From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 
Subject: Re: (urth) latro and ares
Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 10:52:56 -0700

I wrote then Josh wrote...

> > Slight correction ... Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd, other spellings) is not a
> > "singular" god but one-half of a dualistic pair; the other being, of 
>course,
> > Ahriman, the god of Evil. The prophecies of Zarathustra suggest that
> > Ahura-Mazda will be victorious in the final battle, but since
> > everything else in the religion posits them as opposite equals,
> > I've never quite understood how that's supposed to work out.
>
>It's not quite accurate. Zoroastrianism is a monotheistic religion.
>
>Check out www.avesta.org.

Josh,

I believe that this is a question that isn't so simply answered. I admit
to oversimplifying, because most people don't know much about
Zarathushtra except that Nietzsche appropriated him as a character
in his best-known book. Similarly, SF/F fans will mostly know the names
of Ahriman and Ahura-Mazda from John Brunner's THE TRAVELLER IN
BLACK.

The relevant quesiton is this: Is the dualism frequently associated with
the Daena Vanyuhi a product of human minds (as the Gathic tradition,
to which avesta.org clearly subscribes, holds) or is it cosmic (as in the
later Avestic tradition)?

Cheers,

--Blattid

_________________________________________________________________
Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. 
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail


--