Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/189

Rh Above all Ahura Mazda is the spirit of spirits. This essential trait stands intact through all changes in the concept of God. He is not invested with any anthropomorphic character, and his multifarious epithets are truly the figurative expressions of human language used by man in his feeble attempt to give vent to an outburst of the feelings of devotion and reverence for his Heavenly Father. Ahura Mazda is synonymous with light, even as his opponent is identical with darkness, and the sun is spoken of as his most beautiful form. Just as the Rig Veda speaks of the sun as the eye of Mithra and Varuna, so do the Avestan texts call the sun the eye of Ahura Mazda. Speaking about the nature of Ahura Mazda, Plutarch well remarks that among objects of sense the Zoroastrian godhead most of all resembles the light. The star-spangled heaven is his garment; the holy spell is his soul. Many are the names by which mankind have learnt to know him. The first Yasht, which is dedicated to him, enumerates seventy-four of these attributes. They are all descriptive of his wisdom, far-sightedness, power, righteousness, justice, and mercy.

Only the world of righteousness is created by Ahura Mazda. As the antithesis between the Deity and the Evil Spirit is now most strongly marked in the Later Avesta, the godhead is expressly described as the creator of everything that is good, evil being the counter-creation of Angra Mainyu. Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu in the younger texts are described as creating good and evil in turn. The archangels are Mazda's creations; so also are the angels and men, the animals, sky, water, trees, light, wind, and earth. In the various enquiries which Zarathushtra addresses to Ahura Mazda in the Vendidad, the divinity is portrayed as the creator of the corporeal world. Ahura expressly says to Zarathushtra that he has created everything in