Zoroastrianism's famous good-versus-evil duel was not in its oldest hymns
Zoroastrianism is often summed up as a cosmic war between a good god and an evil one. But its founding hymns, the Gathas, frame the contest as a human choice between truth and the lie, with the Lord of Wisdom standing above it. The symmetrical showdown arrived centuries later in Middle Persian writings.
The faith centres on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, better known by the Greek form Zoroaster, and it counts among the oldest organised religions. Followers revere Ahura Mazda, an uncreated, benevolent and all-wise deity whose name means Lord of Wisdom. Its own name, Mazdayasna, joins Mazda with a word for worship, and an older term still in use, Behdin, means of the good religion.
In the Gathas, two opposing mentalities chose freely at creation: Spenta Mainyu, the constructive spirit, and Angra Mainyu, the destructive one. People face the same fork between Asha, truth and cosmic order, and Druj, deceit, which shows up as greed, wrath and envy. The moral core is condensed into good thoughts, good words and good deeds. Rather than a passive apocalypse, the hymns look to Frashokereti, a renewal of the world brought about by human effort. Elevating Angra Mainyu, or Ahriman, into Ahura Mazda's equal rival is a later idea, prominent in texts like the 9th-century Bundahishn.
Whether the religion is monotheist at all is disputed. Prods Oktor Skjærvø rules monotheism out for the Gathic material, and Almut Hintze and Jean Kellens argue that Judeo-Christian labels hide a system in which divine beings called Yazatas are revered alongside the supreme Creator. Zoroaster's reforms also sorted older Iranian gods into ahuras, to be honoured, and daevas, to be rejected.
Its beginnings may lie as far back as the 2nd millennium BCE, in what scholars call the Avestan period, yet written evidence only appears around the middle of the 6th century BCE. Over roughly a thousand years it served as the official religion of Iranian states, from the Achaemenid Empire, which institutionalised it, to the Sasanians, who revived and standardised it. The Muslim conquest of Persia in the 7th century CE began its decline. Reverence for elements such as water and fire persists in its practice today.
Source: Zoroastrianism
