Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/98

Rh or Cow Azi.' Av. gav, and Skt. go, both mean bull or cow. The dual Vedic divinities Dyaus, 'The Heaven,' and Prithivi, 'The Earth,' have the epithets bull and cow applied to them from their physical characteristics. After the analogy of the Skt. go, 'bull or cow,' which also means earth, some are led to think that the above expressions are used with reference to the earth. The Pahlavi, Sanskrit, Persian, and early Gujarati versionists, it may be noted, adhere to the original meaning and explain the words with reference to the bull or cow.

Some creation-myths of the world relate that the earthly creatures have sprung from the bodies of the primeval man or of the cosmic cow killed by the gods or, as in the case of the later Zoroastrianism, by the Evil Spirit. In Babylonian mythology it is Marduk who killed Tiamat and the creatures came into existence from his body. According to the Vedic texts the gods sacrificed Purusha and brought the earthly and aerial creatures into being from his body. Ahriman, say the Pahlavi works, killed Gaya Maretan, the Primeval Man and Gavyokdat, the Primeval Bull, and men and animals and plants came into being from the various parts of their slaughtered bodies.

Cattle were the source of all wealth and the ox who drew the plough and enabled man to cultivate his field was held in religious veneration among the pastoral and agricultural Aryans and Semites from early times. Mithra was the most powerful Indo-Iranian divinity when Zarathushtra preached his new religion. The Iranians worshipped Mithra as 'the lord of wide pastures,' which is his standing epithet in the Younger Avesta. According to the ancient myth Mithra killed the Primeval Bull and thereby became the creator and fashioner of the earthly beings. The Mithraic sculptures represent him sitting on the bull's back, seizing it by the nostrils with one hand and plunging his hunting knife deep into its back. Zarathushtra did not include him in the heavenly hierarchy, but adapted the legend of the immolation of the Primeval Bull by Mithra to ethical ends.