The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [1911] - Get a Free Blog

PERSIA. 145
certain that the Syrian author had good grounds for
attributing that conservative spirit to them. The sacri
fices of the pyrethes which Strabo observed in Cappa-
docia recall all the peculiarities of the Avestan liturgy.
The same prayers were recited before the altar of the
fire while the priest held the sacred fasces (bareqmari) ;
the same offerings were made of milk, oil and honey ;
and the same precautions were taken to prevent the
priest s breath from polluting the divine flame. Their
gods were practically those of orthodox Mazdaism.
They worshiped Ahura Mazda, who had to them re
mained a divinity of the sky as Zeus and Jupiter had
been originally. Below him they venerated deified
abstractions (such as Vohumano, "good mind," and
Ameretat, "immortality") from which the religion of
Zoroaster made its Amshaspends, the archangels sur
rounding the Most High. 20
Finally they
sacrificed to
the spirits of nature, the Yazatas : for instance, Anahita
or Anaites the goddess of the waters that made fertile
the fields; Atar, the personification of fire; and espe
cially Mithra, the pure genius of light.
Thus the basis of the religion of the magi of A$ja
Minor was Mazdaism, somewhat changed from that
of the Avesta, and in certain respects holding closer to
the primitive nature worship of the Aryans, but never
theless a clearly characterized and distinctive Mazda
ism, which was to remain the most solid foundation
for the greatness of the mysteries of Mithra in the
Occident.
Recent discoveries 21 of bilingual inscriptions have
succeeded in establishing the fact that the language
used, or at least written, by the Persian colonies of
Asia Minor was not their ancient Aryan idiom, but