Traditionally each man established his own hearth fire when he set up house independently, and this was not allowed to go out as long as he lived. The terrestrial fire could be hearth or ritual fire. As he says in Yasna 43.9: “At the offering made in reverence (to fire) I shall think of truth ( aša) to the utmost of my power ” and it was enjoined on his followers that they should always pray in the presence of fire-either a terrestrial fire, or sun or moon on high ( Mēnōg ī xrad, chap. The cult of fire thus became for the prophet one of profound moral and spiritual significance. Then a fiery flood of molten metal will cover the earth, and men will undergo thereby a last judicial ordeal (see Frašegird). Zoroaster developed this cultural inheritance yet further when he apprehended fire as the creation of Aša Vahišta, and when he saw fire as the instrument of God’s judgment at the Last Day. Fire was thus of great theoretical, ethical, ritual, and practical importance in ancient Iranian life and thought. The ancient Iranian cosmogonists regarded fire moreover as the seventh “creation,” forming the life-force, as it were, within the other six, and so animating the world (see Bundahišn, tr., chaps, 3.7-8 6g. Fire thus acquired an association with truth, and hence with aša. sowgand), a fiery substance which, it was thought, would burn him inwardly if he committed perjury. The mildest form of such ordeals required the accused to take a solemn oath, and as he did so to drink a potion containing sulphur (Av. 132-39.) In each case if the accused died, he was held to have been guilty if he survived, he was innocent, having been protected by Mithra and the other divine beings. Morrison, Vis and Ramin, New York and London, 1972, pp. Boyce, “On Mithra, Lord of Fire,” Monumentum H. In one such ordeal the accused had to pass through fire, in another molten metal was poured on his bare breast and there are said to have been some 30 kinds of fiery tests in all. Those accused of lying or breach of contract ( miθra-) might be required as an ultimate test to establish their innocence by submitting to a solemnly administered ordeal by fire. Fire was also present at their religious ceremonies, and the ancient Yasna Haptaŋhāiti seems to have its origins in a pre-Zoroastrian liturgy accompanying priestly offerings to fire and water ( Plate I).įire was also used judicially in ancient Iran. The hearth fire, providing warmth, light and comfort, was regarded by the ancient Iranians as the visible embodiment of the divinity Ātar, who lived among men as their servant and master and in return for his constant help they made him regular offerings (see ātaš-zōhr). Zoroastrian veneration of fire plainly has its origin in an Indo-Iranian cult of the hearth fire, going back in all probability to Indo-European times. Wikander, Feuerpriester in Kleinasien und Iran, Lund, 1946, pp. The etymology of Avestan ātar- is unknown. ĀTAŠ (Book Pahlavi and New Persian) “fire,” Book Pahlavi also ātaxš, both from the Avestan nominative singular ātarš the regular Middle Persian and Parthian form is ādur (also Book Pahlavi), whence New Persian āḏar.
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