The Zarathushtra Gâthâs and the origins of Mazdaism (continued) (2)

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In the last lecture, we analyzed the four personalities that formed the core of the enumeration from the point of view ofonomastics: Zaraθuštra "the one who owns old camels", Vīštāspa "the one whose horses have no harness, are deharnessed", Fǝrašaoštra "the one whose camels are in great shape, in great health" and Dǝ̄jā̄māspa "the one whose horses are sunburnt, are dehydrated".

So now are we given thefamily ancestry of these men?

As far as Zaraθuštra is concerned, his father is mentioned as patronymic: haēcat̰.aspa-"he whose horses are dirty". What's more, Zaraθuštra is also part of a social set: spitāma, literally "he whoseama-"offensive force" would be spita-"white"", (a reference to thunderbolt?) with, however, a metrical problem since the word has three syllables instead of the expected four. But tradition is variable since, in the recent Avesta, his father is Pourušāspa (= pouruša [véd. paruṣá] + aspa ; reference to a color of the horses' coat).

If we rely on Gāθās alone, he has no mention of ancestry as far as Vīštāspa is concerned. However, Y 53.2 kauuacā vīštāspō, zaraθuštriš spitāmō, fǝrašaoštrascā "... That the kauui Vīštāspa Spitāma, son of Zaraθuštra, and Fǝrašaoštra..." attests zaraθuštri- patronymic formed on Zaraθuštra. Instead of seeing three people as in the usual translations, we could see two. Vīštāspa would thus be presented here as Zaraθuštra's son, perhaps to be interpreted morally as his spiritual son (Helmut Humbach's hypothesis). The variability attested for Zaraθuštra's ancestry also appears for that of Vīštāspa, since, in the Avesta, his father is called auruuat̰.aspa-"he whose horses are swift".

For Fǝrašaoštra and Dǝ̄jā̄māspa, we again have a patronymic: Huuō.guua-"he who has beautiful cows".

What do the Gāθās tell us about them? As Helmut Humbach showed in 1959, the Gāθās are hymns, words that a man or men address to the deities. And the enumeration of proper names is an invective against deceivers, against adversaries.

Variability from the point of view of the grammatical person

When reading the Gāθās, we constantly notice the change in the point of view of the grammatical person: GA in the first person, GS in the third person, GU in the second person or the GVo in the third person.

[1] Gāθā Ahunauuaitī (= GA): combination of he + I into we; ultimately a first-person enumeration.

Gāθā Spǝṇtā.mainiiu (= GS): briefest enumeration without mention of Zaraθuštra's name, only Fǝrašaoštra and Dǝ̄jā̄māspa appear; again he + I > we.

Gāθā Uštauuaitī (= GU): long, complex enumeration. Mention of a perhaps distant ancestry common to both families: the Friiāna.

Gāθā Vohuxšaθrā (= GVo): more difficult analysis as this Gāθā comprises only one chapter. Generally speaking, however, this is the third person singular.

Gāθā Vahištōišti (= GVa) is uniformly in the third person singular.

Who are they? Can we define their functions?

1. title

Zaraθuštra according to Y 50.5-6 is manθrān literally "he who has the mantras". We find an indirect allusion to his title in Y 28.5-7.

Vīštāspa is kauui (ved. kavi-"inspired poet") with all the semantic difficulties inherent in this word.

Fǝrašaoštra would be nar-"male-male" according to Y 28.8 with perhaps a reference to a sacrificial function.

On the other hand, Dǝ̄jā̄māspa does not seem to be characterized by a title.

2. designation of sacrificers

In previous years, we saw that there were three levels of designation: *aθauruuan is the man who by birth is a priest. Then there are the officiating priests, of whom there are eight in the recent Avesta, the main one being the zaotar (ved. hótar) "the one who draws liquid". He is an officiating priest with a sacrificial function. After a certain number of operations, he becomes saošiiaṇt, i.e. the priest in his sacred function. So the priest is a social reality, a sacrificial reality and a sacred reality. In the next lecture, we'll take a look at the Gāθās.

References

Documents and media

Speaker(s)

Jean Kellens

Professor at the Collège de France

The Zarathushtra Gâthâs and the origins of Mazdaism (continued) (2)

References

Documents and media

Speaker(s)

Jean Kellens

Events

The Zarathushtra Gâthâs and the origins of Mazdaism (continued) (1)

Reading passages from the Gâthâs (1)

The Zarathushtra Gâthâs and the origins of Mazdaism (continued) (2)

Reading passages from the Gâthâs (2)

The Zarathushtra Gâthâs and the origins of Mazdaism (continued) (3)

Reading passages from the Gâthâs (3)

The Zarathushtra Gâthâs and the origins of Mazdaism (continued) (4)

Reading passages from the Gâthâs (4)

The Zarathushtra Gâthâs and the origins of Mazdaism (continued) (5)

Reading passages from the Gâthâs (5)

The Zarathushtra Gâthâs and the origins of Mazdaism (continued) (6)

Reading passages from the Gâthâs (6)

The Zarathushtra Gâthâs and the origins of Mazdaism (continued) (7)

Reading passages from the Gâthâs (7)

The Zarathushtra Gâthâs and the origins of Mazdaism (continued) (8)

Reading passages from the Gâthâs (8)

The Zarathushtra Gâthâs and the origins of Mazdaism (continued) (9)

Reading passages from the Gâthâs (9)

The Zarathushtra Gâthâs and the origins of Mazdaism (continued) (10)

Reading passages from the Gâthâs (10)

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