Zarathustra and the Gathas: The Prophet and His Hymns

Zarathustra, called Zoroaster by the Greeks, was the Iranian priest and poet whom Zoroastrians revere as the prophet of Ahura Mazda. His teaching survives in the Gathas, seventeen hymns in the Old Avestan language that form the oldest and most sacred part of the Zoroastrian scripture. In them he speaks to Ahura Mazda directly, laments his rejection, and calls on his hearers to choose between truth and the lie — a choice on which, he teaches, the fate of each soul and of the world depends.

The Name, Life and Legend of Zarathustra§

The prophet's name in Avestan is Zarathushtra, of the Spitama family; the second element of the name, ushtra, means camel, and the whole has been interpreted as "one who has old camels" or similar, though the meaning is not certain. The Greek form Zoroastres was later linked by Greek writers to the word astron, star, encouraging the image of Zoroaster as an astrologer. In the Gathas he calls himself a zaotar, a priest who recites the sacred words, and a manthran, one who knows the inspired formulas. The hymns mention his patron Kavi Vishtaspa, his supporters Frashaoshtra and Jamaspa, and the marriage of his daughter Pouruchista — few but precious biographical details.

Later Zoroastrian tradition, in Middle Persian works such as the seventh book of the Denkard and the thirteenth-century Persian Zardosht-nameh, tells a fuller story: Zarathustra laughed rather than cried at birth, survived repeated attempts by hostile priests to kill him as a child, received his first revelation at the age of thirty on the bank of a river when the divine Good Mind led him into the presence of Ahura Mazda, and converted Vishtaspa after years of preaching. He is said to have been killed at the age of seventy-seven, in some accounts while praying at the fire altar. These narratives belong to sacred biography and cannot be confirmed historically.

When and Where Did Zarathustra Live?§

Few questions in the history of religion are as disputed as Zarathustra's date. Greek writers placed him impossibly early: the fifth-century historian Xanthus of Lydia and, according to Pliny, Aristotle and Eudoxus put him thousands of years before their own time. A Zoroastrian tradition, preserved in Middle Persian sources and transmitted to Arabic historians, dated him "258 years before Alexander", which yields a date in the seventh or sixth century BCE; it was long accepted in Western scholarship and was defended in modern times by Gherardo Gnoli, but most specialists now regard it as a later calculation.

The strongest evidence is linguistic. The Old Avestan of the Gathas is extremely close to the Vedic Sanskrit of the Rigveda, and the society it reflects is one of herders and priests without cities, kings or writing. On this basis Mary Boyce dated Zarathustra to about 1400–1200 BCE, and many scholars today suggest a range between about 1500 and 1000 BCE, while acknowledging that certainty is impossible. The geography of the Avesta, which names regions of eastern Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia but not western Persia, suggests that he lived in the east of the Iranian world. Some scholars, notably Jean Kellens, have also questioned how much biographical information the Gathas really contain, reading their "I" as a ritual or idealised voice.

The Gathas: Structure and Language§

The Gathas ("songs") are preserved within the Yasna, the principal Zoroastrian liturgy, where they occupy the central chapters. They are arranged in five groups according to their poetic metre:

• Ahunavaiti Gatha: Yasna 28–34, seven hymns.
• Ushtavaiti Gatha: Yasna 43–46, four hymns.
• Spenta Mainyu Gatha: Yasna 47–50, four hymns.
• Vohu Khshathra Gatha: Yasna 51.
• Vahishtoishti Gatha: Yasna 53.

Between the first and second groups stands the Yasna Haptanghaiti, the "Worship in Seven Chapters" (Yasna 35–41), also in Old Avestan, which is generally thought to come from Zarathustra's early community, perhaps even from his own lifetime. The short, sacred prayers Ahuna Vairya and Ashem Vohu, recited constantly by Zoroastrians, belong to the same linguistic layer. Zoroastrians regard the Gathas as manthras, holy words of power, and they are recited daily in their original language, so that their sound and rhythm matter as much as their meaning. How these texts were transmitted orally for many centuries is described in the Avesta.

The Message of the Gathas§

The Gathas are not systematic theology but intense, allusive poetry addressed to Ahura Mazda. Several themes stand out. Ahura Mazda, the "Wise Lord", is the creator who established the world and its order through his thought; one hymn (Yasna 44) is a series of questions to God — who fixed the course of sun and stars, who holds up the earth, who made light and darkness — implying that Ahura Mazda alone is the answer.

At the heart of the teaching is choice. Yasna 30 describes two primal spirits, "twins", one choosing to do the best, the other the worst; the daevas, the old gods, chose wrongly, and every person must choose between them in thought, word and deed. The world is divided between followers of asha, truth and right order, and followers of druj, the lie. Ahura Mazda acts through divine aspects such as Good Mind (Vohu Manah), Truth (Asha), Dominion, Devotion, Wholeness and Immortality, which later tradition organised as the Amesha Spentas (see Ahura Mazda and cosmic dualism).

The Gathas look ahead to judgement: a passage over the "Bridge of the Separator", a reward of the "House of Song" for the righteous and the "House of the Lie" for the wicked, and a final transformation of existence. They also reflect conflict: Zarathustra complains of rejection by princes and priests he calls kavis and karapans, asks to what land he should flee, and in Yasna 29 gives voice to the soul of the ox, the mistreated creation crying out for a protector. Some readers have seen in the Gathas a protest against violent animal sacrifice or intoxicating rituals, but these interpretations remain contested.

Interpreting the Gathas Today§

The Gathas are among the hardest texts of any ancient tradition. Their grammar is archaic, their vocabulary often unique, and their style dense with wordplay and ritual allusion. As a result, translations by Christian Bartholomae, Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin, Stanley Insler, Helmut Humbach, Jean Kellens and Eric Pirart, and Prods Oktor Skjærvø can differ dramatically, even in basic sense.

Two broad approaches have emerged. One, represented by Mary Boyce, sees Zarathustra as a prophet and reformer who founded a new religion with a clear ethical and eschatological message. Another, associated with Kellens and others, reads the Gathas as essentially liturgical poems, closely tied to the sacrificial ritual of the Yasna and rooted in older Indo-Iranian religion, so that the idea of a radical "reform" may be overstated. Among Zoroastrians, too, readings vary: many modern reformist Zoroastrians, especially in the diaspora, treat the Gathas as the only authentic teaching of the prophet and set less store by later ritual, while traditionalists read them within the whole liturgical and priestly tradition. These debates are discussed in Parsis and modern Zoroastrianism.

Zoroaster in Greek, Christian and Western Imagination§

Outside Iran, Zoroaster became a figure of legend. Plato's Alcibiades I mentions the Magian lore of Zoroaster as part of the education of Persian princes; Pliny the Elder named him the inventor of magic; and late antique writers credited him with astrological and magical books (see the Magi). Some early Christians identified him with Nimrod or with Ham. In the Renaissance the Byzantine philosopher Gemistos Plethon attributed the Chaldean Oracles to the "Magi of Zoroaster" (see the Chaldean Oracles), and he joined Hermes Trismegistus among the ancient theologians of the Western esoteric tradition. In 1883–85 Friedrich Nietzsche borrowed his name for Thus Spoke Zarathustra, explaining that the first teacher of morality as a cosmic force should be the one to announce its overcoming — a literary use having little to do with the historical prophet. An overview of the religion he founded is in What Is Zoroastrianism?

Frequently asked questions§

When did Zoroaster live?§

No one knows for certain. Linguistic comparison of the Gathas with the Rigveda leads many scholars to place him between about 1500 and 1000 BCE, while a later Zoroastrian tradition, defended by a minority of scholars, dates him to the seventh or sixth century BCE.

What are the Gathas?§

The Gathas are seventeen hymns in Old Avestan attributed to Zarathustra himself, preserved in the Yasna liturgy. They are the oldest Zoroastrian texts and are recited in their original language in daily prayer and ritual.

Are Zarathustra and Zoroaster the same person?§

Yes. Zarathustra (more precisely Zarathushtra) is the Avestan form of the name, Zoroaster comes from the Greek Zoroastres, and Zardosht or Zartosht is the Persian form used by Zoroastrians today.

Sources and further reading§

• The Gāthās of Zarathushtra and the Other Old Avestan Texts — Helmut Humbach, 1991
• The Hymns of Zarathustra — Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin, 1952
• A History of Zoroastrianism, Volume I: The Early Period — Mary Boyce, 1975
• The Spirit of Zoroastrianism — Prods Oktor Skjærvø, 2011
• Zoroaster in History — Gherardo Gnoli, 2000
• Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism — Mary Boyce (ed.), 1984