BABYLON AND PERSIA

ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVESTA. 6lidentifyingAhurA-Mazda, the supreme God, theCreator of the world and of the other gods, the masterof all, the inspirer and maintainer of holiness andrighteousness, such as he appears throughout theAvesta, with the old Aryan sky-godsDyaus andVaruna.It is only long and attentive study, bring¬ing out little touches scattered through the texts, fev/and far between, that enables, us to trace this grandspiritual conception to its first physical source.Andwhen these touches are found, they are such as toplace the original identity beyond a doubt.The veryname of the one is a combination of titles given tothe other.The Sanskrit AsuRA becomes, by thelaw of Eranian pronunciation, Ahura,* with thesame sense of " Lord."And of all the by-namesgiven to Varuna, that of " omniscient, all-knowing,"was adopted asone of the names of the DeityMazda. Thus "Ahura-Mazda " literally means "theLord of great knowledge."The material attributeswith which he is invested at once betray his origin.In one of thoseconversations with Zarathushtra,which are the accepted form of revelation through¬out the Avesta, he is made to say :" I maintain that sky there above, .shining and seen afar, and en¬compassing the earth all around.It looks like a palace that standsbuilt of a heavenly substance, firmly established, with ends that lieafar, shining in its body of ruby over the three worlds ;it is like agarment inlaid with stars, made of a heavenly substance, tliatMazda puts on . . . and on no side can the eye perceive theend of it.-|-* There is the same exchange of letters in Greek and Latin : Greekhepta = Latin septem (seVen) ; Greek herpeton = Latin serpens, etc.\ Yesht XIIL