Item Details

Item No. 13080

Asho Zoroaster is the ancient name for Zarathustra, the prophet of Ahura Mazda, the deity of the Zoroastrian faith. He is generally believed to have been born ca. 628 BC and died 551 BC. When he was about 30 years of age, he began receiving visions and recognized them as the voice of Ahura Mazda and his Archangels speaking to him. His teachings, prayers and other works can be found in the Avesta, the holy text of Zoroastrians.

"The prophet Zarathushtra, son of Pourushaspa, of the Spitaman family, is known to us primarily from the Gathas, seventeen great hymns which he composed and which have been faithfully preserved by his community. These are not works of instruction, but inspired, passionate utterances, many of them addressed directly to God; and their poetic form is a very ancient one, which has been traced back (through Norse parallels) to Indo-European times. It seems to have been linked with a mantic tradition, that is, to have been cultivated by priestly seers who sought to express in lofty words their personal apprehension of the divine; and it is marked by subtleties of allusion, and great richness and complexity of style. Such poetry can only have been fully understood by the learned; and since Zoroaster believed that he had been entrusted by God with a message for all mankind, he must also have preached again and again in plain words to ordinary people. His teachings were handed down orally in his community from generation to generation, and were at last committed to writing under the Sasanians, rulers of the third Iranian empire. The language then spoken was Middle Persian, also called Pahlavi; and the Pahlavi books provide invaluable keys for interpreting the magnificent obscurities of the Gathas themselves." -Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians, Their religious beliefs and practices, London, 1979, pg 17.

Dimensions: 13.5 cm (5.5”) tall; 6 cm (2.5”) base. Shipping weight 1.80 pounds.