and for the glory of his country, name and fame in this world, as well as the shining, all-happy paradise of the righteous.[1] Whoso does not treat the fire well displeases Ahura Mazda.[2] Zarathushtra blesses King Vishtaspa that he may be as resplendent as the fire.[3]
His work. When Mithra goes on his usual round in his golden chariot, Atar drives behind him along with the other divine personifications.[4] Like Agni who knows the paths leading to the gods,[5] Atar shows the most upright path to those who lie not unto Mithra.[6] When Angra Mainyu breaks into the creation of righteousness, Atar in company with Vohu Manah opposes the malice of the Evil Spirit.[7] When Yima, reft of his senses through the Kingly Glory, revolts from Ahura Mazda, the Glory departs from him and he falls to destruction.[8] It can well be imagined that the monster Azhi Dahaka should strive to capture the departed Glory, but Atar intervenes and vanquishes him.[9]
What causes grief to Atar. Angra Mainyu has created the inexpiable crime of burning or cooking dead matter,[10] and the Vendidad enjoins capital punishment for those who commit it.[11] We are informed that the Persians considered it a mortal sin to defile fire by blowing it with the mouth, or by burning dead matter over it.[12] The Achaemenian monarch Cambyses roused the indignation of his countrymen when he burnt the corpse of King Amasis at Sais.[13] It is, therefore, a crime to bring back fire into a house in which a man has died, within nine nights in winter and a month in summer.[14] Highly meritorious is the deed of bringing to the fire altar the embers of a fire desecrated by dead matter, and great shall be the doer's reward in the
- ↑ Ys. 68. 4-6; Ny. 5. 10-12.
- ↑ TdFr. 22, 23.
- ↑ Yt. 22. 4.
- ↑ Yt. 10. 127.
- ↑ RV. 10. 98. 11.
- ↑ Yt. 10. 3.
- ↑ Yt. 13. 77, 78.
- ↑ Yt. 19. 34-36, 38.
- ↑ Yt. 19. 46-50.
- ↑ Vd. 1. 16.
- ↑ Vd. 8. 73, 74.
- ↑ Strabo, p. 732; Ctesias, Persica, 57; Nicolas Damascenus, Frag. 68. FHG. 3. 409.
- ↑ Herodotus, 3. 16.
- ↑ Vd. 5. 43, 44.
