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

Yasna 29 or the lament of the Cow's soul

This text would represent the antiphrase when speaking of the bloody sacrifice. Here, there would be a transfiguration of a liturgical function with Gǝ̄uš Tašan, the Cow's carpenter, who is responsible for immolating the Cow, killing it and then butchering it.

The structure of the dialogue, which makes up the first 9 stanzas, is as follows: 1. the Cow's soul speaks; 2. the Cow's Carpenter relays the Cow's complaint and questioning with a request from the Cow's ratu; 3. difficult sentence where an approximation of the general meaning has been given and not a translation; 4. Ahura Mazdā murmurs; 5. Ahura Mazdā is propitiated with outstretched hands(ustānāiš... zastāiš); 6. Ahura Mazdā replies: "no ratu was found"; 7. Ahura Mazdā's speech is interrupted; 8. Gǝ̄uš Tašan seems to speak; 9. closure of the dialogue, which has been useless since the Cow's soul continues its lamentation.

Here's the translation:

1. To you, the soul of the cow complains: For whom have you framed me? Who carved me? Rage and domination, fetters, ties and blows bind me. Since I have no other shepherd but you, give me satisfaction by doing your shepherd's work well!
2. So the cow's carpenter asks the Agency: What's your ratu for the cow? If ever you were able to institute, along with the care of grazing, the toil of milking, what Ahura do you want her to have, who opposes the deceivers and upsets the Rage?
3. [It is not enough to answer "I am without hostility for the cow" (or) "one cannot know by what those above direct those below"]. It is to the most imperious of the eternal that I will humbly address my appeals.
4. Mazdā whispers ceaselessly the precepts that have hitherto been applied by gods and men and those that will be applied henceforth. He is the Ahura who knows how to distinguish (these from those). Let it be for us as He wills!
5. We two, my soul and that of the full cow,[stand] there, hands outstretched, propitiating Ahura Mazdā after subjecting him to our questions, (telling him that) neither for the herder nor for the one whose life goes straight, is there survival among the deceivers.
6. Then Ahura Mazdā says what he knows with scansion: "By a single state-of-existence neither (ellipsis: an Ahura) nor a ratu conforming to the Arrangement has been found. I, the carpenter, have carved you for the herder and the shepherd." [Variant: θβorǝštar (= scr. Tvaṣṭar) t'a taillée pour l'éleveur et le pâtre].
7. Ahura Mazdā, agreeing with the Arrangement, faste for the (uruša?) by this lesson, carves for the cow the mąθra of libation and (that of) milk. [Someone says:] "Who do you have with good Thought who transmits them to men?".
8. [Someone replies:] "I have found here Spitāma Zaraθuštra whom this is, the only one who has heard our lessons. He wishes, O Mazdā and Agency, to let us know by a song-of-celebration that I can milk the sugar from his mouth."
9. Yet the cow's soul continues its lament: "I would have to be content with the incapable voice of a man without strength, when I want him to have power through the power īš ! Will he ever be there who will grant him the favor of his hands?"

What is the Cow complaining about?

The answer lies in the word ratu. In stanza 2, Gǝ̄uš Tašan asks the Agency what his ratu is for the Cow. Then, in stanza 6, Ahura Mazdā replies that there is none. As a result, a longer path must be taken to reach a ratu "moment of time". The Cow complains because it is waiting for the sacrificial moment of immolation and offering that will send its soul to the gods.

What happens now? Why interrupt the ritual process?

Y 34.4 corresponds to the moment of the meat offering in the fire, and this is the request made to the fire at this moment: "To you, we wish, O Ahura, that your fire be a clear help to the one who brings him help, but that it be a visible harm to the one who harms him by the projectiles of its hands".

The help provided by fire is the absolute condition for making the fat offering, so that the Cow's soul can reach the divine world. The notions ofhelp and hand are important here, as they allow us to make a connection with what goes before.

In Y 28.2, the ability to be able to help the fire (elliptical subject of daidīt̰) is requested: "I who wish to serve you with good Thought, O Ahura Mazdā, so that you may give me the favors arranged from the two states-of-existence, that of body and that of thought, (favors) by which he deposits in well-being those who offer him help,"

By lighting the fire, it becomes locatable: Y 29.10 " You (= gods), to them (= sacrificers), O Ahura(s), give through the Arrangement and the right Thought, the authority and power which makeit (= fire) guarantee safe quarters and peace! As for me, I am of the opinion, O Mazdā, that it is you the first who spots it (= fire signal) " and Y 29.11 "Where are the Arrangement, Good Thought and power? You ô Mazdā, recognize me at once for the great maga at the time of (ellipsis: rafǝnah-?) who knows how to orient himself! Now O Ahura(s), down towards us given our generosity towards you!".

The fire can be spotted, so we have a direction to head in. We note the gradual introduction of expressions relating to light: Y 30.1 "I will say, O you who seek to come, the sacrificial and (precative) praises to which even the learned must pay attention, (I will say them), O attentive ones, to the intention of Ahura and the Arrangement, which I rejoice that it is visible thanks to the lights.

Then there is a reprise of the speech in the imperative: Y 30.2 "Hear by the sound and see by the flame, with the best Thought, the preferences of discrimination, awakening each man before the great yāh so that to each his body may appear".

Here we would have a trace of mime with the depiction of people awakening to the light of fire.

In the next lesson, we'll take up the whole question of fire again and look for some kind of confirmation of the hypotheses.

[1] Avestic texts appear only in the downloadable Abstract below.