t, but in Yt.5, the Aryan khvarenah is supposedly released by An hit . In both, Afr siy b recognizes it as belonging to Zoroaster. But this went against the Achaemenid kingly ideology, in which the possession of the Aryan khvarenah was the prerogative of Achaemenid kings.19 No Achaemenid king would have tolerated the permanent attribution of the Aryan khvarenah to Zoroaster. Imagine a priest, who had the obligation to recite Avestan hymns five times a day, would utter under Darius's palace that Zoroaster was the possessor of the Aryan Khvarenah and the universal king under whom no one could achieve a higher status than a mere dahyu-paiti or tribal chieftain (Y.19.18). Darius would have cut his nose, tongue and limbs! 20 Thus, none of these hymns could have passed through—and survived—the Achaemenid era; they must be post-Achaemenid compositions. They were probably conceived under the Seleucids who did not care what Zoroastrian priests thought or did. More importantly, yashts 19 and 5 are indicative of two different outlooks for the supreme aquatic deity; one favored Apam Nap t, and the other promoted An hit . As we shall see, the latter also promoted An hit as the anti-daeva and the champion of Zoroastrian orthodoxy. I.3 - The daeva problem In Zoroaster's Gathas, where Ahura Mazd is praised, traditional Iranian gods are At the beginning of a hymn that gave Zoroaster world rulership (Y19.18), for instance, Ahura Mazd is declared "maker of the corporeal world" and the one created the sky, water, earth, cow, plants, fire, the righteous man, and more generally, all of the corporeal world, and the good things "imbued with the chithra (Light) of righteousness" (Y19.2). 19 From Darius onward, they all claimed to be arya chisa (i.e., beaming with the Aryan khvarenah) 20 Soudavar 2014, 194. 18 12 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival referred to as daevas, and are not demonized.21 Unlike other Indo-European languages in which daeva derivatives have kept a positive connotation (Sanskrit deva, Latin deus, French dieu), in the Iranian context, daevas were turned into demoniac divs that populate folkloric tales and the Sh hn meh stories. But gods are not easily turned into demons in the normal evolutionary course of religions. Something drastic must have happened, producing a religious cataclysm that turned good gods into bad ones. As I have argued elsewhere, this cataclysm was provoked by the general massacre of the Median magi dubbed as Magophonia by Herodotus. It was unleashed by Darius I and his six coconspirators against the usurper magus Gaumata and his Median magi supporters. Yet as drastic as such a massacre must have been, it was directed against political adversaries and not gods; Darius's adversaries were the Median magi and not their gods. Moreover, the divs that are depicted in the Sh hn meh—whether in text or image— seem to be political adversaries, since they fight with their opponents, take them prisoners, negotiate their release, and, more generally, act like humans. More than anything, they represent the enemy of the state, those whom in today's political parlance are frequently labeled as "terrorists." One must therefore seek the reflection of the demonization process of the daevas in the political arena, i.e., the official Achaemenid documents, rather than in the Avesta that was assembled at the tail end of this process. Achaemenid inscriptions provide four different evolutionary stages: 1- Darius - The enemies that Darius had to combat were those who questioned his legitimacy and sought to establish themselves on the throne; and the Median magi that he massacred were primarily political adversaries who had tried to usurp the throne. He did not demonize any of the ancient gods, but simply tried to switch their powers to Ahura Mazd (see sec. II.3). Eventually, however, Darius acknowledged other gods and sought their help.22 In the case of Mithra, he even upheld the sanctity of his sanctuaries.23 Darius's main preoccupation was a tactical as well as a theological one: The Median day/night dichotomy had to be eradicated from the popular mind before Ahura-Mazd could be accepted as a uniquely powerful god. As his deputy on earth, Darius emphasized that his commands were to be obeyed "by day and by night" (DB§7-8). This finds visual expression on Achaemenid tombs where the king is portrayed as a warriorpriest (p rsa) officiating a fire ceremony on behalf of Ahura Mazd , who, from above Herrenschmidt & Kellens 1993. DPd: ‫ﺳ‬this is what I request from Ahura Mazd , with all the gods; may Ahura Mazd , with all the gods, fulfill my wishes‫ ;ﺴ‬Lecoq 1997, 228. 23 Soudavar 2014, 234-35. 21 22 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 13 the fire, is making an approving gesture to him. To emphasize that the king's officiating function covered both nighttime and daytime ceremonies, a sun and moon combination is depicted on the far right of the scene (fig. 4).24 Fig. 3 – Solar emblem added to Ahura Mazd 's hat. Bisotun. Fig. 4 – Achaemenid p rsa king officiating fire ceremonies by day and by night (i.e., under sun and moon). Naqsh-e Rostam Fig. 5 – Lion and bull with sun and moon symbols on a seal from Sardes (Cahill 2010, 185) Fig. 6 – Lion-Bull combat as symbol of the perpetual day/night revolutions (Soudavar 2014, 214) In the same vein, Darius devised the impressive lion-bull icons of Persepolis as a symbol of perpetual day/night revolutions in order to blur the separation of the night and 24 I had previously thought that this double symbol represented two phases of the moon, i.e., as a crescent and full disk (Soudavar 2010, 56; Soudavar 2014, 99), but I am now convinced that this double symbolism evokes two distinct situations, which is more appropriate for day-night representation than the continuously evolving shape of the moon. 14 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival day realms (fig. 6),which was disseminated throughout the Achaemenid empire (fig. 5). The day and night dichotomy was thus abolished through amalgamation.25 2- Xerxes (r. 486-465 BC) – As the scion of both Cyrus (r. 559-530 BC) and Darius, Xerxes's legitimacy couldn't be challenged by outsiders. Therefore if he stated in his XPh inscriptions that: "among these nations there was a place where previously daivas (Av. daeva) were worshiped. Afterwards, by the grace of Ahura Mazd , I destroyed that sanctuary of daivas, and I proclaimed: 'The daivas shall not be worshiped!'" his enemies must have challenged him in a way that threatened the supremacy of Ahura Mazd , the god who supposedly conferred authority to Xerxes. That challenge must have been primarily placed under the banner of Apam Nap t whose life-giving prerogatives and creation powers clashed with those of Ahura Mazd . The destroyed sanctuary was where Apam Nap t and most probably Mithra were praised, to the exclusion of Ahura Mazd . Sanctuary destruction meant demonization of the daevas worshipped therein.26 And as I have argued elsewhere, the demonization process of the old gods started with Xerxes, who escalated the iconographical rhetoric against the daevas, by increasing the number of combat scenes with them in his throne hall, and aggrandizing them by blowing their sizes out of proportion; and the nation that Xerxes targeted was the M zandar n, where the daevas maintained their exalted status long after the demise of the Achaemenids.27 3- Artaxerxes II – In the succession struggle that pitted Artaxerxes II with his brother Cyrus the Younger, the latter was clearly counting on the support of those longing for the Median ideology, as he donned Median robes and dedicated a special procession chariot to Mithra.28 Despite victory over his younger brother, Artaxerxes had to show that he was in full possession of the Aryan khvarenah. To do so, he needed to invoke two gods who controlled the khvarenah, one aquatic and one solar. Mithra could be invoked without posing a major challenge for Ahura Mazd , but Apam Nap t needed a substitute. Hence the choice of An hit , a river deity who may have been popular in the eastern provinces of the empire (see sec. II.10). Soudavar 2010, 127-28; Soudavar 2014, 214-16. Similarly, Lecoq argues that the word yadan , which in reality means ‫ﺳ‬religious practices‫ ﺴ‬has been translated as ‫ﺳ‬temple‫ ﺴ‬in the Babylonian and Elamite versions of the Bisotun inscriptions, because in the Mesopotamian context, the destruction or reconstruction of temples was a normal consequence of religious changes; Lecoq 1995. 27 Soudavar 2014, 241-48. 28 Xenophon (Cyr. 8.3.12); Soudavar 2014, 333-34. 25 26 15 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 4- Artaxerxes III - The fact that Artaxerxes III dropped An hit from his invocations is of major importance to our study, since it points to a rejection. Clearly, An hit was unacceptable to an important political faction and was dropped from official statements. These four stages point to an ideological conflict in gestation, in which, the ruling elite was trying to impose Ahura Mazd at the expense of traditional gods worshipped by a majority of their subjects. It resulted into a factionalism that erupted into rebellions under Xerexes and Artaxerxes II. By fear of persecution, some of these factions were driven underground in the guise of Mithraic societies that preserved the Median day/night dichotomy associated with the deity pair Mithra/Apam Nap t. This dichotomy and its resulting symbolism are best summarized in the following table: Mithra Lord of the Day sun light/fire sunflower lion, sun cross Apam Napāt Lord of the Night moon water lotus, reed snake, scorpion More importantly, two symbols of these underground societies, namely the snake and the scorpion, became emblematic of the enemy, i.e., the daeva-worshippers. Since the snake was always associated with water, especially under the Elamites, and the scorpion was a nocturnal animal, it stands to reason that their subsequent qualification as khrafstar in the Avesta was due to their perceived association with Apam Nap t, the aquatic Lord of the Night.29 Otherwise, why should any of god's creatures be qualified as a noxious animal that had to be killed? In what follows, we shall not only see how the Avesta reflects the various Achaemenid attempts to solve the Apam Nap t dilemma, but how An hit was meant to supplant him. I.4 - Anāhitā, the anti-daevā goddess The preamble to most of the yashts, including that of An hit (Yt.5), has a tripartite sentence, which I see as a "profession of orthodoxy": (a) fravarâne mazdayasnô, zarathushtrish, (b) vî-daêvô, (c) ahura-tkaêshô (a) I profess to be a worshipper of Mazd , a follower of Zarathushtra, (b) against daevas (vîdaêvô), (c) and of Ahuric religion (ahura-tkaêshô, NP ahura-kish). To give it more weight, and to present it as a fundamental doctrine, it was also put in the mouth of Gayomard (Yt.13.87-89), the Primordial Man who generated the Aryans. 29 Soudavar 2014, 79-86, and 167. 16 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival While part (a) of this proclamation is clearly a profession of faith, part (b) is antagonistic and enrolls the faithful in a fight against the enemy. As for (c), it's symptomatic of the religious amalgam that the Avesta compilers concocted in the post-Achaemenid era, and that we shall further explicate in sec. I.9. What (b) indicates, however, is that the fight against the daeva-worshippers—initiated by Xerxes—had not been resolved by the end of the Achaemenid era, and that the Avesta compilers foresaw more combats ahead. It ties in well with our explanation that the so called daeva-worshippers not only left their imprint in Persepolis by defacing Darius and Xerxes, but kept their reverence for the daevas long after the Achaemenids; they survived as underground societies and/or in remote areas such as the M zandar n.30 Thus, the fight against the daevas was a perpetual fight that came to define orthodoxy. Interestingly, parts (b) and (c) of the "profession of orthodoxy" are symmetrically reflected in the first stanza of Yt.5, where An hit is qualified as anti-daeva (vî-daêvô) and of "Ahuric Religion."31 She is presented as the champion of orthodoxy and the deity who leads the fight against the daevas. And to drive this message into the faithful's mind, this stanza is repeated 29 more times in a hymn that has a total of 133 stanzas. In this repeated stanza, Ahura Mazd introduces An hit to Zoroaster, as an all powerful deity worthy of praise: " Ahura Mazd said to Spitama Zarathushtra: 'Praise her for me, O Spitama Zarathushtra! the wide-expanding and health-giving Ardvi Sura An hit , who is against the daevas and is of Ahuric religion, who is worthy of sacrifice in the corporeal world, worthy of prayer in the corporeal world; the life-increasing Righteous, the herd-increasing Righteous, the foldincreasing Righteous, the wealth-increasing Righteous, the nation-increasing Righteous" Repetition seems to be a common technique of the Avesta compilers when trying to introduce an unfamiliar notion or one that went against common perception. They hammer it in. The repetitive "Mazd -created" label that precedes almost all mentions of khvarenah in the Avesta, for instance, was used to incorporate this important concept of power into Zoroastrianism.32 Similarly, the repetition of the above-mentioned stanza was to establish the importance of this newly introduced aquatic deity within an expanded Zoroastrian pantheon. What's more, through subtle references to her field of action, her origins, and powers, she is introduced not as a mere aquatic deity but one destined to supplant the powerful Soudavar 2014, 256-58 and 324. Dustkh h 2002, I:297. 32 Soudavar 2010, 122-27. 30 31 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 17 Mithra and Apam Nap t deity pair.33 To do so, like Darius who had insisted that his orders be universally carried "by day and by night," An hit is presented as one who controls the waters "by night and by day" (Yt.5.15). But to differentiate her personality from Apam Nap t who is the Lord of the Night, An hit instructs Zoroaster to only praise her from "from sun-rise till sunset" (Yt.5.91). Meanwhile, to diminish Apam Nap t, he is denied a dedicated yasht in the Avesta and is only praised in the afternoon prayers of the Uzerin Gah, along with a group of minor deities. Furthermore, to make An hit more powerful than Mithra, she is not only given a quadrigae with four white horses (Yt.5.13), as Mithra was (Yt.10.125), but she is said to descend from a place higher than the Sun and through a course that snakes, scorpions, and the likes, cannot harm her (Yt.5.90). As snakes and scorpions are khrafstars, and the quintessential emblems of daeva-worshippers, An hit 's role as the anti-daeva goddess is once more emphasized here, with perhaps an oblique hint that Mithra—who rides with the Sun—follows a different course, one that can take him to the khrafstars. That Yt.5 was composed with an eye on Mithra's yasht is also apparent from what Kellens had observed about one of its stanzas. In Yt.5.53, he saw an incompatibility where three plural adjectives (rathaêshtârô, jaidhyañtô, and tanubyô) describe the heroism of a lone hero, Tus (Tusô); whereas, in Yt.10.11, the exact same sentence, with the same adjectives, qualify warriors (in plural) who praise Mithra. He concludes that the grammatically correct plural form of Yt.10.11 was the original, and Yt.5.53 a copy.34 Clearly, An hit was in competition with both Mithra and Apam Nap t, and its yasht was supposed to project her as more powerful than both. I.5 - Power indicators If An hit was to supplant the Median deity pair Mithra/Apam Nap t who conferred authority and vanquished the enemy (Yt.13.95), a simple declaration of her powers—as in the first stanza—would not suffice to convince the faithful, even if repeated 30 times. Further demonstration of her authority and powers were necessary. To be more convincing, the Avestan authors make use of four techniques in this hymn: (1) they enlist a string of twenty supplicants who solicit her support to achieve greatness or to combat the enemy, (2) they use the importance of offerings as evidence of their belief in her Interestingly, An hit herself seems to be unsure of her acceptance, when she asks in Yt.5.8: "Who will praise me? Who will offer me a sacrifice?" 34 Kellens 1978, 265. For my own views on this grammatical error, see note 115 supra. 33 18 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival power, (3) they dilute the power of her rival by sharing his prerogatives with other entities, and (4) by diminishing his stature. 1- Supplicants - Out of the 133 stanzas of her yasht, 87 stanzas narrate 20 episodes in which renowned supplicants ask for her support and—depending on them being friend or foe—their wishes are granted or denied. In an ultimate display of sophistry, the first supplicant is no less than Ahura Mazd himself (Yts.5.16-19), as he—the Creator—begs An hit to intercede with Zoroaster, to propagate the good religion on his behalf! Thus, Ahura Mazd , An hit , and Zoroaster are associated in a cozy triad of orthodoxy in which all three are in need of one another. This close association is further emphasized in Yt.5.89, where Zoroaster and An hit appear as Ahura Mazd 's acolytes and champions of righteousness (read orthodoxy): (Soudavar translation) Yt.5.89: (An hit to Zoroaster:) "O candid, righteous Son of Spitama! Ahura Mazd has established you as the master/guide (ratu) of the corporeal world; Ahura Mazd has established me as the protector of all righteousness (vîspayå ashaonô stôish)."35 Among the supplicants appear powerful mythological figures from the Indo-Iranian lore, such as Jamshid (Yima), the dragon Azhi-dah ga, and the dragon-slayer Fereydun (Thraetona). The problem though is that none of these figures had any prior encounter, in the Vedic mythology or elsewhere, with An hit . They clearly indicate a deliberate fabrication by the Avestan authors, who, besides glorifying An hit , use the process to further empower Zoroaster. Thus in Yts.5.40-43, Afr siy b (Frangrasy n) begs An hit to enable him to "catch the khvarenah, that is waving in the middle of the sea VouruKasha, that belongs to the Aryan people, born or unborn, and to righteous Zoroaster." The author subtly uses the process to empower Zoroaster through the words of Afr siy b, who avows that the Aryan khvarenah, i.e., the ultimate source of power, belongs to Zoroaster. An hit , of course, refuses his request. Recognition by the powerful enemy of Iranians certainly looks more potent than a 35 By choosing to translate asha as "Orderly" in English, and "Agencement" in French, Skjaervo and Kellens have respectively added unnecessary wrinkles to the comprehension of this word. It's true that asha evokes a correctly organized system, but more than order it insists on the right way of things. And since English offers a great number of derivatives for "right," they can be effectively used to translate asha derivatives. Previous translators, such as Darmesteter, had used them, and with better results. Thus, the last sentence vîspayå ashaonô stôish, which literally means "the entire rightful existence," is better rendered as "all righteousness" in plain English. And the adjectives erezvô ashâum used to qualify Zoroaster are better rendered as "O candid, righteous ...," rather than the literal translation "O Upright , Orderly ..." that Skjaervo provides; Skjaervo 2006, 78. Similarly, the translation "corporeal world" of old seems far more appropriate for the material world that Skjaervo translates as "Bony Existence" because the Avesta literally describes it as a world "with skeleton" (astvaite). THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 19 straightforward proclamation to that effect. Thus, the same technique is used in Yt.19, but slightly differently. In Yt.5, Afr siy b solicits An hit to give him the Aryan khvarenah, but in Yts.19.52-63 he seeks it on his own, plunging three times into the waters, where the Aryan khvarenah had finally landed after Jamshid had lost it. He would then rise up empty-handed from the waters and utter each time that he could not catch "the khvarenah that belongs to the Aryan people, born or unborn, and to righteous Zoroaster." Both yashts empower Zoroaster with the khvarenah, albeit Yt.19 does it more forcefully, as Afr siy b's utterance is repeated three times. Although, it's not clear who copied whom, one can nevertheless recognize that in copying one another, the authors of these two yashts pursued different objectives. In Yt.19, the khvarenah is left underwater to be guarded by Apam Nap t, which implies that he had to release it for Afr siy b to grab it, while in Yt.5, the control of the khvarenah is in the hands of An hit . It reflects the tensions generated by the introduction of An hit as a purveyor of khvarenah, in lieu of Apam Nap t. 2- Offerings – Important offerings clearly elevate the status of the receiving deity. In Yt.5, eighteen of the supplicants offer 100 stallions, 1000 bulls, and 10000 sheep in honor of An hit . These exaggerated numbers may simply reflect a literary formula, but chances are that they were also emulating propagandistic slogans previously formulated by the Achaemenids. Indeed, in his analysis of Herodotus's account of Xerxes sacrificing 1000 bulls to Athena in Priam (Her. VII. 43), Gherardo Gnoli rightly concludes that it must have been based on Persian propaganda targeting the Greeks, since they had previously done the same against Babylonians and Egyptians.36 But, whereas Gnoli supposes that the sacrifice of 1000 bulls to Athena was modelled after the Avestan sacrifice of 1000 bulls to An hit , I believe otherwise: It's the Avestan authors who adapted kingly propaganda to their needs, and not the other way around. From time immemorial, priests had used kingly images, paraphernalia, and protocols, to project majesty for their gods and the prophets. Thus, like the Aryan khvarenah that was appropriated for Zoroaster, royal sacrifice propaganda was also appropriated for An hit . 3- Sharing – Strangely the two previous techniques are also used in the short hymn of a minor goddess Drv sp (Yt.9.1-32), solely composed of episodes in which seven supplicants provide the exact same offerings (100 stallions, 1000 bulls, and 10000 sheep). With the exception of one supplicant, Haoma, the other six are the same as those from Yt.5 (i.e., Haoshyangha, Yima, Thraetaona, Haosrava, Zoroaster, and Visht spa); 36 Gnoli 1998, 63. 20 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival they are all "good" supplicants, and their wishes are thus granted. Their requests, however, are not the same as in Yt.5, but complimentary ones. For instance, whereas in Yt.5 Zoroaster requests An hit to facilitate the conversion of Visht spa to the good religion, Drv sp is asked in Yt.9 to facilitate the conversion of Visht spa's wife, Hutaos ; or, whereas in Yt.5 Yima requests universal kingship and governance abilities, in Yt.9, he makes a compassionate request to do away with old age, atmospheric vagaries, and nourishment desires. Moreover, these same episodes reappear in Yt.17—which is a hymn to the goddess Ashi—but without specifying what was offered. There have been many attempts to explain these redundancies, but none offer a cogent answer.37 Whatever the reason, the net effect of this redundancy is a dilution of powers. If other goddesses can grant requests, as An hit does, the latter's aura will be diminished, but so will be Apam Nap t's. One possible explanation may therefore be that, after an attempt to raise the prestige of An hit , a compromise solution was sought by which other goddesses were added to rein in her powers, and at the same time, diminish Apam Nap t's. As we shall see, this blurring technique is also used in Yt.8 to further dilute Apam Nap t's powers. 4- Diminution – For Apam Nap t to be an acceptable god in the Zoroastrian pantheon, his stature needed to be diminished. Dilution of prerogatives was one way to achieve this; another way was to diminish his stature through loss of popularity. That is what Yt.5.72 is about. It emphasizes a switch of allegiance from Apam Nap t to An hit by prominent community leaders or commanders. Unfortunately, Avestologists' lack of understanding for this has resulted in incomprehensible translations. Skjaervo, for instance, is clearly hesitant about his own proposal, and puts an asterisk next to the translation that he provides for the Avestan word upa: (Skjaervo 2007, I:76) Yt. 5.72: Ashavazdah son of Pourudhakhshti sacrificed to her, and Ashavazdah and Thrita, sons of Sayuzhdri, *approaching (upa) the lofty lord, the one in command, the radiant Scion of the Waters with fleet horses, a hundred stallions, a thousand bulls, ten thousand rams. Skjaervo, who systematically substitutes the literal translation "Scion of the Waters" for Apam Nap t, proposes "approaching" for upa, while Darmesteter chooses "by" from meanings that Avestan dictionaries offer for upa (= upon, onto, near, towards, by, up to): (Darmesteter 1898) 37 Kellens 1996. Yt.5.72: To her did Ashavazdah, the son of Pouru-dhakhshti, and THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 21 Ashavazdah and Thrita, the sons of Sayuzhdri, offer up a sacrifice, with a hundred horses, a thousand oxen, ten thousand lambs, by (upa) Apam Napat, the tall lord, the lord of the females, the bright and swift-horsed. In Skjaervo's translation, three supplicants sacrifice to An hit to get close to Apam Nap t; but in Darmesteter's translation, Apam Nap t becomes a mere helper.38 Neither makes sense. Why should lofty epithets be used for auxiliaries with undefined functions? In reality, upa is used here as "onto," in order to reveal the supplicants' linkage to Apam Nap t. Similar to English, where "being onto something" evokes devotion or full focus, upa describes supplicants who were previously devotees of Apam Nap t, but were now sacrificing to An hit . This stanza should therefore be translated as: (Soudavar) Yt.5.72: Ashavazdah son of Pourudh khshti and Ashavazdah and Thrita, sons of S yuzhdri, who were onto (i.e., worshipped) the blazing lord,39 the shining commander, the swift-horsed Apam Nap t, now sacrificed to her a hundred stallions, a thousand bulls, ten thousand rams The use of lofty titles for Apam Nap t only enhanced the prestige of An hit , because it conveyed the idea that the said supplicants had dropped a mighty god for an even mightier one. Authors and poets often weave older composition into their own, and here, the Avestan author saw no harm in using Apam Nap t's former epithets, but in so doing, he also opened a vista unto how this deity was previously viewed. This defection scenario goes hand in hand with the reduced prayer time allocated to Apam Nap t, since he was to be praised only in the afternoon, and as part of the Uzerin Gah liturgy. It's in contrast to the symmetrical roles envisaged in Yt.13.95 for Mithra and Apam Nap t that pertain to two well-defined symmetrical time spans, which can only relate to a day/night division. In that division, Mithra was the Lord of Daytime and Apam Nap t the Lord of Nighttime.40 Apam Nap t's previous hold on nighttime also transpires here and there in the Avesta, as in Yt.8.4, where Tishtrya (Sirius) is said to have obtained its brilliance from him (see below). As such, prayers for Apam Nap t must have been formerly conducted at nighttime; and their shift to the afternoon must constitute one more I had previously accepted the translation "by" for upa, to deduce that Apam Nap t had become a mere auxiliary to An hit (Soudavar 2014, 223). It must now be corrected even though both translations diminish the stature of Apam Nap t. 39 I explain the translation of berezañtem ahurem as "blazing lord" in sec. I.8. 40 Boyce argues that Apam Nap t was an avatar of Varuna; Boyce 1986. My guess is that Apam Nap t was implanted on Varuna as an import. In either case, his closeness to Varuna provides one more argument for defining nighttime as Apam Nap t's domain, since Varuna was essentially associated with the night, and the Vedic Mitra was associated with the day. 38 22 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival attempt to dissociate Apam Nap t from his nighttime domain. Our analysis of Yts.94-95 (next section) shall further confirm this assessment. I.6 - Purifying the libations Various translations of stanzas 94 and 95 of the b n Yasht clearly demonstrate that philology may not be of much help if the hymn's purpose is not understood. To illustrate this point, these two stanzas are reproduced hereunder, along with three existing translations: Yt.5.94. paiti dim peresat zarathushtrô aredvîm sûrem anâhitãm, aredvî sûre anâhite kem idha tê zaothrå bavaiñti ýase-tava frabareñte drvañtô daêvayasnånghô pasca hû frâshmôdâitîm. Yt.5.95. âat aoxta aredvî sûra anâhita, erezvô ashâum spitama zarathushtra [nivayaka1 ni-pashnaka2 apa-skaraka3 apa-xraosaka4] imå paiti-vîseñte ýå mâvôya pasca vazeñti xshvash-satâish hazangremca ýâ nôit haiti vîseñti daêvanãm haiti ýasna. (Darmesteter 1898) Yt.5.94. 'Then Zarathushtra asked Ardvi Sura Anahita: "O Ardvi Sura Anahita! What becomes of those libations which the wicked worshippers of the Daevas bring unto thee after the sun has set?" Yt.5.95. 'Ardvi Sura Anahita answered: "O pure, holy Spitama Zarathushtra! howling, clapping, hopping, and shouting, six hundred and a thousand Daevas, who ought not to receive that sacrifice, receive those libations that men bring unto me after [the sun has set]." (Skjaervo 2007, I:78) Yt.5.94 . Zarathustra asked her in turn, Ardvi Sura An hit : O Ardvi Sura An hit ! *How do the libations of yours become here, which they offer as yours, the one possessed by the Lies who sacrifice to the old gods, after the sun has set? Yt.5.95. Thus she spoke, Ardvi Sura An hit : O upright, Orderly Spitama [Zarathustra]! as to be ‫ﺳ‬woe‫ﺴ‬d down, to be (ground) under the heels, as to be *laughed back, to be howled back, are they accepted, these (libations) that fly after me by six-hundreds and a thousand, which are not accepted at the sacrifice of the old gods. (Malandra 1983, 127) Yt.5. 94. Zarathushtra asked her, Ardvi Sura An hit : "O Ardvi Sura An hit , now what becomes of the libations to you when the daeva-worshipping drugvants bring them to you after sunset?" Yt.5.95. Then Ardvi Sura An hit said: O upright righteous Spitamid Zarathushtra; the frightful( ?), the ... (?), the slanderous (daeva-worshippers) install themselves by these (libations ). All three translations of stanza 94 agree with one another, except for the "after sunset" time constraint. While Darmesteter and Malandra see it as the time when libations were brought in, Skjaervo correctly perceives it as the time when the old gods, i.e. the daevas, were worshipped.41 As for their translations of the second stanza, they differ widely. In 41 Clearly, the time constraint pasca hû frâshmô-dâitîm (after the sun has set) affects daeva-yasnånghô (those THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 23 Darmesteter's, 1600 of the wicked ones take hold of libations destined for An hit , which projects weakness rather than strength for An hit . In Skjaervo's though, 1600 libations pursue aimlessly An hit in the air; but we are not told why, and for what purpose. As for Malandra, he simply drops the towel and avows incomprehension. Overall, none of them makes sense. The correct understanding of the stanza 94 is crucial for the understanding of stanza 95, because it lays out a problem for which stanza 95 provides a solution. If the problem is not understood, its solution won't be either. In stanza 94, Zarathushtra wants to know what must be done with libations that he characterizes in three ways: (a) they are destined for An hit ,42 (b) they are "brought to use" (frabareñte) by the wicked ones, (c) for daeva-worshipping ceremonies after sunset. Libations were used by the priesthood as means of communication with the gods, generally through two media, water or fire. From the standpoint of Yt.5, An hit is the supreme goddess of the waters, and therefore any libation poured into water was inevitably considered to be hers, even though prepared by others, including daevaworshippers. But no priest was ever able to collect and prepare the libation ingredients by himself; they were generally brought from the four corners of the realm, and then mixed and prepared by the priest. As most of the population, especially the peasantry, had still not converted to Zoroastrianism, these ingredients were mostly gathered by nonbelievers.43 At issue here is the acceptability of water libations prepared with ingredients gathered by unsuitable people, who are characterized as worshipping daevas after sunset. Nighttime being the realm of Apam Nap t, these daeva-worshippers are clearly those who still considered Apam Nap t as the god of nighttime. When a group of people are demonized, they are automatically considered as vile and unclean. They can thus contaminate what they produce, or touch. That's what purity laws are created for: To clean what is contaminated by the unclean. The question here (what to do with water libations supplied by daeva-worshippers?) can have two answers: 1- They must be discarded, 2- They can be used, but must be purified. It's the latter that is advised here, and it's done by structuring the answer into three distinct parts. who worship the daevas) after which it is placed, and not frabareñte (carried through) that appears far behind in the sentence. 42 In this stanza, where Zoroaster is addressing An hit , he qualifies the libations as ýase-tava, meaning "for you" or "to you." 43 If daeva-worshippers would switch allegiance, as the supplicants of Yt.5.72 did, and then prepare ingredients for water libations and deliver them in good faith for a sacrifice to An hit , no such a problem would exist. Obviously, many of them did not convert. 24 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival First, in lieu of zaothra (libation), stanza 95 refers to this liquid matter by using the four processes that its ingredients are put through. They appear as a block—that I have bracketed within the Avestan text—and are described by four verbs: [what is verb1, (what is) verb2, (what is) verb3, (what is) verb4]. These verbs are preceded by the suffixes ni (down, under) or apa (away, apart), and reflect the processes described by Gherardo Gnoli for the preparation of libations: "The offering made to the waters at the conclusion of the Yasna was prepared by blending milk, the leaves of a plant, and the juice squeezed from the stems of a different plant.‫ﺴ‬44 Indeed, to squeeze the juice out of the stems, they need to be trampled, as grapes are in wineries; verb2 (ni-pashna-ka) explains this process as it relates to NP p shna (heel) and what goes under it (because of the suffix ni). Verb4 (apa-khraosa-ka) relates to NP khar s (stone mill), and designates the act of grinding and pulverizing grains or dry leaves.45 Verb3 (apa-skaraka) relates to the root *skard (pierce) and/or NP k rd (knife),46 which, together with the suffix apa, means cutting apart, or simply "chopping." As for the first verb (ni-vayaka), it's not related to MP and NP v y (woe), as Skjaervo has surmised, but to NP v ya (wish, fruit),47 which, because of the suffix ni, seems to convey the idea of picking and bringing down fruits. As such, these four verbs refer to the water-libation ingredients brought forward by supposedly unclean people. In the second part, the required purification is explained by the verb vazeñti, which means air-blowing (NP vazidan). Because the libation ingredients are prepared by devilish people, they must be purified to a high degree; thus 1600 air-blows are advised. The last part then declares that, once purified, they can be used as if not prepared or touched by unclean people. It should thus read: (Soudavar) Yt.5.94. Then Zarathushtra asked Ardvi Sura An hita: "O Ardvi Sura An hita! What shall become of those libations destined for you but brought by the wicked who worship daevas after the sun has set? Yt.5.95. Thus spoke Ardvi Sura An hita: "O candid, righteous Spitama Zarathushtra! [What is picked, trampled, chopped, and ground], it can be brought forth to me after 1600 air-blowing, as if not brought by daeva-worshippers for their sacrificial ceremonies Based on the fact that the unclean people are designated here as those who bring Gnoli 2004, 4535. Cheung also offers the following *xrau : to scratch, to break; Cheung 2007, 447. 46 See Cheung's entry for *kart and*skard (to pierce); Cheung 2007, 243 and 346. 47 Fruit or benefit: ( ‫ﮔ‬ ‫ﺧﺘ ﺧ‬ ‫ ﺟ‬, no benefit/fruit shall come besides self burning); wish: ( ‫ ﻼ‬, The beggars shall have their wishes fulfilled ); reward: ( ‫ٔ ﻋ‬ ‫ ﭼ ﮔ‬, if poets are so rewarded…) 44 45 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 25 water libations after dark, it stands to reason that they are Apam Nap t worshippers, who neither recognize Ahura Mazd as the Creator, nor are prepared to accept An hit as supreme water deity. They are thus considered as the enemies of Zoroastrianism, and labeled as daeva-worshippers. Their sin was to believe in the old un-sanitized version of Apam Nap t, and not the one that was integrated into the Zoroastrian pantheon. I.7 - Agents of fertility A further example of diminishing the stature of Apam Nap t is found in Yt.8.34. It seems to be based on an older ode to Apam Nap t, in which fertility of the land was solely attributed to him. Instead, in Yt.8.34, his role is diluted through the introduction of additional contributors. This purpose being lost on Avestologists, they have tweaked meanings to produce intelligible translations, but fall short nevertheless. By way of example, I produce hereunder the Avestan text with two recent translations, one by P.O. Skjaervo and the other by Almut Hintze: Yt.8.34. [apãm napåse tå âpô] spitama zarathushtra anguhe astvaite shôithrô-baxtå vîbaxshaiti vâtasca ýô darshish awzhdâtemca hvarenô ashaonãmca fravashayô. (Hintze 2009, 140) Yt.8.34. Apam Napat, O Spitama Zarathushtra, distributes to material life these waters assigned to the dwellings; and (so does) the bold Wind, and the Glory deposited in water, and the Choices of the truthful ones.48 (Skjaervo 2007, I:88) Yt.8.34. Those waters, the Scion of the Waters, O Spitama Zarathustra, distributes to the bony existence, distributed by settlements, as (does) the impetuous wind, and the Fortune placed in the water, and the pre-souls of the Orderly ones. In both translations, waters are supposedly distributed; but whereas Hintze deprives the dwellings from their water in order to give it to the material world,49 Skjaervo directly distributes it to a material world that he calls "bony existence," which is allegedly parceled into settlements. Both translations are wrong, because they both suffer from the same syntactic error: The waters (âpô) they supposedly distribute belong to a block of words situated before the addressee, i.e., Zarathustra. That block as a whole (which I've bracketed) is the subject of the verb that comes after Zoroaster (vi-bakhshaiti). One cannot pluck "waters" out of its block, and turn it into the object of a verb located after the addressee. It's as if a Parsi from Mumbai, who had attended Jean Kellens's lecture in Krakow (in 2011), went back home and recounted to his Mowbad: "Kellens who is a 48 49 Hintze, 2009, 129-44. Hintze's interpretation is in tune with Boyce's (Boyce 1986). 26 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival professor at the Collège de France, O Mowbad, said that he doubted Zoroaster ever existed," but in translation, the same sentence was wrongly rendered as "Kellens, O Mowbad, said at the Collège de France that he doubted Zoroaster ever existed." The words preceding "O Mowbad" define the subject of the verb "said," and in translation, one cannot arbitrarily move parts of it to the other side. This error is compounded—and perhaps caused—by the incorrect translation of the verb vi-bakhshaiti as "distributes," which in turn has affected the translation of the adjective bakhta, rendered as "distributed," since Avestologists consider the two words to stem from the same root baksh. But bakhta is akin to NP and MP bakht, meaning fortune or gift. When applied to shoithro (toiled lands),50 it clearly designates fortunate or gifted lands, i.e., potentially fertile lands, even more so since Yt.8.34 follows stanzas that describe the water cycle, from evaporation to cloud formation, and to rains, which come back on earth to irrigate agricultural lands (Yts.8.32-33). And based on NP bakhshesh and baksh yesh, meaning gift and endowment, bakhshaiti should be understood as endowing more fertility to the "gifted lands." As for the suffix vi (apart), it emphasizes that its effect was widespread. This stanza should therefore be translated as: (Soudavar) Yt.8.34. [The "water-child" of those waters], O Spitama Zarathushtra, wholly endows the gifted lands of the corporeal world (with fertility); as does the bold wind, and the khvarenah residing in the water, and the fravashis of the righteous ones I have substituted "water-child" for apãm napåse, because I think it refers to Apam Nap t in a derogatory way, which I shall explain in sec. I.7. But no matter how his name is interpreted, he is presented here as a fertility agent, along with three others. Of the three, there may be some justification for the wind, as the process of growth in plants needs air, i.e., oxygen, even though air always exists, with or without wind. The other two, though, are outright problematic. The khvarenah is a power source that empowers other entities; when lost by Jamshid, it was carried away by the bird vareγna, to be eventually guarded underwater by Apam Nap t. But here, its ties with Apam Nap t are purposefully severed, since the khvarenah is presented as an independent force residing in the waters, and capable of enhancing the fertility of the land. As for the fravashis, I am not sure how they were supposed to intervene, and it is not clear for what reason they were introduced into the Avesta in the first place; perhaps to emulate Xerxes, who according to Herodotus not only sacrificed to Athena in Priam, but also to the fravashis 50 Hintze herself acknowledges shoithro to mean "toiled soil" but then opts for "dwellings" in her translation of Yt.8.34; Hintze 136. THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 27 of Iranian and Greek heroes of the past.51 They were probably seen as one more factor that could loosen the hold of Mithra and Apam Nap t on the people's beliefs. Be that as it may, Yt.8.34 effectively diminishes Apam Nap t's stature by sharing his fertility powers with three other entities, by severing the khvarenah from him, and more importantly, by referring to him as "water-child," which simply sounds derogatory in a culture where old age represents wisdom, and youth is a symbol of foolishness.52 I.8 - The Burning Water The name Apam Nap t has generally been understood as the "Child of the Waters," because the first component clearly relates to NP b (water), and the second has been construed as a word related to naveh (grandchild) in NP, or "nephew" in English.53 It's an interpretation supported by Sasanian iconography, since Apam Nap t is represented in the guise of a flying Eros (i.e., winged child) handing a dast r (victory ribbon) to the king, in the rock reliefs of Sh pur I (r. 242-270).54 But, as a name, "Child of the Waters" hardly suits a powerful god who maintained lofty epithets in the Avesta. Sensing perhaps the inadequacy of such a translation, Skjaervo has used the word "scion" instead of child. The word scion has no equivalent in Persian culture; the closest NP term is nav deh, which designates a progeny with no emphasis on family grandeur as the English term does. Whether "Nap t" is understood as child, scion, or progeny of waters, it still represents a lesser version of a more important entity, i.e., the Waters. It is precisely for this reason that proponents of Sasanian orthodoxy promoted an iconographical composition in which Apam Nap t's subordination to An hit jumped to the eye: He was depicted as a child held by An hit , referred to as the Lady of the Waters (figs. 2, 7, 66). We may therefore assume that the "Child of the Waters" was a derogatory reinterpretation of a more-important-sounding name, which we have to resuscitate. The primary indicator for Apam Nap t's original meaning is provided by its Vedic counterpart, Ap m Nap t, who embodies the fire that burns in the water, a phenomenon that many saw as a paradox.55 And yet, there is no paradox at all because it refers to a Gnoli 1993, 63-64. It's as if one would address him today as b-bacheh (water-child). 53 Boyce 1986. 54 Soudavar 2009, 426-27; Soudavar 2012a, 32-34. 55 Dumézil 1981, 21-23. Jean Kellens further said: "Les deux hymnes védiques qui lui sont consacrés expriment, de toutes les manières possibles, qu‫ﺶ‬il brille et brûle ‫ ﺩ‬sans bois d‫ﺶ‬allumage ‫( ﺪ‬anidhmá-). Désignant le feu qui brûle dans l‫ﺶ‬eau, son nom est à l‫ﺶ‬origine de gr. νάφθα ‫ ﺩ‬naphte ‫ ;"ﺪ‬J. Kellens, 51 52 28 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival natural phenomenon that was perceptible in western Iran where petroleum products—in liquid and gaseous form—emerged from water and burnt in open air. This burning substance was called by a name that has given us naft (petrol, bitumen) in NP, and naphtha in Greek. The phenomenon was understood to portend power in Sasanian Iran, since Ardashir I (r. 224-42) conceived his kingly glory (khavrenah) as the fire emerging from water; and his fire tower in the capital city of Ardashir-khvarrah, as well as the fire altar on his coinage, reflected this concept, because in both, fire sprang out of water and projected Ardashir's control over the khvarenah (MP khvarrah) that resided in the main fire of his realm (see sec. II.1).56 Moreover, in the Avesta, Apam Nap t is qualified by two epithets berezant- and borz, which are wrongly translated as "lofty." The mistranslation of borz was due to the fact that it's usually accompanied by the NP word b l , which can mean "tall silhouette" and may thus infer a meaning of "lofty." But the correct meaning of b l is "high stature", especially since borz and b l are usually complemented by the word chihr.57 Moreover, the mistranslation of chihr as "seed" has added to the confusion. If chihr was correctly understood to be the manifestation of the khvarenah as light, so would have been borz, especially when a person is said to be endowed with the "Kay nian borz and farr."58 Both words (chihr and borz) belong to a cosmogony of light that projected the power of the farr (OP khvarenah). Furthermore, etymologically, borz is connected to a number of words that are all related to fire, burning, or radiance, e.g., NP bereshteh (burnt), MP brēzan (oven), MP br zidan (shine, gleam), Fr. braiser (to braise, to cook), Eng. blaze, Old English blæse (torch). Thus, borz and berezant- describe a blazing substance, i.e., burning naphtha. So important was this light cosmogony that multiple words were used, each describing the intensity and shades of light emanating from a particular source.59 As a result, these words acquired secondary meanings that were specific to the light source. The chihr of a person, for instance, was meant to represent his khvarenah, but it also provided an image—so to speak—of his power; hence chihr got a secondary meaning of "image" in addition to its primary meaning as radiance or brilliance. Similarly, the Collège de France lecture of Dec. 10, 2010. Soudavar 2012b, 58-61; Soudavar 2014, 152-157. 57 B l is adjectivised in NP as v l (of high stature); see also Dehkhoda, "Borz": 56 ‫ﺖ‬ ‫ﺑﺎﻻ ﭼ ﺵ ﮔ‬ ُ‫ ﺑ‬، ‫ﺖ * ﺑ‬ ‫ﺖ‬ ‫ﮔﻔﺘ ﭼ‬ ‫ﺟ‬ Dehkhoda, "Borz" : ‫ﺑ ﺘ ﻣ‬ ‫ﮐﯽ‬ ‫ﺑ‬ * ‫ﭘ ﺘ ﺑ ﻓ ﺑ ﮐﻴﺎﻥ‬ 59 The same cosmogony is used, later on, by Sh hoboddin-e Sohravardi in his Hekmat-ol Eshr q, where one's power is determined by the intensity of rays that illuminate him. 58 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 29 Avestan adjective raevant-, which means glittery, determined the light intensity of jewelry and precious stones;60 hence a secondary meaning as "rich," or "wealthy." It's a plague of Avestan studies that original meanings are often sidestepped in favor of secondary meanings. Thus raevant- is translated as "wealthy" instead of "glittery," and berezant- is described as "lofty" rather than blazing or radiant. A case in point is Skjaervo's translation of Yt.8.4, a stanza that describes the qualities of the star-god Tishtrya: Yt.8.4 tishtrîm stârem raêvañtem, hvarenanguhañtem ýazamaide, afshcithrem sûrem berezañtem, amavañtem dûraêsûkem, berezañtem uparô-kairîm, (Q) ýahmât haca berezât haosravanghem? (A) apãm nafedhrat haca cithrem. (Skjaervo 2007, I:85) Yt.8.4 We sacrifice to the star Tishtriya, wealthy and munificent, containing the seed of water, rich in lifegiving strength, lofty, forceful, whose eyesight reaches into the distance, lofty, whose work is above, the tall one from whom (comes) good fame. From the Scion of the Waters (is its?) seed. Tishtrya is generally recognized to represent the star Sirius, the most luminous fixed star of nighttime.61 As such, its only praise-worthy quality is its luminosity. And yet, so oblivious is Skjaervo to this obvious fact, and so mechanical are his translations, that the adjectives he uses to describe Tishtrya hardly make sense. How can a star be "wealthy" in anything but light? How can a pinpoint-looking star be qualified as "lofty" or "tall"? How can water have a "seed," which is then placed on a star? How can stars have "eyesight"? These incongruent notions stem from a lack of understanding for a cosmogony in which the value of each entity is measured by the light it emits. Thus, a star can be glittery (raevant), like jewelry; it can be afsh-chithra, i.e., scintillate like water drops, because afsh means water drop, and chithra/chihr means brilliance (but not water seeds). As for dûraê-sûkem, it describes how far (NP dur) the light (NP su) of the star can go, rather than how far-sighted a star can be.62 More importantly, the structure of the stanza follows a literary pattern in which qualities are first enumerated, and then punctuated by a Soudavar 2006, 156-57. "Tishtrya" often referred to a tri-star grouping, the Winter Triangle of Canis Major, that appears as an exact equilateral, with Sirius at one of its edges; Soudavar 2014, 47-52. 62 If the word su is also used to describe vision, it's because vision was believed to depend on a light emitted by the eye. Thus, NP kam-su can be equally used to describe low vision, and a low-power lamp; Soudavar 2006, 156. 60 61 30 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival question and answer sequence.63 But Skjaervo's translation, as well as all other translations that I have seen, treat the last two sentences of the stanza as a continuation of previous descriptions, rather than a punctuating device. In (Q), the luminous attributes of Tishtrya are characterized as berezât haosravanghem, which would be described in NP as "Khosrov ni radiance," i.e., kingly radiance; it's a metaphor that is often used in Persian poetry.64 In (A), the same lights are treated as chithra, i.e., as manifestation of the khvarenah. Thus, different terms are used to characterize Tishtrya, but they all describe the star's brilliance and gravitate around the notion that light is a source, or indicator, of power. (Q) asks: Where does this light come from? (A) answers: From apãm nafedhrat. Whereas in the Avesta, grammatical declension hardly affects proper names, in Yt.8.4, "Nap t" is radically transformed into nafedhrat, which is akin to naphtha. It seems to revert back to what Apam Nap t originally meant: A fire in water that the epithets borz and berezant describe as radiant and blazing. The Avestan sentence berezato ahurahe naphedhro apam (Y.1.5) seems to confirm this, since naphedro acts therein as an adjective—placed before apam—to describe an entity qualified as the Blazing Lord (berezato ahura-he) at the beginning of said sentence. Naphedhro apam must therefore convey a similar meaning, that of "burning water" rather than "child of the waters." It explains that Tishtrya's light came in fact from Apam Nap t, i.e., the Lord of the Night. I therefore suggest the following translation: (Soudavar) Yt.8.4. We praise Tishtrya, the bright and glorious star, that scintillates like water-drops, that is powerfully radiant, high-powered and far-lighting, and brilliant up-high. (Q) From whom comes (all) this khosrov ni radiance? (A) From the Burning Water (i.e., Apam Nap t) comes (all) his brilliance. The question then is: How was this deity's name switched from "burning water" to "water-child"? It was done, I believe, through punning, a favourite Iranian device to belittle somebody or something.65 Indeed, the Pahlavi translation of a sentence from Y.2.5 (berezañtem ahurem xshathrîm xshaêtem apãm napâtem), reads borz i khwad y … i roshn i b n n f,66 and provides a clue to this effect. Here, borz (The Blazing) designates The same literary technique is used in Y.19; Soudavar 2014, 343-58. In sec. I.6, Yts.94-95 use a question and answer sequence to emphasize that the daeva-worshippers were unclean. 64 Suzani-ye Samarqandi, for instance, uses the expression ft b-e khosrov n (the kingly sun) to qualify the kingly khvarenah (Soudavar 2003, 15-16). A simple search in Google would show the expression used by the poets Q ni, Bidel-Shir zi, as well as Juzj ni in his Tabaq t-e N seri. 65 See Soudavar 2012b (65), how Darius's epithet chihr- ry was switched to chihr- z d. 66 Panaino 1995, 121. 63 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 31 Apam Nap t, who is also described as khwad y (lord) and roshn (shiny), which are praising terms, and then as b n n f (navel of the waters). The latter, which supposedly translates Apam Nap t's name into Pahlavi, should have had qualities in tune with the other epithets; but a n f (navel) has no radiance, and is hardly appropriate to describe a khwad y or ahura. If the second part of the deity's name was equated with "navel," it's because the two probably sounded the same. His name must have been spelled with an "h," and originally written as Naph t, especially since navel is spelled as n bhi in Sanskrit. The Pahlavi translation should have been b n n pht rather than b n n f. But n f was adopted in order to extrapolate it into a childish figure, such as naveh (grandson).67 As speculative that this proposition might seem, it finds full justification in Sasanian imagery, where artisans make use of tight spaces to convey the maximum amount of information. The judicial positioning of the two-legged ankh symbol as caricature of Apam Nap t on a Sasanian cosmetic box (figs. 9a-b) clearly demonstrates how this deity's name was deformed into a combination that basically meant "navelwater" ( b-n f). In modern parlance, "burning water" would be described as " b-naft." For punning to have occurred in ancient times, I can only suppose that this deity's initial name was "Apam Naph t." The n f and child interpretation eventually prevailed through repetition, and its spelling drifted toward one that would better present him as the Child of Waters, i.e., toward Apam Nap t. As such, his childish aspect was reemphasized in Yt.8.34, where he is referred to as "the water-child of those waters." It was an ingenious scheme to tarnish the blazing glory of the Median creator god Apam Naph t (?), who threatened the supremacy of Ahura Mazd . The sanitized Apam Nap t could afterward safely appear in liturgies where water was invoked, with an added reminder, however, that all waters were "created by Mazd " (Y.1.4, Y.2.5, and Y.4.10).68 I.9 - Unification through amalgamation As already stated, the substitution of An hit for Apam Nap t must have been initially met with strong resistance, to the extent that Zoroastrian priests had to readopt Apam Nap t, albeit in a subdued and sanitized version. Thus two gods of the waters came to In Latin, nepōs can equally mean nephew or descendant; the n f/navel can thus stand as the hub of family connectivity. 68 In consideration of Apam Nap t's "borz/blazing" epithet, the idea that his Chamrosh bird was perhaps a firebird needs further investigation (Soudavar 2014, 218-21), especially since this bird seems to have been appropriated for An hit and H riti (see figs. 63, 64), and that in fig. 7, Apam Nap t is riding an aquatic bird, i.e., a duck. 67 32 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival exist side by side, which was confusing to the Zoroastrian flock. To alleviate the problem, the two were amalgamated into one, or more precisely into a family of mother and son named b n (Waters). Thus, Yasht 5, which was originally composed in praise of An hit , became known as b n Yasht, and where the Bondahesh describes the flowers that symbolized each deity, it allocates the lotus to b n, rather than to An hit or Apam Nap t, since, in reality, lotus represented both of them.69 Amalgamation smoothened contradictions. By the same token, I believe that the term ahura-tkaêshô (Ahuric Religion) inserted in the proclamation of orthodoxy, referred to an expanded Mazdaism that amalgamated together three ahuras, i.e., Ahura Mazd , as well as Mithra and Apam Nap t (both qualified as ahura in the Avesta). Thus, ahura-tkaêshô could not mean "follower of Ahura Mazd " alone; and if included in the proclamation of orthodoxy, it was to insure that the believers accepted the sanitized versions of Mithra and Apam Nap t, i.e., those who were given the same ahura epithet as Mazd , but were stripped of many of their prerogatives. It created an ingenious compromise. New adherents, who had to worship Mazd , were comforted by the fact that Mithra and Apam Nap t formed an ahura triad with Ahura Mazd , over and above all other deities. The "Ahuric Religion" thus represents the compromise that was necessary to bring in those who worshipped the Median deity pair. The ones branded as daeva-worshippers were those who did not accept the sanitization of these deities, and continued to worship the Apam Naph t of old in lieu of the sanitized Apam Nap t. The daeva par excellence was thus Apam Naph t, the Burning Water who gave life, and was perceived as the main competitor to Ahura Mazd . 69 Pakzad 2005, 219; Soudavar 2014, 157 and 201. PART II The Iconographic Evidence Fig. 7 - Apam Nap t, as Child of Waters, riding a duck and holding a cattail reed (Lat. typha) under the supervision of An hit as Lady of the Waters THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 35 In what follows, we shall explore the visual evidence that complements the textual one we analyzed in the previous sections. II.1 - From "Burning Water" to "Navel-Water" Two iconographical indices crystallize the corruption process of "Apam Nap t's" name, from fire-related water to a navel-associated one. The first is a Median or early Achaemenid seal that shows two Iranian priests next to a fire altar, on top of which is a water-wave symbol (fig. 8). As a universally recognized emblem of water, this wavy graffiti was placed above fire to reflect the initial status of Apam Nap t as the water that harbored fire, and was thus named "Burning Water." Fig. 8 - Fire altar and Apam Nap t's wave symbol (Curtis & Simpson 2010, 389) Figs. 9 a, b – Sasanian cosmetic box (in silver) Christie's New York, Antiquities sale of Dec. 6, 2001, lot 732. The water wave was by no means the only symbol of Apam Nap t. By the time he was officially recognized as "Child of the Waters," a double-legged ankh symbol was adopted to invoke this deity. From coinage to rock reliefs, the double-legged ankh sign was clearly used as an auspicious symbol of authority.70 By contrast, its quadruple presence on a Sasanian cosmetic box that recently appeared on the art market can in no way be connected to kingship or authority, especially since all four emblems are tightly squeezed into the bellies of four quadrupeds (figs. 9a, b). Atop this box are four heartshaped receptacles, with an image-label next to each designating the substance that went in them; an unlabelled round hole was placed in the middle for mixing the ingredients of 70 Soudavar 2009, 426-27. 36 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL the adjacent receptacles. Four animals appear in these image labels: A horse, a cow, a camel and a fourth quadruped that seems to be a musk deer. Their ankh sign, though, had a purely utilitarian function; it was supposed to make them more meaningful. Indeed, musk is a substance that is extracted from a gland under the belly of the musk deer, and in Iranian parlance it is referred to as n feh, or b-n f (the navel-water) of the musk deer. We can then surmise that the tight fitting of this ankh sign under the belly of the quadrupeds was to describe each of these labels as underbelly or navel secretion. For the cosmetic-box designer, the name of Apam Nap t did not signify child, nephew, or son of the Waters, nor did it mean from the "family of the Waters." He took the name of this deity at face value, and reduced it to its bare etymological meaning, "navel-water." Clearly such a name did not befit an important deity, one who, as we argued in sec. I.8, had epithets such as borz (blazing) or ahura (lord). If he was called by this name, it was through punning; one that was meant to diminish him and not glorify him. Figs. 10 a, b, c – a) Plan of Ardashir-khvarrah; (b) Fire tower built at the center of star-shaped water drainage system; c) inside stairs (Courtesy of D. Huff) Fig. 11 - Moveable fire altar hanging above two water fountains. Coin of Ardashir I. Private coll. But no matter how much Apam Nap t was maligned, the idea of fire emerging from fire remained a potent metaphor for the projection of khvarenah, to the extent that the Sasanian Ardashir I built his very capital city of Ardashir-khvarrah around this concept (figs. 10 a, b, c). The fire tower that he built in the middle of a star-shaped water drainage system evoked this concept on a monumental scale, and the fire altar that he put over two water fountains on the reverse of his coinage did the same on a minute scale and (fig. 11). What's more, the coin design replicated what was on top of the fire tower, where, according to the F rsn meh of Ebn-e Balkhi, fire came out of two water fountains.71 The 71 See Soudavar 2012b, 60 n.69, for the explanation on Ebn-e Balkhi's entry (Ebn-e Balkhi 1968, 138). THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 37 "Burning Water" concept still evoked the rise of the khvarenah, even if no longer associated with Apam Nap t's name. II.2 - Agent of fertility and life As the Lord of the Night, the guardian of the khvarenah in its dormant underwater stage, and the deity who was once thought to give life and shape it, Apam Nap t was a multi-facetted deity for whom various specific symbols had been devised. We already saw two of them, the pre-Achaemenid water wave and the Sasanian double-legged ankh sign. A more popular symbol was the pearl, conceived as the luminous and perfectly round-shaped receptacle of the khvarenah in its underwater stage (see fig. 56). It clearly evoked Apam Nap t as the guardian of the khvarenah, in its underwater stage. The most complete representations of the khvarenah cycle are found in the brick walls of Susa and the bas reliefs of Persepolis, where the underwater receptacle of the khvarenah is precisely depicted as a pearl: To project it as a spherical object, it appears as a multicolor sequence of concentric circles, whether carried by the bird vareγna, engulfed in whirling waters, or sitting under stacked lotuses.72 To my knowledge, this concentric symbol first appears on a late 8th-century Urartu basalt slab,73 and subsequently, in the now-dispersed 7th-century glazed bricks from the temple/castle of Buk n (fig. 11). Fig. 11 - Pearl roundels on Buk n bricks. Private coll. Geneva Fig. 12 - Vegetation stemming from pearl roundel. Buk n brick. Private coll. Geneva Fig. 13 – Pine corn, lotus and sunflower assembly. Assyrian slab, British Museum An ovoid silver jar that appeared in a recent sale sheds more light on the subject (fig. 15). It is made of almost pure silver (%97-99) and bears an Elamite inscription, 72 73 Soudavar 2012b, 47-48; Soudavar 2014, 202-203. The slab is from Toprak-kale; British Museum ME 121137. 38 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL undeciphered as yet. Like objects from the Kalm kareh horde, it was probably made from the silver that the Medes and their allies looted from Nineveh.74 Stylistically and conceptually, it is close to the Buk n bricks, which often echo Assyrian designs. Indeed, the brick of fig. 12 faithfully replicates an Assyrian slab motif (fig. 13), except for its central element where it has a pearl roundel instead of a sunflower. Whereas the Assyrian design was a pure assembly of vegetal symbols, the Buk n brick projects that vegetation stemmed out of the pearl, the very symbol of khvarenah. Fig. 14 - Assyrian stone slab with "tree of life". British Museum Fig. 15 – Silver jar with "tree of life" and cypress cones, between pearls and sun symbols. Iran, circa 600 BC.75 Private coll. Fig. 16 – Neo-Elamite silver beaker with spiral ribs adorned with wave and sun motifs. Iran, circa 600 BC. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington DC. The same principle is applied to the design of the ovoid jar, as it has budding cypress cones, alternating with "tree of life" motifs, placed above pearl roundels (fig. 15). Both motifs are Assyrian fertility emblems, since their deities symbolically sowed cypress cones to obtain vegetation represented by a "tree of life" (fig. 14).76 The jar design thus projects that vegetation stemmed out of the pearl that Apam Nap t guarded underwater. It's the visual confirmation of Yt.19.52 (which divulged that Apam Nap t was the deity who gave life) and of Yt.8.34 (which acknowledged Apam Nap t's role in providing fertility to the land). It ties in well with a description provided by the Bondahesh that the "khvarenah of Fereydun sat at the bottom of the reed,77 especially since the reed is often Soudavar 2014, 229-30. Sale Pierre-Bergé on Nov. 26, 2013, lot 185. 76 For the "tree of life" see Parpola 1993, 161-64. For a study of its iconography, see Kepinski 1982. 77 Pakzad 2005, 399. See also Soudavar 2014, 232-33, where I argue that this Bondahesh statement reflects the pearl roundels placed under a bundle of reeds on the Egyptian-like crown of Mithra in Pasargadae. 74 75 THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 39 associated with Apam Nap t (see sec. II.10). Moreover, above the trees and cypress cones appears a band of gold-plated semi-circular solar emblems. If water brought life to vegetation, solar light nurtured its growth. The former was associated with Apam Nap t, and the latter with Mithra. It's a pairing that is duplicated on a neo-Elamite silver beaker, where semi-circular emblems of the sun are juxtaposed with wave symbols of the waters (fig. 16). They are both reminders of how closely Mithra and Apam Nap t were associated, and how difficult was the task of dissociating one from the other. As the pairing of these two deities finds its ultimate expression in the Islamic mihr b, which clearly reflects the name of these two deities (see sec. II.8), we shall henceforth use the name mehr- b to designate the iconographical pairing of the theses deities' symbols. II.3 - Bisotun's imbedded attack on Median ideology With this Median perspective in mind, Darius's seemingly lone attack on Mithra in Bisotun, where he tried to empower Ahura Mazd with Mithra's solar attributes (fig. 4), did not make sense: How could he disenfranchise Mithra without doing the same to Apam Nap t? And more importantly, why would he place such an important political statement up high, instead of opposite the existing water pond, where rock reliefs were traditionally situated, and were his message would have been more visible? Fortunately, a recent study of Bisotun by Wouter Henkelman provides an answer to both of these questions.78 While examining Bisotun, Henkelman had noticed two openings—right below the frame of the rock relief and centered around its median line—from which water gushed out after heavy rains on the nearby mountain (fig. 17). The flow of water from these orifices had produced substantial erosion below, and in reading the inscriptions that surrounded the eroded areas, Henkelman expected much of the text to have been washed out. To his surprise though, the text was almost complete; which implied that water was pouring out from the mountain face in the very days Bisotun was being carved. In addition, Henkelman, who witnessed the water-activity of these orifices after a rainfall, had found the scene to be spectacularly powerful. Presumably, the underground waters were not depleted in Darius's time, and there was a continuous surge of water below the rock relief. We can then understand Darius's reasons for situating the carvings so high up. Not only the spectacular roaring waters attracted attention, but the scenery allowed him 78 I am indebted to Wouter Henkelman for allowing me to use the result of his discoveries as explained during a conference at Asia House, London (From Persepolis to Isfahan: Safeguarding Cultural Heritage Jan 16-17, 2015). 40 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL to claim that Ahura Mazd —to whom he was attributing all his victories—controlled both the sun (because of the solar emblem placed on Ahura Mazd 's hat) and the waters over which stood Darius as his deputy on earth. It was a visual attack on the duality of the mehr- b, which implied a world presided by two deities rather than one. Fig. 17 – Bisotun rock relief, with waterfall imprints (↑) under Darius and Ahura Mazd , in between inscriptions. Bisotun We thus see that the attack on the Median deity pair had been mounted early on by Darius, who wished to discredit both of them by transferring their prerogatives to Ahura Mazd . He also tried to eradicate the day/night division of the world, which provided each of these gods a separate domain to rule upon. In other words, the Avestan priests, who sought to discredit the Median deities, were only following in the footsteps of Darius. They strove to systematically cleanse and doctor every existing stanza, like Yt.8.34 that reflected Apam Nap t's role in land fertility. It was a notion embedded in hymns, but also in imagery, which was more accessible to the general population. The Avestan priests had thus a tall task ahead, as they had to fight on multiple fronts. Rather than banning all existing hymns, and destroying a multitude of related imagery, they judiciously chose to distort the image of old gods and diminish their stature. In last resort, they only demonized those who challenged the supremacy of Ahura Mazd . Judging by THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 41 the results, they were quite successful at it. They not only discredited Apam Nap t, and the Median dualistic ideology, but were able to achieve a strong hold on kingship, and politics in general, by defining what was demoniac and what was not. II.4 - The Hellenistic resurrection of the mehr-āb iconography Despite the Achaemenid attempt to break up the strong pairing of Mithra with Apam Nap t, these two deities remained popular among the population at large and on the peripheries. The Hellenistic period provided new means for the mehr- b pair to reemerge, especially in Anatolia, where the pairing of a day god with a night god had been a staple feature of its mithraea (fig. 35a). A couple of Anatolian pendant earrings are quite revealing in this respect. In the first (fig. 18), a winged Eros, is hanging below a rosette. The rosette is, of course, the quintessential solar symbol, and to emphasize that the Eros was meant to represent Apam Nap t, he is riding a dolphin. It reflects the salient aspects of Apam Nap t, i.e., a "childish" and aquatic deity as on the Sasanian bottle of fig. 7, where he is riding a duck and holds a cattail reed. A second earring (fig. 19) similarly conveys the mehr- b symbolism. From its rosette hangs an Eros with two features that are unequivocally associated with the Iranian iconography of Apam Nap t: Fig. 18 – Apam Nap t riding a dolphin, attached to sun symbol. Hellenistic gold earring79 79 Fig. 19 – Apam Nap t holding a dast r, shell symbol attached to sun symbol. 3rd-cent. BC. Hellenistic gold earring80 Fig, 20 – Aphrodite with a cape inspired from the shell of Apam Nap t. 3rd-cent. BC, gold earring (Martinez et al. 2015, 278) Sale of Pierre Bergé (Paris), May 30th, 2015, lot 176. The same combination, i.e., Apam Nap t riding a 42 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL Firstly, he holds a dast r (ribbon) in his hands, the same that Apam Nap t delivers to Sh pur I (r. 240-70) as symbol of victory (fig. 21), or to another king on a Sasanian silver plate (fig. 23). It also appears in the hands of a flying Apam Nap t over the cows of the Moon chariot on the Mithraic stele of San Stefano Rotondo (fig. 25). It's clearly an Iranian implant on the Roman Mithraic scene, as its appearance therein has no Roman justification, but refers to Apam Nap t's guidance of the Moon chariot, as Lord of the Night. It reflects a similar idea expressed on Sasanian silver plates, such as the one in fig. 20, in which Apam Nap t is shown harnessing and guiding the Moon's chariot. Fig. 21 – Apam Nap t handing a dast r to Sh pur I. Bisotun Fig. 24 – Apam Nap t encircled by a solar petal ring (Martinez et al. 2015, 208) Fig. 22 - Apam Nap t guiding the Moon's chariot. Sasanian silver plate Fig. 23 – Apam Nap t handing a dast r with three pearls symbol of Tishtrya. Islamic Museum. Berlin. Fig. 25 – Mithraic stele with Apam Nap t guiding the Moon chariot. San Stefano Rotondo Secondly, and more importantly, the Apam Nap t of fig. 18 is set against a backdrop 80 dolphin, was used in Hellenistic Bactria; see Soudavar 2009, 426, 459. The item was sold by Artcurial (Paris) on Aug., 7th 2015, lot 30. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 43 that is a shell, and not a piece of clothing. Indeed, if it were a cape, a robe, or a skirt, it would have been attached at some point to the body of the winged child, but it's not. Like the dolphin of the previous earring, the shell was a further pointer to the Apam Nap t identity of the Eros-looking entity: The shell was the logical symbol for the role of this deity as underwater guardian of the khvarenah conceived as a pearl. And, as we shall see, the shell is a pivotal element for the transmission of the mehr- b duality, all the way to the Islamic mihr b. Two items from a Thracian treasure recently exhibited at the Louvre further confirm our interpretation. One is a medallion (fig. 24) that clearly reflects the mehr- b duality, as it displays the child-like Apam Nap t with a long dast r over his shoulders, encircled by a radiating band of lotus petals. The other is an earring imitation of fig. 19, but adapted to the Thracian world (fig. 20).81 The male Eros is transformed into a female deity, a winged Aphrodite (Venus), holding a cornucopia in her right hand and a patera in her left. The below-the-waste backdrop is now conceived as a cape, and the separate rosette has been transformed into a voluminous headgear. None of them makes much sense, especially a cape for a naked female body. The overall design of the previous earrings was solely copied for aesthetic reasons, with a loss of meaning for its mehr- b elements. II.5 - The Mithraic conduit Like the solar disk that symbolized Mithra, the shell symbolized Apam Nap t, and became a prized emblem. A Byzantine ivory plaque of the consul Anastasius Flavius shows how the shell, by its position behind the head of the consul, projected the same auspiciousness and power that the solar disk did (fig. 26). It parallels the eastward migration of the mehr- b symbolism, where another symbol of Apam Nap t, namely the lotus flower, was used to create a solar disk behind the Buddha's head (fig. 27). The conduits for the westward propagation of all these symbols were primarily the Mithraic Societies and their avatars, which disseminated the spirit of brotherhood throughout the Roman Empire, especially among its legionnaires.82 Eventually, the shell was adopted as chivalry symbol, whether for the French Order of St Michael or the Order of Santiago of Spain (fig. 28). But it was also espoused by the brotherhoods of vagabonds and thieves, such as the Coquillards who roamed European territories in medieval times and had St James of Compostela as their patron saint (fig. 81 82 A similar earring is at Istanbul's Archaeological Museum. For another radiating petal ring see fig. 78. Soudavar 2014. 44 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL 29).83 Chivalry orders and brotherhood gangs had much in common with Mithraic Societies, in their hierarchical structure as well as for their initiation procedures and symbols. Fig. 26 – Byzantine ivory plaque of Anastasius Flavius with shell nimbus. 517 AD Victoria & Albert Museum Fig. 27 – Buddha with a lotus nimbus. 6th century China, Eastern Wei. EMS collections. Fig. 28 – Shell sign and cross on the sepulture of a knight of Santiago. c. 1500 Victoria & Albert Museum Fig. 29 - Coquillard with `ayy r-like sheepskin, pouch, gourde and knife (Mediavilla 2006, 23) II.6 - Yt.8.4 and the pairing of two celestial symbols Luminous celestial bodies had chithra (brightness) and conveyed the khvarenah. For the Sasanians who advertised the chihr az yazat n slogan on their coinage it behooved to depict as many celestial elements as possible. For small surfaces, small symbols were needed. Thus, numerous small symbols were devised and incorporated into coinage, all reflecting Avestan descriptions. First and foremost was the two-legged ankh (see figs. 30-31) as a caricature rendering of the name Apam Nap t, understood as "Child of the Waters." Next was the cow sign (fig. 31) reflecting the moon's Avestan epithet of gaochithra (milk-bright). Not only this symbol was a caricature of the cow but it also incorporated the three stages of the moon, from crescent to full circle to a simple trait (as symbol of nothingness).84 A third symbol, that of three dots (fig. 30), reflected the afshchithra epithet of Tishtrya in particular, and stars in general, as "scintillating like rain drops." Each dot represented a rain drop, and the triple dot referred to Tishtrya whose name evoked a tri-star grouping from the constellation of Canis Major, known as the 83 84 Soudavar 2014, 28 and 293. Soudavar 2009, 427-28. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 45 Winter Triangle and shaped as an exact equilateral triangle. Hence, Tishtrya's three dots regrouped into a similar triangular configuration.85 As Lord of the Night, Apam Nap t's symbol often accompanied the other two nightly symbols on Sasanian coinage (figs. 30-31). It's pairing with Tishtrya's symbol evoked the last stanza of Yt.8.4, where Tishtrya is said to have obtained all of its brightness from Apam Nap t (see sec. I.8). As such, the coupling of these two created an auspicious celestial dual symbol that widely travelled East and West, especially among brotherhoods and avatars of Mithraic societies. Not only Tamerlane incorporated them onto his seal,86 but the Ottomans, whom he had defeated and humiliated, adopted the pair as the underlying emblem of their imperial power (fig. 33). They also appear in Dura Europos, on the walls of a hall that I have argued to be a mithraeum and not a synagogue (fig. 32). And as an ultimate exercise in loading images with double and triple meanings, the dast r that Apam Nap t holds in his hands (NP dast), on a Sasanian silver plate (fig. 21), undulates like a wave and has a three-pearl pendant symbol of Tishtrya. Fig. 30 - Symbols of Apam Nap t and Tishtrya on coin of Bahr m II Fig. 31 - Symbols of Apam Nap t and the moon on coin of Bahr m II Fig. 33 – Triple dot paired up with water wave symbol on Ottoman velvet. Metropolitan Museum 85 86 Soudavar 2014, 47-51. Soudavar 2014, 52. Fig. 32 – Triple dot and water symbols on framing bands of Dura Europos hall Fig. 34 – Light rays emanating from a triangle symbol over water wave. Window bay decoration, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna. 46 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL Most interestingly, the three-dot symbol and the wave appear in tandem at the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna (fig. 34). This basilica was mainly built under the Ostrogoths who had come from the Eastern parts of the Roman Empire, and favored Arianism. As such, the mosaics of the doorways and window openings of the basilica (including figs. 34, 41) belong to the Ostrogothic period, and not to the decoration later added by Justinian (r. 527-65). They reflect eastern concepts and have two characteristics that strengthen our suggestions: A) their wave lines are filled in their convex parts with water, stressing their aquatic nature, B) from a triangular symbol on the crest of the wave lines, emanates three light rays that, to me, can only represent the light projected by Tishtrya. It once again emphasizes that the light of Tishtrya's tri-star grouping emanated from Apam Nap t. II.7 - Ravenna and the blend of Mithraic and Christian emblems As I have argued elsewhere, the initial iconographical vocabulary of Christianity owed much to that of Mithraic societies, to the extent that the Sun and Moon symbols of the mithraeum were often transposed as personified gods above the Virgin Mary (figs. 35 a, b). Similarly, the sun cross was integrated into Christianity as the Greek cross, but maintained its solar attribute all along, especially when incorporated into the sun disk behind Jesus's head (fig. 37). Figs. 35 a, b – Personified Sun and Moon on top corners of: a) Roman bronze Mithraic plaque, b) Ivory Byzantine plaque. Metropolitan Museum of Art Figs. 36 a, b - Mosaics from San Appolinare Nuovo, Ravenna: a) symmetrical sun cross before Balthazar's name, b) crucifix symbol before St Euphemia's name In Ravenna, at the Basilica of San Appolinare Nuovo, we can see how the sun cross evolved into the crucifix cross. On one side, the older mosaics of the Ariani period display the three magi in red Mithraic bonnets and garments approaching the infant Jesus with their names preceded by a symmetrical sun cross (fig. 36a). Those sun crosses were clearly there to designate them as Mithraic or Sun priests. On the opposite side, however, 45 THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY where new mosaics were added, the names of the saintly figures are preceded by a Greek cross with one leg elongated toward the ground (fig. 36b). If the crucifix was meant, these crosses would have not had an end part on each limb. On the other hand, the end parts of the totally symmetrical sun cross were to recall the roundness of the sun in this caricature emblem. It clearly mimics the sun symbol behind Fig. 37 – Sun cross in Jesus's head (fig. 37). These end parts also explain the sun cross's sun disk. Aya Sofia original Persian name as ch r-p (the four-legged), written as clyp` in MP, and rendered as salib in Arabic for lack of the sounds "ch" and "p" in that language, which was then extended to the crucifix.87 Fig. 38 – Sun cross over shell, from the Coptic monastery of Baouit. Louvre Fig. 39 – Sun symbol over shell from the Coptic church of El-Tod, Egypt. Louvre Fig. 41 – Sun cross above shell design, and water wave on column head. Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna Fig. 40 – Chi-Rho under shell. Byzantine. Metropolitan Mus. Fig. 42 – Crucifix under shell, on a 5th century sarcophagus. Galla Placidia mausoleum, Ravenna Back to the Basilica of San Vitale, we can see a further mehr- b-like combination consisting of a shell and a sun cross above an archway (fig. 41). It's a combination that replicates itself across the Christian world, with the shell maintaining a constant 87 For further discussions on the origins of the sun cross see Soudavar 2014, 79-81. 48 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL presence, while its solar component alternates between sun cross (fig. 38) and rosette (fig. 39), to finally be transformed into the Chi-Rho and the crucifix (figs. 40, 42). What's more, the San Vitale shell-cross composition is above columns decorated with the wave and tri-star pattern. While the latter reflects the last stanza of Yt.8.4, the former was based on the mehr- b tandem that was repudiated by orthodox Zoroastrianism. II.8 - The mehr-āb niche: From Jerash to Medina To my knowledge, the earliest appearance of the shell niche in the Mediterranean regions is in the 2nd-century Roman ruins of Jerash in Jordan. It is conceived therein in two ways. In one, the shell is incorporated into a monumental gateway over a window opening high above ground (fig. 43b); and in the other, we have a shell niche that harbored a lamp or candelabra (fig. 43a). The latter is used again in the Omayyad mosque of Amman, where shell niches appear along the walls of its outdoor perimeter (fig. 44). Fig. 43 a, b – Roman shell niches from Jarash, Jordan: a) candelabra niche, b) window niche in a gateway Fig. 44 – Shell niches for candelabras, on walls of `Ommayad mosque, Amman In all of these, we have a shell in tandem with a light emblem, i.e., the basic mehr- b symbolism. What ultimately provides a proof for their Iranian origin is the mihr b name that is applied to the shell niche in the Islamic context. Indeed, the first known mihr b is the one reportedly built by Walid I (r. 705-715) into the Medina Mosque,88 which was replicated half a century later in Bagdad at the al-Mansur Mosque. The latter still exists 88 Porter 2007, 555-56. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 49 and clearly displays a lamp hanging under a shell niche (fig. 45). More importantly, as Melikian-Chirvani has demonstrated, the Arabic word mihr b is an Iranian loanword that designated the focal point of an edifice or its most important spot.89 Because of its dual symbolism and its etymology, the Islamic mihr b clearly ties the preceding string of shell niches to the mehr- b imagery that once flourished in the Iranian world, was banned by the Achaemenids and Zoroastrianism, but survived in underground Mithraic societies as they moved westward. It is a testimony to the cohesive strength of the Mithra and Apam Nap t tandem and its positive reception in other domains and cultures. Fig. 45 – Shell-lamp mihr b of al-Mansur mosque, Baghdad (web image) Fig. 46 – Shell motif, lamp, and muqarnas on stone mihr b. Ince Minar Madrasa, Konya Fig. 47 – Sasanian shellshaped drinking vessel. EMS collections Fig. 48 – Shell on road St James Compostela (web image) In the Iranian world, however, the long-standing animosity toward Apam Nap t had probably left a negative view toward his symbols; and there seems to have been a concerted effort to do away with the shell as an architectural element, 90 and replace it with a geometrical pattern of stalactite-like elements that came to be known as the muqarnas. A geometrical succession of small niches was thus substituted for the shellniche design. But once again, it's through the peripheries that we have proof of this transition process. The portal of the 13th-century Palestinian Red Mosque in Safad (fig. 50) clearly shows how the shell niche was expanded into the muqarnas, with a shell at its apex expanding into a stalactite structure. And a mihr b from Konya (fig. 46) maintains a 89 90 Melikian-Chirvani 1990, 109-112; Soudavar 2014, 293-98. Only two shell niches from antiquity are known to have survived. A Parthian one at the Persepolis museum and another one from Bish pur; Soudavar 2014, 297. 50 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL hanging lamp below a muqarnas structure that in each of its small niches has a stylized shell, echoing the shell niche. That stylized shell motif is a cross between the tree of life on the ovoid jar of fig. 15, the Sasanian shell-shaped drinking vessels (fig. 47), and the stylized shell sign of the Coquillards and St James of Compostela (fig. 48). Fig. 49 – Sun disk on shell. Al-Aqmar mosque's portal. Cairo (web image) Fig. 50 – Shell motif above muqarnas of Red Mosque's portal. (web image) Fig. 51 – Shell squinces under the dome of the Kairouan mosque. Tunisia But as we reach Egypt, where Iranian influence must have been negligible, we encounter the old shell-niche design in full force at the Al-Aqmar mosque of Cairo (fig. 49), where its portal maintains the niche design from the Coptic edifice of El-Tod (fig. 39). And further west, the dome of the Kairouan mosque in Tunisia, clearly displays the use of the shell motif for its corner squinches (fig. 51). II.9 - The mehr-āb lion: From Esfahān to the Alhambra Discussing appellations acquired through functionality, Pavel Lurje has convincingly argued that the NP word shir, as referring to taps and faucets, stemmed from the multitude of water fountains in which water came out of a lion's mouth.91 This, however, raises a new question: What made this model of fountain so attractive that it was replicated from Esfah n to the Alhambra (fig. 52)? And although Lurje mostly focused on European lion fountains, it's hardly imaginable that a Western model was used at the Safavid palace of Chehel Sotun (fig. 53), when its lions are so distinctly stylized in the Iranian fashion.92 It's also highly improbable that Iranians had no word of their own for water fountains, and had to await a European import to call their fountains shir. Like in 91 92 Collège de France lecture of March 15, 2015: Selected Sogdian Words and Realia behind Them For stylized Iranian lion stone sculptures see, for instance, Khosronejad 2011, 2-5-206. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 51 the case of the mehr- b niche, the Iranian origin of the widely propagated lion fountain is supported by its Persian name, as well as its inherent dual symbolism, the lion referring to Mithra and the water to Apam Nap t. Moreover, the lion often appears in other mehr- b combinations, at odds with Zoroastrian orthodoxy. For instance, the Sasanian seal of fig. 54 has a lion, symbol of Mithra, and a scorpion, which orthodox Zoroastrianism abhorred for being a night animal and a symbol of Apam Nap t. What's more, the surrounding inscription abest n o yazat n (support from gods) is a wish formula that supposedly invokes the yazat n, i.e., gods in general. But in conjunction with the animals on the seal, yazat n clearly refers to the Mithra-Apam Nap t tandem of old, and shows why "yazat n" was a ruse to invoke this tandem in a camouflaged way. On another seal (fig. 55), a sun cross and a scorpion are squeezed into a monogram that should be read as NWRA ZY (fire/light of).93 The combined elements are therefore evoking the chihr (light) associated with another mehrb symbolism. Fig. 52 – Alhambra water fountains Granada. Spain Fig. 53 – Water fountain at Chehel-sotun. Esfah n (Gyselen1993, 30.E.6) (Bivar 1969, pl.28, NG9) Fig. 54 – Seal with symbol Fig. 55 – Seal with sun-cross and scorpion We thus have a good indicator as to what yazat n meant in the Sasanian slogan ki chihr az yazat n. By claiming that their chihr (as manifestation of the khvarenah) came from the yazat n, they had a formula that could be interpreted in many ways. The general population, still associating the khvarenah with Mithra and Apam Nap t, naturally understood it as emanating from those two deities. As to the orthodox Zoroastrian clergy, they could find no fault in it, since, technically, yazat n could also refer to the more acceptable gods such as Ahura Mazd and An hit . The use of the plural yazat n became 93 I had previously suggested by mistake that this monogram was duplicating, as a mirror image, the word afzun; Soudavar 2003, 29. I suggested a new reading of this monogram (for another seal) in Soudavar 2014, 165, fig.188. 52 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL so banal that it was used as a singular, and passed into NP as one of the names of Allah.94 II.10 - Apam Napāt and the reed The aforementioned Bondahesh statement depicting the khvarenah as lying under a reed makes a conduit out of the reed (fig. 57),95 which like stacked lotuses, brings the dormant khvarenah out of the waters. It's a concept that is succinctly depicted on Achaemenid glazed bricks (fig. 56), even though no extant text fully describes the khvarenah cycle, since it was so closely associated with Median deities. Fig. 56 – The khvarenah cycle, rising through stacked lotuses from the underwater stage (as pearl). Persepolis Fig. 57 – Cattail reeds emerging from water. Detail of a Sh hn meh illustratiion (Soudavar 1992, 168) The reed is thus directly associated with Apam Nap t, as it's both an aquatic plant and related to the khvarenah. No wonder then that on three Sasanian silver bottles, depicting Apam Nap t as the "child" of An hit , he is holding a reed in his hand. In fig. 58, Apam Nap t is riding a duck and holding a cattail reed (Lat. typha) in his hand, and on another (fig. 59), he holds a straight reed. The most interesting specimen though is the one in which Apam Nap t is holding a cane (fig. 60). As the etymology of "cane" clearly 94 95 Soudavar 2014, 163-69. See note 77 supra THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 53 indicates it's basically a reed (it derives from Old Fr. cane, meaning "sugar cane," which goes back to Gr. κάννα, and Aramaic qanh , qany , and Akkadian qanu, meaning "tube, reed").96 As such it provides a solution to another dilemma, the cane symbol on the walls of the Yazidi Shrine of Shaykh Adi (fig.61), a symbol that M.I. Mochiri had also noticed on some post-Sasanian coinage that he had qualified as "Yazidi" (fig. 62).97 Fig. 58 – Apam Nap t holding a cattail reed. Detail of fig. 7 Fig. 59 – Apam Nap t holding a regular reed. Detail of fig. 2 Fig. 60 – Apam Nap t holding a cane. Detail of fig. 66 From serpents, to sun emblems and the mandrake, Yazidis have cherished many symbols that connected them to a Mithraic past, as a result of which it was often thought that their name referred to one deity (MP yazat , NP yzad), i.e., Mithra.98 The deciphering of their cane symbol as one relating to Apam Nap t, however, may suggest that they were praising the yazat n duo Mithra and Apam Nap t, rather than Mithra alone. They were "yazd ni" rather than "yazadi." Fig. 61 - The Yazidi shrine of Shaykh Adi with cane symbols (↑) (Badger 1857) (courtesy of M.I. Mochiri) 96 97 98 Wikipedia. Mochiri 2003. Fig. 62 - "Yazidi coin with cane emblem (↑) and mandrake (Mochiri 2003, Fig. 3) 54 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL II.11 - An eastern goddess promoted against the Mithra/Apam Napāt tandem To displace Apam Nap t, another aquatic deity was needed. The river deity of the Herat-Kandahar area was the closest available. She was originally called *Harahvatī,99 and was integrated as An hit into the Iranian pantheon, and subsequently, as H riti into the Buddhist pantheon. Fig. 63- H riti with flower, child and bird. Metropolitan Museum Fig. 64- An hit holding a lotus and bird. Metropolitan Museum Fig. 67 – An hit with long-sleeve robe and Apam Nap t before Narseh. Naqsh-e Rostam Fig. 68 – Princess in long-sleeved robe. Freer Gallery (F1946-12-114) Fig. 65- H riti holding a lotus and fruit bowl. Cleveland Museum Fig. 69 – A 15th-century Her ti ruler painted by Behz d (Soudavar 1992, 98) Fig. 66 - An hit holding Apam Nap t and fruit bowl. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Fig. 70- Vima Kadphises with long sleeve. Bactrian Coin (www.zeno.ru) As Buddhism moved further east and into Chinese territories, H riti carried along iconographic symbols borrowed from the eastern Iranian world. She was presented as a strong-breasted female who held—or was surrounded with—a long-stemmed lotus flower, a fruit platter, or birds, which are all found in the Sasanian representations of An hit (figs. 63-66). But following Shapur Shabazi, a number of scholars have opined 99 This eastern Iranian area derived its name from hers (Harahvat); Boyce 1989. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 55 that the long sleeve was a sign of "subordination" that designated the crowned female persona on the right of Narseh's victory scene in Naqsh-e Rostam, as the queen (fig. 67).100 This can't be. There is ample evidence that this type of sleeve was typical of Herat and its vicinity. Whether on the coin of the Bactrian ruler Vima Kadphises (c. 90100AD) (fig. 70), or a painting by the celebrated Behz d that depicts a 15th-century Herati sovereign (fig. 69), or a 16th-century painting by the Herati artist Shaykh Mohammad depicting Queen Zolaykh of Egypt approaching Yusof (fig. 68), kings and queens of the Herat region, and further east, wore the long sleeve. Sasanian sculptors were very much aware of An hit 's origins, and it's a testimony to their iconographic precision that they depicted her in fig. 67 with a long-sleeved robe, typical of Herat and the Eastern Iranian world. Furthermore, this is a composition where deities are hailing the initial victories of Narseh—before his final defeat by Gallienus (r. 260–68). An hit and Apam Nap t are both making approving gestures toward Narseh: An hit is giving him the y reh ring as emblem of support, and Apam Nap t is waving to him the sign of excellence (fingers configured as number 20), as does Tishtrya standing behind Narseh.101 The scene conforms to the norms of Zoroastrian orthodoxy, since An hit dominates all other deities. By putting her on the same side as Apam Nap t, it reflects the blurring process by which aquatic deities were bundled into the plural b n, one as the Lady of the Waters, and the other as her child. They reappear as an auspicious duo in the seal of fig. 74, where An hit is offering a lotus flower as symbol of khvarenah. It also parallels the scene in fig. 66 where An hit has regal attributes, namely a solar disk and a wind-blown dast r behind her head, while Apam Nap t is naked and "childish." On the bottle of fig. 64, however, instead of the previous regal symbols, she is placed under a sunflower arch, as if to say that even the sun supports An hit . More generally, the solar emblems on these two bottles clearly indicate that An hit was meant to supplant Mithra. The widespread popularity of the mehr- b tandem is a testimony to the insurmountable problem that nascent Zoroastrianism faced in trying to impose An hit in lieu of Mithra and Apam Nap t. To confront this problem, An hit was to be visually as powerful, and as regal, as possible. She would thus often wear a regal crown as in Naqshe Rostam, or on the seal of fig. 72. It would be as wrong to think of them as queens, as to consider the Virgin Mary a queen in fig. 71. Neither, Mary or Jesus, wore a Carolingian crown in Nazareth; if they have been given one, it's to make them as important and regal 100 101 Soudavar 2012a, 36-39. Soudavar 2012a, 37-38. 56 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL as possible. In Medieval art, an unlabelled crowned woman instantly evoked the Virgin Mary, with or without the infant Jesus on her lap. By the same token, the unidentified crowned woman of the seal of fig. 72 evoked An hit ; even more so in the Sasanian context, where effigies never provided a realistic portrait. Human faces were either generic, or embellished to the best of the artists' abilities. In other instances, An hit 's high status was projected, by other means: With a crenellated crown as in figs. 67 and 72, or through regal symbols such as the solar disk and dast r as in fig. 66, or a ram-horned headgear with a pomegranate (fig. 73), all projecting the auspiciousness of khvarenah. Fig. 71 – The crowned Virgin Mary and Jesus Victoria & Albert Museum Fig. 72 – Sasanian seal with An hit 's effigy. H. Afshar collections. Fig. 73 – An hit with a ram-crown symbol of khvarenah. Sasanian silver plate. Walters Art Museum Fig. 74 – An hit holding Apam Nap t's hand. British Museum II.12 - Anāhitā the anti-daeva and symbol of orthodoxy As the anti-daeva goddess, An hit was bound to play an important role in Sasanian coinage, especially for the kings who wanted to emphasize their orthodoxy. To understand her role, one must be able to recognize her, especially on the coinage of Ardashir I, where she first appears (fig. 75). Numismatists, however, had previously labeled the bust before Ardashir as his crown prince, and have now settled for a new term, "the throne successors," to generally qualify the coinage in which a bust appears before the king. It's confusing and wrong as it stems from a lack of understanding for the "architecture of Sasanian coinage," which remains "unexplained despite the multitude of publications on the subject."102 I had expressed the same in 2009, and yet, numismatists 102 Soudavar 2009, 418. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 57 still prefer to hide behind the vague "throne successors" label, and push aside criticism with a slight of hand.103 If the coin architecture is misunderstood, it's because: 1- Since the Avestan descriptive adjectives for celestial bodies, such as afsh-chithra and gao-chithra, are still mistranslated, not only the triple dot symbol and the cow sign of Sasanian coinage are not understood, but also their interrelationship with the double-legged ankh sign. 2- Sasanian iconography is governed by conventions, and if the spot before the ruler is occupied by a deity once, it will always remain so. One cannot say that the bust before Z m sb is Ahura Mazd (fig. 76), but when it comes to Ardashir, it represents his successor. Moreover if the bust is handing a beribboned y reh to the king (fig. 79), it must be a deity and not a prince. Fig. 75 – Ardashir facing the An hit with flapped bonnet. Private coll. Fig. 76 - Z m sb facing the bust of Ahura Mazd . Private coll. Fig. 77 – Bahr m II facing An hit with flapped bonnet. Private coll. Fig. 78 – An hit facing Bahr m II on a silver bowl from the Teflis Musuem. 3- Numismatists have been unable to understand the significance of the chihr az 103 Andrea Gariboldi, for instance, remarked in a footnote (Gariboldi 2011, 90): "L'affirmazione di Soudavar2009, 418, di essere in grado di fornire un completo e decisamente apodittica e forviante, come l'esempio che i Sasanide avrebbero sempre raffigurato i sovrani sulle monete a destra, i segno di discontinua rispetto alla moa partica di rappresentare il volto del re a sinistra o frontalmemte. In verita, ci sono molte ecceezzioni a questa regola. Trovo inutile indugiare in grossolane semplificazioni che non giovano al progresso degli studi." For him, ignoring 42 pages of my arguments seems to be the answer, and mischaracterization seems to be the way for "progresso degli studi." But after explaining that the Sasanians adopted the right-facing convention for the king's effigy, I had stated that "with a few minor exceptions" they followed it to the very end of their dynasty. Gariboldi, however, for lack of arguments, had to distort what I had said. I wonder if he ever calculated the number of non right-facing issues (which are mostly commemorative coins) to see whether they constitute "minor exceptions" as I claim, or "molte ecceezzioni" as he does. In a proper scientific debate, one disproves arguments by logical constructs and counter-examples to achieve "progresso degli studi.". A wholesale condemnation, as his, is a sign of incapacity. 58 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL yazat n slogan for Sasanian coinage. Such an important political slogan was bound to affect, and govern, the architecture of the coin. If the king is said to have obtained his chihr (light) from the gods, the one before the king is the deity that provides it. With the word yazat n in plural, it could always be interpreted as pointing to the Mithra/Apam Nap t tandem; and it is to avoid such an attack that Ardashir probably saw fit to put the bust of the anti-daeva An hit before himself. 4- Even though the crenellated crown was worn by both male and female deities, numismatists see the flapped bonnet as a uniquely male headgear. But the bust before Ardashir in fig. 66 has the same bonnet as the one before Bahr m II in fig. 77, and on the silver bowl of Bahr m II at the Teflis Museum (fig.78), which is clearly a woman. They all show An hit with the same headgear. 5- Moreover, on certain coins of Bahr m II such as fig. 80, the bust before the king has visibly two breasts, much like the female deity on both sides of fig.79; she can only be An hit . On the Teflis bowl, An hit —with visible breasts—has a bonnet, but in figs. 79 and 80, she wears a Phrygian bonnet with an animal head. Like Sh pur I and Ardashir I who sported different headgears, deities too could wear different ones. Fig. 79 – An hit represented as female bust before Bahr m II on the obverse of his coin, and as full woman on the reverse (Gyselen 2004, 109, n. 170) Fig. 80 – Breasted bust of An hit before Bahr m II (Mitchiner 1977, 155, no. 851) 6- Furthermore, numismatists as much bewildered about the reverse of the Sasanian as for the busts on the obverse. To figure it out, one needs to not only understand the chihr az yazat n slogan, but also the reason for its adoption. Basically, the reverse of the Sasanian coinage is a continuation of the p rs imagery that Darius had established. As the p rsa king, Darius stood weapon in hand by a fire edifice. Thereafter, all rulers of Persis followed the same example. Whether holding a bow or a sword, whether standing before an outdoor fire altar or fire tower, the THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 59 king stands weapon in hand, close to the fire (figs. 81-83), which reflects the very meaning of p rsa, i.e., the one who stands close to the fire.104 But something happened along the road, which forced the Sasanians to slightly change the p rsa imagery. Whereas the Achaemenid political slogan emphasized the "p rsa son of p rsa" pedigree of the king, it also claimed that the king was possessor of the Arya chisa, i.e., the Aryan khvarenah. In the meantime, however, the Zoroastrian priests had allocated the Aryan khvarenah to Zoroaster, and a pious Zoroastrian king could no longer claim to possess it. The formula had to be tweaked ever so slightly, along with its imagery. The chihr az yazat n formula was an extremely clever substitute, since it did not specify the type of chihr that the king claimed to have, and left open to interpretation the deity that supposedly bestowed the king's khvarenah. And since chihr's secondary meaning was image/shape, it seemed logical to bring down the Ahura Mazd that hovered up high (fig. 83), and put him on the right side as the mirror image of the king on the left. That's what Sh pur I did, when he first projected the chihr az yazat n formula on the reverse of his coinage (fig. 84). By virtue of the imprecise word yazat n, the identity of the right side deity varied according to the wishes and preoccupation of the ruler; if he was concerned with orthodoxy, as Bahr m II was, he could even place An hit on the opposite side (fig. 79). p rsa Fig. 81 – Coin of of Dareios II of Persis. 1st century BC Fig. 82 – Coin of Artaxerxes II son of Dareios II of Persis. 1st-century BC Fig. 834 – Coin of Autophradates I of Persis, with Ahura Mazd above Fig. 84 – Coin of Sh pur I, lance in hand and standing opposite Ahura Mazd As the anti-daeva, An hit was the deity of choice for the Sasanian kings who wished to be in the good books of the orthodox clergy. As such her appearance in Sasanian iconography provides an accurate gage for assessing the religiosity of each. 104 Soudavar 2014, 93-100. 60 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL II.13 - The impact of Zoroastrian deliberations on Hāriti's Chinese journey Besides those already discussed, H riti shares a most important feature with An hit : She was considered the facilitator of child birth and protector of pregnant women, which ties in well with two stanzas of the b n Yasht (Yts.5.2 & 5.5), where An hit is portrayed as the one who purifies "the wombs for giving birth, gives easy delivery to all females, and brings down milk to all females." Oddly, H riti is at first an ogress who devours children, but repents and becomes a protector of children, when the Buddha abducts her own child in order to show her the suffering of the mothers who were victimized by her.105 But no matter how much a child-devouring ogress has repented, it is hard to imagine her as a deity that pregnant women would have felt comfortable with, and would have espoused her as their patron saint. Chances are that, initially, she was just a goddess of procreation, one that facilitated child birth, as Yts.5.2 & 5.5 also seem to indicate; and that the anti-child feature was a later transplant.106 There is otherwise no justification for such an abrupt transformation. Fig. 85 – Buddha attacked by H riti's demons Chinese scroll details; ink on silk, 18th century (Private collection) 105 106 For various versions of H riti, see Murray 1981. A similar scroll is produced in Giès 2004, 163. As no Indian or Chinese sources have been found for this myth, a Gandharan origin is often proposed; Giès 2004, 162. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 61 The child-devouring theme must have stemmed from the antagonism between An hit and Apam Nap t, the daeva who was sanitized into a child. And it stands to reason that if An hit was the anti-daeva, and opposed to Apam Nap t, she was perceived—at one point in time—as an anti-child; this, of course, would have been in conflict with her primary role as the deity who facilitated child birth. Myths generally develop to dissipate internal conflicts, and to produce an acceptable narrative. The H riti myth was developed to forge together the two contradictory aspects of a water deity, which spilled over from the Achaemenids to their neighbors. Fig. 86 – H riti demons raising the alms bowl that hid her child. Further details from scroll of fig. 76 Such was the dominant position of the Achaemenids in the ancient world that their ideological problems and travails must have affected neighboring countries as well. It had begun with the killing of the magus Gaum ta, and the massacre of the Median magi, symbolized by the horned lion chimera that Darius is stabbing in his palace of Persepolis, 62 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL which provided the div prototype for Iranian narratives.107 Interestingly, the same demoniac characters populate the Chinese scrolls of the H riti myth, which depict her endeavors to recover the child that the Buddha had hidden under an alms bowl. H riti has an army of demoniac figures that she first directs to attack the Buddha; to no avail, their arrows turn into lotus flowers and fall down (fig. 85). She then orders them to lift the alms bowl to recover her child; again, they are unsuccessful (fig. 86). Figs. 87 a, b – Other details from the scroll in Fig. 85 a) H riti with children and pregnant women, b) flame-spouting figure riding a dragon This army of demoniac figures cannot represent her own children, because the child under the alms bowl, and those surrounding H riti (fig. 87a), are normal human children.108 It thus seems that the Iranian divs, who came to represent An hit 's opponents branded as daevas, also entered the H riti myth. The div-like creatures of the scroll act as her accomplices, at a time when she hasn't repented as yet. The demoniac H riti may reflect the un-sanitized Apam Nap t, the one known as the Burning Water and branded as daeva; a dragon-riding fire-spouting figure in H riti's retinue even seems to reflect him (fig. 87b). The last phase of the myth, when H riti repents and vows to protect all children, mirrors the harmonization of the two antagonistic water deities of 107 108 Soudavar 2014, 241-48. H riti's own children are sometimes qualified as "demon-children," in which "demon" is the attribute of the mother and not the children; Murray 1981, 253. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 63 Zoroastrianism, namely An hit and Apam Nap t, when they were integrated as mother and child into the b n family of gods. In this phase, children were reunited with H riti (fig. 87a), as the child-like Apam Nap t was with his supposed mother An hit (fig. 35). The visible entanglement of An hit with H riti further establishes the former as a transplant deity from the eastern Iranian world. II.14 - The flaming pearl When the Medes integrated Mithra and Apam Nap t into the khvarenah cycle, one became its celestial purveyor, and the other, its underwater guardian. In its underwater stage, the khvarenah was best represented by a pearl, which was both luminous and spherical (see sec. II.2, and fig. 56). It seems that by virtue of being guarded by the "blazing" Apam Nap t, the pearl got affixed with flames and travelled eastward, all the way to China, as an auspicious symbol of power similar to the khvarenah. In Chinese mythology, this flaming pearl is unsuccessfully pursued—through clouds and seas—by a dragon-snake (fig. 88);109 and in Japan the flaming pearl is transformed into a luminous crystal ball (fig. 89). Their relative stories, of uncertain origin, recall the unsuccessful attempts of the dragon-snake Azhi-dah ga to capture the khvarenah, before landing in the hands of Apam Nap t (Yts.19.46-51); and since they echo Apam Nap t's original association with fire, pearl and snakes, they may well represent a further drift of his saga into the myth domain. Fig. 88 – Dragon chasing a flaming pearl. Chinese silk brocade. 19-20th century. Honolulu Museum of Art. 109 Fig. 89 – Dragon chasing a luminous pearl. Japan 19th c. Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University See for instance the wonderful scroll of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, painted by Shen Rong (http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/nine-dragons-28526). 64 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL EPILOGUE The Avesta is a complex text and, at times, a deceitful one. Philological considerations alone cannot untangle such complexity. All avenues, including the repercussions of Iranian religions on neighboring countries as well as banned ideologies, must be explored. Images can play an important role in this process. Contrary to the textual documents written by the learned, who were affiliated to the elite and defended the official point of view, artisans often reflected in their works popular beliefs. It is thus that the cosmetic box of fig. 9b offers an explanation for Apam Nap t's name, nowhere to be found in texts. All references to such a fundamental concept as the khvarenah, whether in Zoroastrian texts or Achaemenid inscriptions are tongue in cheek and convoluted. A concept so strongly associated with the Median deity tandem, namely Mithra and Apam Nap t, could not be glorified but only alluded to in a cryptic fashion. Where Avestan texts fail to explain the khvarenah, iconography provides a detailed schema (fig. 56). Similarly, from the lion fountain to Hellenistic earrings, and to the Islamic mihr b, the surviving mehr- b symbols attest to the enduring popularity of these two deities in tandem. Of the two, the more onerous deity was Apam Nap t, for he was formerly associated with life and creation. His popularity, on the one hand, and his rival status vis à vis Ahura Mazd , on the other, created a dilemma for Darius and his successors, as well as the Zoroastrian priesthood. At first he was ignored, then branded as daiva and replaced by a minor and Eastern aquatic deity, An hit . The latter was afterward designated as the antidaeva and champion of Zoroastrian orthodoxy. But no matter how praised she was, she could not displace or break up the powerful tandem deity of old. A compromise was thus sought, by which, Mithra and Apam Nap t would be integrated into the Zoroastrian pantheon, with less status and less power, but addressed with the epithet ahura, at par with (Ahura) Mazd . This polytheistic compromise, nominally referred to as the Ahuric Religion, was a drastic departure from Zoroaster's monotheistic vision that exalted Ahura Mazd alone. Still, Apam Nap t, the god whose name evoked "Burning Water," represented a major problem for Zoroastrianism. He was stripped of his yasht and powerful attributes, and attempts were made to diminish him in a multitude of ways, including a new definition of his name through punning. His name was manipulated to 66 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL mean Child of Waters, and as such, he was represented by a winged Eros or a two-legged ankh sign. This allowed An hit , who, in the meantime, was named the Lady of the Waters, to hold the hand of the Child of the Waters as a motherly figure (figs. 2, 7). It projected a powerful image, belittling Apam Nap t and aggrandizing An hit . What remained of Apam Nap t's past glory, was just a few allusions here and there in the Avesta, mainly because of the use of earlier material by later Avestan authors. What emerges from this study is also a proof for what I had long suspected: That the negative connotation of "daeva" was mainly because of the animosity that flared up under Darius and early successors, against the Median magi. There is no better proof for this than Yts.5.94-95 in which, those who worshipped the Median Ap m Nap t at nighttime were labeled as daeva-worshippers; what's more, they were so vilified that whatever they touched had to be purified. It shows purification laws as directed, not against harmful food or noxious animals, but against those who were perceived as the "enemy." I believe that it set Zoroastrianism on an aggressive path to vilify opponents by presenting them as impure, and creating a list of untouchables, essentially aimed at isolating their opponents. It represents a milestone in the evolution of Zoroastrianism, with important consequences in the political and religious spheres. I have often advocated that Western Avestologists would be well served by the study of NP translations of the Avesta, and by the search for NP parallels of Avestan words and sentences.110 Sadly, modern specialists think of New Persian as so unconnected to the Avestan language that they hardly invest any time in it. If anything, this study shows how relevant can New Persian be to Avestan studies, since the deciphering of the hitherto incomprehensible Yts.94-95 was only achieved through finding connections between Avestan verbs and NP words. O.P. Skjaervo had done the same for one verb only, when linking Av. vi-p shna-ka to NP p shna (heel); I extended it to three other verbs, which all together described four stages in the preparation process of libation ingredients. 110 In a recent article (Hintze 2009), Almut Hintze rejects the possibility that the Avestan name avô could mean water. Her rejection is predicated on accepting incongruent translations such as "having the seed of water" for afsh-chithra (p. 141), or misunderstanding Yt.8.34 (as explained in sec. I.7 above). She also translates the term avô-hvarenåsca of Y.2.16 as "manger" rather than "drinking place," based on the assumption that its MP cognate akhwarr (NP khor) also means the same, i.e., a "place where food and drink is deposited for domestic animals" (p. 137). But as in French, where water is pronounced eau, many Iranian dialects still use a similar sounding term (auw) for water; and the word khor, which is really an abbreviation of auw-khor, denotes a place where water was drank. It could refer to a spring or pond, as well as a man-made instrument. And since khor was used more and more for the man-made drinking trough, a new term was adopted to denote the natural watering place: besh-khor. This is the term that Jalil Doustkhah has used for his translation of avô-hvarenåsca in NP (Dustkh h 2002, I:105).110 It's more appropriate, and better fits the natural setting that Y.2 describes. EPILOGUE 67 Similarly, in the case of Yt.8.4, a number of adjectives relative to the brightness and light power of Tishtrya had exact NP counterparts. What's more, to better comprehend this stanza one had to be familiar with New Persian literary techniques and expressions. For instance, at the end of this stanza, the luminescence of Tishtrya is highlighted by a question and answer sequence. Familiarity with this technique had allowed me to offer elsewhere a comprehensive explanation for Y19, which was lacking in existing translations.111 And yet, in reaction to my explanation of this technique, one reviewer opined that the question-and-answer technique was a "common phenomena in the ancient world," and no big deal.112 If so, how come no one else discovered it in Yt.8.4? Be that as it may, the expression berezât haosravanghem ("khosrov ni radiance") has numerous counterparts in Persian literature, as ft b-e khosrov n (kingly sun), all alluding to kingly radiance and the solar disk depicted behind Sasanian rulers' head. This Avestan expression may thus allude to a kingly radiance, or kingly khvarenah, carried by haosrova, i.e., Kay Khosrow of the Sh hn meh. Various modern scholars have noted the many similarities between the Cyrus saga and that of Kay Khosrow,113 and it stands to reason that Cyrus would embody the most powerful of kingly radiances because of his unparalleled victories and conquests. In sum, in this stanza alone, we have a number of indices all militating for the late redaction of Yt.8. On the one hand, we have close similarities of Avestan words and expressions with New Persian, and on the other, we have a reference that most probably evokes Cyrus. Like so many other indices, they push forward the redaction date of the Avesta, close to the late Achaemenid or early post-Achaemenid period. This of course is anathema to Avestologists, who try to fend off their detractors, and especially outsiders like me, by invoking incompatibilities with supposed grammatical and etymological rules that the Avesta followed with clockwork precision. And yet, like any other text, the Avesta suffers from inconsistencies. For instance, as I have argued elsewhere, the drop of one Apam in Yt.19.94, where two successive ones should have appeared, is a common scribal error that occurs across different scripts and languages.114 Also, by Kellens's own admission, a passage of Yt.5.53 that replicates Yt.10.11 is grammatically incorrect.115 Soudavar 2014, 348-56. It was expressed by an anonymous reviewer (I believe Almut Hintze), see Soudavar 2014, 368. 113 An extensive table on this topic has now been compiled by R. Zarghamee; Zarghamee 2013, 538-39. 114 See Soudavar 2012b, 72. 115 See note 34 supra. 111 112 68 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL More importantly, in the Iranian culture, form takes precedence over content. Whether in poems or in prose, authors often mutilate spelling and set aside grammatical rules for the sake of rhyme, rhythm and meter. Where Kellens sees a grammatical mistake in three (underlined) adjectives of Yt.5.53, I see a deliberate attempt to have a better rhyme (especially for the first adjective rathaêshtârô) with taxmô tusô: Yt.5.53 tãm ýazata, taxmô tusô rathaêshtârô, barshaêshu paiti aspanãm, zâvare jaidhyañtô hitaêibyô, drvatâtem tanubyô... In a hymn that was composed for political motives, purpose can override grammar. Whether by mistake or on purpose, these errors show that grammar wasn't sacrosanct for Avestan authors, and it leaves Avestologists empty handed, once again. APPENDIX I Below are the comments of two reviewers of Studia Iranica based on a shorter version of this study (basically Part I) that I had submitted. Reviewer 1 wants to defend at all cost the untenable early Avesta dating, championed by Boyce and Kellens. Reviewer 2 transposes French emotional adjectives into his/her rebuttal ("annoying", "irritating", "hilarious"…) in lieu of logical arguments she cannot find. The parallelism of the two shows a coordinated effort, most probably inculcated by the gatekeeper of Studia Iranica. The problem though is that they bluff and I shall call their bluffs point by point. My answers are in italic. Reviewer 1 : Discrediting Ahura Mazd ‫ﺶ‬s Rival, the Original Iranian Creator God Apam Nap t (ApamNaph t?) Submitted for Studia Iranica 2015 This article proposes to discuss the ways in which Ap m Nap t was reintegrated into the Zoroastrian religious system by the priesthood of Achaemenid times, having allegedly previously been rejected as a Daiva. The author claims to have identified ‫ﺳ‬subtle ways‫ ﺴ‬in which the priests would have tried to achieve this. The author advocates an approach to the sources within the framework of his own historical reconstruction of which he is firmly convinced while he rejects those of others without, however, engaging with the scholarly debate. The author is convinced of his own conclusions and the fact that they cohere in his imagination is taken as proof for their infallible validity, while he accuses Avestologists to be caught in a ‫ﺳ‬self-made enclosure‫( ﺴ‬p.5). Yes, and these reviewers' comments provide further proof of this. The article seems to be directed to the non-specialist who is in no position to judge the sustainability of the numerous claims made. The author declares that this article is designed not for Avestologists, but for non-Avestologists (p.5), although the article is largely concerned with Old Iranian (Avestan and Old Persian) source material. The author displays little understanding of methodology in Indo-Iranian Studies with regard to comparison of Old Iranian and Vedic and the reconstruction of a prehistoric linguistic and conceptual world. On p. 14, for example, the author comments that in Vedic Yama has no ‫ﺳ‬encounter‫ ﺴ‬with An hit , without noting that the name An hit has no direct Vedic equivalent. Before posing as a savant, I suggest he/she should first consult the provided reference Boyce 1989 (EIr): "The proper name of the divinity in Indo-Iranian times, H. Lommel has argued, was Sarasvatī, “she who possesses waters…. She was still worshiped in Vedic India by this name, which was also given there to a small but very holy river in Madhyadeśa. In its Iranian form (*Harahvatī), her name was given to the region, rich in rivers, whose modern capital is Kandahar ". I just say: "Among the supplicants appear powerful 70 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL mythological figures from the Indo-Iranian lore, such as Jamshid (Yima), the dragon Azhi-dah ga, and the dragon-slayer Fereydun (Thraetona). The problem though is that none of these figures had any prior encounter, in the Vedic mythology or elsewhere, with An hit ." In fact, if the reviewer's contention was to be true, it provides added support for my thesis: that An hit 's interaction with heroes of the Indo-Iranian lore were without precedent and pure fabrications At the outset, the author declares his rejection of purely philological methods. He discards translations of the Avesta by Avestologists which in his view are too philological and obscure. He provides alternative English translations without, however, engaging with the Avestan original. According to him, incoherent translations need to be re-vamped and reinterpreted. One enters, of course, a vicious circle here if one tries to translate the Avesta by first having a preconceived idea of what it should mean. This, however, is the approach which the author seems to advocate (p. 2). Instead of examining the Avestan original, he has recourse to New Persian and attempts to translate Avestan in the light of New Persian words that sound similar to the Avestan words. Several unclear Av. words are discussed and connected with NP words such as, for example, philologically difficult and partly obscure attributes that describe the libations of Daiva-worshippers in Yt 5.95. Oddly, he/she admits that I provide explanations for "unclear Av. words" but evokes unspecified "philological difficulty". Where is the difficulty? The method is applied with very limited success due to the fact that basic phonological rules are not observed. For example, on p.21 bottom, Persian k rd ‘knife‫ ﺶ‬belongs with the root kart ‘to cut‫( ﺶ‬Cheung p.243f.), not with *skard ‘to pierce‫ ﺶ‬as claimed by the author. I provide 2 possibilities related to *skard and NP k rd, which together with the suffix apa can both explain an unexplained (or "unclear") Avestan term, apa-skaraka, that I define as a "cutting apart" or "chopping" process. If both are rejected, how should apa-skaraka be translated? I do believe, however, that the two roots are related, and Cheung shouldn't have separated them; this passage somehow provides proof of this. Some of explanations proposed here are pure fantasy. They include the view that apąm nap t- mean ‘burning water‫ ﺶ‬while the usual ‘grandson of the waters‫ ﺶ‬would be a later development which the author reconstructs in a series of unsubstantiated claims (p.29). Fantasy? I provide a substantial amount of arguments. Which one is specifically wrong? The author is rather quick with drawing far-reaching conclusions on the basis of very slight evidence. A case in point is the discussion of the Aryan xwarenah (p.7) and the way he reaches the conclusion that Yt 19 and Yt 5 were composed in postAchaemenid times. In connection with the story related in Yt 19 and 5, where Frangrasyan is described as desiring the glory of the Aryan people, and which belongs to Zarathustra, the author claims that ‫ﺳ‬no Achaemenid king would have tolerated the attribution of the Aryan xwarenah to Zoroaster‫( ﺴ‬in itself one of the author‫ﺶ‬s many unsubstantiated claims) and therefore neither of the two Yashts could have survived APPENDIX I 71 the Achaemenid Era. Therefore, the author concludes, both Yashts must be products of the post-Achaemenid period, ‫ﺳ‬probably conceived under the Seleucids‫ﺴ‬. This example illustrates how the author draws conclusions from his own assumptions, internally coherent, but entirely hypothetical and unsubstantiated. He neither engages with contradictory evidence nor with the scholarly debate. He/she of course ignores the extensive arguments provided in my 2014 book If any scholar thinks that Zoroastrian priests could proclaim 5 times a day that the Aryan khvarenah belonged to Zoroaster and not the Achaemenid king, and that no region of the world was rules by a khshatra but only by regional chieftains under Zoroaster (Y19.17-18), then I think there is no need for further discussions, for it negates everything that images or script project about the Achaemenid king. This is the crux of the matter, and cannot be summarily dismissed. The author rejects Hoffmann‫ﺶ‬s system of transliterating Avestan and proposes to return to Bartholomae‫ﺶ‬s. However, Bartholomae‫ﺶ‬s system is not followed either, and instead an idiosyncratic way of writing Avestan words is used. At times they are disfigured beyond recognition. For example, on p.26 Av. berezant- a n d borz (presumably bǝrǝz is meant here). I use the transcription of the main Zoroastrian site Avesta.org, which is accessible to everybody and very functional Points of detail p.1 The abstract does not really provide a summary of the argument of this article. p.3 The description of Ahura Mazda as an ‫ﺳ‬omnipotent‫ ﺴ‬god needs to be specified. Really? He/she wants me to reiterate Darius' Bisotun inscription that all he achieved was by the will of Ahura Mazd ? p.4 The author regards the aquatic female deity An hit as a ‫ﺳ‬substitute‫ ﺴ‬for Ap m Nap t, who according him was a competitor of Ahura Mazd . It is, however, unclear why Ap m Nap t should have been a competitor while An hit was not. I am not sure Reviewer1 can read English, and understand it at the same time. I explain more than once that Apam Nap t was the original "creator" god. It's even in the title. An hit never had such pretense p.8 The statement ‫ﺳ‬In Zoroaster's Gathas, where Ahura Mazd is praised, traditional Iranian gods are referred to as daevas, and are not demonized‫ ﺴ‬inaccurately reflects Herrenschmidt & Kellens 1993, as they take the view that in the Gathas daevas are the bad gods. Nowhere in the Avesta are the daevas gods that perceived as positive. This person simply cannot read. Herrenschmidt & Kellens write in EIr. : "In the Gathas the daēuuas had not yet, in fact, become demons. As Émile Benveniste (1967) clearly established, they constituted a distinct category of quite genuine gods, who had, however, been rejected." The view that the demonisation of the Daivas was caused in connection with the magophonia referred to by Herodotus is entirely hypothetical. If one cannot read the EIr, one won't be able to read the extensive arguments presented in my 2014 book, either. 72 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL p.20–21 The reconstruction of how a ritual was prepared is entirely hypothetical. That the ingrediants for the libations were collected from the ‫ﺳ‬four corners of the realm‫ﺴ‬ seems to be the author‫ﺶ‬s invention. In this person's view, the ingredients were simply available in a drawer under the fire altar!!! p.21 Av. zaotar- is not ‘libation‫ﺶ‬. The Av. word is zaoϑr True. (There were many typos) 21 bottom Persian k rd ‘knife‫ ﺶ‬belongs with the root kart ‘to cut‫( ﺶ‬Cheung p.243f.), not with *skard ‘to pierce‫ ﺶ‬as claimed by the author. Already addressed p.23 The reasoning about the translation of the object (not subject, as the author seems to insinuate) is bizarre. He seems to forget that Avestan has free word order. Really? Says who? Neither Hintze nor Skjaervoe interpret the ‘waters‫ ﺶ‬as the subject of the sentence in Yt 8.34. That's why both translations are wrong and don't make sense. That passage of the Avesta talks about nature and water-rain cycles. It does not talk about modern land reform, or land distribution. It's about land fertility because of the water cycle. The author‫ﺶ‬s own translation of the ‘waters‫ ﺶ‬as a gen.pl, is impossible. Really? The dictionary of Avesta.org defines apô as "[ap](G,plNA) water" or an adverb, and occurs 15 times. Either his/her contention is wrong, or at best, creates a controversy. As such, context is the ultimate arbiter, and in this case, context and the syntax clearly support my translation. Moreover, when composing Iranian hymns and poems, poets may take liberties. One cannot analyze poetry by strictly adhering to grammatical or etymological rules. "Impossible" has no meaning in this context p.24 The root underlying baxšaiti and baxta and NP baxt is the same root baj ‘to distribute, apportion‫ﺶ‬. The author seems to be unaware of this. I did not negate this common root, but simply observed that baxta was more akin to NP bakht. Derivations from the same root can take divergent meanings. In any case bakht is often explained as a distribution from the gods. The irritating point (or annoying as the other reviewer says) is that the Avesta is many ways much closer to Persian that they think p.24f. Wild speculations about the origins of the fravashis. I have yet to see a better one. If one has it, I am all ears p.26 The discussion of the etymology of nap t- disregards the forms in which this term in attested in Vedic and Avestan. I raise an objection based on solid arguments and my Naph t proposal is followed by a (?), i.e. I am not very sure about its original form. p.31 The author‫ﺶ‬s spelling Azhi-dah ga is strangely hybrid. It should be either Av. APPENDIX I 73 aži- dah ka- or MP aždah g. p.34 the name of Henkelman is misspelt repeatedly. p.34 fn.70: read 2015. true. p.36 That *Harahvatī was an Iranian river deity in addition to a geographical region is an unsubstantiated claim. The claim that the Buddhist H riti is an Iranian loan needs to be supported with at least a reference where such a borrowing is argued for. see Boyce 1989 (above). p.39 To call the Avesta ‫ﺳ‬deceitful‫ ﺴ‬doesn‫ﺶ‬t seem the right expression. The word "deceit" should be easy to understand for these reviewers, as they both practice it. p.38 offers some wild speculations on the Iranian origin of the motif that the Buddhist monster H riti devours her children. One has the duty to explain oddities in a plausible way, and needs vision, which is not the forte of philologists p.39 The conclusion on p.39 section XI is rather weak. The author reiterates his agenda rather summarizing the argument and conclusion of this paper —————————————————————————————————————————— Reviewer 2 (emphasizing in bold & underline is by me) The paper ‫ﺳ‬Discrediting Ahura Mazd ‫ﺶ‬s Rival, the Original Iranian Creator God Apam Nap t (Apam Naph t?)‫ ﺴ‬should not be published. It is an exposé of the author‫ﺶ‬s own ideas lacking any scientific argumentation and discrediting scientific approaches to the same problems. It is just an accumulation of unscientific ideas combined to make a completely fictive construction. Own ideas are used as arguments for new assumptions. This is, for example, the case when assuring that the Yašts cannot be redacted in Achaemenian times, since the kings would not have allowed the attribution of the xarənah to Zozoroaster. A scientific approach is primarily based on logic and common sense. It is rather presumptuous, for one who lacks both, to judge what is scientific and what is not Furthermore, author‫ﺶ‬s methodology is far beyond any acceptable scientific standards. I‫ﺶ‬ll limit myself to some of the most obvious problems. The whole presentation is driven by the idea that the Avestan past can be explained out of much later materials. Thus he explains the rejection of the daeuuas recurring to political reasons and uses the Š hn me as argumentation. Although I use the Sh hn meh as an example, the main problem I cite is that: good gods do not turn into bad ones in the normal course of events. Drastic events must have triggered it, and I argue in here as in my book that it was the massacre of the magi by Darius. Much irritating is the rejection of well-established etymologies produced with the not questionable methods of the comparative Indo-Iranian linguistics. the author postulates new ones just on the basis of the 74 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL simple sound similarity with some New Persian words. The author lacks any sensibility for the historic evolution of languages and produces thus some hilarious etymologies: e.g. the connection between nap t and naphtha which has for the author far reaching consequences. It is very disappointing that he does not loss a minute in explaining what should be wrong in the old and sure etymological connection with a great number of identical words in other Indo-European languages (like Lat. nepos, nepotis). Nothing is "wrong" with nepos, nepotis, and nephew as they are all attached to the umbilical cord and the navel (NP n f), so to speak. I just propose that there was, through punning, a change of name from something that was akin to naphtha to a similar-sounding name that meant navel. Quite sad is always the disregard of any scientific approach concerning the interpretation of Av. bərəz-, bərəzaṇt that is obviously identical (as universally known) with OInd. bṛh-, bṛhant- ‫ﺳ‬lofty‫ﺴ‬, but that is compared by the author with New Persian beresteh, brēzan, etc. "Sadly," every dictionary takes into consideration NP derivatives. If one cannot rely on NP words, then I suggest that all dictionaries must be tossed out. Conveniently, he/she forgets to mention my examples in French (braiser) and English (blaze, blæse) Not less annoying is his explanation of Av. apa.xaraosa- as connected with NP khar s ‫ﺳ‬stone mill‫ﺴ‬. Why is it annoying? She must have an aversion to stone mills The list could be extended, but it should be enough to notice that there is no new etymological interpretation by the author that has the minimal chance to be right. His etymological approaches lack any acceptable scientific methodology. The same is true for the semantical analysis that are mostly limited to accept for the Avestan words the same meaning as their (alleged) cognates present in New Persian. Unforgettable is the translation of baxšaiti as ‫ﺳ‬endows with fertility‫ﺴ‬. For maintaining his impossible semantical analysis the author is compelled to an also impossible syntactical analysis. He criticises without any serious reasons the analysis of apō as accusative plural and object of baxšaiti and translates it as a genitive plural (!!!) ‫ﺳ‬of those waters‫ﺴ‬. The arguments employed do not belong in a scientific journal. Why is my syntactical analysis "impossible"? I highlight the problem through an example. To claim impossibility, he/she needs to produce an counter example. He/she obviously cannot. As for his "genitive plural (!!!)" remark, he/she claims the same nonsense that Reviewer 1 does.. It should not be a big problem to use a different transliteration from the standard one (Hoffmann‫ﺶ‬s system). However, he claims to use Bartholomae‫ﺶ‬s, but it is in fact not at all true. The transliteration employed is simply wrong and do not allow the reader to reconstruct the real Avestan text. I use the standard in Avesta.org, a major Zoroastrian site and accessible to everybody. And the only reason for adopting it is, to say the less, extemporaneous: that thus the relationship to the Persian words is easier to be recognized! It is simply obvious that the author lacks the necessary skills of the Avestan language for publishing scientific papers discussing Avestan passages and interpretations. As solid training in Avestan could solve many of the problems present in this paper. Nowadays, those with solid Avestan credentials are precisely those who produce unreadable translations. We could as well discuss other conceptual problem of the paper, but in my view the absolute disregard of APPENDIX I 75 the most simple rules of the Avestan linguistics and philology makes impossible the publication of this paper in a scientific journal The above comments of Studia Iranica's reviewers clearly follow the same turf-protection pattern that I had experienced before. The late Richard Frye, who had endorsed my Aura of Kings in 2003, once told me that a colleague of his had walked into his room and objectionably asked: How could he approve of such nonsense? To make sure that I had understood him correctly, I brought up the subject once again, when I saw him last in Sarajevo (2013). He reiterated the same, without revealing the name of the objector. This was by no means an isolated incident. When the IRAN journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies published an article of mine in 2012, anonymous objectors raised the same question with its editor: How could he allow the publishing of such an article? In another instance, an anonymous reviewer for Iranian Studies asked why I insist to translate Avestan passages when, by my own admission, I had no basic knowledge of Avestan grammar or philology; my answer was then, as it is till today, that I shall continue to do so whenever I encounter translations that don't make sense, and I am somehow able to explain.116 And since she wove into her comments a quote from Hannah Arendt, I'd like to reciprocate the favor by evoking an equally famous quote of said author: "the banality of evil." For Arendt, mankind's evil essentially stemmed from the self-righteous belief in the absolute truth, and the refusal to confront logic or common sense. 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Bundahišn, Zoroastrische Kosmpgonie und Kosmologie, Band I, Kritische Edition, Tehran: Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia 1385. Panaino, A., 1995. "The Origin of the Pahalavi Name Burz "Apam Nap t", A Semasiological Study" in Acta Iranica Scientarum Hung., Tome XVIII (1-2), 117-26. ______, A., 2004. "Astral Characters of Kingship in the Sasanian and the Byzantine Worlds" in La Persia e Bisanzio, Atti dei Convegni Lincei 2001, Rome, 555-585. ______, A., (forthcoming). "Av. kauui- and Ved. kaví-, The Reasons of a semantic Division" in Manfred Mayrhofer's festschrift. Parpola, S., 1993. "The Assyrian Tree of Life: Tracing the Origins of Jewish Monotheism and Greek Philosophy" in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 52/3, 161-208. Porter, Y., 2007. "Mihr b" in Dictionnaire du Coran, eds. Amir-Moezzi et al., Paris, 554-56. Skjaervo, P.O., 2007. Zoroastrian Texts (vols. I-III), Harvard (Divinity School no. 3663a). Soudavar, A., 1992. Art of the Persian Courts, New York. _________, 2006. "The significance of Av. čithra, OPers. čiça, MPers. čihr, and NPers. čehr, for the Iranian Cosmogony of Light" Iranica Antiqua 41, 151-85. _________, 2009. "The Vocabulary and Syntax of Iconography in Sasanian Iran," Iranica Antiqua, 417-60. _________, 2010. "The Formation of Achaemenid Imperial Ideology and its Impact on the Avesta," in The World of Achaemenid Persia - History, Art and Society in Iran and the Ancient Near East, eds. J. Curtis & S. Simpson, London: British Museum, 111-37. _________, 2012a. " Looking through The Two Eyes of the Earth: A Reassessment of Sasanian Rock Reliefs" in Journal of Iranian Studies, Jan. 2012/1, 29-58. _________, 2012b. "Astyages, Cyrus and Zoroaster: Solving a Historical Dilemma" in IRAN, vol. L, 45-78. _________, 2014. Mithraic Societies, From Brotherhood Ideal to Religion's Adversary, Houston. Zarghamee, R., 2013. Discovering Cyrus: The Persian Conqueror Astride the Ancient World, Washington DC. INDEX b-n f .................................................. 31, 36 b n-n f .......................................... 30, 31 Achaemenids................. 7, 14, 16, 19, 49, 61 Afr siy b ....................................... 11, 18, 19 afsh-chithra ......................... 2, 29, 44, 57, 66 ft b-e khosrov n ............................... 30, 67 Ahura Mazdā...i, iii, 5, 1, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 25, 31, 32, 39, 40, 51, 57, 59, 65, 69, 71, 73 Ahuric ..................................... 15, 16, 32, 65 Al-Aqmar mosque .................................... 50 Alhambra ............................................ 50, 51 An hit ....8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 31, 34, 51, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 65, 69, 70, 71 Anastasius Flavius .............................. 43, 44 Apam Nap t....iii, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 51, 54, 55, 56, 58, 61, 62, 63, 65, 69, 71, 73, 78, 79 Aphrodite ............................................ 41, 43 Ardashir I .......................... 28, 36, 56, 57, 58 Ardashir-khvarrah ............................... 28, 36 Arendt (Hannah) ....................................... 75 Arianism.................................................... 46 Artaxerxes II ................................... 8, 14, 15 Artaxerxes II son of Dareios II ................. 59 Artaxerxes III ........................................ 8, 15 Aryan khvarenah .... 9, 11, 14, 18, 19, 59, 70 Ashavazdah son of Pourudh khshti .......... 21 Ashavazdah son of S yuzhdri ................... 21 Athena ....................................................... 19 Autophradates ........................................... 59 Azhi-dah ga ............................ 18, 63, 70, 73 Babylonians .............................................. 19 Baghdad .................................................... 49 Bahr m II ................................ 45, 57, 58, 59 Balthazar ................................................... 46 Behz d ................................................. 54, 55 Bidel-Shir zi ............................................. 30 Bisotun .................... 7, 13, 14, 39, 40, 42, 71 Bondahesh ..................................... 32, 38, 52 borz .................................... 28, 30, 31, 36, 71 Buddha .................................... 43, 44, 60, 62 Buk n .................................................. 37, 38 Burning Water ............. 27, 30, 32, 35, 37, 62 Canis Major ......................................... 29, 44 Chamrosh .................................................. 31 Chehel Sotun ............................................. 50 Clemenceau (Georges) ................................ 1 Coquillards .......................................... 43, 50 cornucopia................................................. 43 crucifix .......................................... 46, 47, 48 Cyrus the Younger .................................... 14 daeva.3, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 32, 56, 58, 59, 61, 62, 65, 66, 71 div .................................................... 12, 62 Dareios ...................................................... 59 Darius I5, 2, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 30, 39, 40, 58, 61, 65, 66, 71, 73 dast r ..................... 27, 41, 42, 43, 45, 55, 56 double-legged ankh ............................. 35, 37 Drv sp ................................................ 19, 78 Dura Europos............................................. 45 Ebn-e Balkhi.............................................. 36 Egyptians ................................................... 19 Elamites ................................... 14, 37, 38, 39 El-Tod.................................................. 47, 50 Eros.......................................... 27, 41, 43, 66 Esfah n ................................................ 50, 51 Fereydun (Thraetona) .................... 18, 38, 70 flaming pearl ............................................. 63 gao-chithra .......................................... 44, 57 Gathas ........................................ 7, 11, 71, 78 Greeks........................................................ 19 Haoma ....................................................... 19 Haoshyangha ............................................. 19 Haosrava .................................................... 19 INDEX Harahvatī ....................................... 54, 69, 73 H riti ......................31, 54, 60, 61, 62, 73, 78 Hekmat-ol Eshr q...................................... 28 Herat .................................................... 54, 55 Herodotus ............................ 5, 12, 19, 26, 71 Jamshid .................................... 18, 19, 26, 70 Yima .................................... 18, 19, 20, 70 jaziyya .......................................................... 7 Jerash ......................................................... 48 Jesus ......................................... 46, 47, 55, 56 Justinian ..................................................... 46 Juzj ni ........................................................ 30 Kairouan mosque ....................................... 50 khosrov ni ........................................... 30, 67 Konya ........................................................ 49 lion ............................... 13, 15, 50, 51, 61, 65 Magophonia ........................................... 5, 12 M zandar n ......................................... 14, 16 Medes ........................................ 9, 10, 38, 63 mehr- b.....8, 39, 40, 41, 43, 47, 48, 50, 51, 55, 65 mihr b............................ 8, 39, 43, 48, 49, 65 Mithra...7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 21, 27, 32, 38, 39, 41, 43, 49, 51, 54, 55, 58, 63, 65 mithraeum ...................................... 41, 45, 46 Mithraic Societies ...................... 1, 43, 44, 79 naphtha ...................................... 5, 28, 30, 74 naft ................................................... 28, 31 Narseh .................................................. 54, 55 Order of Santiago ...................................... 43 Order of St Michael ................................... 43 Ostrogoths.................................................. 46 p rsa .......................................... 2, 12, 13, 58 patera ......................................................... 43 People of the Book ...................................... 7 Priam.......................................................... 19 Q ni.......................................................... 30 quadrigae................................................... 17 Ravenna ......................................... 45, 46, 47 Red Mosque ......................................... 49, 50 San Appolinare Nuovo .............................. 46 81 San Stefano Rotondo ................................ 42 San Vitale ...................................... 45, 46, 47 Sardes ........................................................ 13 scorpion ............................................... 15, 51 Seleucids ............................................. 11, 71 Sh hoboddin-e Sohravardi ........................ 28 Sh pur I ................................... 27, 42, 58, 59 Shaykh Adi (Shrine of) ............................. 53 Shaykh Mohammad .................................. 55 shell niche ........................................... 48, 49 shir ............................................................ 50 Sirius ......................................... See Tishtrya St Euphemia .............................................. 46 St James of Compostela ...................... 43, 50 sun cross .................................. 15, 46, 47, 51 Suzani-ye Samarqandi .............................. 30 Tamerlane ................................................. 45 Teflis ................................................... 57, 58 The Virgin Mary ........................... 46, 55, 56 Thrita son of Sayuzhdri............................. 21 Tishtrya ..... 21, 29, 30, 42, 44, 45, 46, 55, 67 Toprak-kale ............................................... 37 tree of life ............................................ 38, 50 Tus............................................................. 17 Urartu ........................................................ 37 vareγna ................................................ 26, 37 Varuna ....................................................... 21 Venus ........................................................ 43 Vima Kadphises .................................. 54, 55 Visht spa ................................................... 19 Vouru-Kasha ............................................. 18 Winter Triangle ................................... 29, 45 Xerxes ........................... 7, 14, 16, 19, 26, 78 y reh ................................................... 55, 57 Yazidi ........................................................ 53 Z m sb ...................................................... 57 Zarathushtra .... 10, 15, 16, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 Zolaykh .................................................... 55 Zoroaster...1, 2, 7, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 25, 59, 65, 70, 71, 78, 79 Zoroastrianism.....5, 8, 9, 10, 16, 23, 25, 48, 49, 51, 55, 63, 65, 66 Discrediting Ahura Mazdāʼs Rival The Original Iranian Creator God "Apam Napāt” The crucial verse Yašt 19.52 shows that in one of his aspects the ancient Apąm Napāt was a mighty creator -god, … but in Zoroastrianism Ahura Mazdā is venerated as supreme Creator, and Apąm Napāt thus came to be robbed of this function." Mary Boyce on "Apąm Napāṯ" Encyclopaedia Iranica Discrediting Ahura Mazdā’s Rival (or Apam Naphāt?) PDF available free of charge at Academia.edu or Soudavar.com Print copy available at Lulu.com Abolala Soudavar 

Discrediting Ahura Mazdāʼs Rival The Original Iranian Creator God "Apam Napāt” The crucial verse 19.52 shows that in one of his aspects the ancient Apąm Napāt was a mighty creator -god, … but in Zoroastrianism Ahura Mazdā is venerated as supreme Creator, and Apąm Napāt thus came to be robbed of this function." Mary Boyce on "Apąm Napāṯ" Discrediting Ahura Mazdā’s Rival (or Apam Naphāt?) PDF available free of charge at or Abolala Soudavar Because this PDF is conceived as a book, and its illustrations are to be read with the accompanying text, should screen size permit its PAGE DISPLAY must be set on TWO-UP in the VIEW menu of the Acrobat Reader program, with SHOW COVER PAGE DURING TWO-UP ticked as well Discrediting Ahura Mazdā’s Rival This text is freely downloadable as a PDF on academia.edu or soudavar.com Those wishing to have a paper copy in their hands are directed to LULU.com, where they can order black & white, or color copies Copyright In matters of copyright, I subscribe to the decision of the Federal Court of N.Y. (Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp., S.D.N.Y. 1999), which ruled that exact photographic copies of public domain images could not be protected by copyright because the copies lack originality; and I follow the prescription of section 107 of the US copyright law (title 17, U. S. Code), which allows "fair use" of published material for scholarly and non-profit publications. By the same token, I do not claim copyright for any of the material published in this book. ISBN : 978-1-329-48994-3 Published in 2015, by Soudavar – Houston Front cover: Sasanian silver bottle, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, on loan to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC Back cover: Apam Nap t hanging from a sun dick. Hellenistic earring. EMS Collections Design and layout of all pages, including covers, are by the author. Discrediting Ahura Mazdā’s Rival The Original )ranian Creator God "Apam Napāt" or Apam Naphāt? Abolala Soudavar Houston 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface........................................................................................................................................ iiv INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 PART I ......................................................................................................................................... 5 The Textual Testimony ................................................................................................................ 5 I.1 - Compromising Zoroaster's monotheistic vision ............................................................... 7 I.2 - The revelatory passages ................................................................................................... 9 I.3 - The daeva problem......................................................................................................... 11 I.4 - An hit , the anti-daev goddess..................................................................................... 15 I.5 - Power indicators ............................................................................................................. 17 I.6 - Purifying the libations .................................................................................................... 22 I.7 - Agents of fertility ........................................................................................................... 25 I.8 - The Burning Water......................................................................................................... 27 I.9 - Unification through amalgamation................................................................................. 31 PART II ...................................................................................................................................... 33 The Iconographic Evidence........................................................................................................ 33 II.1 - From "Burning Water" to "Navel-Water" ..................................................................... 35 II.2 - Agent of fertility and life .............................................................................................. 37 II.3 - Bisotun's imbedded attack on Median ideology ........................................................... 39 II.4 - The Hellenistic resurrection of the mehr- b iconography ............................................ 41 II.5 - The Mithraic conduit .................................................................................................... 43 II.6 - Yt.8.4 and the pairing of two celestial symbols............................................................. 44 II.7 - Ravenna and the blend of Mithraic and Christian emblems ......................................... 46 II.8 - The mehr- b niche: From Jerash to Medina ................................................................. 48 II.9 - The mehr- b lion: From Esfah n to the Alhambra ....................................................... 50 II.10 - Apam Nap t and the reed............................................................................................ 52 II.11 - An eastern goddess promoted against the Mithra/Apam Nap t tandem ..................... 54 II.12 - An hit the anti-daeva and symbol of orthodoxy ....................................................... 56 II.13 - The impact of Zoroastrian deliberations on H riti's Chinese journey ......................... 60 II.14 - The flaming pearl ........................................................................................................ 63 EPILOGUE ................................................................................................................................ 65 APPENDIX I.............................................................................................................................. 69 APPENDIX II ............................................................................................................................ 76 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................... 78 INDEX ....................................................................................................................................... 80 Preface From the time I first read in Encyclopaedia Iranica Mary Boyce's entry on Apam Nap t (a creator god whom she thought was "robbed" of his functions by Ahura Mazd ), I saw this "robbing" as an anomaly that could hardly occur in the normal evolutionary course of religions. A creator god isn't easily demoted and replaced by another one, and religious frictions alone cannot cause such a major upheaval. It required substantial political backing from the ruling elite and the authorities in power. For me, the only event that could have caused such an upheaval was the advent of Darius and the ensuing massacre of the magi that Herodotus labelled as Magophonia. Be that as it may, what surprised me even more was the lack of further attention to such an important issue. Steeped in their etymological minutiae, Avestologists seemed to prefer to sweep under the rug the main problems of Zoroastrianism. Jean Kellens, for instance, glossed over this issue, in his 2010 lecture series at the Collège de France, by prefacing it with a mere "curieusement" remark. In the same series of lectures, he also asserted that the Greek work naphtha derived from Apam Nap t's name. If so, this too pointed to a major problem, that of an aquatic deity whose name evoked fire, with no apparent trace to be found in the Avesta. To me, there was a high chance that Apam Nap t's demotion was somehow tied to the loss of his fire attributes. The study that I have undertaken in this book demonstrates indeed that the two phenomena were interconnected, and were the result of major transformations that affected Zoroastrianism in the post-Achaemenid era. My conclusions, however, go against nonsensical theories that have permeated the sphere of Ancient Iranian Studies, and in which, many have invested intellectual capital. They try to defend the indefensible, but end up with more vagaries. Appendix I provides picturesque samples of their distorted views, expressed in a lamentation mode that transposes Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme into Avestology; savant-looking but hollow. Houston – August 2015 "The crucial verse Yašt 19.52 shows that in one of his aspects the ancient Apąm Nap t was a mighty creator-god, ‫ﺳ‬who created men, who shaped men‫( ﺴ‬yō nərə̄uš da’a, yō nərə̄uš tataša); but in Zoroastrianism Ahura Mazd is venerated as supreme Creator, and Apąm Nap t thus came to be robbed of this function." Mary Boyce " Apąm Nap ṯ" entry Encyclopaedia Iranica INTRODUCTION Understanding the Avesta - Georges Clemenceau once famously said that ‫ﺳ‬war was too important a matter to be left to the military‫ ;ﺴ‬by the same token, I feel that the Avesta is too important a text to be solely left to Avestologists, who are good technicians but may lack historical vision. In the last two decades, due to the domineering positions of Jean Kellens at the Collège de France and Prod Oktor Skjaervo at Harvard, the tendency of Avestologists has been to delve more and more into philological technicalities, at the expense of meaning and purpose. To be sure, philological considerations have much contributed to the deciphering of ancient texts, but, ultimately, the purpose of such an exercise is to produce readable and comprehensible translations. By this measure, the new trend has mostly failed. Many recent translations seem as mechanical as internetprovided translations, and beg the question whether the translator himself ever understood what he was writing. I had previously criticized some of these translations, by pointing out their errors and providing alternative translations in plain English.1 Here below, I shall produce further examples of incoherent translations that need to be reinterpreted. One cannot translate the Avesta without trying to understand what its authors had in mind. And that original intent cannot be deciphered if the Avesta is placed on too high grounds, and accorded unwarranted levels of abstraction. For, as I have recently argued, the Avesta is a corpus of texts assembled in the post-Achaemenid era with the double political motives of bringing the greatest number of people under the Zoroastrian tent, as well as exalting Ahura Mazd and Zoroaster. To do so, older hymns dedicated to a wide variety of deities were added to the Gathic core of the Avesta by judiciously sanitizing their contents, and new hymns were composed to the glory of Zoroaster by presenting him as the master of the universe.2 In what follows I shall provide further evidence for the above-mentioned contentions, which I first expounded in my recently published book, Mithraic Societies: From Brotherhood to Religion's Adversary (2014). The conclusions that I had reached therein, even though controversial, were developed in a step by step process over a period of ten years, in which each step provided the foundation for the next one. In the process, not 1 2 Soudavar 2014, 343-68. Soudavar 2014, 191-213 and 222-25. 2 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL only weaknesses and errors of contrarian theories were exposed, but the concordance of my own conclusions with a wide variety of issues were also demonstrated. In itself, that progression is indicative of validity, for if not, contradictions would have surfaced somewhere along the way. Avestologists, however, for lack of valid arguments, shun confrontation and have retreated to a self-made enclosure where they can live with the pretense that Zoroaster never existed, or that the Avesta is a wholesome un-manipulated text, in which, the older sections belong to the stratosphere of the second millennium BC and the later ones are pre-Achaemenid.3 Two words are essential to the understanding of the Avesta and the kingly ideology that prevailed in ancient Iran. The first is Av. chithra/MP chihr. For years, the word chihr—in the Sasanian kingly slogan of "chihr az yazat n"—had been translated as seed, origin, or nature, thereby conferring divine status to Sasanian kings. When I first objected to such translations in 2003, and suggested that chihr therein actually reflected the king's farr/OP khvarenah, it created much resentment; and by the time I extended it to the translation of Av. chithra (in 2006), Avestologists took it as an affront, even though, in the meantime Antonio Panaino had reached a similar interpretation for the Sasanian kingly slogan.4 With the exception of Xavier Tremblay who advocated a new fresh look on the translation of chithra in 2008 (see Appendix II), not one Avestologist dared to acknowledge the problems arising from their wrong translation of this word. As for the second word, p rsa, which constituted Darius's main claim to legitimacy when boasting to be "p rsa son of p rsa," I advocated that it designated a warrior-priest who officiated fire ceremonies. The correct understanding of this word has major implications for Avestan studies as well as Achaemenid history, and as such it has been met with silence on the surface, and negative comments in undercurrents. There again, except for Antonio Panaino who has taken my proposals into consideration,5 most scholars prefer to ignore it. They may also decide to ignore the additional proofs presented here below, but they cannot do it indefinitely. They will have to either discredit their opponents with credible arguments, or lose credibility themselves. Those who cannot see the ridicule in translating afsh-chithra as "containing the seeds of water" will 3 At a conference held at the Collège de France, (La religion des Achéménides: confrontation des sources, Nov. 7-8, 2013), Clarisse Herrenschmidt, expressed astonishment at how the Avesta debate had culminated in a comprehensive work by Gherardo Gnoli (Gnoli 2000), which, instead of gaining acceptance and/or fostering more debates, had been relegated to oblivion, even though Gnoli had switched sides himself. 4 Panaino 2004. 5 Panaino (forthcoming). 3 INTRODUCTION inevitably fall on their face, perhaps by slipping on the very "seeds of water" that no one else but them could ever imagine! The choice of Avestan script - In quoting the Avesta, I shall go back to the script devised by Bartholomae, which, as Ilya Gershevitch noted, ‫ﺳ‬easily and accurately‫ﺴ‬ conveys the Avestan pronunciation.6 This is the script that the main Zoroastrian website (www.Avesta.org) uses, and where one finds easy access to all the main texts of Zoroastrian literature. It's a choice that may irritate the specialists who have adopted a new system. But my aim here is to reach as many non-Avestologists as possible, whom, I believe, can better equate Avestan words with New Persian ones through this system, and benefit from it, in the same way that I did. By any standard, it's easier to equate NP div with daêva of the old script, than with daēuua of the new script. 6 Gershevitch surmised that: "The new fashion of writing ... is by contrast ugly, uneconomic, and to laymen, whom alone it is intended to make happy (experts have no need of transcription), confusing"; Gershevitch 1995, 6. 4 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL Fig. 1 – The double-legged-ankh caricature of Apam Nap t used here as symbol of b-n f (see fig. 9a, b) PART I The Textual Testimony 6 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL Fig. 2 – An hit holding Apam Nap t' hand. Sasanian silver bottle, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, on loan to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 7 I.1 - Compromising Zoroaster's monotheistic vision Old beliefs are hard to dislodge, and new religions need time to mature. That is perhaps what Darius (r. 522-486 BC) realized when he imposed his new omnipotent god, Ahura Mazd , on Iranian nations. Darius pursued a trial and error tactic, while Xerxes (r. 486-65 BC) implemented harsher measures. Achaemenid religious policy then seems to have vacillated between old and new paradigms; and issues such as the choice of an aquatic deity remained unresolved to the very end of Achaemenid reign. After the Macedonian conquests, the Zoroastrian priesthood continued where the Achaemenids had left off. Their approach, however, was one of compromise, in order to attract the maximum number of believers to their cause. In contravention of the monotheistic vision that Zoroaster had expounded in his Gathas, the Avesta compilers had no qualm in bringing additional deities into the Zoroastrian fold. In doing so, they chose pragmatism over religious intransigence. It‫ﺶ‬s the same choice that the early Islamic propagandists were confronted with. By their doctrine, the defeated enemy had to convert to Islam or die, with the exception of the People of the Book, who could maintain their religion by paying a poll tax, the jaziyya. This exception was only meant to be available to Jews and Christians, but was extended to the Zoroastrians who also had a book—the Avesta—even though unconnected to the Abrahamic religions. It was a pragmatic decision; rather than exterminating the Zoroastrians and losing a substantial source of income, they were accepted as People of the Book if they paid the jaziyya. The early Zoroastrian priests also made a pragmatic choice. To attract a maximum number of people to their religion, they decided to incorporate popular gods into the Zoroastrian pantheon, albeit as Ahura Mazd subordinates. The most popular of all Iranian gods was Mithra who had powerful solar credentials. To do away with him, Darius, whose Mazd -worshipping fervor was no less than Zoroaster's, even tried to empower Ahura Mazd with solar attributes in Bisotun (fig. 3); his maneuver must have backfired, for that was the first and last time he presented his all-powerful Ahura Mazd with such an attribute.7 Mithra was not an easy deity to displace, and that is probably why Zoroastrians preferred incorporating him into their pantheon rather than discarding him. If Mithra was appropriated, why not do the same with all other gods in order to achieve maximum acceptance? That‫ﺶ‬s what they actually tried to do. 7 Soudavar 2010, 110-31; Soudavar 2014, 208-218. 8 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival There was, however, one god, Apam Nap t, who presented a serious problem for the Avesta compilers. He was a mighty god, an aquatic deity to whom life, and therefore creation, was originally attributed; because in the very dry conditions of the Iranian plateau water was life, and an aquatic deity was naturally perceived as the one who bestowed it.8 In monotheistic religions, God is an all-powerful abstract entity who cannot share his ultimate power, that of creation, with any other entity. With the advent of Ahura Mazd as an abstract and omnipotent god, creation had to be his prerogative, and the easiest solution was to eliminate Apam Nap t. That, however, went against the goal of attracting a large part of the general population to Zoroastrianism, since Apam Nap t was a much respected deity.9 He was also closely linked to Mithra. This linkage was so strong that, despite all attempts to break it, multiple paired symbols of them have survived to this date (see sec. II.8), including in the name and structure of the Islamic mihr b (mehr- b).10 Negating Apam Nap t would have meant negating Mithra. It was difficult to keep one and not the other. Apam Nap t had also become the underwater guardian of the khvarenah. If he was to be eliminated, a substitute aquatic deity was necessary to release the khvarenah from the waters. The aquatic female deity An hit , who is first invoked by Artaxerxes II (r. 404358 BC) in Achaemenid inscriptions, seems to have been conceived as such a substitute. Iranian bureaucratic procedures are normally very conservative, and continue from one administration to the other. Invoking Mithra and An hit , after Ahura Mazd , by Artaxerxes II was certainly a major departure from past Achaemenid practices. But more surprising is the elimination of An hit in the inscriptions of Artaxerxes III (r. 358-338 BC).11 It is clearly indicative of a major ideological conflict in the acceptance of An hit : Whether she was suitable to replace Apam Nap t or not? It‫ﺶ‬s symptomatic of a persisting dilemma that continued up to the Sasanian era, and vividly marked their shifting ideology. Orthodox kings would invoke An hit , while the less orthodox ones would portray Apam Nap t and/or Mithra, as their supporters.12 This conflict had inevitable reverberations in the Avesta. Jean Kellens, who divided 8 Soudavar 2014, 191. Apam Nap t‫ﺶ‬s epithet of ahura (lord) lingered on in the Avesta, despite his rivalry with Ahura Mazd ; Boyce 1986. See also sec. I.8 below. 10 Soudavar 2014, 293-98. 11 Artaxerxes II (A2 Sd): … May Ahura Mazd , An hit and Mithra protect me, and whatever I have done, from all evil.‫ ﺴ‬Artaxerxes III (A3 Pa): … Artaxerxes the King says: May Ahura Mazd and Mithra protect me, and this country, and all that I have done.‫ﺴ‬ 12 Soudavar 2014,159-61. 9 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 9 Zoroastrian liturgies in to two bundles that he named Proto-Yasna-A and Proto-Yasna-B, primarily saw these liturgies as two sets composed in different times.13 His arguments, however, show much cross-referencing and cross-borrowing between the two, which is indicative of contemporaneity. A close analysis of the two reveals in fact two different approaches to the water-deity dilemma. In one, An hit replaced Apam Nap t as an all powerful aquatic goddess who dispensed the Aryan khvarenah, and in the other, the aquatic deity of old, i.e., Apam Nap t, was favored albeit in a subdued fashion.14 What stands out in their endeavor is how they discredited other deities, and reused them in an expanded pantheon of gods subordinated to Ahura Mazd . Their most difficult task was to find ways to reintegrate Apam Nap t (Apam Naph t?), a deity who was perceived as the main rival to Ahura Mazd , and the one who was initially branded as daeva. The subtle ways by which they achieved this is a testimony to their mastery in the art of sophistry, at a level seldom seen in the history of religions. I.2 - The revelatory passages Even though the Avesta is comprised of a series of texts that were doctored to hide, or diminish, the importance of popular Iranian deities, it nevertheless contains passages that pertain to an un-doctored past. A passage related to Zoroaster's birth, for instance, reveals the dominance of the Mithra/Apam Nap t tandem in Median kingly ideology. Indeed, to emphasize the greatness of their prophet, Avesta compilers proffered that his birth ushered in a new era of prosperity, and brought greatness to the Iranian people. To justify it, they had to pin his birthdate to an extraordinary event. The most important event that marked the early history of the Iranian people—and put them on the map so to speak—was the sack of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh by a coalition of Iranians led by the Medes, circa 614 BC.15 But the Medes who had driven Zoroaster out of his fiefdom of Raga could not be praised in conjunction with this momentous event.16 The solution was to refer to it by its religious repercussions rather than territorial conquests, i.e., by Mithra and Apam Nap t being jointly praised in a wider empire. The formation of an empire necessitated an appropriate kingly ideology, and that of 13 Kellens 1998. Soudavar 2014, 222-25. 15 As per the "258 Axiom" of Zoroastrianism, Zoroaster started preaching at the age of thirty, 258 years before the advent of Alexander. His birthday can therefore be calculated to the year 618 BC, i.e., some four years before the fall of Nineveh. 16 Soudavar 2014, 233-41. 14 10 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival the Medes seems to have been built on the supremacy of a deity pair, Mithra and Apam Nap t, who controlled two different realms: Mithra was a sun god who presided over daytime, while Apam Nap t was an aquatic god who presided over nighttime. They had similar but complementary functions. Full authority was predicated on the backing of both. With the formation of the Median Empire, this Iranian deity pair received recognition beyond Iranian nations, and into conquered territories. It is thus that in the Farvardin Yasht, the expanded recognition that befell these two deities was attributed to the auspicious birth of Zoroaster: Yt.13:94 Let us rejoice, for a priestly man is born, the Spitamid Zarathushtra... From now on the good Mazdean Religion will spread through all the seven Climes of the Earth Yt.13:95 From now on, Mithra … will promote all supreme authorities of the nations and will pacify those in revolt. From now on, strong Apam Nap t will promote all the supreme authorities of the nations and will subjugate all those in revolt Such an artifice only became available to Zoroastrianism when it shed aside its monotheistic outlook and expanded its pantheon to include Mithra and Apam Nap t, as Ahura Mazda subordinates. Nevertheless, it betrays a pre-existing conception that divided the world into two realms, each presided by its own deity. Hence, two deities performing the same tasks: Mithra operating in daytime, and Apam Nap t in nighttime, both dealing with the same political issues of upholding authority and crushing revolt. In another instance, the author of Yt.19.52 characterizes Apam Nap t with a legend of old, "who created men, who shaped men," which qualified him as a creator; it echoes the powers of the Vedic Ap m Nap t, who was also a creator god in his own context.17 Without this slip of the tongue we may have never been able to assess the Iranian Apam Nap t's past importance and the reason for his demotion. He had creative powers that clashed with those of Ahura Mazd , whom later Zoroastrianism was promoting as the 17 On the Iranian Apam Nap t, Mary Boyce wrote: "The crucial verse Yašt 19.52 shows that in one of his aspects the ancient Apąm Nap t was a mighty creator-god, ‫ﺳ‬who created men, who shaped men‫( ﺴ‬yō nərə̄uš da’a, yō nərə̄uš tataša); but in Zoroastrianism Ahura Mazd is venerated as supreme Creator, and Apąm Nap t thus came to be robbed of this function." On the Vedic Ap m Nap t, she described him as the one ‫ﺳ‬who has created all beings through his power as Asura‫( ﺴ‬Rigveda 2.35.2); Boyce 1986. Kellens, however, says: "La relative yō nərš tataša « qui a taillé les hommes » lui attribue curieusement une activité anthropogonique qui est en principe l‫ﺶ‬apanage exclusif d‫ﺶ‬Ahura Mazd . Or tout ceci traduit des conceptions qui sont également repérables dans les hymnes védiques d‫ﺶ‬Ap m Nap t"; Jean Kellens lecture of Dec. 17, 2010. THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 11 unique creator.18 An Apam Nap t who "created men," had really no place in the pantheon that later Zoroastrian priests constructed. While Mithra was sanitized, and integrated into the Zoroastrian pantheon through a dedicated hymn (Mehr Yasht, Yt.13), Apam Nap t was stripped of his, and only referred to here and there, mostly within hymns dedicated to other deities. Also, by aggrandizing the role of Zoroaster, Zoroastrian priests hoped to achieve greater status for themselves. Thus, the ultimate khvarenah, i.e., the Aryan khvarenah, was taken away from kingship and allocated to Zoroaster. It was done indirectly and through the bias of utterances by the arch-enemy of Iran, Afr siy b, who sought the Aryan khvarenah from the deity guarding it underwater. Oddly the khvarenah guardian differs from one liturgy to the other. In Yt.19, the Aryan khvarenah is guarded and/or released by Apam Nap t, but in Yt.5, the Aryan khvarenah is supposedly released by An hit . In both, Afr siy b recognizes it as belonging to Zoroaster. But this went against the Achaemenid kingly ideology, in which the possession of the Aryan khvarenah was the prerogative of Achaemenid kings.19 No Achaemenid king would have tolerated the permanent attribution of the Aryan khvarenah to Zoroaster. Imagine a priest, who had the obligation to recite Avestan hymns five times a day, would utter under Darius's palace that Zoroaster was the possessor of the Aryan Khvarenah and the universal king under whom no one could achieve a higher status than a mere dahyu-paiti or tribal chieftain (Y.19.18). Darius would have cut his nose, tongue and limbs! 20 Thus, none of these hymns could have passed through—and survived—the Achaemenid era; they must be post-Achaemenid compositions. They were probably conceived under the Seleucids who did not care what Zoroastrian priests thought or did. More importantly, yashts 19 and 5 are indicative of two different outlooks for the supreme aquatic deity; one favored Apam Nap t, and the other promoted An hit . As we shall see, the latter also promoted An hit as the anti-daeva and the champion of Zoroastrian orthodoxy. I.3 - The daeva problem In Zoroaster's Gathas, where Ahura Mazd is praised, traditional Iranian gods are 18 At the beginning of a hymn that gave Zoroaster world rulership (Y19.18), for instance, Ahura Mazd is declared "maker of the corporeal world" and the one created the sky, water, earth, cow, plants, fire, the righteous man, and more generally, all of the corporeal world, and the good things "imbued with the chithra (Light) of righteousness" (Y19.2). 19 From Darius onward, they all claimed to be arya chisa (i.e., beaming with the Aryan khvarenah) 20 Soudavar 2014, 194. 12 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival referred to as daevas, and are not demonized.21 Unlike other Indo-European languages in which daeva derivatives have kept a positive connotation (Sanskrit deva, Latin deus, French dieu), in the Iranian context, daevas were turned into demoniac divs that populate folkloric tales and the Sh hn meh stories. But gods are not easily turned into demons in the normal evolutionary course of religions. Something drastic must have happened, producing a religious cataclysm that turned good gods into bad ones. As I have argued elsewhere, this cataclysm was provoked by the general massacre of the Median magi dubbed as Magophonia by Herodotus. It was unleashed by Darius I and his six coconspirators against the usurper magus Gaumata and his Median magi supporters. Yet as drastic as such a massacre must have been, it was directed against political adversaries and not gods; Darius's adversaries were the Median magi and not their gods. Moreover, the divs that are depicted in the Sh hn meh—whether in text or image— seem to be political adversaries, since they fight with their opponents, take them prisoners, negotiate their release, and, more generally, act like humans. More than anything, they represent the enemy of the state, those whom in today's political parlance are frequently labeled as "terrorists." One must therefore seek the reflection of the demonization process of the daevas in the political arena, i.e., the official Achaemenid documents, rather than in the Avesta that was assembled at the tail end of this process. Achaemenid inscriptions provide four different evolutionary stages: 1- Darius - The enemies that Darius had to combat were those who questioned his legitimacy and sought to establish themselves on the throne; and the Median magi that he massacred were primarily political adversaries who had tried to usurp the throne. He did not demonize any of the ancient gods, but simply tried to switch their powers to Ahura Mazd (see sec. II.3). Eventually, however, Darius acknowledged other gods and sought their help.22 In the case of Mithra, he even upheld the sanctity of his sanctuaries.23 Darius's main preoccupation was a tactical as well as a theological one: The Median day/night dichotomy had to be eradicated from the popular mind before Ahura-Mazd could be accepted as a uniquely powerful god. As his deputy on earth, Darius emphasized that his commands were to be obeyed "by day and by night" (DB§7-8). This finds visual expression on Achaemenid tombs where the king is portrayed as a warriorpriest (p rsa) officiating a fire ceremony on behalf of Ahura Mazd , who, from above 21 Herrenschmidt & Kellens 1993. DPd: ‫ﺳ‬this is what I request from Ahura Mazd , with all the gods; may Ahura Mazd , with all the gods, fulfill my wishes‫ ;ﺴ‬Lecoq 1997, 228. 23 Soudavar 2014, 234-35. 22 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 13 the fire, is making an approving gesture to him. To emphasize that the king's officiating function covered both nighttime and daytime ceremonies, a sun and moon combination is depicted on the far right of the scene (fig. 4).24 Fig. 3 – Solar emblem added to Ahura Mazd 's hat. Bisotun. Fig. 4 – Achaemenid p rsa king officiating fire ceremonies by day and by night (i.e., under sun and moon). Naqsh-e Rostam Fig. 5 – Lion and bull with sun and moon symbols on a seal from Sardes (Cahill 2010, 185) Fig. 6 – Lion-Bull combat as symbol of the perpetual day/night revolutions (Soudavar 2014, 214) In the same vein, Darius devised the impressive lion-bull icons of Persepolis as a symbol of perpetual day/night revolutions in order to blur the separation of the night and 24 I had previously thought that this double symbol represented two phases of the moon, i.e., as a crescent and full disk (Soudavar 2010, 56; Soudavar 2014, 99), but I am now convinced that this double symbolism evokes two distinct situations, which is more appropriate for day-night representation than the continuously evolving shape of the moon. 14 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival day realms (fig. 6),which was disseminated throughout the Achaemenid empire (fig. 5). The day and night dichotomy was thus abolished through amalgamation.25 2- Xerxes (r. 486-465 BC) – As the scion of both Cyrus (r. 559-530 BC) and Darius, Xerxes's legitimacy couldn't be challenged by outsiders. Therefore if he stated in his XPh inscriptions that: "among these nations there was a place where previously daivas (Av. daeva) were worshiped. Afterwards, by the grace of Ahura Mazd , I destroyed that sanctuary of daivas, and I proclaimed: 'The daivas shall not be worshiped!'" his enemies must have challenged him in a way that threatened the supremacy of Ahura Mazd , the god who supposedly conferred authority to Xerxes. That challenge must have been primarily placed under the banner of Apam Nap t whose life-giving prerogatives and creation powers clashed with those of Ahura Mazd . The destroyed sanctuary was where Apam Nap t and most probably Mithra were praised, to the exclusion of Ahura Mazd . Sanctuary destruction meant demonization of the daevas worshipped therein.26 And as I have argued elsewhere, the demonization process of the old gods started with Xerxes, who escalated the iconographical rhetoric against the daevas, by increasing the number of combat scenes with them in his throne hall, and aggrandizing them by blowing their sizes out of proportion; and the nation that Xerxes targeted was the M zandar n, where the daevas maintained their exalted status long after the demise of the Achaemenids.27 3- Artaxerxes II – In the succession struggle that pitted Artaxerxes II with his brother Cyrus the Younger, the latter was clearly counting on the support of those longing for the Median ideology, as he donned Median robes and dedicated a special procession chariot to Mithra.28 Despite victory over his younger brother, Artaxerxes had to show that he was in full possession of the Aryan khvarenah. To do so, he needed to invoke two gods who controlled the khvarenah, one aquatic and one solar. Mithra could be invoked without posing a major challenge for Ahura Mazd , but Apam Nap t needed a substitute. Hence the choice of An hit , a river deity who may have been popular in the eastern provinces of the empire (see sec. II.10). 25 Soudavar 2010, 127-28; Soudavar 2014, 214-16. Similarly, Lecoq argues that the word yadan , which in reality means ‫ﺳ‬religious practices‫ ﺴ‬has been translated as ‫ﺳ‬temple‫ ﺴ‬in the Babylonian and Elamite versions of the Bisotun inscriptions, because in the Mesopotamian context, the destruction or reconstruction of temples was a normal consequence of religious changes; Lecoq 1995. 27 Soudavar 2014, 241-48. 28 Xenophon (Cyr. 8.3.12); Soudavar 2014, 333-34. 26 15 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 4- Artaxerxes III - The fact that Artaxerxes III dropped An hit from his invocations is of major importance to our study, since it points to a rejection. Clearly, An hit was unacceptable to an important political faction and was dropped from official statements. These four stages point to an ideological conflict in gestation, in which, the ruling elite was trying to impose Ahura Mazd at the expense of traditional gods worshipped by a majority of their subjects. It resulted into a factionalism that erupted into rebellions under Xerexes and Artaxerxes II. By fear of persecution, some of these factions were driven underground in the guise of Mithraic societies that preserved the Median day/night dichotomy associated with the deity pair Mithra/Apam Nap t. This dichotomy and its resulting symbolism are best summarized in the following table: Mithra Lord of the Day sun light/fire sunflower lion, sun cross Apam Napāt Lord of the Night moon water lotus, reed snake, scorpion More importantly, two symbols of these underground societies, namely the snake and the scorpion, became emblematic of the enemy, i.e., the daeva-worshippers. Since the snake was always associated with water, especially under the Elamites, and the scorpion was a nocturnal animal, it stands to reason that their subsequent qualification as khrafstar in the Avesta was due to their perceived association with Apam Nap t, the aquatic Lord of the Night.29 Otherwise, why should any of god's creatures be qualified as a noxious animal that had to be killed? In what follows, we shall not only see how the Avesta reflects the various Achaemenid attempts to solve the Apam Nap t dilemma, but how An hit was meant to supplant him. I.4 - Anāhitā, the anti-daevā goddess The preamble to most of the yashts, including that of An hit (Yt.5), has a tripartite sentence, which I see as a "profession of orthodoxy": (a) fravarâne mazdayasnô, zarathushtrish, (b) vî-daêvô, (c) ahura-tkaêshô (a) I profess to be a worshipper of Mazd , a follower of Zarathushtra, (b) against daevas (vîdaêvô), (c) and of Ahuric religion (ahura-tkaêshô, NP ahura-kish). To give it more weight, and to present it as a fundamental doctrine, it was also put in the mouth of Gayomard (Yt.13.87-89), the Primordial Man who generated the Aryans. 29 Soudavar 2014, 79-86, and 167. 16 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival While part (a) of this proclamation is clearly a profession of faith, part (b) is antagonistic and enrolls the faithful in a fight against the enemy. As for (c), it's symptomatic of the religious amalgam that the Avesta compilers concocted in the post-Achaemenid era, and that we shall further explicate in sec. I.9. What (b) indicates, however, is that the fight against the daeva-worshippers—initiated by Xerxes—had not been resolved by the end of the Achaemenid era, and that the Avesta compilers foresaw more combats ahead. It ties in well with our explanation that the so called daeva-worshippers not only left their imprint in Persepolis by defacing Darius and Xerxes, but kept their reverence for the daevas long after the Achaemenids; they survived as underground societies and/or in remote areas such as the M zandar n.30 Thus, the fight against the daevas was a perpetual fight that came to define orthodoxy. Interestingly, parts (b) and (c) of the "profession of orthodoxy" are symmetrically reflected in the first stanza of Yt.5, where An hit is qualified as anti-daeva (vî-daêvô) and of "Ahuric Religion."31 She is presented as the champion of orthodoxy and the deity who leads the fight against the daevas. And to drive this message into the faithful's mind, this stanza is repeated 29 more times in a hymn that has a total of 133 stanzas. In this repeated stanza, Ahura Mazd introduces An hit to Zoroaster, as an all powerful deity worthy of praise: " Ahura Mazd said to Spitama Zarathushtra: 'Praise her for me, O Spitama Zarathushtra! the wide-expanding and health-giving Ardvi Sura An hit , who is against the daevas and is of Ahuric religion, who is worthy of sacrifice in the corporeal world, worthy of prayer in the corporeal world; the life-increasing Righteous, the herd-increasing Righteous, the foldincreasing Righteous, the wealth-increasing Righteous, the nation-increasing Righteous" Repetition seems to be a common technique of the Avesta compilers when trying to introduce an unfamiliar notion or one that went against common perception. They hammer it in. The repetitive "Mazd -created" label that precedes almost all mentions of khvarenah in the Avesta, for instance, was used to incorporate this important concept of power into Zoroastrianism.32 Similarly, the repetition of the above-mentioned stanza was to establish the importance of this newly introduced aquatic deity within an expanded Zoroastrian pantheon. What's more, through subtle references to her field of action, her origins, and powers, she is introduced not as a mere aquatic deity but one destined to supplant the powerful 30 Soudavar 2014, 256-58 and 324. Dustkh h 2002, I:297. 32 Soudavar 2010, 122-27. 31 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 17 Mithra and Apam Nap t deity pair.33 To do so, like Darius who had insisted that his orders be universally carried "by day and by night," An hit is presented as one who controls the waters "by night and by day" (Yt.5.15). But to differentiate her personality from Apam Nap t who is the Lord of the Night, An hit instructs Zoroaster to only praise her from "from sun-rise till sunset" (Yt.5.91). Meanwhile, to diminish Apam Nap t, he is denied a dedicated yasht in the Avesta and is only praised in the afternoon prayers of the Uzerin Gah, along with a group of minor deities. Furthermore, to make An hit more powerful than Mithra, she is not only given a quadrigae with four white horses (Yt.5.13), as Mithra was (Yt.10.125), but she is said to descend from a place higher than the Sun and through a course that snakes, scorpions, and the likes, cannot harm her (Yt.5.90). As snakes and scorpions are khrafstars, and the quintessential emblems of daeva-worshippers, An hit 's role as the anti-daeva goddess is once more emphasized here, with perhaps an oblique hint that Mithra—who rides with the Sun—follows a different course, one that can take him to the khrafstars. That Yt.5 was composed with an eye on Mithra's yasht is also apparent from what Kellens had observed about one of its stanzas. In Yt.5.53, he saw an incompatibility where three plural adjectives (rathaêshtârô, jaidhyañtô, and tanubyô) describe the heroism of a lone hero, Tus (Tusô); whereas, in Yt.10.11, the exact same sentence, with the same adjectives, qualify warriors (in plural) who praise Mithra. He concludes that the grammatically correct plural form of Yt.10.11 was the original, and Yt.5.53 a copy.34 Clearly, An hit was in competition with both Mithra and Apam Nap t, and its yasht was supposed to project her as more powerful than both. I.5 - Power indicators If An hit was to supplant the Median deity pair Mithra/Apam Nap t who conferred authority and vanquished the enemy (Yt.13.95), a simple declaration of her powers—as in the first stanza—would not suffice to convince the faithful, even if repeated 30 times. Further demonstration of her authority and powers were necessary. To be more convincing, the Avestan authors make use of four techniques in this hymn: (1) they enlist a string of twenty supplicants who solicit her support to achieve greatness or to combat the enemy, (2) they use the importance of offerings as evidence of their belief in her 33 Interestingly, An hit herself seems to be unsure of her acceptance, when she asks in Yt.5.8: "Who will praise me? Who will offer me a sacrifice?" 34 Kellens 1978, 265. For my own views on this grammatical error, see note 115 supra. 18 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival power, (3) they dilute the power of her rival by sharing his prerogatives with other entities, and (4) by diminishing his stature. 1- Supplicants - Out of the 133 stanzas of her yasht, 87 stanzas narrate 20 episodes in which renowned supplicants ask for her support and—depending on them being friend or foe—their wishes are granted or denied. In an ultimate display of sophistry, the first supplicant is no less than Ahura Mazd himself (Yts.5.16-19), as he—the Creator—begs An hit to intercede with Zoroaster, to propagate the good religion on his behalf! Thus, Ahura Mazd , An hit , and Zoroaster are associated in a cozy triad of orthodoxy in which all three are in need of one another. This close association is further emphasized in Yt.5.89, where Zoroaster and An hit appear as Ahura Mazd 's acolytes and champions of righteousness (read orthodoxy): (Soudavar translation) Yt.5.89: (An hit to Zoroaster:) "O candid, righteous Son of Spitama! Ahura Mazd has established you as the master/guide (ratu) of the corporeal world; Ahura Mazd has established me as the protector of all righteousness (vîspayå ashaonô stôish)."35 Among the supplicants appear powerful mythological figures from the Indo-Iranian lore, such as Jamshid (Yima), the dragon Azhi-dah ga, and the dragon-slayer Fereydun (Thraetona). The problem though is that none of these figures had any prior encounter, in the Vedic mythology or elsewhere, with An hit . They clearly indicate a deliberate fabrication by the Avestan authors, who, besides glorifying An hit , use the process to further empower Zoroaster. Thus in Yts.5.40-43, Afr siy b (Frangrasy n) begs An hit to enable him to "catch the khvarenah, that is waving in the middle of the sea VouruKasha, that belongs to the Aryan people, born or unborn, and to righteous Zoroaster." The author subtly uses the process to empower Zoroaster through the words of Afr siy b, who avows that the Aryan khvarenah, i.e., the ultimate source of power, belongs to Zoroaster. An hit , of course, refuses his request. Recognition by the powerful enemy of Iranians certainly looks more potent than a 35 By choosing to translate asha as "Orderly" in English, and "Agencement" in French, Skjaervo and Kellens have respectively added unnecessary wrinkles to the comprehension of this word. It's true that asha evokes a correctly organized system, but more than order it insists on the right way of things. And since English offers a great number of derivatives for "right," they can be effectively used to translate asha derivatives. Previous translators, such as Darmesteter, had used them, and with better results. Thus, the last sentence vîspayå ashaonô stôish, which literally means "the entire rightful existence," is better rendered as "all righteousness" in plain English. And the adjectives erezvô ashâum used to qualify Zoroaster are better rendered as "O candid, righteous ...," rather than the literal translation "O Upright , Orderly ..." that Skjaervo provides; Skjaervo 2006, 78. Similarly, the translation "corporeal world" of old seems far more appropriate for the material world that Skjaervo translates as "Bony Existence" because the Avesta literally describes it as a world "with skeleton" (astvaite). THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 19 straightforward proclamation to that effect. Thus, the same technique is used in Yt.19, but slightly differently. In Yt.5, Afr siy b solicits An hit to give him the Aryan khvarenah, but in Yts.19.52-63 he seeks it on his own, plunging three times into the waters, where the Aryan khvarenah had finally landed after Jamshid had lost it. He would then rise up empty-handed from the waters and utter each time that he could not catch "the khvarenah that belongs to the Aryan people, born or unborn, and to righteous Zoroaster." Both yashts empower Zoroaster with the khvarenah, albeit Yt.19 does it more forcefully, as Afr siy b's utterance is repeated three times. Although, it's not clear who copied whom, one can nevertheless recognize that in copying one another, the authors of these two yashts pursued different objectives. In Yt.19, the khvarenah is left underwater to be guarded by Apam Nap t, which implies that he had to release it for Afr siy b to grab it, while in Yt.5, the control of the khvarenah is in the hands of An hit . It reflects the tensions generated by the introduction of An hit as a purveyor of khvarenah, in lieu of Apam Nap t. 2- Offerings – Important offerings clearly elevate the status of the receiving deity. In Yt.5, eighteen of the supplicants offer 100 stallions, 1000 bulls, and 10000 sheep in honor of An hit . These exaggerated numbers may simply reflect a literary formula, but chances are that they were also emulating propagandistic slogans previously formulated by the Achaemenids. Indeed, in his analysis of Herodotus's account of Xerxes sacrificing 1000 bulls to Athena in Priam (Her. VII. 43), Gherardo Gnoli rightly concludes that it must have been based on Persian propaganda targeting the Greeks, since they had previously done the same against Babylonians and Egyptians.36 But, whereas Gnoli supposes that the sacrifice of 1000 bulls to Athena was modelled after the Avestan sacrifice of 1000 bulls to An hit , I believe otherwise: It's the Avestan authors who adapted kingly propaganda to their needs, and not the other way around. From time immemorial, priests had used kingly images, paraphernalia, and protocols, to project majesty for their gods and the prophets. Thus, like the Aryan khvarenah that was appropriated for Zoroaster, royal sacrifice propaganda was also appropriated for An hit . 3- Sharing – Strangely the two previous techniques are also used in the short hymn of a minor goddess Drv sp (Yt.9.1-32), solely composed of episodes in which seven supplicants provide the exact same offerings (100 stallions, 1000 bulls, and 10000 sheep). With the exception of one supplicant, Haoma, the other six are the same as those from Yt.5 (i.e., Haoshyangha, Yima, Thraetaona, Haosrava, Zoroaster, and Visht spa); 36 Gnoli 1998, 63. 20 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival they are all "good" supplicants, and their wishes are thus granted. Their requests, however, are not the same as in Yt.5, but complimentary ones. For instance, whereas in Yt.5 Zoroaster requests An hit to facilitate the conversion of Visht spa to the good religion, Drv sp is asked in Yt.9 to facilitate the conversion of Visht spa's wife, Hutaos ; or, whereas in Yt.5 Yima requests universal kingship and governance abilities, in Yt.9, he makes a compassionate request to do away with old age, atmospheric vagaries, and nourishment desires. Moreover, these same episodes reappear in Yt.17—which is a hymn to the goddess Ashi—but without specifying what was offered. There have been many attempts to explain these redundancies, but none offer a cogent answer.37 Whatever the reason, the net effect of this redundancy is a dilution of powers. If other goddesses can grant requests, as An hit does, the latter's aura will be diminished, but so will be Apam Nap t's. One possible explanation may therefore be that, after an attempt to raise the prestige of An hit , a compromise solution was sought by which other goddesses were added to rein in her powers, and at the same time, diminish Apam Nap t's. As we shall see, this blurring technique is also used in Yt.8 to further dilute Apam Nap t's powers. 4- Diminution – For Apam Nap t to be an acceptable god in the Zoroastrian pantheon, his stature needed to be diminished. Dilution of prerogatives was one way to achieve this; another way was to diminish his stature through loss of popularity. That is what Yt.5.72 is about. It emphasizes a switch of allegiance from Apam Nap t to An hit by prominent community leaders or commanders. Unfortunately, Avestologists' lack of understanding for this has resulted in incomprehensible translations. Skjaervo, for instance, is clearly hesitant about his own proposal, and puts an asterisk next to the translation that he provides for the Avestan word upa: (Skjaervo 2007, I:76) Yt. 5.72: Ashavazdah son of Pourudhakhshti sacrificed to her, and Ashavazdah and Thrita, sons of Sayuzhdri, *approaching (upa) the lofty lord, the one in command, the radiant Scion of the Waters with fleet horses, a hundred stallions, a thousand bulls, ten thousand rams. Skjaervo, who systematically substitutes the literal translation "Scion of the Waters" for Apam Nap t, proposes "approaching" for upa, while Darmesteter chooses "by" from meanings that Avestan dictionaries offer for upa (= upon, onto, near, towards, by, up to): (Darmesteter 1898) 37 Kellens 1996. Yt.5.72: To her did Ashavazdah, the son of Pouru-dhakhshti, and THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 21 Ashavazdah and Thrita, the sons of Sayuzhdri, offer up a sacrifice, with a hundred horses, a thousand oxen, ten thousand lambs, by (upa) Apam Napat, the tall lord, the lord of the females, the bright and swift-horsed. In Skjaervo's translation, three supplicants sacrifice to An hit to get close to Apam Nap t; but in Darmesteter's translation, Apam Nap t becomes a mere helper.38 Neither makes sense. Why should lofty epithets be used for auxiliaries with undefined functions? In reality, upa is used here as "onto," in order to reveal the supplicants' linkage to Apam Nap t. Similar to English, where "being onto something" evokes devotion or full focus, upa describes supplicants who were previously devotees of Apam Nap t, but were now sacrificing to An hit . This stanza should therefore be translated as: (Soudavar) Yt.5.72: Ashavazdah son of Pourudh khshti and Ashavazdah and Thrita, sons of S yuzhdri, who were onto (i.e., worshipped) the blazing lord,39 the shining commander, the swift-horsed Apam Nap t, now sacrificed to her a hundred stallions, a thousand bulls, ten thousand rams The use of lofty titles for Apam Nap t only enhanced the prestige of An hit , because it conveyed the idea that the said supplicants had dropped a mighty god for an even mightier one. Authors and poets often weave older composition into their own, and here, the Avestan author saw no harm in using Apam Nap t's former epithets, but in so doing, he also opened a vista unto how this deity was previously viewed. This defection scenario goes hand in hand with the reduced prayer time allocated to Apam Nap t, since he was to be praised only in the afternoon, and as part of the Uzerin Gah liturgy. It's in contrast to the symmetrical roles envisaged in Yt.13.95 for Mithra and Apam Nap t that pertain to two well-defined symmetrical time spans, which can only relate to a day/night division. In that division, Mithra was the Lord of Daytime and Apam Nap t the Lord of Nighttime.40 Apam Nap t's previous hold on nighttime also transpires here and there in the Avesta, as in Yt.8.4, where Tishtrya (Sirius) is said to have obtained its brilliance from him (see below). As such, prayers for Apam Nap t must have been formerly conducted at nighttime; and their shift to the afternoon must constitute one more 38 I had previously accepted the translation "by" for upa, to deduce that Apam Nap t had become a mere auxiliary to An hit (Soudavar 2014, 223). It must now be corrected even though both translations diminish the stature of Apam Nap t. 39 I explain the translation of berezañtem ahurem as "blazing lord" in sec. I.8. 40 Boyce argues that Apam Nap t was an avatar of Varuna; Boyce 1986. My guess is that Apam Nap t was implanted on Varuna as an import. In either case, his closeness to Varuna provides one more argument for defining nighttime as Apam Nap t's domain, since Varuna was essentially associated with the night, and the Vedic Mitra was associated with the day. 22 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival attempt to dissociate Apam Nap t from his nighttime domain. Our analysis of Yts.94-95 (next section) shall further confirm this assessment. I.6 - Purifying the libations Various translations of stanzas 94 and 95 of the b n Yasht clearly demonstrate that philology may not be of much help if the hymn's purpose is not understood. To illustrate this point, these two stanzas are reproduced hereunder, along with three existing translations: Yt.5.94. paiti dim peresat zarathushtrô aredvîm sûrem anâhitãm, aredvî sûre anâhite kem idha tê zaothrå bavaiñti ýase-tava frabareñte drvañtô daêvayasnånghô pasca hû frâshmôdâitîm. Yt.5.95. âat aoxta aredvî sûra anâhita, erezvô ashâum spitama zarathushtra [nivayaka1 ni-pashnaka2 apa-skaraka3 apa-xraosaka4] imå paiti-vîseñte ýå mâvôya pasca vazeñti xshvash-satâish hazangremca ýâ nôit haiti vîseñti daêvanãm haiti ýasna. (Darmesteter 1898) Yt.5.94. 'Then Zarathushtra asked Ardvi Sura Anahita: "O Ardvi Sura Anahita! What becomes of those libations which the wicked worshippers of the Daevas bring unto thee after the sun has set?" Yt.5.95. 'Ardvi Sura Anahita answered: "O pure, holy Spitama Zarathushtra! howling, clapping, hopping, and shouting, six hundred and a thousand Daevas, who ought not to receive that sacrifice, receive those libations that men bring unto me after [the sun has set]." (Skjaervo 2007, I:78) Yt.5.94 . Zarathustra asked her in turn, Ardvi Sura An hit : O Ardvi Sura An hit ! *How do the libations of yours become here, which they offer as yours, the one possessed by the Lies who sacrifice to the old gods, after the sun has set? Yt.5.95. Thus she spoke, Ardvi Sura An hit : O upright, Orderly Spitama [Zarathustra]! as to be ‫ﺳ‬woe‫ﺴ‬d down, to be (ground) under the heels, as to be *laughed back, to be howled back, are they accepted, these (libations) that fly after me by six-hundreds and a thousand, which are not accepted at the sacrifice of the old gods. (Malandra 1983, 127) Yt.5. 94. Zarathushtra asked her, Ardvi Sura An hit : "O Ardvi Sura An hit , now what becomes of the libations to you when the daeva-worshipping drugvants bring them to you after sunset?" Yt.5.95. Then Ardvi Sura An hit said: O upright righteous Spitamid Zarathushtra; the frightful( ?), the ... (?), the slanderous (daeva-worshippers) install themselves by these (libations ). All three translations of stanza 94 agree with one another, except for the "after sunset" time constraint. While Darmesteter and Malandra see it as the time when libations were brought in, Skjaervo correctly perceives it as the time when the old gods, i.e. the daevas, were worshipped.41 As for their translations of the second stanza, they differ widely. In 41 Clearly, the time constraint pasca hû frâshmô-dâitîm (after the sun has set) affects daeva-yasnånghô (those THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 23 Darmesteter's, 1600 of the wicked ones take hold of libations destined for An hit , which projects weakness rather than strength for An hit . In Skjaervo's though, 1600 libations pursue aimlessly An hit in the air; but we are not told why, and for what purpose. As for Malandra, he simply drops the towel and avows incomprehension. Overall, none of them makes sense. The correct understanding of the stanza 94 is crucial for the understanding of stanza 95, because it lays out a problem for which stanza 95 provides a solution. If the problem is not understood, its solution won't be either. In stanza 94, Zarathushtra wants to know what must be done with libations that he characterizes in three ways: (a) they are destined for An hit ,42 (b) they are "brought to use" (frabareñte) by the wicked ones, (c) for daeva-worshipping ceremonies after sunset. Libations were used by the priesthood as means of communication with the gods, generally through two media, water or fire. From the standpoint of Yt.5, An hit is the supreme goddess of the waters, and therefore any libation poured into water was inevitably considered to be hers, even though prepared by others, including daevaworshippers. But no priest was ever able to collect and prepare the libation ingredients by himself; they were generally brought from the four corners of the realm, and then mixed and prepared by the priest. As most of the population, especially the peasantry, had still not converted to Zoroastrianism, these ingredients were mostly gathered by nonbelievers.43 At issue here is the acceptability of water libations prepared with ingredients gathered by unsuitable people, who are characterized as worshipping daevas after sunset. Nighttime being the realm of Apam Nap t, these daeva-worshippers are clearly those who still considered Apam Nap t as the god of nighttime. When a group of people are demonized, they are automatically considered as vile and unclean. They can thus contaminate what they produce, or touch. That's what purity laws are created for: To clean what is contaminated by the unclean. The question here (what to do with water libations supplied by daeva-worshippers?) can have two answers: 1- They must be discarded, 2- They can be used, but must be purified. It's the latter that is advised here, and it's done by structuring the answer into three distinct parts. who worship the daevas) after which it is placed, and not frabareñte (carried through) that appears far behind in the sentence. 42 In this stanza, where Zoroaster is addressing An hit , he qualifies the libations as ýase-tava, meaning "for you" or "to you." 43 If daeva-worshippers would switch allegiance, as the supplicants of Yt.5.72 did, and then prepare ingredients for water libations and deliver them in good faith for a sacrifice to An hit , no such a problem would exist. Obviously, many of them did not convert. 24 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival First, in lieu of zaothra (libation), stanza 95 refers to this liquid matter by using the four processes that its ingredients are put through. They appear as a block—that I have bracketed within the Avestan text—and are described by four verbs: [what is verb1, (what is) verb2, (what is) verb3, (what is) verb4]. These verbs are preceded by the suffixes ni (down, under) or apa (away, apart), and reflect the processes described by Gherardo Gnoli for the preparation of libations: "The offering made to the waters at the conclusion of the Yasna was prepared by blending milk, the leaves of a plant, and the juice squeezed from the stems of a different plant.‫ﺴ‬44 Indeed, to squeeze the juice out of the stems, they need to be trampled, as grapes are in wineries; verb2 (ni-pashna-ka) explains this process as it relates to NP p shna (heel) and what goes under it (because of the suffix ni). Verb4 (apa-khraosa-ka) relates to NP khar s (stone mill), and designates the act of grinding and pulverizing grains or dry leaves.45 Verb3 (apa-skaraka) relates to the root *skard (pierce) and/or NP k rd (knife),46 which, together with the suffix apa, means cutting apart, or simply "chopping." As for the first verb (ni-vayaka), it's not related to MP and NP v y (woe), as Skjaervo has surmised, but to NP v ya (wish, fruit),47 which, because of the suffix ni, seems to convey the idea of picking and bringing down fruits. As such, these four verbs refer to the water-libation ingredients brought forward by supposedly unclean people. In the second part, the required purification is explained by the verb vazeñti, which means air-blowing (NP vazidan). Because the libation ingredients are prepared by devilish people, they must be purified to a high degree; thus 1600 air-blows are advised. The last part then declares that, once purified, they can be used as if not prepared or touched by unclean people. It should thus read: (Soudavar) Yt.5.94. Then Zarathushtra asked Ardvi Sura An hita: "O Ardvi Sura An hita! What shall become of those libations destined for you but brought by the wicked who worship daevas after the sun has set? Yt.5.95. Thus spoke Ardvi Sura An hita: "O candid, righteous Spitama Zarathushtra! [What is picked, trampled, chopped, and ground], it can be brought forth to me after 1600 air-blowing, as if not brought by daeva-worshippers for their sacrificial ceremonies Based on the fact that the unclean people are designated here as those who bring 44 Gnoli 2004, 4535. Cheung also offers the following *xrau : to scratch, to break; Cheung 2007, 447. 46 See Cheung's entry for *kart and*skard (to pierce); Cheung 2007, 243 and 346. 47 Fruit or benefit: (‫ ﺟﺰ ﻮﺧﺘ ﺧﻮ دﮔﺮ وا ﮫ ﺪارد‬, no benefit/fruit shall come besides self burning); wish: (‫ ﺎ ﻼن را روا ﻮد وا ﮫ‬, The beggars shall have their wishes fulfilled ); reward: (‫ ﭼ ﮔﺮ دھﺪ وا ﮫ ٔ ﺎﻋﺮان‬, if poets are so rewarded…) 45 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 25 water libations after dark, it stands to reason that they are Apam Nap t worshippers, who neither recognize Ahura Mazd as the Creator, nor are prepared to accept An hit as supreme water deity. They are thus considered as the enemies of Zoroastrianism, and labeled as daeva-worshippers. Their sin was to believe in the old un-sanitized version of Apam Nap t, and not the one that was integrated into the Zoroastrian pantheon. I.7 - Agents of fertility A further example of diminishing the stature of Apam Nap t is found in Yt.8.34. It seems to be based on an older ode to Apam Nap t, in which fertility of the land was solely attributed to him. Instead, in Yt.8.34, his role is diluted through the introduction of additional contributors. This purpose being lost on Avestologists, they have tweaked meanings to produce intelligible translations, but fall short nevertheless. By way of example, I produce hereunder the Avestan text with two recent translations, one by P.O. Skjaervo and the other by Almut Hintze: Yt.8.34. [apãm napåse tå âpô] spitama zarathushtra anguhe astvaite shôithrô-baxtå vîbaxshaiti vâtasca ýô darshish awzhdâtemca hvarenô ashaonãmca fravashayô. (Hintze 2009, 140) Yt.8.34. Apam Napat, O Spitama Zarathushtra, distributes to material life these waters assigned to the dwellings; and (so does) the bold Wind, and the Glory deposited in water, and the Choices of the truthful ones.48 (Skjaervo 2007, I:88) Yt.8.34. Those waters, the Scion of the Waters, O Spitama Zarathustra, distributes to the bony existence, distributed by settlements, as (does) the impetuous wind, and the Fortune placed in the water, and the pre-souls of the Orderly ones. In both translations, waters are supposedly distributed; but whereas Hintze deprives the dwellings from their water in order to give it to the material world,49 Skjaervo directly distributes it to a material world that he calls "bony existence," which is allegedly parceled into settlements. Both translations are wrong, because they both suffer from the same syntactic error: The waters (âpô) they supposedly distribute belong to a block of words situated before the addressee, i.e., Zarathustra. That block as a whole (which I've bracketed) is the subject of the verb that comes after Zoroaster (vi-bakhshaiti). One cannot pluck "waters" out of its block, and turn it into the object of a verb located after the addressee. It's as if a Parsi from Mumbai, who had attended Jean Kellens's lecture in Krakow (in 2011), went back home and recounted to his Mowbad: "Kellens who is a 48 49 Hintze, 2009, 129-44. Hintze's interpretation is in tune with Boyce's (Boyce 1986). 26 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival professor at the Collège de France, O Mowbad, said that he doubted Zoroaster ever existed," but in translation, the same sentence was wrongly rendered as "Kellens, O Mowbad, said at the Collège de France that he doubted Zoroaster ever existed." The words preceding "O Mowbad" define the subject of the verb "said," and in translation, one cannot arbitrarily move parts of it to the other side. This error is compounded—and perhaps caused—by the incorrect translation of the verb vi-bakhshaiti as "distributes," which in turn has affected the translation of the adjective bakhta, rendered as "distributed," since Avestologists consider the two words to stem from the same root baksh. But bakhta is akin to NP and MP bakht, meaning fortune or gift. When applied to shoithro (toiled lands),50 it clearly designates fortunate or gifted lands, i.e., potentially fertile lands, even more so since Yt.8.34 follows stanzas that describe the water cycle, from evaporation to cloud formation, and to rains, which come back on earth to irrigate agricultural lands (Yts.8.32-33). And based on NP bakhshesh and baksh yesh, meaning gift and endowment, bakhshaiti should be understood as endowing more fertility to the "gifted lands." As for the suffix vi (apart), it emphasizes that its effect was widespread. This stanza should therefore be translated as: (Soudavar) Yt.8.34. [The "water-child" of those waters], O Spitama Zarathushtra, wholly endows the gifted lands of the corporeal world (with fertility); as does the bold wind, and the khvarenah residing in the water, and the fravashis of the righteous ones I have substituted "water-child" for apãm napåse, because I think it refers to Apam Nap t in a derogatory way, which I shall explain in sec. I.7. But no matter how his name is interpreted, he is presented here as a fertility agent, along with three others. Of the three, there may be some justification for the wind, as the process of growth in plants needs air, i.e., oxygen, even though air always exists, with or without wind. The other two, though, are outright problematic. The khvarenah is a power source that empowers other entities; when lost by Jamshid, it was carried away by the bird vareγna, to be eventually guarded underwater by Apam Nap t. But here, its ties with Apam Nap t are purposefully severed, since the khvarenah is presented as an independent force residing in the waters, and capable of enhancing the fertility of the land. As for the fravashis, I am not sure how they were supposed to intervene, and it is not clear for what reason they were introduced into the Avesta in the first place; perhaps to emulate Xerxes, who according to Herodotus not only sacrificed to Athena in Priam, but also to the fravashis 50 Hintze herself acknowledges shoithro to mean "toiled soil" but then opts for "dwellings" in her translation of Yt.8.34; Hintze 136. THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 27 of Iranian and Greek heroes of the past.51 They were probably seen as one more factor that could loosen the hold of Mithra and Apam Nap t on the people's beliefs. Be that as it may, Yt.8.34 effectively diminishes Apam Nap t's stature by sharing his fertility powers with three other entities, by severing the khvarenah from him, and more importantly, by referring to him as "water-child," which simply sounds derogatory in a culture where old age represents wisdom, and youth is a symbol of foolishness.52 I.8 - The Burning Water The name Apam Nap t has generally been understood as the "Child of the Waters," because the first component clearly relates to NP b (water), and the second has been construed as a word related to naveh (grandchild) in NP, or "nephew" in English.53 It's an interpretation supported by Sasanian iconography, since Apam Nap t is represented in the guise of a flying Eros (i.e., winged child) handing a dast r (victory ribbon) to the king, in the rock reliefs of Sh pur I (r. 242-270).54 But, as a name, "Child of the Waters" hardly suits a powerful god who maintained lofty epithets in the Avesta. Sensing perhaps the inadequacy of such a translation, Skjaervo has used the word "scion" instead of child. The word scion has no equivalent in Persian culture; the closest NP term is nav deh, which designates a progeny with no emphasis on family grandeur as the English term does. Whether "Nap t" is understood as child, scion, or progeny of waters, it still represents a lesser version of a more important entity, i.e., the Waters. It is precisely for this reason that proponents of Sasanian orthodoxy promoted an iconographical composition in which Apam Nap t's subordination to An hit jumped to the eye: He was depicted as a child held by An hit , referred to as the Lady of the Waters (figs. 2, 7, 66). We may therefore assume that the "Child of the Waters" was a derogatory reinterpretation of a more-important-sounding name, which we have to resuscitate. The primary indicator for Apam Nap t's original meaning is provided by its Vedic counterpart, Ap m Nap t, who embodies the fire that burns in the water, a phenomenon that many saw as a paradox.55 And yet, there is no paradox at all because it refers to a 51 Gnoli 1993, 63-64. It's as if one would address him today as b-bacheh (water-child). 53 Boyce 1986. 54 Soudavar 2009, 426-27; Soudavar 2012a, 32-34. 55 Dumézil 1981, 21-23. Jean Kellens further said: "Les deux hymnes védiques qui lui sont consacrés expriment, de toutes les manières possibles, qu‫ﺶ‬il brille et brûle « sans bois d‫ﺶ‬allumage » (anidhmá-). Désignant le feu qui brûle dans l‫ﺶ‬eau, son nom est à l‫ﺶ‬origine de gr. νάφθα « naphte »"; J. Kellens, 52 28 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival natural phenomenon that was perceptible in western Iran where petroleum products—in liquid and gaseous form—emerged from water and burnt in open air. This burning substance was called by a name that has given us naft (petrol, bitumen) in NP, and naphtha in Greek. The phenomenon was understood to portend power in Sasanian Iran, since Ardashir I (r. 224-42) conceived his kingly glory (khavrenah) as the fire emerging from water; and his fire tower in the capital city of Ardashir-khvarrah, as well as the fire altar on his coinage, reflected this concept, because in both, fire sprang out of water and projected Ardashir's control over the khvarenah (MP khvarrah) that resided in the main fire of his realm (see sec. II.1).56 Moreover, in the Avesta, Apam Nap t is qualified by two epithets berezant- and borz, which are wrongly translated as "lofty." The mistranslation of borz was due to the fact that it's usually accompanied by the NP word b l , which can mean "tall silhouette" and may thus infer a meaning of "lofty." But the correct meaning of b l is "high stature", especially since borz and b l are usually complemented by the word chihr.57 Moreover, the mistranslation of chihr as "seed" has added to the confusion. If chihr was correctly understood to be the manifestation of the khvarenah as light, so would have been borz, especially when a person is said to be endowed with the "Kay nian borz and farr."58 Both words (chihr and borz) belong to a cosmogony of light that projected the power of the farr (OP khvarenah). Furthermore, etymologically, borz is connected to a number of words that are all related to fire, burning, or radiance, e.g., NP bereshteh (burnt), MP brēzan (oven), MP br zidan (shine, gleam), Fr. braiser (to braise, to cook), Eng. blaze, Old English blæse (torch). Thus, borz and berezant- describe a blazing substance, i.e., burning naphtha. So important was this light cosmogony that multiple words were used, each describing the intensity and shades of light emanating from a particular source.59 As a result, these words acquired secondary meanings that were specific to the light source. The chihr of a person, for instance, was meant to represent his khvarenah, but it also provided an image—so to speak—of his power; hence chihr got a secondary meaning of "image" in addition to its primary meaning as radiance or brilliance. Similarly, the Collège de France lecture of Dec. 10, 2010. Soudavar 2012b, 58-61; Soudavar 2014, 152-157. 57 B l is adjectivised in NP as v l (of high stature); see also Dehkhoda, "Borz": 56 ‫ ﺑُﺮز و ﺑﺎﻻ و ﭼﮭﺮش ﮔﻮا ﺖ‬، ‫ا ﺖ را ﺖ * ﺑﺪ‬ ‫ﺟﮭﺎ ﺪار ﮔﻔﺘﺎ ﭼ‬ Dehkhoda, "Borz" : ‫ﺑﮫ ز ﺎر ﮐﯽ ﺎه ﺑ ﺘﮫ ﻣ ﺎن‬ * ‫ﭘﺮ ﺘ ﺪه ﺑﺎ ﻓﺮ و ﺑﺮز ﮐﯿﺎن‬ 59 The same cosmogony is used, later on, by Sh hoboddin-e Sohravardi in his Hekmat-ol Eshr q, where one's power is determined by the intensity of rays that illuminate him. 58 THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 29 Avestan adjective raevant-, which means glittery, determined the light intensity of jewelry and precious stones;60 hence a secondary meaning as "rich," or "wealthy." It's a plague of Avestan studies that original meanings are often sidestepped in favor of secondary meanings. Thus raevant- is translated as "wealthy" instead of "glittery," and berezant- is described as "lofty" rather than blazing or radiant. A case in point is Skjaervo's translation of Yt.8.4, a stanza that describes the qualities of the star-god Tishtrya: Yt.8.4 tishtrîm stârem raêvañtem, hvarenanguhañtem ýazamaide, afshcithrem sûrem berezañtem, amavañtem dûraêsûkem, berezañtem uparô-kairîm, (Q) ýahmât haca berezât haosravanghem? (A) apãm nafedhrat haca cithrem. (Skjaervo 2007, I:85) Yt.8.4 We sacrifice to the star Tishtriya, wealthy and munificent, containing the seed of water, rich in lifegiving strength, lofty, forceful, whose eyesight reaches into the distance, lofty, whose work is above, the tall one from whom (comes) good fame. From the Scion of the Waters (is its?) seed. Tishtrya is generally recognized to represent the star Sirius, the most luminous fixed star of nighttime.61 As such, its only praise-worthy quality is its luminosity. And yet, so oblivious is Skjaervo to this obvious fact, and so mechanical are his translations, that the adjectives he uses to describe Tishtrya hardly make sense. How can a star be "wealthy" in anything but light? How can a pinpoint-looking star be qualified as "lofty" or "tall"? How can water have a "seed," which is then placed on a star? How can stars have "eyesight"? These incongruent notions stem from a lack of understanding for a cosmogony in which the value of each entity is measured by the light it emits. Thus, a star can be glittery (raevant), like jewelry; it can be afsh-chithra, i.e., scintillate like water drops, because afsh means water drop, and chithra/chihr means brilliance (but not water seeds). As for dûraê-sûkem, it describes how far (NP dur) the light (NP su) of the star can go, rather than how far-sighted a star can be.62 More importantly, the structure of the stanza follows a literary pattern in which qualities are first enumerated, and then punctuated by a 60 Soudavar 2006, 156-57. "Tishtrya" often referred to a tri-star grouping, the Winter Triangle of Canis Major, that appears as an exact equilateral, with Sirius at one of its edges; Soudavar 2014, 47-52. 62 If the word su is also used to describe vision, it's because vision was believed to depend on a light emitted by the eye. Thus, NP kam-su can be equally used to describe low vision, and a low-power lamp; Soudavar 2006, 156. 61 30 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival question and answer sequence.63 But Skjaervo's translation, as well as all other translations that I have seen, treat the last two sentences of the stanza as a continuation of previous descriptions, rather than a punctuating device. In (Q), the luminous attributes of Tishtrya are characterized as berezât haosravanghem, which would be described in NP as "Khosrov ni radiance," i.e., kingly radiance; it's a metaphor that is often used in Persian poetry.64 In (A), the same lights are treated as chithra, i.e., as manifestation of the khvarenah. Thus, different terms are used to characterize Tishtrya, but they all describe the star's brilliance and gravitate around the notion that light is a source, or indicator, of power. (Q) asks: Where does this light come from? (A) answers: From apãm nafedhrat. Whereas in the Avesta, grammatical declension hardly affects proper names, in Yt.8.4, "Nap t" is radically transformed into nafedhrat, which is akin to naphtha. It seems to revert back to what Apam Nap t originally meant: A fire in water that the epithets borz and berezant describe as radiant and blazing. The Avestan sentence berezato ahurahe naphedhro apam (Y.1.5) seems to confirm this, since naphedro acts therein as an adjective—placed before apam—to describe an entity qualified as the Blazing Lord (berezato ahura-he) at the beginning of said sentence. Naphedhro apam must therefore convey a similar meaning, that of "burning water" rather than "child of the waters." It explains that Tishtrya's light came in fact from Apam Nap t, i.e., the Lord of the Night. I therefore suggest the following translation: (Soudavar) Yt.8.4. We praise Tishtrya, the bright and glorious star, that scintillates like water-drops, that is powerfully radiant, high-powered and far-lighting, and brilliant up-high. (Q) From whom comes (all) this khosrov ni radiance? (A) From the Burning Water (i.e., Apam Nap t) comes (all) his brilliance. The question then is: How was this deity's name switched from "burning water" to "water-child"? It was done, I believe, through punning, a favourite Iranian device to belittle somebody or something.65 Indeed, the Pahlavi translation of a sentence from Y.2.5 (berezañtem ahurem xshathrîm xshaêtem apãm napâtem), reads borz i khwad y … i roshn i b n n f,66 and provides a clue to this effect. Here, borz (The Blazing) designates 63 The same literary technique is used in Y.19; Soudavar 2014, 343-58. In sec. I.6, Yts.94-95 use a question and answer sequence to emphasize that the daeva-worshippers were unclean. 64 Suzani-ye Samarqandi, for instance, uses the expression ft b-e khosrov n (the kingly sun) to qualify the kingly khvarenah (Soudavar 2003, 15-16). A simple search in Google would show the expression used by the poets Q ni, Bidel-Shir zi, as well as Juzj ni in his Tabaq t-e N seri. 65 See Soudavar 2012b (65), how Darius's epithet chihr- ry was switched to chihr- z d. 66 Panaino 1995, 121. THE TEXTUAL TESTIMONY 31 Apam Nap t, who is also described as khwad y (lord) and roshn (shiny), which are praising terms, and then as b n n f (navel of the waters). The latter, which supposedly translates Apam Nap t's name into Pahlavi, should have had qualities in tune with the other epithets; but a n f (navel) has no radiance, and is hardly appropriate to describe a khwad y or ahura. If the second part of the deity's name was equated with "navel," it's because the two probably sounded the same. His name must have been spelled with an "h," and originally written as Naph t, especially since navel is spelled as n bhi in Sanskrit. The Pahlavi translation should have been b n n pht rather than b n n f. But n f was adopted in order to extrapolate it into a childish figure, such as naveh (grandson).67 As speculative that this proposition might seem, it finds full justification in Sasanian imagery, where artisans make use of tight spaces to convey the maximum amount of information. The judicial positioning of the two-legged ankh symbol as caricature of Apam Nap t on a Sasanian cosmetic box (figs. 9a-b) clearly demonstrates how this deity's name was deformed into a combination that basically meant "navelwater" ( b-n f). In modern parlance, "burning water" would be described as " b-naft." For punning to have occurred in ancient times, I can only suppose that this deity's initial name was "Apam Naph t." The n f and child interpretation eventually prevailed through repetition, and its spelling drifted toward one that would better present him as the Child of Waters, i.e., toward Apam Nap t. As such, his childish aspect was reemphasized in Yt.8.34, where he is referred to as "the water-child of those waters." It was an ingenious scheme to tarnish the blazing glory of the Median creator god Apam Naph t (?), who threatened the supremacy of Ahura Mazd . The sanitized Apam Nap t could afterward safely appear in liturgies where water was invoked, with an added reminder, however, that all waters were "created by Mazd " (Y.1.4, Y.2.5, and Y.4.10).68 I.9 - Unification through amalgamation As already stated, the substitution of An hit for Apam Nap t must have been initially met with strong resistance, to the extent that Zoroastrian priests had to readopt Apam Nap t, albeit in a subdued and sanitized version. Thus two gods of the waters came to 67 In Latin, nepōs can equally mean nephew or descendant; the n f/navel can thus stand as the hub of family connectivity. 68 In consideration of Apam Nap t's "borz/blazing" epithet, the idea that his Chamrosh bird was perhaps a firebird needs further investigation (Soudavar 2014, 218-21), especially since this bird seems to have been appropriated for An hit and H riti (see figs. 63, 64), and that in fig. 7, Apam Nap t is riding an aquatic bird, i.e., a duck. 32 Discrediting Ahura Mazd 's Rival exist side by side, which was confusing to the Zoroastrian flock. To alleviate the problem, the two were amalgamated into one, or more precisely into a family of mother and son named b n (Waters). Thus, Yasht 5, which was originally composed in praise of An hit , became known as b n Yasht, and where the Bondahesh describes the flowers that symbolized each deity, it allocates the lotus to b n, rather than to An hit or Apam Nap t, since, in reality, lotus represented both of them.69 Amalgamation smoothened contradictions. By the same token, I believe that the term ahura-tkaêshô (Ahuric Religion) inserted in the proclamation of orthodoxy, referred to an expanded Mazdaism that amalgamated together three ahuras, i.e., Ahura Mazd , as well as Mithra and Apam Nap t (both qualified as ahura in the Avesta). Thus, ahura-tkaêshô could not mean "follower of Ahura Mazd " alone; and if included in the proclamation of orthodoxy, it was to insure that the believers accepted the sanitized versions of Mithra and Apam Nap t, i.e., those who were given the same ahura epithet as Mazd , but were stripped of many of their prerogatives. It created an ingenious compromise. New adherents, who had to worship Mazd , were comforted by the fact that Mithra and Apam Nap t formed an ahura triad with Ahura Mazd , over and above all other deities. The "Ahuric Religion" thus represents the compromise that was necessary to bring in those who worshipped the Median deity pair. The ones branded as daeva-worshippers were those who did not accept the sanitization of these deities, and continued to worship the Apam Naph t of old in lieu of the sanitized Apam Nap t. The daeva par excellence was thus Apam Naph t, the Burning Water who gave life, and was perceived as the main competitor to Ahura Mazd . 69 Pakzad 2005, 219; Soudavar 2014, 157 and 201. PART II The Iconographic Evidence Fig. 7 - Apam Nap t, as Child of Waters, riding a duck and holding a cattail reed (Lat. typha) under the supervision of An hit as Lady of the Waters THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 35 In what follows, we shall explore the visual evidence that complements the textual one we analyzed in the previous sections. II.1 - From "Burning Water" to "Navel-Water" Two iconographical indices crystallize the corruption process of "Apam Nap t's" name, from fire-related water to a navel-associated one. The first is a Median or early Achaemenid seal that shows two Iranian priests next to a fire altar, on top of which is a water-wave symbol (fig. 8). As a universally recognized emblem of water, this wavy graffiti was placed above fire to reflect the initial status of Apam Nap t as the water that harbored fire, and was thus named "Burning Water." Fig. 8 - Fire altar and Apam Nap t's wave symbol (Curtis & Simpson 2010, 389) Figs. 9 a, b – Sasanian cosmetic box (in silver) Christie's New York, Antiquities sale of Dec. 6, 2001, lot 732. The water wave was by no means the only symbol of Apam Nap t. By the time he was officially recognized as "Child of the Waters," a double-legged ankh symbol was adopted to invoke this deity. From coinage to rock reliefs, the double-legged ankh sign was clearly used as an auspicious symbol of authority.70 By contrast, its quadruple presence on a Sasanian cosmetic box that recently appeared on the art market can in no way be connected to kingship or authority, especially since all four emblems are tightly squeezed into the bellies of four quadrupeds (figs. 9a, b). Atop this box are four heartshaped receptacles, with an image-label next to each designating the substance that went in them; an unlabelled round hole was placed in the middle for mixing the ingredients of 70 Soudavar 2009, 426-27. 36 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL the adjacent receptacles. Four animals appear in these image labels: A horse, a cow, a camel and a fourth quadruped that seems to be a musk deer. Their ankh sign, though, had a purely utilitarian function; it was supposed to make them more meaningful. Indeed, musk is a substance that is extracted from a gland under the belly of the musk deer, and in Iranian parlance it is referred to as n feh, or b-n f (the navel-water) of the musk deer. We can then surmise that the tight fitting of this ankh sign under the belly of the quadrupeds was to describe each of these labels as underbelly or navel secretion. For the cosmetic-box designer, the name of Apam Nap t did not signify child, nephew, or son of the Waters, nor did it mean from the "family of the Waters." He took the name of this deity at face value, and reduced it to its bare etymological meaning, "navel-water." Clearly such a name did not befit an important deity, one who, as we argued in sec. I.8, had epithets such as borz (blazing) or ahura (lord). If he was called by this name, it was through punning; one that was meant to diminish him and not glorify him. Figs. 10 a, b, c – a) Plan of Ardashir-khvarrah; (b) Fire tower built at the center of star-shaped water drainage system; c) inside stairs (Courtesy of D. Huff) Fig. 11 - Moveable fire altar hanging above two water fountains. Coin of Ardashir I. Private coll. But no matter how much Apam Nap t was maligned, the idea of fire emerging from fire remained a potent metaphor for the projection of khvarenah, to the extent that the Sasanian Ardashir I built his very capital city of Ardashir-khvarrah around this concept (figs. 10 a, b, c). The fire tower that he built in the middle of a star-shaped water drainage system evoked this concept on a monumental scale, and the fire altar that he put over two water fountains on the reverse of his coinage did the same on a minute scale and (fig. 11). What's more, the coin design replicated what was on top of the fire tower, where, according to the F rsn meh of Ebn-e Balkhi, fire came out of two water fountains.71 The 71 See Soudavar 2012b, 60 n.69, for the explanation Ebn-e Balkhi's entry (Ebn-e Balkhi 1968, 138). THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 37 "Burning Water" concept still evoked the rise of the khvarenah, even if no longer associated with Apam Nap t's name. II.2 - Agent of fertility and life As the Lord of the Night, the guardian of the khvarenah in its dormant underwater stage, and the deity who was once thought to give life and shape it, Apam Nap t was a multi-facetted deity for whom various specific symbols had been devised. We already saw two of them, the pre-Achaemenid water wave and the Sasanian double-legged ankh sign. A more popular symbol was the pearl, conceived as the luminous and perfectly round-shaped receptacle of the khvarenah in its underwater stage (see fig. 56). It clearly evoked Apam Nap t as the guardian of the khvarenah, in its underwater stage. The most complete representations of the khvarenah cycle are found in the brick walls of Susa and the bas reliefs of Persepolis, where the underwater receptacle of the khvarenah is precisely depicted as a pearl: To project it as a spherical object, it appears as a multicolor sequence of concentric circles, whether carried by the bird vareγna, engulfed in whirling waters, or sitting under stacked lotuses.72 To my knowledge, this concentric symbol first appears on a late 8th-century Urartu basalt slab,73 and subsequently, in the now-dispersed 7th-century glazed bricks from the temple/castle of Buk n (fig. 11). Fig. 11 - Pearl roundels on Buk n bricks. Private coll. Geneva Fig. 12 - Vegetation stemming from pearl roundel. Buk n brick. Private coll. Geneva Fig. 13 – Pine corn, lotus and sunflower assembly. Assyrian slab, British Museum An ovoid silver jar that appeared in a recent sale sheds more light on the subject (fig. 15). It is made of almost pure silver (%97-99) and bears an Elamite inscription, 72 73 Soudavar 2012b, 47-48; Soudavar 2014, 202-203. The slab is from Toprak-kale; British Museum ME 121137. 38 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL undeciphered as yet. Like objects from the Kalm kareh horde, it was probably made from the silver that the Medes and their allies looted from Nineveh.74 Stylistically and conceptually, it is close to the Buk n bricks, which often echo Assyrian designs. Indeed, the brick of fig. 12 faithfully replicates an Assyrian slab motif (fig. 13), except for its central element where it has a pearl roundel instead of a sunflower. Whereas the Assyrian design was a pure assembly of vegetal symbols, the Buk n brick projects that vegetation stemmed out of the pearl, the very symbol of khvarenah. Fig. 14 - Assyrian stone slab with "tree of life". British Museum Fig. 15 – Silver jar with "tree of life" and cypress cones, between pearls and sun symbols. Iran, circa 600 BC.75 Private coll. Fig. 16 – Neo-Elamite silver beaker with spiral ribs adorned with wave and sun motifs. Iran, circa 600 BC. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington DC. The same principle is applied to the design of the ovoid jar, as it has budding cypress cones, alternating with "tree of life" motifs, placed above pearl roundels (fig. 15). Both motifs are Assyrian fertility emblems, since their deities symbolically sowed cypress cones to obtain vegetation represented by a "tree of life" (fig. 14).76 The jar design thus projects that vegetation stemmed out of the pearl that Apam Nap t guarded underwater. It's the visual confirmation of Yt.19.52 (which divulged that Apam Nap t was the deity who gave life) and of Yt.8.34 (which acknowledged Apam Nap t's role in providing fertility to the land). It ties in well with a description provided by the Bondahesh that the "khvarenah of Fereydun sat at the bottom of the reed,77 especially since the reed is often 74 Soudavar 2014, 229-30. Sale Pierre-Bergé on Nov. 26, 2013, lot 185. 76 For the "tree of life" see Parpola 1993, 161-64. For a study of its iconography, see Kepinski 1982. 77 Pakzad 2005, 399. See also Soudavar 2014, 232-33, where I argue that this Bondahesh statement reflects the pearl roundels placed under a bundle of reeds on the Egyptian-like crown of Mithra in Pasargadae. 75 THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 39 associated with Apam Nap t (see sec. II.10). Moreover, above the trees and cypress cones appears a band of gold-plated semi-circular solar emblems. If water brought life to vegetation, solar light nurtured its growth. The former was associated with Apam Nap t, and the latter with Mithra. It's a pairing that is duplicated on a neo-Elamite silver beaker, where semi-circular emblems of the sun are juxtaposed with wave symbols of the waters (fig. 16). They are both reminders of how closely Mithra and Apam Nap t were associated, and how difficult was the task of dissociating one from the other. As the pairing of these two deities finds its ultimate expression in the Islamic mihr b, which clearly reflects the name of these two deities (see sec. II.8), we shall henceforth use the name mehr- b to designate the iconographical pairing of the theses deities' symbols. II.3 - Bisotun's imbedded attack on Median ideology With this Median perspective in mind, Darius's seemingly lone attack on Mithra in Bisotun, where he tried to empower Ahura Mazd with Mithra's solar attributes (fig. 4), did not make sense: How could he disenfranchise Mithra without doing the same to Apam Nap t? And more importantly, why would he place such an important political statement up high, instead of opposite the existing water pond, where rock reliefs were traditionally situated, and were his message would have been more visible? Fortunately, a recent study of Bisotun by Wouter Henkelman provides an answer to both of these questions.78 While examining Bisotun, Henkelman had noticed two openings—right below the frame of the rock relief and centered around its median line—from which water gushed out after heavy rains on the nearby mountain (fig. 17). The flow of water from these orifices had produced substantial erosion below, and in reading the inscriptions that surrounded the eroded areas, Henkelman expected much of the text to have been washed out. To his surprise though, the text was almost complete; which implied that water was pouring out from the mountain face in the very days Bisotun was being carved. In addition, Henkelman, who witnessed the water-activity of these orifices after a rainfall, had found the scene to be spectacularly powerful. Presumably, the underground waters were not depleted in Darius's time, and there was a continuous surge of water below the rock relief. We can then understand Darius's reasons for situating the carvings so high up. Not only the spectacular roaring waters attracted attention, but the scenery allowed him 78 I am indebted to Wouter Henkelman for allowing me to use the result of his discoveries as explained during a conference at Asia House, London (From Persepolis to Isfahan: Safeguarding Cultural Heritage Jan 16-17, 2015). 40 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL to claim that Ahura Mazd —to whom he was attributing all his victories—controlled both the sun (because of the solar emblem placed on Ahura Mazd 's hat) and the waters over which stood Darius as his deputy on earth. It was a visual attack on the duality of the mehr- b, which implied a world presided by two deities rather than one. Fig. 17 – Bisotun rock relief, with waterfall imprints (↑) under Darius and Ahura Mazd , in between inscriptions. Bisotun We thus see that the attack on the Median deity pair had been mounted early on by Darius, who wished to discredit both of them by transferring their prerogatives to Ahura Mazd . He also tried to eradicate the day/night division of the world, which provided each of these gods a separate domain to rule upon. In other words, the Avestan priests, who sought to discredit the Median deities, were only following in the footsteps of Darius. They strove to systematically cleanse and doctor every existing stanza, like Yt.8.34 that reflected Apam Nap t's role in land fertility. It was a notion embedded in hymns, but also in imagery, which was more accessible to the general population. The Avestan priests had thus a tall task ahead, as they had to fight on multiple fronts. Rather than banning all existing hymns, and destroying a multitude of related imagery, they judiciously chose to distort the image of old gods and diminish their stature. In last resort, they only demonized those who challenged the supremacy of Ahura Mazd . Judging by THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 41 the results, they were quite successful at it. They not only discredited Apam Nap t, and the Median dualistic ideology, but were able to achieve a strong hold on kingship, and politics in general, by defining what was demoniac and what was not. II.4 - The Hellenistic resurrection of the mehr-āb iconography Despite the Achaemenid attempt to break up the strong pairing of Mithra with Apam Nap t, these two deities remained popular among the population at large and on the peripheries. The Hellenistic period provided new means for the mehr- b pair to reemerge, especially in Anatolia, where the pairing of a day god with a night god had been a staple feature of its mithraea (fig. 35a). A couple of Anatolian pendant earrings are quite revealing in this respect. In the first (fig. 18), a winged Eros, is hanging below a rosette. The rosette is, of course, the quintessential solar symbol, and to emphasize that the Eros was meant to represent Apam Nap t, he is riding a dolphin. It reflects the salient aspects of Apam Nap t, i.e., a "childish" and aquatic deity as on the Sasanian bottle of fig. 7, where he is riding a duck and holds a cattail reed. A second earring (fig. 19) similarly conveys the mehr- b symbolism. From its rosette hangs an Eros with two features that are unequivocally associated with the Iranian iconography of Apam Nap t: Fig. 18 – Apam Nap t riding a dolphin, attached to sun symbol. Hellenistic gold earring79 79 Fig. 19 – Apam Nap t holding a dast r, shell symbol attached to sun symbol. 3rd-cent. BC. Hellenistic gold earring80 Fig, 20 – Aphrodite with a cape inspired from the shell of Apam Nap t. 3rd-cent. BC, gold earring (Martinez et al. 2015, 278) Sale of Pierre Bergé (Paris), May 30th, 2015, lot 176. The same combination, i.e., Apam Nap t riding a 42 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL Firstly, he holds a dast r (ribbon) in his hands, the same that Apam Nap t delivers to Sh pur I (r. 240-70) as symbol of victory (fig. 21), or to another king on a Sasanian silver plate (fig. 23). It also appears in the hands of a flying Apam Nap t over the cows of the Moon chariot on the Mithraic stele of San Stefano Rotondo (fig. 25). It's clearly an Iranian implant on the Roman Mithraic scene, as its appearance therein has no Roman justification, but refers to Apam Nap t's guidance of the Moon chariot, as Lord of the Night. It reflects a similar idea expressed on Sasanian silver plates, such as the one in fig. 20, in which Apam Nap t is shown harnessing and guiding the Moon's chariot. Fig. 21 – Apam Nap t handing a dast r to Sh pur I. Bisotun Fig. 24 – Apam Nap t encircled by a solar petal ring (Martinez et al. 2015, 208) Fig. 22 - Apam Nap t guiding the Moon's chariot. Sasanian silver plate Fig. 23 – Apam Nap t handing a dast r with three pearls symbol of Tishtrya. Islamic Museum. Berlin. Fig. 25 – Mithraic stele with Apam Nap t guiding the Moon chariot. San Stefano Rotondo Secondly, and more importantly, the Apam Nap t of fig. 18 is set against a backdrop 80 dolphin, was used in Hellenistic Bactria; see Soudavar 2009, 426, 459. The item was sold by Artcurial (Paris) on Aug., 7th 2015, lot 30. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 43 that is a shell, and not a piece of clothing. Indeed, if it were a cape, a robe, or a skirt, it would have been attached at some point to the body of the winged child, but it's not. Like the dolphin of the previous earring, the shell was a further pointer to the Apam Nap t identity of the Eros-looking entity: The shell was the logical symbol for the role of this deity as underwater guardian of the khvarenah conceived as a pearl. And, as we shall see, the shell is a pivotal element for the transmission of the mehr- b duality, all the way to the Islamic mihr b. Two items from a Thracian treasure recently exhibited at the Louvre further confirm our interpretation. One is a medallion (fig. 24) that clearly reflects the mehr- b duality, as it displays the child-like Apam Nap t with a long dast r over his shoulders, encircled by a radiating band of lotus petals. The other is an earring imitation of fig. 19, but adapted to the Thracian world (fig. 20).81 The male Eros is transformed into a female deity, a winged Aphrodite (Venus), holding a cornucopia in her right hand and a patera in her left. The below-the-waste backdrop is now conceived as a cape, and the separate rosette has been transformed into a voluminous headgear. None of them makes much sense, especially a cape for a naked female body. The overall design of the previous earrings was solely copied for aesthetic reasons, with a loss of meaning for its mehr- b elements. II.5 - The Mithraic conduit Like the solar disk that symbolized Mithra, the shell symbolized Apam Nap t, and became a prized emblem. A Byzantine ivory plaque of the consul Anastasius Flavius shows how the shell, by its position behind the head of the consul, projected the same auspiciousness and power that the solar disk did (fig. 26). It parallels the eastward migration of the mehr- b symbolism, where another symbol of Apam Nap t, namely the lotus flower, was used to create a solar disk behind the Buddha's head (fig. 27). The conduits for the westward propagation of all these symbols were primarily the Mithraic Societies and their avatars, which disseminated the spirit of brotherhood throughout the Roman Empire, especially among its legionnaires.82 Eventually, the shell was adopted as chivalry symbol, whether for the French Order of St Michael or the Order of Santiago of Spain (fig. 28). But it was also espoused by the brotherhoods of vagabonds and thieves, such as the Coquillards who roamed European territories in medieval times and had St James of Compostela as their patron saint (fig. 81 82 A similar earring is at Istanbul's Archaeological Museum. For another radiating petal ring see fig. 78. Soudavar 2014. 44 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL 29).83 Chivalry orders and brotherhood gangs had much in common with Mithraic Societies, in their hierarchical structure as well as for their initiation procedures and symbols. Fig. 26 – Byzantine ivory plaque of Anastasius Flavius with shell nimbus. 517 AD Victoria & Albert Museum Fig. 27 – Buddha with a lotus nimbus. 6th century China, Eastern Wei. EMS collections. Fig. 28 – Shell sign and cross on the sepulture of a knight of Santiago. c. 1500 Victoria & Albert Museum Fig. 29 - Coquillard with `ayy r-like sheepskin, pouch, gourde and knife (Mediavilla 2006, 23) II.6 - Yt.8.4 and the pairing of two celestial symbols Luminous celestial bodies had chithra (brightness) and conveyed the khvarenah. For the Sasanians who advertised the chihr az yazat n slogan on their coinage it behooved to depict as many celestial elements as possible. For small surfaces, small symbols were needed. Thus, numerous small symbols were devised and incorporated into coinage, all reflecting Avestan descriptions. First and foremost was the two-legged ankh (see figs. 30-31) as a caricature rendering of the name Apam Nap t, understood as "Child of the Waters." Next was the cow sign (fig. 31) reflecting the moon's Avestan epithet of gaochithra (milk-bright). Not only this symbol was a caricature of the cow but it also incorporated the three stages of the moon, from crescent to full circle to a simple trait (as symbol of nothingness).84 A third symbol, that of three dots (fig. 30), reflected the afshchithra epithet of Tishtrya in particular, and stars in general, as "scintillating like rain drops." Each dot represented a rain drop, and the triple dot referred to Tishtrya whose name evoked a tri-star grouping from the constellation of Canis Major, known as the 83 84 Soudavar 2014, 28 and 293. Soudavar 2009,?? THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 45 Winter Triangle and shaped as an exact equilateral triangle. Hence, Tishtrya's three dots regrouped into a similar triangular configuration.85 As Lord of the Night, Apam Nap t's symbol often accompanied the other two nightly symbols on Sasanian coinage (figs. 30-31). It's pairing with Tishtrya's symbol evoked the last stanza of Yt.8.4, where Tishtrya is said to have obtained all of its brightness from Apam Nap t (see sec. I.8). As such, the coupling of these two created an auspicious celestial dual symbol that widely travelled East and West, especially among brotherhoods and avatars of Mithraic societies. Not only Tamerlane incorporated them onto his seal,86 but the Ottomans, whom he had defeated and humiliated, adopted the pair as the underlying emblem of their imperial power (fig. 33). They also appear in Dura Europos, on the walls of a hall that I have argued to be a mithraeum and not a synagogue (fig. 32). And as an ultimate exercise in loading images with double and triple meanings, the dast r that Apam Nap t holds in his hands (NP dast), on a Sasanian silver plate (fig. 21), undulates like a wave and has a three-pearl pendant symbol of Tishtrya. Fig. 30 - Symbols of Apam Nap t and Tishtrya on coin of Bahr m II Fig. 31 - Symbols of Apam Nap t and the moon on coin of Bahr m II Fig. 33 – Triple dot paired up with water wave symbol on Ottoman velvet. Metropolitan Museum 85 86 Soudavar 2014, 47-51. Soudavar 2014, 52. Fig. 32 – Triple dot and water symbols on framing bands of Dura Europos hall Fig. 34 – Light rays emanating from a triangle symbol over water wave. Window bay decoration, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna. 46 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL Most interestingly, the three-dot symbol and the wave appear in tandem at the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna (fig. 34). This basilica was mainly built under the Ostrogoths who had come from the Eastern parts of the Roman Empire, and favored Arianism. As such, the mosaics of the doorways and window openings of the basilica (including figs. 34, 41) belong to the Ostrogothic period, and not to the decoration later added by Justinian (r. 527-65). They reflect eastern concepts and have two characteristics that strengthen our suggestions: A) their wave lines are filled in their convex parts with water, stressing their aquatic nature, B) from a triangular symbol on the crest of the wave lines, emanates three light rays that, to me, can only represent the light projected by Tishtrya. It once again emphasizes that the light of Tishtrya's tri-star grouping emanated from Apam Nap t. II.7 - Ravenna and the blend of Mithraic and Christian emblems As I have argued elsewhere, the initial iconographical vocabulary of Christianity owed much to that of Mithraic societies, to the extent that the Sun and Moon symbols of the mithraeum were often transposed as personified gods above the Virgin Mary (figs. 35 a, b). Similarly, the sun cross was integrated into Christianity as the Greek cross, but maintained its solar attribute all along, especially when incorporated into the sun disk behind Jesus's head (fig. 37). Figs. 35 a, b – Personified Sun and Moon on top corners of: a) Roman bronze Mithraic plaque, b) Ivory Byzantine plaque. Metropolitan Museum of Art Figs. 36 a, b - Mosaics from San Appolinare Nuovo, Ravenna: a) symmetrical sun cross before Balthazar's name, b) crucifix symbol before St Euphemia's name In Ravenna, at the Basilica of San Appolinare Nuovo, we can see how the sun cross evolved into the crucifix cross. On one side, the older mosaics of the Ariani period display the three magi in red Mithraic bonnets and garments approaching the infant Jesus with their names preceded by a symmetrical sun cross (fig. 36a). Those sun crosses were clearly there to designate them as Mithraic or Sun priests. On the opposite side, however, 47 THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY where new mosaics were added, the names of the saintly figures are preceded by a Greek cross with one leg elongated toward the ground (fig. 36b). If the crucifix was meant, these crosses would have not had an end part on each limb. On the other hand, the end parts of the totally symmetrical sun cross were to recall the roundness of the sun in this caricature emblem. It clearly mimics the sun symbol behind Fig. 37 – Sun cross in Jesus's head (fig. 37). These end parts also explain the sun cross's sun disk. Aya Sofia original Persian name as ch r-p (the four-legged), written as clyp` in MP, and rendered as salib in Arabic for lack of the sounds "ch" and "p" in that language, which was then extended to the crucifix.87 Fig. 38 – Sun cross over shell, from the Coptic monastery of Baouit. Louvre Fig. 39 – Sun symbol over shell from the Coptic church of El-Tod, Egypt. Louvre Fig. 41 – Sun cross above shell design, and water wave on column head. Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna Fig. 40 – Chi-Rho under shell. Byzantine. Metropolitan Mus. Fig. 42 – Crucifix under shell, on a 5th century sarcophagus. Galla Placidia mausoleum, Ravenna Back to the Basilica of San Vitale, we can see a further mehr- b-like combination consisting of a shell and a sun cross above an archway (fig. 41). It's a combination that replicates itself across the Christian world, with the shell maintaining a constant 87 For further discussions on the origins of the sun cross see Soudavar 2014, 79-81. 48 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL presence, while its solar component alternates between sun cross (fig. 38) and rosette (fig. 39), to finally be transformed into the Chi-Rho and the crucifix (figs. 40, 42). What's more, the San Vitale shell-cross composition is above columns decorated with the wave and tri-star pattern. While the latter reflects the last stanza of Yt.8.4, the former was based on the mehr- b tandem that was repudiated by orthodox Zoroastrianism. II.8 - The mehr-āb niche: From Jerash to Medina To my knowledge, the earliest appearance of the shell niche in the Mediterranean regions is in the 2nd-century Roman ruins of Jerash in Jordan. It is conceived therein in two ways. In one, the shell is incorporated into a monumental gateway over a window opening high above ground (fig. 43b); and in the other, we have a shell niche that harbored a lamp or candelabra (fig. 43a). The latter is used again in the Omayyad mosque of Amman, where shell niches appear along the walls of its outdoor perimeter (fig. 44). Fig. 43 a, b – Roman shell niches from Jarash, Jordan: a) candelabra niche, b) window niche in a gateway Fig. 44 – Shell niches for candelabras, on walls of `Ommayad mosque, Amman In all of these, we have a shell in tandem with a light emblem, i.e., the basic mehr- b symbolism. What ultimately provides a proof for their Iranian origin is the mihr b name that is applied to the shell niche in the Islamic context. Indeed, the first known mihr b is the one reportedly built by Walid I (r. 705-715) into the Medina Mosque,88 which was replicated half a century later in Bagdad at the al-Mansur Mosque. The latter still exists 88 Porter 2007, 555-56. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 49 and clearly displays a lamp hanging under a shell niche (fig. 45). More importantly, as Melikian-Chirvani has demonstrated, the Arabic word mihr b is an Iranian loanword that designated the focal point of an edifice or its most important spot.89 Because of its dual symbolism and its etymology, the Islamic mihr b clearly ties the preceding string of shell niches to the mehr- b imagery that once flourished in the Iranian world, was banned by the Achaemenids and Zoroastrianism, but survived in underground Mithraic societies as they moved westward. It is a testimony to the cohesive strength of the Mithra and Apam Nap t tandem and its positive reception in other domains and cultures. Fig. 45 – Shell-lamp mihr b of al-Mansur mosque, Baghdad (web image) Fig. 46 – Shell motif, lamp, and muqarnas on stone mihr b. Ince Minar Madrasa, Konya Fig. 47 – Sasanian shellshaped drinking vessel. EMS collections Fig. 48 – Shell on road St James Compostela (web image) In the Iranian world, however, the long-standing animosity toward Apam Nap t had probably left a negative view toward his symbols; and there seems to have been a concerted effort to do away with the shell as an architectural element, 90 and replace it with a geometrical pattern of stalactite-like elements that came to be known as the muqarnas. A geometrical succession of small niches was thus substituted for the shellniche design. But once again, it's through the peripheries that we have proof of this transition process. The portal of the 13th-century Palestinian Red Mosque in Safad (fig. 50) clearly shows how the shell niche was expanded into the muqarnas, with a shell at its apex expanding into a stalactite structure. And a mihr b from Konya (fig. 46) maintains a 89 90 Melikian-Chirvani 1990, 109-112; Soudavar 2014, 293-98. Only two shell niches from antiquity are known to have survived. A Parthian one at the Persepolis museum and another one from Bish pur; Soudavar 2014, 297. 50 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL hanging lamp below a muqarnas structure that in each of its small niches has a stylized shell, echoing the shell niche. That stylized shell motif is a cross between the tree of life on the ovoid jar of fig. 15, the Sasanian shell-shaped drinking vessels (fig. 47), and the stylized shell sign of the Coquillards and St James of Compostela (fig. 48). Fig. 49 – Sun disk on shell. Al-Aqmar mosque's portal. Cairo (web image) Fig. 50 – Shell motif above muqarnas of Red Mosque's portal. (web image) Fig. 51 – Shell squinces under the dome of the Kairouan mosque. Tunisia But as we reach Egypt, where Iranian influence must have been negligible, we encounter the old shell-niche design in full force at the Al-Aqmar mosque of Cairo (fig. 49), where its portal maintains the niche design from the Coptic edifice of El-Tod (fig. 39). And further west, the dome of the Kairouan mosque in Tunisia, clearly displays the use of the shell motif for its corner squinches (fig. 51). II.9 - The mehr-āb lion: From Esfahān to the Alhambra Discussing appellations acquired through functionality, Pavel Lurje has convincingly argued that the NP word shir, as referring to taps and faucets, stemmed from the multitude of water fountains in which water came out of a lion's mouth.91 This, however, raises a new question: What made this model of fountain so attractive that it was replicated from Esfah n to the Alhambra (fig. 52)? And although Lurje mostly focused on European lion fountains, it's hardly imaginable that a Western model was used at the Safavid palace of Chehel Sotun (fig. 53), when its lions are so distinctly stylized in the Iranian fashion.92 It's also highly improbable that Iranians had no word of their own for water fountains, and had to await a European import to call their fountains shir. Like in 91 92 Collège de France lecture of March 15, 2015: Selected Sogdian Words and Realia behind Them For stylized Iranian lion stone sculptures see, for instance, Khosronejad 2011, 2-5-206. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 51 the case of the mehr- b niche, the Iranian origin of the widely propagated lion fountain is supported by its Persian name, as well as its inherent dual symbolism, the lion referring to Mithra and the water to Apam Nap t. Moreover, the lion often appears in other mehr- b combinations, at odds with Zoroastrian orthodoxy. For instance, the Sasanian seal of fig. 54 has a lion, symbol of Mithra, and a scorpion, which orthodox Zoroastrianism abhorred for being a night animal and a symbol of Apam Nap t. What's more, the surrounding inscription abest n o yazat n (support from gods) is a wish formula that supposedly invokes the yazat n, i.e., gods in general. But in conjunction with the animals on the seal, yazat n clearly refers to the Mithra-Apam Nap t tandem of old, and shows why "yazat n" was a ruse to invoke this tandem in a camouflaged way. On another seal (fig. 55), a sun cross and a scorpion are squeezed into a monogram that should be read as NWRA ZY (fire/light of).93 The combined elements are therefore evoking the chihr (light) associated with another mehrb symbolism. Fig. 52 – Alhambra water fountains Granada. Spain Fig. 53 – Water fountain at Chehel-sotun. Esfah n (Gyselen1993, 30.E.6) (Bivar 1969, pl.28, NG9) Fig. 54 – Seal with symbol Fig. 55 – Seal with sun-cross and scorpion We thus have a good indicator as to what yazat n meant in the Sasanian slogan ki chihr az yazat n. By claiming that their chihr (as manifestation of the khvarenah) came from the yazat n, they had a formula that could be interpreted in many ways. The general population, still associating the khvarenah with Mithra and Apam Nap t, naturally understood it as emanating from those two deities. As to the orthodox Zoroastrian clergy, they could find no fault in it, since, technically, yazat n could also refer to the more acceptable gods such as Ahura Mazd and An hit . The use of the plural yazat n became 93 I had previously suggested by mistake that this monogram was duplicating, as a mirror image, the word afzun; Soudavar 2003, 29. I suggested a new reading of this monogram (for another seal) in Soudavar 2014, 165, fig.188. 52 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL so banal that it was used as a singular, and passed into NP as one of the names of Allah.94 II.10 - Apam Napāt and the reed The aforementioned Bondahesh statement depicting the khvarenah as lying under a reed makes a conduit out of the reed (fig. 57),95 which like stacked lotuses, brings the dormant khvarenah out of the waters. It's a concept that is succinctly depicted on Achaemenid glazed bricks (fig. 56), even though no extant text fully describes the khvarenah cycle, since it was so closely associated with Median deities. Fig. 56 – The khvarenah cycle, rising through stacked lotuses from the underwater stage (as pearl). Persepolis Fig. 57 – Cattail reeds emerging from water. Detail of a Sh hn meh illustratiion (Soudavar 1992, 168) The reed is thus directly associated with Apam Nap t, as it's both an aquatic plant and related to the khvarenah. No wonder then that on three Sasanian silver bottles, depicting Apam Nap t as the "child" of An hit , he is holding a reed in his hand. In fig. 58, Apam Nap t is riding a duck and holding a cattail reed (Lat. typha) in his hand, and on another (fig. 59), he holds a straight reed. The most interesting specimen though is the one in which Apam Nap t is holding a cane (fig. 60). As the etymology of "cane" clearly 94 95 Soudavar 2014, 163-69. See note 77 supra THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 53 indicates it's basically a reed (it derives from Old Fr. cane, meaning "sugar cane," which goes back to Gr. κάννα, and Aramaic qanh , qany , and Akkadian qanu, meaning "tube, reed").96 As such it provides a solution to another dilemma, the cane symbol on the walls of the Yazidi Shrine of Shaykh Adi (fig.61), a symbol that M.I. Mochiri had also noticed on some post-Sasanian coinage that he had qualified as "Yazidi" (fig. 62).97 Fig. 58 – Apam Nap t holding a cattail reed. Detail of fig. 7 Fig. 59 – Apam Nap t holding a regular reed. Detail of fig. 2 Fig. 60 – Apam Nap t holding a cane. Detail of fig. 66 From serpents, to sun emblems and the mandrake, Yazidis have cherished many symbols that connected them to a Mithraic past, as a result of which it was often thought that their name referred to one deity (MP yazat , NP yzad), i.e., Mithra.98 The deciphering of their cane symbol as one relating to Apam Nap t, however, may suggest that they were praising the yazat n duo Mithra and Apam Nap t, rather than Mithra alone. They were "yazd ni" rather than "yazadi." Fig. 61 - The Yazidi shrine of Shaykh Adi with cane symbols (↑) (Badger 1857) (courtesy of M.I. Mochiri) 96 97 98 Wikipedia. Mochiri 2003. Fig. 62 - "Yazidi coin with cane emblem (↑) and mandrake (Mochiri 2003, Fig. 3) 54 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL II.11 - An eastern goddess promoted against the Mithra/Apam Napāt tandem To displace Apam Nap t, another aquatic deity was needed. The river deity of the Herat-Kandahar area was the closest available. She was originally called *Harahvatī,99 and was integrated as An hit into the Iranian pantheon, and subsequently, as H riti into the Buddhist pantheon. Fig. 63- H riti with flower, child and bird. Metropolitan Museum Fig. 64- An hit holding a lotus and bird. Metropolitan Museum Fig. 67 – An hit with long-sleeve robe and Apam Nap t before Narseh. Naqsh-e Rostam Fig. 68 – Princess in long-sleeved robe. Freer Gallery (F1946-12-114) Fig. 65- H riti holding a lotus and fruit bowl. Cleveland Museum Fig. 69 – A 15th-century Her ti ruler painted by Behz d (Soudavar 1992, 98) Fig. 66 - An hit holding Apam Nap t and fruit bowl. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Fig. 70- Vima Kadphises with long sleeve. Bactrian Coin (www.zeno.ru) As Buddhism moved further east and into Chinese territories, H riti carried along iconographic symbols borrowed from the eastern Iranian world. She was presented as a strong-breasted female who held—or was surrounded with—a long-stemmed lotus flower, a fruit platter, or birds, which are all found in the Sasanian representations of An hit (figs. 63-66). But following Shapur Shabazi, a number of scholars have opined 99 This eastern Iranian area derived its name from hers (Harahvat); Boyce 1989. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 55 that the long sleeve was a sign of "subordination" that designated the crowned female persona on the right of Narseh's victory scene in Naqsh-e Rostam, as the queen (fig. 67).100 This can't be. There is ample evidence that this type of sleeve was typical of Herat and its vicinity. Whether on the coin of the Bactrian ruler Vima Kadphises (c. 90100AD) (fig. 70), or a painting by the celebrated Behz d that depicts a 15th-century Herati sovereign (fig. 69), or a 16th-century painting by the Herati artist Shaykh Mohammad depicting Queen Zolaykh of Egypt approaching Yusof (fig. 68), kings and queens of the Herat region, and further east, wore the long sleeve. Sasanian sculptors were very much aware of An hit 's origins, and it's a testimony to their iconographic precision that they depicted her in fig. 67 with a long-sleeved robe, typical of Herat and the Eastern Iranian world. Furthermore, this is a composition where deities are hailing the initial victories of Narseh—before his final defeat by Gallienus (r. 260–68). An hit and Apam Nap t are both making approving gestures toward Narseh: An hit is giving him the y reh ring as emblem of support, and Apam Nap t is waving to him the sign of excellence (fingers configured as number 20), as does Tishtrya standing behind Narseh.101 The scene conforms to the norms of Zoroastrian orthodoxy, since An hit dominates all other deities. By putting her on the same side as Apam Nap t, it reflects the blurring process by which aquatic deities were bundled into the plural b n, one as the Lady of the Waters, and the other as her child. They reappear as an auspicious duo in the seal of fig. 65, where An hit is offering a lotus flower as symbol of khvarenah. It also parallels the scene in fig. 66 where An hit has regal attributes, namely a solar disk and a wind-blown dast r behind her head, while Apam Nap t is naked and "childish." On the bottle of fig. 64, however, instead of the previous regal symbols, she is placed under a sunflower arch, as if to say that even the sun supports An hit . More generally, the solar emblems on these two bottles clearly indicate that An hit was meant to supplant Mithra. The widespread popularity of the mehr- b tandem is a testimony to the insurmountable problem that nascent Zoroastrianism faced in trying to impose An hit in lieu of Mithra and Apam Nap t. To confront this problem, An hit was to be visually as powerful, and as regal, as possible. She would thus often wear a regal crown as in Naqshe Rostam, or on the seal of fig. 72. It would be as wrong to think of them as queens, as to consider the Virgin Mary a queen in fig. 71. Neither, Mary or Jesus, wore a Carolingian crown in Nazareth; if they have been given one, it's to make them as important and regal 100 101 Soudavar 2012a, 36-39. Soudavar 2012a, 37-38. 56 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL as possible. In Medieval art, an unlabelled crowned woman instantly evoked the Virgin Mary, with or without the infant Jesus on her lap. By the same token, the unidentified crowned woman of the seal of fig. 72 evoked An hit ; even more so in the Sasanian context, where effigies never provided a realistic portrait. Human faces were either generic, or embellished to the best of the artists' abilities. In other instances, An hit 's high status was projected, by other means: With a crenellated crown as in figs. 67 and 72, or through regal symbols such as the solar disk and dast r as in fig. 66, or a ram-horned headgear with a pomegranate (fig. 73), all projecting the auspiciousness of khvarenah. Fig. 71 – The crowned Virgin Mary and Jesus Victoria & Albert Museum Fig. 72 – Sasanian seal with An hit 's effigy. H. Afshar collections. Fig. 73 – An hit with a ram-crown symbol of khvarenah. Sasanian silver plate. Walters Art Museum Fig. 74 – An hit holding Apam Nap t's hand. British Museum II.12 - Anāhitā the anti-daeva and symbol of orthodoxy As the anti-daeva goddess, An hit was bound to play an important role in Sasanian coinage, especially for the kings who wanted to emphasize their orthodoxy. To understand her role, one must be able to recognize her, especially on the coinage of Ardashir I, where she first appears (fig. 75). Numismatists, however, had previously labeled the bust before Ardashir as his crown prince, and have now settled for a new term, "the throne successors," to generally qualify the coinage in which a bust appears before the king. It's confusing and wrong as it stems from a lack of understanding for the "architecture of Sasanian coinage," which remains "unexplained despite the multitude of publications on the subject."102 I had expressed the same in 2009, and yet, numismatists 102 Soudavar 2009, 418. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 57 still prefer to hide behind the vague "throne successors" label, and push aside criticism with a slight of hand.103 If the coin architecture is misunderstood, it's because: 1- Since the Avestan descriptive adjectives for celestial bodies, such as afsh-chithra and gao-chithra, are still mistranslated, not only the triple dot symbol and the cow sign of Sasanian coinage are not understood, but also their interrelationship with the double-legged ankh sign. 2- Sasanian iconography is governed by conventions, and if the spot before the ruler is occupied by a deity once, it will always remain so. One cannot say that the bust before Z m sb is Ahura Mazd (fig. 76), but when it comes to Ardashir, it represents his successor. Moreover if the bust is handing a beribboned y reh to the king (fig. 79), it must be a deity and not a prince. Fig. 75 – Ardashir facing the An hit with flapped bonnet. Private coll. Fig. 76 - Z m sb facing the bust of Ahura Mazd . Private coll. Fig. 77 – Bahr m II facing An hit with flapped bonnet. Private coll. Fig. 78 – An hit facing Bahr m II on a silver bowl from the Teflis Musuem. 3- Numismatists have been unable to understand the significance of the chihr az 103 Andrea Gariboldi, for instance, remarked in a footnote (Gariboldi 2011, 90): "L'affirmazione di Soudavar2009, 418, di essere in grado di fornire un completo e decisamente apodittica e forviante, come l'esempio che i Sasanide avrebbero sempre raffigurato i sovrani sulle monete a destra, i segno di discontinua rispetto alla moa partica di rappresentare il volto del re a sinistra o frontalmemte. In verita, ci sono molte ecceezzioni a questa regola. Trovo inutile indugiare in grossolane semplificazioni che non giovano al progresso degli studi." For him, ignoring 42 pages of my arguments seems to be the answer, and mischaracterization seems to be the way for "progresso degli studi." But after explaining that the Sasanians adopted the right-facing convention for the king's effigy, I had stated that "with a few minor exceptions" they followed it to the very end of their dynasty. Gariboldi, however, for lack of arguments, had to distort what I had said. I wonder if he ever calculated the number of non right-facing issues (which are mostly commemorative coins) to see whether they constitute "minor exceptions" as I claim, or "molte ecceezzioni" as he does. In a proper scientific debate, one disproves arguments by logical constructs and counter-examples to achieve "progresso degli studi.". A wholesale condemnation, as his, is a sign of incapacity. 58 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL yazat n slogan for Sasanian coinage. Such an important political slogan was bound to affect, and govern, the architecture of the coin. If the king is said to have obtained his chihr (light) from the gods, the one before the king is the deity that provides it. With the word yazat n in plural, it could always be interpreted as pointing to the Mithra/Apam Nap t tandem; and it is to avoid such an attack that Ardashir probably saw fit to put the bust of the anti-daeva An hit before himself. 4- Even though the crenellated crown was worn by both male and female deities, numismatists see the flapped bonnet as a uniquely male headgear. But the bust before Ardashir in fig. 66 has the same bonnet as the one before Bahr m II in fig. 77, and on the silver bowl of Bahr m II at the Teflis Museum (fig.78), which is clearly a woman. They all show An hit with the same headgear. 5- Moreover, on certain coins of Bahr m II such as fig. 80, the bust before the king has visibly two breasts, much like the female deity on both sides of fig.79; she can only be An hit . On the Teflis bowl, An hit —with visible breasts—has a bonnet, but in figs. 79 and 80, she wears a Phrygian bonnet with an animal head. Like Sh pur I and Ardashir I who sported different headgears, deities too could wear different ones. Fig. 79 – An hit represented as female bust before Bahr m II on the obverse of his coin, and as full woman on the reverse (Gyselen 2004, 109, n. 170) Fig. 80 – Breasted bust of An hit before Bahr m II (Mitchiner 1977, 155, no. 851) 6- Furthermore, numismatists as much bewildered about the reverse of the Sasanian as for the busts on the obverse. To figure it out, one needs to not only understand the chihr az yazat n slogan, but also the reason for its adoption. Basically, the reverse of the Sasanian coinage is a continuation of the p rs imagery that Darius had established. As the p rsa king, Darius stood weapon in hand by a fire edifice. Thereafter, all rulers of Persis followed the same example. Whether holding a bow or a sword, whether standing before an outdoor fire altar or fire tower, the THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 59 king stands weapon in hand, close to the fire (figs. 81-83), which reflects the very meaning of p rsa, i.e., the one who stands close to the fire.104 But something happened along the road, which forced the Sasanians to slightly change the p rsa imagery. Whereas the Achaemenid political slogan emphasized the "p rsa son of p rsa" pedigree of the king, it also claimed that the king was possessor of the Arya chisa, i.e., the Aryan khvarenah. In the meantime, however, the Zoroastrian priests had allocated the Aryan khvarenah to Zoroaster, and a pious Zoroastrian king could no longer claim to possess it. The formula had to be tweaked ever so slightly, along with its imagery. The chihr az yazat n formula was an extremely clever substitute, since it did not specify the type of chihr that the king claimed to have, and left open to interpretation the deity that supposedly bestowed the king's khvarenah. And since chihr's secondary meaning was image/shape, it seemed logical to bring down the Ahura Mazd that hovered up high (fig. 74), and put him on the right side as the mirror image of the king on the left. That's what Sh pur I did, when he first projected the chihr az yazat n formula on the reverse of his coinage (fig. 75). By virtue of the imprecise word yazat n, the identity of the right side deity varied according to the wishes and preoccupation of the ruler; if he was concerned with orthodoxy, as Bahr m II was, he could even place An hit on the opposite side (fig. 70). p rsa Fig. 81 – Coin of of Dareios II of Persis. 1st century BC Fig. 82 – Coin of Artaxerxes II son of Dareios II of Persis. 1st-century BC Fig. 834 – Coin of Autophradates I of Persis, with Ahura Mazd above Fig. 84 – Coin of Sh pur I, lance in hand and standing opposite Ahura Mazd As the anti-daeva, An hit was the deity of choice for the Sasanian kings who wished to be in the good books of the orthodox clergy. As such her appearance in Sasanian iconography provides an accurate gage for assessing the religiosity of each. 104 Soudavar 2014, 93-100. 60 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL II.13 - The impact of Zoroastrian deliberations on Hāriti's Chinese journey Besides those already discussed, H riti shares a most important feature with An hit : She was considered the facilitator of child birth and protector of pregnant women, which ties in well with two stanzas of the b n Yasht (Yts.5.2 & 5.5), where An hit is portrayed as the one who purifies "the wombs for giving birth, gives easy delivery to all females, and brings down milk to all females." Oddly, H riti is at first an ogress who devours children, but repents and becomes a protector of children, when the Buddha abducts her own child in order to show her the suffering of the mothers who were victimized by her.105 But no matter how much a child-devouring ogress has repented, it is hard to imagine her as a deity that pregnant women would have felt comfortable with, and would have espoused her as their patron saint. Chances are that, initially, she was just a goddess of procreation, one that facilitated child birth, as Yts.5.2 & 5.5 also seem to indicate; and that the anti-child feature was a later transplant.106 There is otherwise no justification for such an abrupt transformation. Fig. 85 – Buddha attacked by H riti's demons Chinese scroll details; ink on silk, 18th century (Private collection) 105 106 For various versions of H riti, see Murray 1981. A similar scroll is produced in Giès 2004, 163. As no Indian or Chinese sources have been found for this myth, a Gandharan origin is often proposed; Giès 2004, 162. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 61 The child-devouring theme must have stemmed from the antagonism between An hit and Apam Nap t, the daeva who was sanitized into a child. And it stands to reason that if An hit was the anti-daeva, and opposed to Apam Nap t, she was perceived—at one point in time—as an anti-child; this, of course, would have been in conflict with her primary role as the deity who facilitated child birth. Myths generally develop to dissipate internal conflicts, and to produce an acceptable narrative. The H riti myth was developed to forge together the two contradictory aspects of a water deity, which spilled over from the Achaemenids to their neighbors. Fig. 86 – H riti demons raising the alms bowl that hid her child. Further details from scroll of fig. 76 Such was the dominant position of the Achaemenids in the ancient world that their ideological problems and travails must have affected neighboring countries as well. It had begun with the killing of the magus Gaum ta, and the massacre of the Median magi, symbolized by the horned lion chimera that Darius is stabbing in his palace of Persepolis, 62 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL which provided the div prototype for Iranian narratives.107 Interestingly, the same demoniac characters populate the Chinese scrolls of the H riti myth, which depict her endeavors to recover the child that the Buddha had hidden under an alms bowl. H riti has an army of demoniac figures that she first directs to attack the Buddha; to no avail, their arrows turn into lotus flowers and fall down (fig. 85). She then orders them to lift the alms bowl to recover her child; again, they are unsuccessful (fig. 86). Figs. 87 a, b – Other details from the scroll in Fig. 85 a) H riti with children and pregnant women, b) flame-spouting figure riding a dragon This army of demoniac figures cannot represent her own children, because the child under the alms bowl, and those surrounding H riti (fig. 87a), are normal human children.108 It thus seems that the Iranian divs, who came to represent An hit 's opponents branded as daevas, also entered the H riti myth. The div-like creatures of the scroll act as her accomplices, at a time when she hasn't repented as yet. The demoniac H riti may reflect the un-sanitized Apam Nap t, the one known as the Burning Water and branded as daeva; a dragon-riding fire-spouting figure in H riti's retinue even seems to reflect him (fig. 87b). The last phase of the myth, when H riti repents and vows to protect all children, mirrors the harmonization of the two antagonistic water deities of 107 108 Soudavar 2014, 241-48. H riti's own children are sometimes qualified as "demon-children," in which "demon" is the attribute of the mother and not the children; Murray 1981, 253. THE ICONOGRAPHICAL TESTIMONY 63 Zoroastrianism, namely An hit and Apam Nap t, when they were integrated as mother and child into the b n family of gods. In this phase, children were reunited with H riti (fig. 87a), as the child-like Apam Nap t was with his supposed mother An hit (fig. 35). The visible entanglement of An hit with H riti further establishes the former as a transplant deity from the eastern Iranian world. II.14 - The flaming pearl When the Medes integrated Mithra and Apam Nap t into the khvarenah cycle, one became its celestial purveyor, and the other, its underwater guardian. In its underwater stage, the khvarenah was best represented by a pearl, which was both luminous and spherical (see sec. II.2, and fig. 56). It seems that by virtue of being guarded by the "blazing" Apam Nap t, the pearl got affixed with flames and travelled eastward, all the way to China, as an auspicious symbol of power similar to the khvarenah. In Chinese mythology, this flaming pearl is unsuccessfully pursued—through clouds and seas—by a dragon-snake (fig. 88);109 and in Japan the flaming pearl is transformed into a luminous crystal ball (fig. 89). Their relative stories, of uncertain origin, recall the unsuccessful attempts of the dragon-snake Azhi-dah ga to capture the khvarenah, before landing in the hands of Apam Nap t (Yts.19.46-51); and since they echo Apam Nap t's original association with fire, pearl and snakes, they may well represent a further drift of his saga into the myth domain. Fig. 88 – Dragon chasing a flaming pearl. Chinese silk brocade. 19-20th century. Honolulu Museum of Art. 109 Fig. 89 – Dragon chasing a luminous pearl. Japan 19th c. Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University See for instance the wonderful scroll of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, painted by Shen Rong (http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/nine-dragons-28526). 64 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL EPILOGUE The Avesta is a complex text and, at times, a deceitful one. Philological considerations alone cannot untangle such complexity. All avenues, including the repercussions of Iranian religions on neighboring countries as well as banned ideologies, must be explored. Images can play an important role in this process. Contrary to the textual documents written by the learned, who were affiliated to the elite and defended the official point of view, artisans often reflected in their works popular beliefs. It is thus that the cosmetic box of fig. 9b offers an explanation for Apam Nap t's name, nowhere to be found in texts. All references to such a fundamental concept as the khvarenah, whether in Zoroastrian texts or Achaemenid inscriptions are tongue in cheek and convoluted. A concept so strongly associated with the Median deity tandem, namely Mithra and Apam Nap t, could not be glorified but only alluded to in a cryptic fashion. Where Avestan texts fail to explain the khvarenah, iconography provides a detailed schema (fig. 56). Similarly, from the lion fountain to Hellenistic earrings, and to the Islamic mihr b, the surviving mehr- b symbols attest to the enduring popularity of these two deities in tandem. Of the two, the more onerous deity was Apam Nap t, for he was formerly associated with life and creation. His popularity, on the one hand, and his rival status vis à vis Ahura Mazd , on the other, created a dilemma for Darius and his successors, as well as the Zoroastrian priesthood. At first he was ignored, then branded as daiva and replaced by a minor and Eastern aquatic deity, An hit . The latter was afterward designated as the antidaeva and champion of Zoroastrian orthodoxy. But no matter how praised she was, she could not displace or break up the powerful tandem deity of old. A compromise was thus sought, by which, Mithra and Apam Nap t would be integrated into the Zoroastrian pantheon, with less status and less power, but addressed with the epithet ahura, at par with (Ahura) Mazd . This polytheistic compromise, nominally referred to as the Ahuric Religion, was a drastic departure from Zoroaster's monotheistic vision that exalted Ahura Mazd alone. Still, Apam Nap t, the god whose name evoked "Burning Water," represented a major problem for Zoroastrianism. He was stripped of his yasht and powerful attributes, and attempts were made to diminish him in a multitude of ways, including a new definition of his name through punning. His name was manipulated to 66 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL mean Child of Waters, and as such, he was represented by a winged Eros or a two-legged ankh sign. This allowed An hit , who, in the meantime, was named the Lady of the Waters, to hold the hand of the Child of the Waters as a motherly figure (figs. 2, 7). It projected a powerful image, belittling Apam Nap t and aggrandizing An hit . What remained of Apam Nap t's past glory, was just a few allusions here and there in the Avesta, mainly because of the use of earlier material by later Avestan authors. What emerges from this study is also a proof for what I had long suspected: That the negative connotation of "daeva" was mainly because of the animosity that flared up under Darius and early successors, against the Median magi. There is no better proof for this than Yts.5.94-95 in which, those who worshipped the Median Ap m Nap t at nighttime were labeled as daeva-worshippers; what's more, they were so vilified that whatever they touched had to be purified. It shows purification laws as directed, not against harmful food or noxious animals, but against those who were perceived as the "enemy." I believe that it set Zoroastrianism on an aggressive path to vilify opponents by presenting them as impure, and creating a list of untouchables, essentially aimed at isolating their opponents. It represents a milestone in the evolution of Zoroastrianism, with important consequences in the political and religious spheres. I have often advocated that Western Avestologists would be well served by the study of NP translations of the Avesta, and by the search for NP parallels of Avestan words and sentences.110 Sadly, modern specialists think of New Persian as so unconnected to the Avestan language that they hardly invest any time in it. If anything, this study shows how relevant can New Persian be to Avestan studies, since the deciphering of the hitherto incomprehensible Yts.94-95 was only achieved through finding connections between Avestan verbs and NP words. O.P. Skjaervo had done the same for one verb only, when linking Av. vi-p shna-ka to NP p shna (heel); I extended it to three other verbs, which all together described four stages in the preparation process of libation ingredients. 110 In a recent article (Hintze 2009), Almut Hintze rejects the possibility that the Avestan name avô could mean water. Her rejection is predicated on accepting incongruent translations such as "having the seed of water" for afsh-chithra (p. 141), or misunderstanding Yt.8.34 (as explained in sec. I.7 above). She also translates the term avô-hvarenåsca of Y.2.16 as "manger" rather than "drinking place," based on the assumption that its MP cognate akhwarr (NP khor) also means the same, i.e., a "place where food and drink is deposited for domestic animals" (p. 137). But as in French, where water is pronounced eau, many Iranian dialects still use a similar sounding term (auw) for water; and the word khor, which is really an abbreviation of auw-khor, denotes a place where water was drank. It could refer to a spring or pond, as well as a man-made instrument. And since khor was used more and more for the man-made drinking trough, a new term was adopted to denote the natural watering place: besh-khor. This is the term that Jalil Doustkhah has used for his translation of avô-hvarenåsca in NP (Dustkh h 2002, I:105).110 It's more appropriate, and better fits the natural setting that Y.2 describes. EPILOGUE 67 Similarly, in the case of Yt.8.4, a number of adjectives relative to the brightness and light power of Tishtrya had exact NP counterparts. What's more, to better comprehend this stanza one had to be familiar with New Persian literary techniques and expressions. For instance, at the end of this stanza, the luminescence of Tishtrya is highlighted by a question and answer sequence. Familiarity with this technique had allowed me to offer elsewhere a comprehensive explanation for Y19, which was lacking in existing translations.111 And yet, in reaction to my explanation of this technique, one reviewer opined that the question-and-answer technique was a "common phenomena in the ancient world," and no big deal.112 If so, how come no one else discovered it in Yt.8.4? Be that as it may, the expression berezât haosravanghem ("khosrov ni radiance") has numerous counterparts in Persian literature, as ft b-e khosrov n (kingly sun), all alluding to kingly radiance and the solar disk depicted behind Sasanian rulers' head. This Avestan expression may thus allude to a kingly radiance, or kingly khvarenah, carried by haosrova, i.e., Kay Khosrow of the Sh hn meh. Various modern scholars have noted the many similarities between the Cyrus saga and that of Kay Khosrow,113 and it stands to reason that Cyrus would embody the most powerful of kingly radiances because of his unparalleled victories and conquests. In sum, in this stanza alone, we have a number of indices all militating for the late redaction of Yt.8. On the one hand, we have close similarities of Avestan words and expressions with New Persian, and on the other, we have a reference that most probably evokes Cyrus. Like so many other indices, they push forward the redaction date of the Avesta, close to the late Achaemenid or early post-Achaemenid period. This of course is anathema to Avestologists, who try to fend off their detractors, and especially outsiders like me, by invoking incompatibilities with supposed grammatical and etymological rules that the Avesta followed with clockwork precision. And yet, like any other text, the Avesta suffers from inconsistencies. For instance, as I have argued elsewhere, the drop of one Apam in Yt.19.94, where two successive ones should have appeared, is a common scribal error that occurs across different scripts and languages.114 Also, by Kellens's own admission, a passage of Yt.5.53 that replicates Yt.10.11 is grammatically incorrect.115 111 Soudavar 2014, 348-56. It was expressed by an anonymous reviewer (I believe Almut Hintze), see Soudavar 2014, 368. 113 An extensive table on this topic has now been compiled by R. Zarghamee; Zarghamee 2013, 538-39. 114 See Soudavar 2012b, 72. 115 See note 34 supra. 112 68 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL More importantly, in the Iranian culture, form takes precedence over content. Whether in poems or in prose, authors often mutilate spelling and set aside grammatical rules for the sake of rhyme, rhythm and meter. Where Kellens sees a grammatical mistake in three (underlined) adjectives of Yt.5.53, I see a deliberate attempt to have a better rhyme (especially for the first adjective rathaêshtârô) with taxmô tusô: Yt.5.53 tãm ýazata, taxmô tusô rathaêshtârô, barshaêshu paiti aspanãm, zâvare jaidhyañtô hitaêibyô, drvatâtem tanubyô... In a hymn that was composed for political motives, purpose can override grammar. Whether by mistake or on purpose, these errors show that grammar wasn't sacrosanct for Avestan authors, and it leaves Avestologists empty handed, once again. APPENDIX I Below are the comments of two reviewers of Studia Iranica based on a shorter version of this study (basically Part I) that I had submitted. Reviewer 1 wants to defend at all cost the untenable early Avesta dating, championed by Boyce and Kellens. Reviewer 2 transposes French emotional adjectives into his/her rebuttal ("annoying", "irritating", "hilarious"…) in lieu of logical arguments she cannot find. The parallelism of the two shows a coordinated effort, most probably inculcated the gatekeeper of Studia Iranica. The problem though is that they bluff and I shall call their bluffs point by point. My answers are in italic. Reviewer 1 : Discrediting Ahura Mazd ‫ﺶ‬s Rival, the Original Iranian Creator God Apam Nap t (ApamNaph t?) Submitted for Studia Iranica 2015 This article proposes to discuss the ways in which Ap m Nap t was reintegrated into the Zoroastrian religious system by the priesthood of Achaemenid times, having allegedly previously been rejected as a Daiva. The author claims to have identified ‫ﺳ‬subtle ways‫ ﺴ‬in which the priests would have tried to achieve this. The author advocates an approach to the sources within the framework of his own historical reconstruction of which he is firmly convinced while he rejects those of others without, however, engaging with the scholarly debate. The author is convinced of his own conclusions and the fact that they cohere in his imagination is taken as proof for their infallible validity, while he accuses Avestologists to be caught in a ‫ﺳ‬self-made enclosure‫( ﺴ‬p.5). Yes, and these reviewers' comments provide further proof of this. The article seems to be directed to the non-specialist who is in no position to judge the sustainability of the numerous claims made. The author declares that this article is designed not for Avestologists, but for non-Avestologists (p.5), although the article is largely concerned with Old Iranian (Avestan and Old Persian) source material. The author displays little understanding of methodology in Indo-Iranian Studies with regard to comparison of Old Iranian and Vedic and the reconstruction of a prehistoric linguistic and conceptual world. On p. 14, for example, the author comments that in Vedic Yama has no ‫ﺳ‬encounter‫ ﺴ‬with An hit , without noting that the name An hit has no direct Vedic equivalent. Before posing as a savant, I suggest he/she should first consult the provided reference Boyce 1989 (EIr): "The proper name of the divinity in Indo-Iranian times, H. Lommel has argued, was Sarasvatī, “she who possesses waters…. She was still worshiped in Vedic India by this name, which was also given there to a small but very holy river in Madhyadeśa. In its Iranian form (*Harahvatī), her name was given to the region, rich in rivers, whose modern capital is Kandahar ". I just say: "Among the supplicants appear powerful 70 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL mythological figures from the Indo-Iranian lore, such as Jamshid (Yima), the dragon Azhi-dah ga, and the dragon-slayer Fereydun (Thraetona). The problem though is that none of these figures had any prior encounter, in the Vedic mythology or elsewhere, with An hit ." In fact, if the reviewer's contention was to be true, it provides added support for my thesis: that An hit 's interaction with heroes of the Indo-Iranian lore were without precedent and pure fabrications At the outset, the author declares his rejection of purely philological methods. He discards translations of the Avesta by Avestologists which in his view are too philological and obscure. He provides alternative English translations without, however, engaging with the Avestan original. According to him, incoherent translations need to be re-vamped and reinterpreted. One enters, of course, a vicious circle here if one tries to translate the Avesta by first having a preconceived idea of what it should mean. This, however, is the approach which the author seems to advocate (p. 2). Instead of examining the Avestan original, he has recourse to New Persian and attempts to translate Avestan in the light of New Persian words that sound similar to the Avestan words. Several unclear Av. words are discussed and connected with NP words such as, for example, philologically difficult and partly obscure attributes that describe the libations of Daiva-worshippers in Yt 5.95. Oddly, he/she admits that I provide explanations for "unclear Av. words" but evokes unspecified "philological difficulty". Where is the difficulty? The method is applied with very limited success due to the fact that basic phonological rules are not observed. For example, on p.21 bottom, Persian k rd ‘knife‫ ﺶ‬belongs with the root kart ‘to cut‫( ﺶ‬Cheung p.243f.), not with *skard ‘to pierce‫ ﺶ‬as claimed by the author. I provide 2 possibilities related to *skard and NP k rd, which together with the suffix apa can both explain an unexplained (or "unclear") Avestan term, apa-skaraka, that I define as a "cutting apart" or "chopping" process. If both are rejected, how should apa-skaraka be translated? I do believe, however, that the two roots are related, and Cheung shouldn't have separated them; this passage somehow provides proof of this. Some of explanations proposed here are pure fantasy. They include the view that apąm nap t- mean ‘burning water‫ ﺶ‬while the usual ‘grandson of the waters‫ ﺶ‬would be a later development which the author reconstructs in a series of unsubstantiated claims (p.29). Fantasy? I provide a substantial amount of arguments. Which one is specifically wrong? The author is rather quick with drawing far-reaching conclusions on the basis of very slight evidence. A case in point is the discussion of the Aryan xwarenah (p.7) and the way he reaches the conclusion that Yt 19 and Yt 5 were composed in postAchaemenid times. In connection with the story related in Yt 19 and 5, where Frangrasyan is described as desiring the glory of the Aryan people, and which belongs to Zarathustra, the author claims that ‫ﺳ‬no Achaemenid king would have tolerated the attribution of the Aryan xwarenah to Zoroaster‫( ﺴ‬in itself one of the author‫ﺶ‬s many unsubstantiated claims) and therefore neither of the two Yashts could have survived APPENDIX I 71 the Achaemenid Era. Therefore, the author concludes, both Yashts must be products of the post-Achaemenid period, ‫ﺳ‬probably conceived under the Seleucids‫ﺴ‬. This example illustrates how the author draws conclusions from his own assumptions, internally coherent, but entirely hypothetical and unsubstantiated. He neither engages with contradictory evidence nor with the scholarly debate. He/she of course ignores the extensive arguments provided in my 2014 book If any scholar thinks that Zoroastrian priests could proclaim 5 times a day that the Aryan khvarenah belonged to Zoroaster and not the Achaemenid king, and that no region of the world was rules by a khshatra but only by regional chieftains under Zoroaster (Y19.17-18), then I think there is no need for further discussions, for it negates everything that images or script project about the Achaemenid king. This is the crux of the matter, and cannot be summarily dismissed. The author rejects Hoffmann‫ﺶ‬s system of transliterating Avestan and proposes to return to Bartholomae‫ﺶ‬s. However, Bartholomae‫ﺶ‬s system is not followed either, and instead an idiosyncratic way of writing Avestan words is used. At times they are disfigured beyond recognition. For example, on p.26 Av. berezant- a n d borz (presumably bǝrǝz is meant here). I use the transcription of the main Zoroastrian site Avesta.org, which is accessible to everybody and very functional Points of detail p.1 The abstract does not really provide a summary of the argument of this article. p.3 The description of Ahura Mazda as an ‫ﺳ‬omnipotent‫ ﺴ‬god needs to be specified. Really? He/she wants me to reiterate Darius' Bisotun inscription that all he achieved was by the will of Ahura Mazd ? p.4 The author regards the aquatic female deity An hit as a ‫ﺳ‬substitute‫ ﺴ‬for Ap m Nap t, who according him was a competitor of Ahura Mazd . It is, however, unclear why Ap m Nap t should have been a competitor while An hit was not. I am not sure Reviewer1 can read English, and understand it at the same time. I explain more than once that Apam Nap t was the original "creator" god. It's even in the title. An hit never had such pretense p.8 The statement ‫ﺳ‬In Zoroaster's Gathas, where Ahura Mazd is praised, traditional Iranian gods are referred to as daevas, and are not demonized‫ ﺴ‬inaccurately reflects Herrenschmidt & Kellens 1993, as they take the view that in the Gathas daevas are the bad gods. Nowhere in the Avesta are the daevas gods that perceived as positive. This person simply cannot read. Herrenschmidt & Kellens write in EIr. : "In the Gathas the daēuuas had not yet, in fact, become demons. As Émile Benveniste (1967) clearly established, they constituted a distinct category of quite genuine gods, who had, however, been rejected." The view that the demonisation of the Daivas was caused in connection with the magophonia referred to by Herodotus is entirely hypothetical. If one cannot read the EIr, one won't be able to read the extensive arguments presented in my 2014 book, either. 72 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL p.20–21 The reconstruction of how a ritual was prepared is entirely hypothetical. That the ingrediants for the libations were collected from the ‫ﺳ‬four corners of the realm‫ﺴ‬ seems to be the author‫ﺶ‬s invention. In this person's view, the ingredients were simply available in a drawer under the fire altar!!! p.21 Av. zaotar- is not ‘libation‫ﺶ‬. The Av. word is zaoϑr True. (There were many typos) 21 bottom Persian k rd ‘knife‫ ﺶ‬belongs with the root kart ‘to cut‫( ﺶ‬Cheung p.243f.), not with *skard ‘to pierce‫ ﺶ‬as claimed by the author. Already addressed p.23 The reasoning about the translation of the object (not subject, as the author seems to insinuate) is bizarre. He seems to forget that Avestan has free word order. Really? Says who? Neither Hintze nor Skjaervoe interpret the ‘waters‫ ﺶ‬as the subject of the sentence in Yt 8.34. That's why both translations are wrong and don't make sense. That passage of the Avesta talks about nature and water-rain cycles. It does not talk about modern land reform, or land distribution. It's about land fertility because of the water cycle. The author‫ﺶ‬s own translation of the ‘waters‫ ﺶ‬as a gen.pl, is impossible. Really? The dictionary of Avesta.org defines apô as "[ap](G,plNA) water" or an adverb, and occurs 15 times. Either his/her contention is wrong, or at best, creates a controversy. As such, context is the ultimate arbiter, and in this case, context and the syntax clearly support my translation. Moreover, when composing Iranian hymns and poems, poets may take liberties. One cannot analyze poetry by strictly adhering to grammatical or etymological rules. "Impossible" has no meaning in this context p.24 The root underlying baxšaiti and baxta and NP baxt is the same root baj ‘to distribute, apportion‫ﺶ‬. The author seems to be unaware of this. I did not negate this common root, but simply observed that baxta was more akin to NP bakht. Derivations from the same root can take divergent meanings. In any case bakht is often explained as a distribution from the gods. The irritating point (or annoying as the other reviewer says) is that the Avesta is many ways much closer to Persian that they think p.24f. Wild speculations about the origins of the fravashis. I have yet to see a better one. If one has it, I am all ears p.26 The discussion of the etymology of nap t- disregards the forms in which this term in attested in Vedic and Avestan. I raise an objection based on solid arguments and my Naph t proposal is followed by a (?), i.e. I am not very sure about its original form. p.31 The author‫ﺶ‬s spelling Azhi-dah ga is strangely hybrid. It should be either Av. APPENDIX I 73 aži- dah ka- or MP aždah g. p.34 the name of Henkelman is misspelt repeatedly. p.34 fn.70: read 2015. true. p.36 That *Harahvatī was an Iranian river deity in addition to a geographical region is an unsubstantiated claim. The claim that the Buddhist H riti is an Iranian loan needs to be supported with at least a reference where such a borrowing is argued for. see Boyce 1989 (above). p.39 To call the Avesta ‫ﺳ‬deceitful‫ ﺴ‬doesn‫ﺶ‬t seem the right expression. The word "deceit" should be easy to understand for these reviewers, as they both practice it. p.38 offers some wild speculations on the Iranian origin of the motif that the Buddhist monster H riti devours her children. One has the duty to explain oddities in a plausible way, and needs vision, which is not the forte of philologists p.39 The conclusion on p.39 section XI is rather weak. The author reiterates his agenda rather summarizing the argument and conclusion of this paper —————————————————————————————————————————— Reviewer 2 (emphasizing in bold & underline is by me) The paper ‫ﺳ‬Discrediting Ahura Mazd ‫ﺶ‬s Rival, the Original Iranian Creator God Apam Nap t (Apam Naph t?)‫ ﺴ‬should not be published. It is an exposé of the author‫ﺶ‬s own ideas lacking any scientific argumentation and discrediting scientific approaches to the same problems. It is just an accumulation of unscientific ideas combined to make a completely fictive construction. Own ideas are used as arguments for new assumptions. This is, for example, the case when assuring that the Yašts cannot be redacted in Achaemenian times, since the kings would not have allowed the attribution of the xarənah to Zozoroaster. A scientific approach is primarily based on logic and common sense. It is rather presumptuous, for one who lacks both, to judge what is scientific and what is not Furthermore, author‫ﺶ‬s methodology is far beyond any acceptable scientific standards. I‫ﺶ‬ll limit myself to some of the most obvious problems. The whole presentation is driven by the idea that the Avestan past can be explained out of much later materials. Thus he explains the rejection of the daeuuas recurring to political reasons and uses the Š hn me as argumentation. Although I use the Sh hn meh as an example, the main problem I cite is that: good gods do not turn into bad ones in the normal course of events. Drastic events must have triggered it, and I argue in here as in my book that it was the massacre of the magi by Darius. Much irritating is the rejection of well-established etymologies produced with the not questionable methods of the comparative Indo-Iranian linguistics. the author postulates new ones just on the basis of the 74 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL simple sound similarity with some New Persian words. The author lacks any sensibility for the historic evolution of languages and produces thus some hilarious etymologies: e.g. the connection between nap t and naphtha which has for the author far reaching consequences. It is very disappointing that he does not loss a minute in explaining what should be wrong in the old and sure etymological connection with a great number of identical words in other Indo-European languages (like Lat. nepos, nepotis). Nothing is "wrong" with nepos, nepotis, and nephew as they are all attached to the umbilical cord and the navel (NP n f), so to speak. I just propose that there was, through punning, a change of name from something that was akin to naphtha to a similar-sounding name that meant navel. Quite sad is always the disregard of any scientific approach concerning the interpretation of Av. bərəz-, bərəzaṇt that is obviously identical (as universally known) with OInd. bṛh-, bṛhant- ‫ﺳ‬lofty‫ﺴ‬, but that is compared by the author with New Persian beresteh, brēzan, etc. "Sadly," every dictionary takes into consideration NP derivatives. If one cannot rely on NP words, then I suggest that all dictionaries must be tossed out. Conveniently, he/she forgets to mention my examples in French (braiser) and English (blaze, blæse) Not less annoying is his explanation of Av. apa.xaraosa- as connected with NP khar s ‫ﺳ‬stone mill‫ﺴ‬. Why is it annoying? She must have an aversion to stone mills The list could be extended, but it should be enough to notice that there is no new etymological interpretation by the author that has the minimal chance to be right. His etymological approaches lack any acceptable scientific methodology. The same is true for the semantical analysis that are mostly limited to accept for the Avestan words the same meaning as their (alleged) cognates present in New Persian. Unforgettable is the translation of baxšaiti as ‫ﺳ‬endows with fertility‫ﺴ‬. For maintaining his impossible semantical analysis the author is compelled to an also impossible syntactical analysis. He criticises without any serious reasons the analysis of apō as accusative plural and object of baxšaiti and translates it as a genitive plural (!!!) ‫ﺳ‬of those waters‫ﺴ‬. The arguments employed do not belong in a scientific journal. Why is my syntactical analysis "impossible"? I highlight the problem through an example. To claim impossibility, he/she needs to produce an counter example. He/she obviously cannot. As for his "genitive plural (!!!)" remark, he/she claims the same nonsense that Reviewer 1 does.. It should not be a big problem to use a different transliteration from the standard one (Hoffmann‫ﺶ‬s system). However, he claims to use Bartholomae‫ﺶ‬s, but it is in fact not at all true. The transliteration employed is simply wrong and do not allow the reader to reconstruct the real Avestan text. I use the standard in Avesta.org, a major Zoroastrian site and accessible to everybody. And the only reason for adopting it is, to say the less, extemporaneous: that thus the relationship to the Persian words is easier to be recognized! It is simply obvious that the author lacks the necessary skills of the Avestan language for publishing scientific papers discussing Avestan passages and interpretations. As solid training in Avestan could solve many of the problems present in this paper. Nowadays, those with solid Avestan credentials are precisely those who produce unreadable translations. We could as well discuss other conceptual problem of the paper, but in my view the absolute disregard of APPENDIX I 75 the most simple rules of the Avestan linguistics and philology makes impossible the publication of this paper in a scientific journal The above comments of Studia Iranica's reviewers clearly follow the same turf-protection pattern that I had experienced before. The late Richard Frye, who had endorsed my Aura of Kings in 2003, once told me that a colleague of his had walked into his room and objectionably asked: How could he approve of such nonsense? To make sure that I had understood him correctly, I brought up the subject once again, when I saw him last in Sarajevo (2013). He reiterated the same, without revealing the name of the objector. This was by no means an isolated incident. When the IRAN journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies published an article of mine in 2012, anonymous objectors raised the same question with its editor: How could he allow the publishing of such an article? In another instance, an anonymous reviewer for Iranian Studies asked why I insist to translate Avestan passages when, by my own admission, I had no basic knowledge of Avestan grammar or philology; my answer was then, as it is till today, that I shall continue to do so whenever I encounter translations that don't make sense, and I am somehow able to explain.116 And since she wove into her comments a quote from Hannah Arendt, I'd like to reciprocate the favor by evoking an equally famous quote of said author: "the banality of evil." For Arendt, mankind's evil essentially stemmed from the self-righteous belief in the absolute truth, and the refusal to confront logic or common sense. I am afraid that, in a most banal way, self-righteousness has also been the plague of Ancient Iranian Studies. 116 Soudavar 2014, 368. APPENDIX II Xavier Tremblay's entry on chithra/chihr: APPENDIX II 77 BIBLIOGRAPHY Badger, P.G., 1987. The Nestorians and their Rituals, London: Darf (reprint of 1852 publication). Bivar, A.D.H, 1969. Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Stamp Seals, II The Sassanian Dynasty, London. Boyce, M., 1986. "Apam Nap t" in EIrOnline (updated in 2011). ________, 1989. "An hid" in EIrOnline (revised 2011) Cahill, N. (ed.), 2010, The Lydians and the World, Istanbul: Yapi Kredi Cheung, J., 2007. Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb, Leiden: Brill. Curtis, J., & Simpson, St J. (eds.), 2010, The World of Achaemenid Persia - History, Art and Society in Iran and the Ancient Near East, London: British Museum. Darmesteter, J., 1898. Sacred Books of the East (www.avesta.org) Dehkhod , A., 1994. Loghatn meh, Tehran, 1373 and http://www.loghatnaameh.com Dumézil, G., 1981. Mythe et épopée, Histoires romaines, Paris: Gallimard (3rd ed.), Dustkh h, J., 2002. Avesta, Kohantarin sorudh -ye ir ni n, 2 vols. (6th edition), Tehran. Ebn- Balkhi, 1968. The F rsn ma of Ibnu'l Balkhi, , eds. G. Le Strange & R.A. Nicholson (reprint), London Gariboldi, A., 2011. La Monarchia Sassanide, Milan. Gershevitch, I., 1995. "Approaches to Zoroaster's Gathas," in IRAN 33,1-30. Giès, J., 2004. "La légende de H riti, la Mère de démons" in Montagnes Célestes, Trésors des musées de Chine, Paris: RMN, 162-63. Gnoli, G, 1998. "Xerxes, Priam et Zoroastre" in Bulletin of Asia Institute, vol. 12, 59-68. _______, 2004. "Iranian Religions," Encyclopedia of Religions (2nd ed.), 4535-37. Gyselen, R., 1993. Catalogues des sceaux, camées et bulles sassanides (Collection générale), Paris : BNF _______, 2000. Zoroaster in History, New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press. _______, 2004. New Evidence for Sasanian Numismatics: The Collection of Ahmad Saeedi (Extrait des Res Orientales XVI). Herrenschmidt, C. & Kellens, J., 1993. "Daiva" in EIrOnline, (revised Nov. 2011) Hintze, A., 2009. ‫ﺳ‬An Avestan Ghost Word: auurah- ‘water‫ ﺴﺶ‬in Zarathushthra entre l’Inde et l’Iran, eds. E. Pirart & X. Tremblay, Wiesbaden; 129-44 Kellens, J., 1978. "Caractères différentiels du Mihr Yašt" in Etudes mithriaques (Acta Iranica IV), Leiden, 261-70. _______, 1996. "Drv sp " in EIrOnline. _______, 1998. "Considérations sur l'histoire de l'Avesta," Journal Asiatique, 286.2, 451-519. Khosronejad, P., 2011. "Lions‫ ﺶ‬Representation in Bakhtiari Oral Tradition and Funerary Material Culture" in The Art and Material Culture of Iranian Shi'ism: Iconography and Religious Devotion in Shi'i Islam, P. Khosronejad (ed.), London, 195-214. Lecoq, P., 1997. Les inscriptions de la Perse achéménide, Paris : Gallimard. _______, 1995. ‫ﺳ‬Un Aspect de la politique religieuse de Gaumata,‫ ﺴ‬Res Orientales, VII, 183-86. Malandra, W., 1983. An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion: Readings from the Avesta and Achaemenid Inscriptions, Minneapolis. BIBLIOGRAPHY 79 Martinez, J.L., et al., 2015. L’Épopée des rois thraces : Découvertes archéologiques en Bulgarie, Paris. Mediavilla, C., 2006. Histoire de la calligraphie française, Paris. Melikian-Chirvani, A.S., 1990. "The Light of Heaven and Earth: From the Chah r-t q to the Mihr b" in Bulletin of AsiaInstitute, vol. 4, 95-132. Mitchiner, M., 1977. Oriental Coins and Their Values: The World of Islam, London. Mochiri, M.I, 2003. "Images symboliques des Yazidiya sur les monnaies" in N me-ye Ir n B stan III/1, (2003), 15-32. Murray., J., 1981, "Mother of Demons, and the Theme of 'Raising the Alms Bowl' in Chinese painting," Artibus Asiae, Vol 43/ 4 (1981-1982), 253-284. Pakzad, F., 2005. Bundahišn, Zoroastrische Kosmpgonie und Kosmologie, Band I, Kritische Edition, Tehran: Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia 1385. Panaino, A., 1995. "The Origin of the Pahalavi Name Burz "Apam Nap t", A Semasiological Study" in Acta Iranica Scientarum Hung., Tome XVIII (1-2), 117-26. ______, A., 2004. "Astral Characters of Kingship in the Sasanian and the Byzantine Worlds" in La Persia e Bisanzio, Atti dei Convegni Lincei 2001, Rome, 555-585. ______, A., (forthcoming). "Av. kauui- and Ved. kaví-, The Reasons of a semantic Division" in Manfred Mayrhofer's festschrift. Parpola, S., 1993. "The Assyrian Tree of Life: Tracing the Origins of Jewish Monotheism and Greek Philosophy" in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 52/3, 161-208. Porter, Y., 2007. "Mihr b" in Dictionnaire du Coran, eds. Amir-Moezzi et al., Paris, 554-56. Skjaervo, P.O., 2007. Zoroastrian Texts (vols. I-III), Harvard (Divinity School no. 3663a). Soudavar, A., 1992. Art of the Persian Courts, New York. _________, 2006. "The significance of Av. čithra, OPers. čiça, MPers. čihr, and NPers. čehr, for the Iranian Cosmogony of Light" Iranica Antiqua 41, 151-85. _________, 2009. "The Vocabulary and Syntax of Iconography in Sasanian Iran," Iranica Antiqua, 417-60. _________, 2010. "The Formation of Achaemenid Imperial Ideology and its Impact on the Avesta," in The World of Achaemenid Persia - History, Art and Society in Iran and the Ancient Near East, eds. J. Curtis & S. Simpson, London: British Museum, 111-37. _________, 2012a. " Looking through The Two Eyes of the Earth: A Reassessment of Sasanian Rock Reliefs" in Journal of Iranian Studies, Jan. 2012/1, 29-58. _________, 2012b. "Astyages, Cyrus and Zoroaster: Solving a Historical Dilemma" in IRAN, vol. L, 45-78. _________, 2014. Mithraic Societies, From Brotherhood Ideal to Religion's Adversary, Houston. Zarghamee, R., 2013. Discovering Cyrus: The Persian Conqueror Astride the Ancient World, Washington DC. INDEX b-n f ................................................. 31, 36 b n-n f ......................................... 30, 31 Achaemenids .................7, 14, 16, 19, 49, 61 Afr siy b ...................................... 11, 18, 19 afsh-chithra ........................ 2, 29, 44, 57, 66 ft b-e khosrov n ............................... 30, 67 Ahura Mazdā...i, iii, 5, 1, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 25, 31, 32, 39, 40, 51, 57, 59, 65, 69, 71, 73 Ahuric ..................................... 15, 16, 32, 65 Al-Aqmar mosque .................................... 50 Alhambra ............................................ 50, 51 An hit ....8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 31, 34, 51, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 65, 69, 70, 71 Anastasius Flavius .............................. 43, 44 Apam Nap t....iii, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 51, 54, 55, 56, 58, 61, 62, 63, 65, 69, 71, 73, 78, 79 Aphrodite ............................................ 41, 43 Ardashir I.......................... 28, 36, 56, 57, 58 Ardashir-khvarrah .............................. 28, 36 Arendt (Hannah) ....................................... 75 Arianism ................................................... 46 Artaxerxes II ................................... 8, 14, 15 Artaxerxes II son of Dareios II ................. 59 Artaxerxes III ....................................... 8, 15 Aryan khvarenah .....9, 11, 14, 18, 19, 59, 70 Ashavazdah son of Pourudh khshti .......... 21 Ashavazdah son of S yuzhdri................... 21 Athena ...................................................... 19 Autophradates ........................................... 59 Azhi-dah ga............................ 18, 63, 70, 73 Babylonians .............................................. 19 Baghdad .................................................... 49 Bahr m II................................ 45, 57, 58, 59 Balthazar................................................... 46 Behz d ................................................ 54, 55 Bidel-Shir zi ............................................. 30 Bisotun .................... 7, 13, 14, 39, 40, 42, 71 Bondahesh..................................... 32, 38, 52 borz ................................... 28, 30, 31, 36, 71 Buddha .................................... 43, 44, 60, 62 Buk n .................................................. 37, 38 Burning Water............. 27, 30, 32, 35, 37, 62 Canis Major......................................... 29, 44 Chamrosh .................................................. 31 Chehel Sotun ............................................. 50 Clemenceau (Georges) ................................ 1 Coquillards .......................................... 43, 50 cornucopia ................................................ 43 crucifix .......................................... 46, 47, 48 Cyrus the Younger .................................... 14 daeva.3, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 32, 56, 58, 59, 61, 62, 65, 66, 71 div ................................................... 12, 62 Dareios ...................................................... 59 Darius I5, 2, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 30, 39, 40, 58, 61, 65, 66, 71, 73 dast r .................... 27, 41, 42, 43, 45, 55, 56 double-legged ankh ............................. 35, 37 Drv sp ............................................... 19, 78 Dura Europos ............................................ 45 Ebn-e Balkhi ............................................. 36 Egyptians .................................................. 19 Elamites .................................. 14, 37, 38, 39 El-Tod ................................................. 47, 50 Eros ......................................... 27, 41, 43, 66 Esfah n ............................................... 50, 51 Fereydun (Thraetona).................... 18, 38, 70 flaming pearl ............................................. 63 gao-chithra.......................................... 44, 57 Gathas ....................................... 7, 11, 71, 78 Greeks ....................................................... 19 Haoma ....................................................... 19 Haoshyangha............................................. 19 Haosrava ................................................... 19 INDEX Harahvatī ...................................... 54, 69, 73 H riti ..................... 31, 54, 60, 61, 62, 73, 78 Hekmat-ol Eshr q .....................................28 Herat .................................................... 54, 55 Herodotus ............................ 5, 12, 19, 26, 71 Jamshid.................................... 18, 19, 26, 70 Yima .................................... 18, 19, 20, 70 jaziyya .........................................................7 Jerash.........................................................48 Jesus ........................................ 46, 47, 55, 56 Justinian ....................................................46 Juzj ni .......................................................30 Kairouan mosque ......................................50 khosrov ni ........................................... 30, 67 Konya ........................................................49 lion .............................. 13, 15, 50, 51, 61, 65 Magophonia .......................................... 5, 12 M zandar n ......................................... 14, 16 Medes ........................................ 9, 10, 38, 63 mehr- b.....8, 39, 40, 41, 43, 47, 48, 50, 51, 55, 65 mihr b ........................... 8, 39, 43, 48, 49, 65 Mithra...7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 21, 27, 32, 38, 39, 41, 43, 49, 51, 54, 55, 58, 63, 65 mithraeum ..................................... 41, 45, 46 Mithraic Societies...................... 1, 43, 44, 79 naphtha...................................... 5, 28, 30, 74 naft .................................................. 28, 31 Narseh ................................................. 54, 55 Order of Santiago ......................................43 Order of St Michael ...................................43 Ostrogoths .................................................46 p rsa ......................................... 2, 12, 13, 58 patera ........................................................43 People of the Book ......................................7 Priam .........................................................19 Q ni .........................................................30 quadrigae ..................................................17 Ravenna......................................... 45, 46, 47 Red Mosque ........................................ 49, 50 San Appolinare Nuovo ..............................46 81 San Stefano Rotondo ................................ 42 San Vitale ..................................... 45, 46, 47 Sardes ....................................................... 13 scorpion .............................................. 15, 51 Seleucids ............................................. 11, 71 Sh hoboddin-e Sohravardi........................ 28 Sh pur I .................................. 27, 42, 58, 59 Shaykh Adi (Shrine of) ............................. 53 Shaykh Mohammad .................................. 55 shell niche ........................................... 48, 49 shir ............................................................ 50 Sirius ......................................... See Tishtrya St Euphemia.............................................. 46 St James of Compostela ...................... 43, 50 sun cross ................................. 15, 46, 47, 51 Suzani-ye Samarqandi .............................. 30 Tamerlane ................................................. 45 Teflis ................................................... 57, 58 The Virgin Mary ........................... 46, 55, 56 Thrita son of Sayuzhdri ............................ 21 Tishtrya ......21, 29, 30, 42, 44, 45, 46, 55, 67 Toprak-kale............................................... 37 tree of life ........................................... 38, 50 Tus ............................................................ 17 Urartu........................................................ 37 vareγna ............................................... 26, 37 Varuna ...................................................... 21 Venus ........................................................ 43 Vima Kadphises .................................. 54, 55 Visht spa .................................................. 19 Vouru-Kasha............................................. 18 Winter Triangle................................... 29, 45 Xerxes ........................... 7, 14, 16, 19, 26, 78 y reh ................................................... 55, 57 Yazidi ....................................................... 53 Z m sb ..................................................... 57 Zarathushtra .... 10, 15, 16, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 Zolaykh ................................................... 55 Zoroaster...1, 2, 7, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 25, 59, 65, 70, 71, 78, 79 Zoroastrianism.....5, 8, 9, 10, 16, 23, 25, 48, 49, 51, 55, 63, 65, 66 82 DISCREDITING AHURA MAZD 'S RIVAL Discrediting Ahura Mazdāʼs Rival The Original Iranian Creator God "Apam Napāt” The crucial verse Yašt 19.52 shows that in one of his aspects the ancient Apąm Napāt was a mighty creator -god, … but in Zoroastrianism Ahura Mazdā is venerated as supreme Creator, and Apąm Napāt thus came to be robbed of this function." Mary Boyce on "Apąm Napāṯ" Encyclopaedia Iranica Discrediting Ahura Mazdā’s Rival (or Apam Naphāt?) PDF available free of charge at Academia.edu or Soudavar.com Print copy available at Lulu.com Abolala Soudavar