Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/343

Rh the ninth century, or about two thousand years after the passing away of the prophet. The holy figure has grown very distant and dim. The real events of his life have been obscured by the long centuries, particularly the five centuries of chaos that followed Alexander's conquest of Persia. The piety of the adherents of his faith has burnt so much incense in his sacred memory that his face has got almost beyond recognition. We know everything of the life of Mohammed; we know something of the lives of Buddha and Jesus; we know practically nothing of the life of Zoroaster. The materials that we have in the Pahlavi works relating to him are not historical and authentic; they are legendary and mythical. Portents herald his birth and archangels attend his nativity. Legendary accounts of the miraculous conception and birth and childhood of Zaratusht supersede the matter-of-fact information that the Gathas give. The Pahlavi writers have before them the examples of the legendary stories of the miraculous incidents connected with the lives of Moses, Buddha, and Jesus, circulated in Iran by the followers of these prophets. It is probable that their writings have been influenced by these foreign sources.

The Pahlavi works. The Spend Nask, which is lost, is said to have contained the account of the birth and childhood of Zaratusht. The materials that have been preserved in the Dinkard, the Selections of Zatsparam, and some scattered passages in other Pahlavi works make up the literature on the life of the prophet that came into existence during the Pahlavi period.

The classical writers of the period on Zoroaster. From the time of Porphyry, who visited Persia and wrote in the latter part of the third century, to the time of the late Latin writers, all who speak about Zoroaster reproduce in the main all that is written by the early Greek and Roman writers. Some of them have been influenced by what they heard from the Zoroastrian sectarians during their days. Porphyry, for example, quotes Eubulus and says that Zoroaster dedicated a cave to the worship of Mithra and adds that it is from the practice introduced by him that peoples conduct their holy rites in caves and grottoes. Photius, who wrote in the latter part of the ninth century, ascribes the Zarvanite doctrines to Zoroaster and