The Spirit of Zoroastrianism by Prods Oktor Skjaervo

Author:Prods Oktor Skjaervo
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300170351
Publisher: Yale University Press

Zarathustra in the Pahlavi Texts

57 Birth and life of Zarathustra (Dnkard VII.2)

Zarathustra's mother

1About the miracles that were revealed about him from the birth of the mother of that most Fortunate of those born.

2It is all manifest from the Tradition that the Creator transferred the Fortune of Zarathustra through the side of the womb to Zara-thustra when Ohrmazd gave the order that his Fortune should go from the world of thought to the world of the living and to that womb.

3When Ohrmazd had fashioned the creature (dahishn) of Zarathustra, the Fortune was then before Ohrmazd. The creature of Zarathustra fell down upon the Endless Lights and, via the sun, moon, and stars, upon the fire in the house of Zish and upon the wife of Zish, when that girl was born who became Zarathustra's birth mother.

4Because that light filled the space between earth and heaven, people began to ask: “Does that fire in the house of Zish burn all by itself?” i.e., needing no wood.

5They went to the soothsayer (kd), who interpreted it for them, saying: “The fullness of Fortune of the existence with bones comes from the Fortune of that body,” i.e., every duty is set in motion from this.

6The demons took a bad beating from that Fortune, so they brought three plagues down upon that village to make adversity for that girl: a winter, all kinds of dangers, and oppressive disrespect. And they threw into the thoughts of the villagers: “This harm has come upon the village from this girl's sorcery!” Then the villagers accused the girl of sorcery, and the parents were pressured to expel her.

7The girl's father had much to say about the accusation of sorcery. They were completely unjustified, he told the villagers, explaining: “When this girl was born in my house, that all-blazing fire appeared, which produced light, so that it lit up everything in the dark night. 8When this girl sits in the innermost room of the house, where there is no fire, and one lights a tall fire in the great hall, then, where this girl sits, it is brighter from the light that shines from her body than where they light a bonfire. One so endowed with Fortune has never been a sorcerer.”

9Even then, goaded by the demons, the evil priests in the land were not satisfied. The father ordered the girl to go to Padrdarsp, the father of a family in the Spitma village, and the girl obeyed.

10Thus, the gods, by their miraculous power, turned the tumult the demons had caused out of spite in order for the girl to be exiled into the reason why the girl became the wife of Zarathustra's father Prushsp, whose father was none other than Padrdarsp.

11As the girl was on her way to that family and she stopped on the highest place in the land of the Spitmas and looked around, a great wonder appeared. A voice called to her, saying: “Go to that village which lies on the highest hill and is larger than

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