; but we do not know what determined the
differences in the two developments. The constructions were the work,
doubtless, of successions of reformers, but the details of these
long-continued efforts have not come down to us.[1790] The essential
point is that the evil mass in the world was conceived of as a unity by
the Iranians and assigned a head, Angro Mainyu. This name does not occur
in the Achaemenian inscriptions, but it is mentioned in the Gathas and by
Aristotle,[1791] so that it appears to belong to an early stratum of the
Iranian religion. The present state of the world is regarded as the
result of a constant series of antagonisms between the two creators,
Spenta Mainyu (Ahura Mazda) and Angro Mainyu, these being attended each
by a circle of helpers. A polytheistic interpretation of the helpers is
avoided by making them abstractions (though with a tendency toward
personification), the representatives of various features or elements in
the government of the world or in the experiences of men.[1792]

+977+. A strictly dualistic system recognizes only two Powers in the
world. The Avestan religion, however, admits other deities besides Ahura
Mazda and Angro Mainyu; Mitra, Anahita, and others are objects of
worship. The ancient national faiths, that is, were not content with a
simple division of things between two divine beings. An approach to such
a view was made by Judaism, which, partly under Persian influence,
produced the figure of the Satan, a quasi-independent being hostile to
the Supreme Deity.[1793] Christianity, adopting this conception from
Judaism, elaborated it into the person of the Devil, the veritable head
of a kingdom of evil, called in the New Testament "the god of this
age."[1794] Though doomed to final defeat, as Ahriman in the Avesta is
doomed, the Devil in the orthodox Christian system is practically
omnipresent and is powerful enough to defeat the plans of God in many
cases. In modern enlightened Christian feeling, however, he has become
little more than a name. Though he is credited in theory with suggesting
evil and alluring men to sin, this dogma has small force in the better
minds against the strong conviction of individual freedom and
responsibility. Current Christianity, in its highest forms, is
theoretically, but not really, dualistic. The Satan is taken more
seriously by Islam, which has adopted the conception from Christianity
and Judaism.[1795] For the ordinary Moslem he belongs in th