as from a metaphysical point of view the power opposed to the CHAP,
righteous God must be a moral one, a series of synonyms were em- ^- _
ployed which imparted to the representative of Vritra more and more
of a spiritual character. The Devas of the Veda are the bright gods
who fight on the side of Indra ; in the Avesta the word has come to
mean an evil spirit, and the Zoroastrian was bound to declare that he
ceased to be a worshipper of the daevas.^ Thus Verethra and all
kindred deities were placed in this class of malignant beings, and
branded with the epithet Drukhs, deceitful.^ But the special dis-
tinction of the being known to us under the familiar name of Ahriman,
was the title of Angro-Mainyus, or spirit of darkness.^ This name
was simply an offset to that of his righteous adversary, Spento-
Mainyus, or the spirit of light. But Spento-Mainyus was only
another name for the Supreme Being, whose name Ahuro-mazdao
we repeat in the shortened form of Ormuzd.^ In this Being the
devout Zoroastrian trusted with all the strength of spiritual con-
viction : but the idea of his enemy was as closely linked with that
of the righteous God as the idea of Vritra with that of Indra ; and the exaltation of Ormuzd carried the greatness of Ahriman to a pitch
which made him the creator and the sovereign of an evil universe at
war with the Kosmos of the spirit of light.
Such was the origin of Iranian dualism, a dualism which divided Iranian the world between two opposing self-existent deities, while it pro-
- Max Miiller, Chips, i. 25 ; Brown, Croyances et Legendes de VAntiqtiite, 61.
The Religion of Zoroaster, § 10. If this be the case (which is, to say the
^ The word is probably found in the least, veiy uncertain) the degradation of Greek a-Tp€K-i^y, not deceitful ^ trust- Aryaman involved the exaltation of worthy, sure. Mithra. " Une fois devenu la person-
' M. Maury, regarding the name nification de la verite et de la bonne foi, Ahriman as identical with the Vedic Mithra re9Ut le caractere de mediateur Aryaman, sees in the Iranian demon a entre Dieu et I'homme, /jLeairris, comma degradation of the Hindu sun-god, an I'appelle I'auteur du Traite sur Isis et inverse change to that which invested Osiris," id. 164. the Trojan Paris with the attributes of * Like Thraetana and Verethragna, solar heroes. " Mitra a un autre paredre the name Ormuzd is Sanskrit. Plato que Varouna, c'est Aryaman. . . . speaks of Zoroaster as a son of Oro- Cette divinite nous offre a I'origine une mazes, which is clearly only another nouvelle personnification du soleil dans form of the name of this deity. In the son action fortifiante et salutaire : a ce inscriptions at Behistun it appears in titre il est souvent associe a Bhaya, the form Auramazda ; but in Persian I'Aditya qui dispense des bienfaits et qui the word conveys no meaning. In the benit les hommes. . . . Mais, plus- Zendavesta it is found both as Ahuro- tard, Aryaman devint I'Aditya de la mazdao and as Mazdao Ahuro ; and mort, le soleil destructeur ; car, sous le these forms lead us at once to the San- climat brulant de ITnde, on sait com- skrit, in which they correspond to the bien est dangcreuse I'insolalion. , . . words Asuro medhas, wise spirit — a Voili comment Ar)'aman fournit la name which suggests a comparison with religion de Zoroastre le type du dieu the Metis and Medeia of Greek myths, mauvais, I'idee d'une divinite adversaire See Max Miiller, Lectures on Language, constanle d'Ormuzd et de Mithra." — first series, 195. 2 O
