1.
Zoroastrianism
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Ascribed to the teachings of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster, it exalts a deity of wisdom, Ahura Mazda, as its Supreme Being. Zoroastrianism was suppressed from the 7th century onwards following the Muslim conquest of Persia of 633-654, recent estimates place the current number of Zoroastrians at around 2.6 million, with most living in India and in Iran. Besides the Zoroastrian diaspora, the older Mithraic faith Yazdânism is still practised amongst Kurds, the religious philosophy of Zoroaster divided the early Iranian gods of Proto-Indo-Iranian tradition. The most important texts of the religion are those of the Avesta, in Zoroastrianism, the creator Ahura Mazda, through the Spenta Mainyu is an all-good father of Asha, in opposition to Druj and no evil originates from him. He and his works are evident to humanity through the six primary Amesha Spentas, Spenta Mainyu adjoined unto truth oppose the Spirits opposite, Angra Mainyu and its forces born of Akəm Manah. In Zoroastrianism, the purpose in life is to be among those who renew the world. to make the progress towards perfection. Its basic maxims include, Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta, which mean, Good Thoughts, Good Words, there is only one path and that is the path of Truth. Do the right thing because it is the thing to do. The full name by which Zoroaster addressed the deity is, Ahura, The Lord Creator and he proclaimed that there is only one God, the singularly creative and sustaining force of the Universe. He also stated that human beings are given a right of choice, Zoroasters teachings focused on responsibility, and did not introduce a devil per se. The contesting force to Ahura Mazda was called Angra Mainyu, or angry spirit, post-Zoroastrian scripture introduced the concept of Ahriman, the Devil, which was effectively a personification of Angra Mainyu. The name Zoroaster is a Greek rendering of the name Zarathustra and he is known as Zartosht and Zardosht in Persian and Zaratosht in Gujarati. The Zoroastrian name of the religion is Mazdayasna, which combines Mazda- with the Avestan language word yasna, meaning worship, in English, an adherent of the faith is commonly called a Zoroastrian or a Zarathustrian. An older expression still used today is Behdin, meaning The best Religion | Beh < Middle Persian Weh + Din < Middle Persian dēn < Avestan Daēnā. In Zoroastrian liturgy the term is used as a title for an individual who has formally inducted into the religion in a Navjote ceremony. The term Mazdaism /ˈmæzdə. ɪzəm/ is a typical 19th century construct, taking Mazda- from the name Ahura Mazda, the March 2001 draft edition of the Oxford English Dictionary also records an alternate form, Mazdeism, perhaps derived from the French Mazdéisme, which first appeared in 1871. In older English sources, the terms Gheber and Gueber were used to refer to Zoroastrians, however, Zoroastrian philosophy is identified as having been known to Italian Renaissance Europe through an image of Zoroaster in Raphaels School of Athens by Giorgio Vasari in 1550. The Oxford English Dictionary records use of the term Zoroastrianism in 1874 in Archibald Sayces Principles of Comparative Philology, Zoroastrians believe that there is one universal, transcendent, supreme god, Ahura Mazda, or the Wise Lord
2.
Ahura Mazda
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Ahura Mazda is the Avestan name for the creator and sole God of Zoroastrianism, the old Iranian religion which spread across Asia predating Christianity. Ahura Mazda is described as the highest spirit of worship in Zoroastrianism, the literal meaning of the word Ahura is mighty or lord and Mazda is wisdom. Ahura Mazda first appeared in the Achaemenid period under Darius Is Behistun Inscription, until Artaxerxes II, Ahura Mazda was worshipped and invoked alone. With Artaxerxes II, Ahura Mazda was invoked in a triad, with Mithra, images of Ahura Mazda began in the Parthian period, but were stopped and replaced with stone carved figures in the Sassanid period. Mazda, or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå and it is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhās, means intelligence or wisdom. Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdhā-, from Proto-Indo-European *mn̩sdʰeh₁, literally meaning placing ones mind, the name was rendered as Ahuramazda during the Achaemenid era, Hormazd during the Parthian era, and Ohrmazd was used during the Sassanian era. The name may be attested on cuneiform tablets of Assyrian Assurbanipal, in the form Assara Mazaš, even though Ahura Mazda was a spirit in the Old Iranian religion, he had not yet been given the title of uncreated spirit. This title was given by Zoroaster, who proclaimed Ahura Mazda as the spirit, wholly wise, benevolent and good, as well as the creator. As Ahura Mazda is described as the creator and upholder of Asha, he is a supporter and guardian of justice, as a result of this vision, Zoroaster felt that he was chosen to spread and preach the religion. He stated that source of all goodness was the only Ahura worthy of the highest worship. He further stated that Ahura Mazda created spirits known as yazatas to aid him, Zoroaster proclaimed that all of the Iranian daevas were bad spirits and deserved no worship. These bad spirits were created by Angra Mainyu, the hostile, the existence of Angra Mainyu was the source of all sin and misery in the universe. Zoroaster claimed that Ahura Mazda was not an omnipotent God, nonetheless, Ahura Mazda is Angra Mainyus superior, not his equal. Angra Mainyu and his daevas which attempt to attract humans away from the path of righteousness would eventually be destroyed, whether the Achaemenids were Zoroastrians is a matter of much debate. However, it is known that the Achaemenids were worshipers of Ahura Mazda, the representation and invocation of Ahura Mazda can be seen on royal inscriptions written by Achaemenid kings. The most notable of all the inscriptions is the Behistun Inscription written by Darius I which contains references to Ahura Mazda. An inscription written in Greek was found in a late Achaemenid temple at Persepolis which invoked Ahura Mazda, on the Elamite Persepolis Fortification Tablet 377, Ahura Mazda is invoked along with Mithra and Voruna. Artaxerxes III makes this invocation to the three again in his reign
3.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
4.
Fire temple
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A fire temple in Zoroastrianism is the place of worship for Zoroastrians, often called dar-e mehr or agiyari. In the Zoroastrian religion, fire, together with water, are agents of ritual purity. For, one who sacrifices unto fire with fuel in his hand, as of 2010, there were 50 fire temples in Mumbai,100 in the rest of India, and 27 in the rest of the world. First evident in the 4th century BCE, the Zoroastrian cult of fire is much younger than Zoroastrianism itself and it appears at approximately the same time as the shrine cult and is roughly contemporaneous with the introduction of Atar as a divinity. There is no allusion to a cult of fire in the Avesta proper. That the cult of fire was a modification and absent from early Zoroastrianism is also evident in the later Atash Nyash. In the oldest passages of that liturgy, it is the fire that speaks to all those for whom it cooks the evening and morning meal. The temple cult is a later development, from Herodotus it is known that in the mid-5th century BCE the Zoroastrians worshipped to the open sky. The second, the atroshan, were the places of burning fire which became more and more prevalent as the movement gained support. Following the rise of the Sassanid dynasty, the shrines to the Yazatas continued to exist, also, as Schippman observed, there is no evidence even during the Sassanid era that the fires were categorized according to their sanctity. It seems probable that there were only two, namely the Atash-i Vahram, and the lesser Atash-i Adaran, or Fire of Fires. The faith was practiced largely by the aristocracy but large numbers of fire temples did not exist, some fire temples continued with their original purpose although many Zoroastrians fled. The oldest remains of what has been identified as a temple are those on Mount Khajeh. Only traces of the foundation and ground-plan survive and have been dated to the 3rd or 4th century BCE. The temple was rebuilt during the Parthian era, and enlarged during Sassanid times, the characteristic feature of the Sassanid fire temple was its domed sanctuary where the fire-altar stood. This sanctuary always had a ground plan with a pillar in each corner that then supported the dome. Archaeological remains and literary evidence from Zend commentaries on the Avesta suggest that the sanctuary was surrounded by a passageway on all four sides. On a number of sites the gombad, made usually of masonry with courses of stone, is all that survives
5.
Tower of Silence
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A Tower of Silence is a circular, raised structure built by Zoroastrians for excarnation – that is, for dead bodies to be exposed to carrion birds. Zoroastrian exposure of the dead is first attested in the mid-5th century BCE Histories of Herodotus, the doctrinal rationale for exposure is to avoid contact with earth or fire, both of which are considered sacred. One of the earliest literary descriptions of such a building appears in the late 9th-century Epistles of Manushchihr, another technical term that appears in the 9th/10th-century texts of Zoroastrian tradition is dakhmag, for any place for the dead. This Zoroastrian Middle Persian term is a borrowing from Avestan dakhma, of meaning but related to interment. In the Avesta, the term is pejorative and does not signify a construction of any kind, in the Iranian provinces of Yazd and Kerman, dakhma continues as deme or dema. Yet another term that appears in the 9th/10th-century texts is dagdah, the word also appears in later Zoroastrian texts of both India and Iran, but in 20th-century India came to signify the lowest grade of temple fire. In India the term came into use after a tower of silence was constructed on a hill of that name. The English language term Tower of Silence is a neologism attributed to Robert Murphy and this name is used in the English translation of Around the World on a Motorcycle by author Zoltan Sulkowsky, when he observed a sky-burial at one such tower in India. Zoroastrian tradition considers a body to be nasu, unclean. Specifically, the demon was believed to rush into the body and contaminate everything it came into contact with. To preclude the pollution of earth or fire, the bodies of the dead are placed atop a tower and so exposed to the sun, thus, putrefaction with all its concomitant evils. is most effectually prevented. Zoroastrian ritual exposure of the dead is first known of from the writings of the mid-5th century BCE Herodotus, in Herodotus account, the rites are said to have been secret, but were first performed after the body had been dragged around by a bird or dog. The corpse was embalmed with wax and laid in a trench. The tombs of the Achaemenid emperors at Naqsh-e Rustam and Pasargadae likewise suggest non-exposure, according to legend, Zoroaster is himself interred in a tomb at Balkh. Towers are a later invention, and are first documented in the early 9th century. The ritual customs surrounding that practice appear to date to the Sassanid era and they are known in detail from the supplement to the Sayest ne Sayest, the two Rivayat collections, and the two Saddars. The modern-day towers, which are uniform in their construction, have an almost flat roof. The roof is divided into three rings, the bodies of men are arranged around the outer ring, women in the second circle
6.
Parsi
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Parsi /ˈpɑːrsiː/ is one of two Zoroastrian communities majorly located in India and few in Pakistan. At the time of the Arab conquest of Persia, the dominant religion of the region was Zoroastrianism, Iranians rebelled against Arab invaders for almost 200 years, in Iran this period is now known as the Two Centuries of Silence or Period of Silence. During this time many Iranians who are now called Parsi chose to preserve their religious identity by fleeing from Iran to India, the word پارسیان, pronounced Parsian, i. e. Parsi in the Persian language, literally means Persian. Persian is the language of modern Iran, which was formerly known as Persia, and the Persian languages endonym is Farsi. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Parsi, also spelled Parsee, the Parsis, whose name means Persians, are descended from Persian Zoroastrians who emigrated to India to avoid religious persecution by the Muslims. They live chiefly in Mumbai and in a few towns and villages mostly to the South of Mumbai, there is a sizeable Parsee population in Pune as well in Hyderbad. A few Parsee families also reside in Kolkata and Chennai, although they are not, strictly speaking, a caste, since they are not Hindus, they form a well-defined community. The exact date of the Parsi migration is unknown, according to tradition, the Parsis initially settled at Hormuz on the Persian Gulf, but finding themselves still persecuted they set sail for India, arriving in the 8th century. The migration may in fact have taken place as late as the 10th century and they settled first at Diu in Kathiawar but soon moved to south Gujarāt, where they remained for about 800 years as a small agricultural community. The term Pārsi, which in the Persian language is a demonym meaning inhabitant of Pārs, until that time, such texts consistently use the Persian-origin terms Zartoshti Zoroastrian or Vehdin the good religion. The 12th-century Sixteen Shlokas, a Sanskrit text in praise of the Parsis, is the earliest attested use of the term as an identifier for Indian Zoroastrians. The first reference to the Parsis in a European language is from 1322, subsequently, the term appears in the journals of many European travelers, first French and Portuguese, later English, all of whom used a Europeanized version of an apparently local language term. For example, Portuguese physician Garcia de Orta observed in 1563 that there are merchants and we Portuguese call them Jews, but they are not so. In an early 20th-century legal ruling, Justices Davar and Beaman asserted that Parsi was also a used in Iran to refer to Zoroastrians. In any case, the term Parsi itself is not necessarily an indication of their Iranian or Persian origin, moreover, if heredity were the only factor in a determination of ethnicity, the Parsis would count as Parthians according to the Qissa-i Sanjan. Zoroaster taught that good and evil were opposite forces and that it was a duty to make a choice between the two. The two paths are of asha or righteousness and of druj, the lie, Good is represented by Ahura Mazda and evil by Angra Mainyu. The Zoroastrian holy book, called the Avesta, was written in the Avestan language, the Qissa-i Sanjan is a tale of the journey of the Parsis to India from Iran
7.
Religion in the United States
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Religion in the United States is characterized by a diversity of religious beliefs and practices. Various religious faiths have flourished within the United States, a majority of Americans report that religion plays a very important role in their lives, a proportion unique among developed countries. Historically, the United States has always marked by religious pluralism and diversity. In colonial times, Anglicans, Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants, as well as Jews, Eastern Orthodoxy has been present since the Russian colonization of Alaska. Various dissenting Protestants, who left the Church of England, greatly diversified the religious landscape, the Great Awakenings gave birth to multiple Evangelical Protestant denominations, membership in Methodist and Baptist churches increased drastically in the Second Great Awakening. In the 18th century, deism found support among American upper classes, the Episcopal Church, splitting from the Church of England, came into being in the American Revolution. Pentecostalism emerged in the early 20th century as a result of the Azusa Street Revival, Unitarian Universalism resulted from the merge of Unitarian and Universalist churches in the 20th century. Beginning in 1990s, the share of Christians is decreasing due to secularization, while Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam. Protestantism, historically dominant, ceased to be the category of the majority in the early 2010s. The majority of Americans identify themselves as Christians, while close to a claim no religious affiliation. The same study says that other religions make up about 6% of the population. According to a 2012 survey by the Pew forum,36 percent of Americans state that they attend services every week or more. From early colonial days, when some English and German settlers came in search of religious freedom and that influence continues in American culture, social life, and politics. It guarantees the free exercise of religion while also preventing the government from establishing a state religion, however the states were not bound by the provision and as late as the 1830s Massachusetts provided tax money to local Congregational churches. The Supreme Court since the 1940s has interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment as applying the First Amendment to the state and local governments. President John Adams and a unanimous Senate endorsed the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797 that stated, the survey report stated that the results showed America having a greater similarity to developing nations than to other wealthy nations, where religion plays a minor role. In 1963, 90% of Americans claimed to be Christians while only 2% professed no religious identity, in 2014, the percentage of Christians was closer to 70% with close to 23% claiming no religious identity. The United States federal government was the first national government to have no official state-endorsed religion, however, some states had established religions in some form until the 1830s
8.
Light
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Light is electromagnetic radiation within a certain portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The word usually refers to light, which is visible to the human eye and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light is defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres, or 4.00 × 10−7 to 7.00 × 10−7 m. This wavelength means a range of roughly 430–750 terahertz. The main source of light on Earth is the Sun, sunlight provides the energy that green plants use to create sugars mostly in the form of starches, which release energy into the living things that digest them. This process of photosynthesis provides virtually all the used by living things. Historically, another important source of light for humans has been fire, with the development of electric lights and power systems, electric lighting has effectively replaced firelight. Some species of animals generate their own light, a process called bioluminescence, for example, fireflies use light to locate mates, and vampire squids use it to hide themselves from prey. Visible light, as all types of electromagnetic radiation, is experimentally found to always move at this speed in a vacuum. In physics, the term sometimes refers to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength. In this sense, gamma rays, X-rays, microwaves and radio waves are also light, like all types of light, visible light is emitted and absorbed in tiny packets called photons and exhibits properties of both waves and particles. This property is referred to as the wave–particle duality, the study of light, known as optics, is an important research area in modern physics. Generally, EM radiation, or EMR, is classified by wavelength into radio, microwave, infrared, the behavior of EMR depends on its wavelength. Higher frequencies have shorter wavelengths, and lower frequencies have longer wavelengths, when EMR interacts with single atoms and molecules, its behavior depends on the amount of energy per quantum it carries. There exist animals that are sensitive to various types of infrared, infrared sensing in snakes depends on a kind of natural thermal imaging, in which tiny packets of cellular water are raised in temperature by the infrared radiation. EMR in this range causes molecular vibration and heating effects, which is how these animals detect it, above the range of visible light, ultraviolet light becomes invisible to humans, mostly because it is absorbed by the cornea below 360 nanometers and the internal lens below 400. Furthermore, the rods and cones located in the retina of the eye cannot detect the very short ultraviolet wavelengths and are in fact damaged by ultraviolet. Many animals with eyes that do not require lenses are able to detect ultraviolet, by quantum photon-absorption mechanisms, various sources define visible light as narrowly as 420 to 680 to as broadly as 380 to 800 nm
9.
Oath
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Traditionally an oath is either a statement of fact or a promise with wording relating to something considered sacred as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who object to making sacred oaths is to give an affirmation instead. Nowadays, even when theres no notion of sanctity involved, certain promises said out loud in ceremonial or juridical purpose are referred to as oaths, to swear is a verb used to describe the taking of an oath, to making a solemn vow. Usually oaths have referred to a deity significant in the sphere in question. The reciters personal views upon the divinity of the aspects considered sacred in a text of an oath may or may not be taken in to account. There might not be alternative personal proclamations with no mention of the dogma in question, such as affirmations. This might mean an impasse to those with unwillingness to edify the dogma they see as untrue, the essence of a divine oath is an invocation of divine agency to be a guarantor of the oath takers own honesty and integrity in the matter under question. By implication, this invokes divine displeasure if the oath taker fails in their sworn duties and it therefore implies greater care than usual in the act of the performance of ones duty, such as in testimony to the facts of the matter in a court of law. A person taking an oath indicates this in a number of ways. The most usual is the explicit I swear, but any statement or promise that includes with * as my witness or so help me *, with * being something or someone the oath-taker holds sacred, is an oath. However, the purpose of such an act is for ceremony or solemnity. Making vows and taking oaths became a concept in law practice that developed over time in different cultures. The concept of oaths is deeply rooted within Judaism and it is found in Genesis 8,21, when God swears that he will never again curse the ground because of man and never again smite every living thing. This repetition of the term never again is explained by Rashi, according to the Rabbis, a neder refers to the object, a shâmar to the person. In the Roman tradition, oaths were sworn upon Iuppiter Lapis or the Jupiter Stone located in the Temple of Jupiter, the punisher of broken oaths was the infernal deity Orcus. Various religious groups have objected to the taking of oaths, most notably the Religious Society of Friends and Anabaptist groups, like Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites and this is principally based on Matthew 5, 34-37, the Antithesis of the Law. Here, Christ is written to say I say to you, James the Just stated in James 5,12, Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your Yes be yes, and your No, no, not all Christians interpret this reading as forbidding all types of oaths, however
10.
Ancient Rome
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In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
11.
Mithraism
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Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries, was a mystery religion centred around the god Mithras that was practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to the 4th century. The mysteries were popular in the Roman military, worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those “united by the handshake” and they met in underground temples, called mithraea, which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its centre in Rome, numerous archaeological finds, including meeting places, monuments and artifacts, have contributed to modern knowledge about Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire. The iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, about 420 sites have yielded materials related to the cult. Among the items found are about 1000 inscriptions,700 examples of the bull-killing scene and it has been estimated that there would have been at least 680 mithraea in Rome. No written narratives or theology from the religion survive, limited information can be derived from the inscriptions and brief or passing references in Greek, interpretation of the physical evidence remains problematic and contested. The Romans regarded the mysteries as having Persian or Zoroastrian sources, since the early 1970s the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities between Persian Mithra-worship and the Roman Mithraic mysteries. The term Mithraism is a modern convention, writers of the Roman era referred to it by phrases such as Mithraic mysteries, mysteries of Mithras or mysteries of the Persians. Modern sources sometimes refer to the Greco-Roman religion as Roman Mithraism or Western Mithraism to distinguish it from Persian worship of Mithra. The name Mithras is a form of Mithra, the name of an Old Persian god – a relationship understood by Mithraic scholars since the days of Franz Cumont. An early example of the Greek form of the name is in a 4th century BCE work by Xenophon, the Cyropaedia, the exact form of a Latin or classical Greek word varies due to the grammatical process of declension. There is archeological evidence that in Latin worshippers wrote the nominative form of the name as Mithras. Related deity-names in other languages include Sanskrit Mitra, the name of a god praised in the Rig Veda, in Sanskrit, mitra means friend or friendship. The form mi-it-ra-, found in a peace treaty between the Hittites and the kingdom of Mitanni, from about 1400 BCE. Iranian Mithra and Sanskrit Mitra are believed to come from an Indo-Iranian word mitra meaning contract / agreement / covenant, modern historians have different conceptions about whether these names refer to the same god or not. John R. Hinnells has written of Mitra / Mithra / Mithras as a deity worshipped in several different religions. On the other hand, David Ulansey considers the bull-slaying Mithras to be a new god who began to be worshipped in the 1st Century BCE, there have been many attempts to interpret this material
12.
Zoroaster
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Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra, Zarathushtra Spitama or Ashu Zarathushtra, was an ancient Iranian prophet whose teachings developed into Zoroastrianism. He inaugurated a movement that became the dominant religion in Ancient Persia. He was a speaker of Old Avestan and lived in the eastern part of the Iranian Plateau. Zoroastrianism was already an old religion when first recorded, and it was the religion of Persian Empires. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, most of his life is known from the Zoroastrian texts. Zoroasters name in his language, Avestan, was probably Zaraϑuštra. His English name, Zoroaster, derives from a later Greek transcription, Zōroastrēs, as used in Xanthuss Lydiaca and this form appears subsequently in the Latin Zōroastrēs and, in later Greek orthographies, as Zōroastris. The Greek form of the name appears to be based on a phonetic transliteration or semantic substitution of Avestan zaraϑ- with the Greek zōros, subject then to whether Zaraϑuštra derives from *Zarantuštra- or from *Zaratuštra-, several interpretations have been proposed. If Zarantuštra is the form, it may mean with old/aging camels. With angry/furious camels, from Avestan *zarant-, angry, furious, who is driving camels or who is fostering/cherishing camels, related to Avestan zarš-, to drag. Why this is not so for zaraϑuštra has not yet been determined, notwithstanding the phonetic irregularity, that Avestan zaraϑuštra with its -ϑ- was linguistically an actual form is shown by later attestations reflecting the same basis. All present-day, Iranian-language variants of his name derive from the Middle Iranian variants of Zarϑošt, there is no consensus on the dating of Zoroaster, the Avesta gives no direct information about it, while historical sources are conflicting. Many scholars like Mary Boyce used linguistic and socio-cultural evidence to place Zoroaster between 1500 and 1000 BCE, both texts are considered to have a common archaic Indo-Iranian origin. These scholars suggest that Zoroaster lived in a tribe or composed the Gathas before the 1200–1000 BCE migration by the Iranians from the steppe to the Iranian Plateau. The shortfall of the argument is the comparison, and the archaic language of Gathas does not necessarily indicate time difference. Other scholars propose a period between 7th and 6th century, for example, c, the latest possible date is the mid 6th century, at the time of Achaemenid Empires Darius I, or his predecessor Cyrus the Great. However, in the Avesta it should not be ignored that Vishtaspas son became the ruler of the Persian Empire, the most likely conclusion is that Darius Is father was named in honor of the Zoroastrian patron, indicating probable Zoroastrian faith by Arsames. e. This belief is recorded by Diogenes Laërtius, and variant readings could place it six hundred years before Xerxes I, however, Diogenes also mentions Hermodorus belief that Zoroaster lived five thousand years before the Trojan War, which would mean he lived around 6200 BCE
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