sphere. At a very early date Mithra was styled the warder of truth. Light is synonymous with truth, as darkness is with falsehood. Mithra being primarily the lord of light, it was but a step from the physical to the moral sphere that he should be depicted as impersonating truth. From the divine activity of Mithra, as portrayed in the Avestan texts, we gather more information of his aggressively active crusade against falsehood than of his work in upholding truth. In his warring capacity of lord of hosts, Mithra works more than all else to deal a destructive blow to the demon of falsehood, thereby strengthening the realm of truth.
To speak untruth was a henious sin. Truth was a paramount virtue among the ancient Iranians. It was regarded as everything, it was religion. On this very account we see human evil collectively focussed in the Avesta as the druj, 'Lie,' which corresponds to drauga, in the Old Persian Inscriptions of the Achaemenian kings, a conception almost like that of the devil. Herodotus writes that one of the first things that every Persian child was taught was to speak the truth.[1] Lying unto Mithra brings to the offender the sin of being a deceiver of Mithra. The faithful is exhorted never to lie, for Mithra is unforgiving towards liars. Sad is the abode wherein live those that lie unto Mithra, for they are childless, and even their cattle stray along the road shedding tears over their chins.[2] Neither the lord of the house, nor the lord of the clan, nor the lord of the town, nor the lord of the country should ever lie unto this celestial being.[3] He is the protector and guardian of these lords, only so long as they lie not unto him.[4] If, however, they commit such a sin, Mithra is offended and angered, and destroys house, clan, town, and the country, along with their masters and nobles.[5] Nor can these culprit lords escape him, for he overtakes them, no matter how swiftly they may run.[6] The man of little faith who thinks that he can evade Mithra and indulges in falsehood is mistaken;[7] but Mithra thinks in his mind that were the evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds of the earthly man a hundred times worse, they would not rise as high as the good thoughts, good words, and good deeds of the heavenly Mithra.[8] Or again if the innate wisdom of the earthly man were a hundred times greater,
