Characters of ancient Mazdaism

Abstract

Traditionally, Iranian studies recognize in the oldest‐known Iranian, and Mazdean, text the work of Zarathustra. At the same time, scholars seek, in these difficult and sometimes incomprehensible verses, the doctrine that the Mazdean religious tradition of the Sassanian period attributes to its legendary founder: the passage to monotheism and an eschatology founded on a dualist conception of the world. However, a strict study of the language of the Gâthâ, in the perspective opened up by Helmut Humbach, is not favorable to such an interpretation. The eschatological vocabulary proves illusory and, to a great extent the same is true of the eschatology. As for the Gâthic religious system, it is neither truly monotheistic nor truly polytheistic. To grasp its nature, it is necessary to describe all the nuances and to situate it in an historical perspective.

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