Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/24

 Iran, all these conditions were most typically presented. About 1000 that region was ruled by King Vistaspa, under whom flourished the prophet Zarathushtra, the original redactor of the religion and ethical system accepted by the Persians. He gave a distinct expression to the philosophical tendencies of his age, and refined the loose polytheistic conceptions at first held by the Aryans to the complete dualism in which Ahura-Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom, and Angra-Mainyu, the Devisor of Evil, became the essential factors of a definite theological faith. On this foundation an Avesta or Bible of Mazdeism was elaborated, which laid down the law for the whole conduct of human life. Among the primitive deities most reverence had been*