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

As usual, the original texts can be found in the downloadable PDF below.

What is the process that makes daēuuas reprobate sacrificers?

It was explained in Y 30.6 and is still reflected in Y 32.5. Y 30.6 attests to the following causal chain: 1. the daēuuas are victims of an illusion(dab-), 2. they don't properly differentiate(vi-ci-) between the two mainiius, 3. they choose(var-) the wrong triad, 4. they run to Aēšma "Fury". The effect of this chain is that they drag men into their error.

Y 30.6: Of these two mainiius, the gods especially do not distinguish well, for delusion befalls them when they deliberate. As they choose the worst Thought, they run to unite with Fury, with which they infect the state-of-existence of the master of men.

Y 32.5: you lure man about the good life and immortality, as when the bad mainiiu and the (bad) deed, with the bad thought and the bad word, (things) with which (man) can identify the deceiver, (lure you, you,) the daēuuas.

The term aēnah (ved. enas-)

This is a gāthic word, more frequent in the GA. The term is mentioned insistently in Y 32 in stanzas 6 to 8 (6: manyaēnah and 7-8: word marked by the demonstrative):

Y 32.6: Thou knowest by good Thought, O Ahura, the many aēnahs.... In the place where your power is exercised, O Mazdā, the sǝ̄ṇgha must be exposed, for you and for the Agency.

Y 32.7: In accessing (this place), I declare that I do not know those of these aēnahs who are defined..., who srāuuī... and of whom you are, O Ahura Mazdā, the one who best spots the rest.

Y 32.8: For these aēnahs srāuuī the son of ^{Vīuuaŋvhaṇt}, Yima, who, seeking to please our maṣ̌iias, ... I associate myself, O Mazdā, with your ability to discern them (from ...).

Unfortunately, it is difficult to fully understand since, on the one hand, stanza 6 shows the marks of a transmission accident and, on the other, stanza 8 alludes to an old Indo-Iranian myth with the mention of Yima, but the hemistiche b' is strictly incomprehensible.

The second part of Y 32

Three categories stand out:

1. Who are the players ? Which members are the object of a remark or curse?

duš.sastiš (9) "the one who makes bad definitions" ;

ahu- and ^aŋvhī-"the ahu (master?) and his wife" ;

marǝtan-(12): pejorative term for the mortal ;

Grǝ̄hma (12-14);

Karapan (12, 15) and Kauui (14-15) are antagonistic priests. Two other priests belong to this category, although they are not named here: usij, ved. uśij-"one who sacrifices without observing a precise ritual time" (vs. ved. r̥tvij-) and magauuan-, associated with the curses that go hand in hand with the enumeration of proper names.

2. What is theaction taken by these actors?

Two verbs are repeated with some frequency: a. mard-"to weaken", lit. "to make soft, to soften" in stanzas 9-10: mōrǝṇdat̰and 11: mōrǝṇdǝn ; and b. rah-"to distance oneself" (cf. gr. αρνεομαι) from the right triad and entities in stanzas 11: rārǝšiiąn and 12: råŋhaiiǝn.

3. Against what are negative actions taken?

Two words, too, are used with some frequency: a. srauuah-, ved. śrauuas-, "hymn; rumor" in stanzas 9, 10 and 12; b. jiiātu-"sustenance, life force", cf. Y 32.5 which has the term hujiiāti-(hujiiātōiš), a compositional variant of jiiātu-, representing the four forces of immortality: amǝrǝtāt- "immortality", hauruuatāt-"integrity of body", tauuiši-"physical strength" and utaiiūiti-, "persistent youth". To weaken jiiātu is to exert a negative action towards this constellation of forces, which is ultimately realized in immortality.

Evaporating antagonism and eliminating inner evil

Y 32.15 attests to the evaporation of antagonism, which is thus in the process of being resolved:

Y 32.15: This is why (those who have) the function of karapan and kavi are now eliminated by those they wanted to prevent from having subsistence at will. Let these, rather than them, be carried into the house of good Thought!

But one more operation is needed before the sacrifice, with the two offerings, can take place: purging the circles of social belonging, i.e. eliminating the enemy within. This reversal of antonymy is attested in Y 33.4-5. Stanza 4 is devoted to the enemy within, then stanza 5 is the first of the sacrificial moment:

Y 33.4: I who wish to purge your sacrifice, O Mazdā, of deafness, evil thought, the indifference of my family, the deceit contiguous to my clan, the curmudgeons of my tribe and (purge) the cow's pasture of the worst process-mental,

Y 33.5: I, who, in the time of detachment, implore your hearing to guide each one well, while I have attained the power of good Thought over long life (and) the direct paths leading to the Arrangement, over which, O Mazdā, dwells the Ahura,

The general lecture of Y 32

A process parallel to the GA process emerges. Y 28 is characterized as a yāna and Y 32.1 contains yāsat̰.

Y 30.3 -> Y 31: the goal of the sacrificer is to establish a union(sar-) with the forces of immortality and Y 32.5: gathering of the evil triad under the aegis of the mainiiu with the goal of immortality.

Y 31: Ahura Mazdā spoke to the sacrificers, and, thus, the transfer of knowledge took place opposite Y 32.12 where Ahura Mazdā speaks to deny knowledge and revile: "Ahura Mazdā reviles those who weaken the cow's life-force by reciting the hymn that begins with "thou walkest" and by which the chiefs keep their own away from the very good deed; (he reviles those with whom, including Grǝ̄hma, the karapan has chosen, rather than Agency, deceit and power over the īšans (?)".

And finally, Y 32.14, a difficult stanza with an unguaranteed translation, gives the impression that this is the condemnation of haoma and bloody sacrifice: "By sprinkling throughout the day, Grǝ̄hma and the kavis deposit their ability and prestige in the bond of the one who makes the favor blaze that burns badly and which they agree to offer to the deceiver at the moment when the cow is mistreated to be killed".

Y 32 recounts in shorthand a sacrificial failure, that of an antagonistic pantheon and clergy, (failure) which is introduced into the sacrificial success that GA tells us about.

Recent Yasna has variants that are dependent on the sacrificial moment(ratu), including the variant of the Vīdēvdād Sāde. The Yasna is a hāuuani rite, which begins in the morning, whereas the Vīdēvdād Sāde is ušāhina, since the rite begins at midnight and ends at daybreak. However, GA is also an ušāhina rite. The insertion of Vīdēvdād "the rule that keeps demons away" plays the same role as Y 32. The text of the late Yasna would be an adaptation of what GA represents in the corpus of the ancient Avesta.

The use of sru

We also note the insistence on the verb sru-: srāuuī "to be heard" (7, 8) and srauuah- "hymn / rumor" (9, 10, 12). There is reason to wonder about a possible theatricality in the Gāθās (Y 30.2: awakening of men, Y 51: allusions to the fate of the soul, Y 53: mime of mythological sexual union). One could see here a competition to be heard, the goal being to make more noise than the other. Note in this respect Y 33.7, where there is talk of being heard by them further than the magauuan : ...yā sruiiē parǝ̄ magāunō "I am heard by them superiorly", the moment when the real sacrifice has just begun.

The term ahu-"state of existence"

Ahu- is frequent except in the GS, where the word has lost its importance. In the GA and GU, there is an initial invocation (Y 28.2 and Y 43.3) of a double ahu : mental and bony (cf. YH and Y 53, which also evoke this dual nature). The end result is thatahu has become fraša "perfect".

The word ahu can have three particularities:

pauruiia-"first" (essentially in GA) ;
vahišta "very good" (GU);
apǝ̄ma "ultimate" (Y 51).

Schematically,ahu can be pauruiia. When the mainiiu intervenes, it will be vahišta "very good" for the good ones or acišta "very bad" for the antagonists. As the path ends there for the antagonists, their state is already apǝ̄ma. At the end, for the bad ones, their state becomes acišta. As for the good, their vahišta state will become fraša.

We can perhaps interpret ahu as pauruiia at dawn, as vahišta when the sun is at its zenith, as fraša with the ultimate sacrificial success while it is apǝ̄ma with a catastrophic end (night or death).

Next week, we'll take a brief look at the doctrine of the millennia and then that of monotheism.

Documents and media

Speaker(s)

Jean Kellens

Professor at the Collège de France

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

What is the process that makes daēuuas reprobate sacrificers?

The term aēnah (ved. enas-)

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)

See also