PLATE XLIV
Sculpture Supposed to Represent Zoroaster
Parsi tradition seeks to identify this figure with Zoroaster, and the conventional modern pictures of the Prophet are of this general type. The identification is by no means certain, for the figure has also been held to represent Ahura Mazda or—with much greater probability—Mithra. Ahura Mazda regularly appears as a bearded man in a winged disk (see Plate XXXIV, No. 5); identification with Mithra is favoured by the sunflower on which the figure stands and by the mace which he holds (cf. Yasht, vi. 5, x. 96). The face is mutilated, probably by the early Arab conquerors, who, as strict Muhammadans, objected to representations of living beings (cf. the similar mutilations in miniature paintings, Plate XLII). From a Sassanian sculpture at Takht-i-Bustan, Kirmanshah. After a photograph by Professor A. V. Williams Jackson.
