uld not have happened if the religion of the Persian kings had
not been a pure service of one god,[5] and the other information we
have on the subject shows that the Mazdeism of Persia at this period
was a very elevated form of the religion. The inscriptions of Darius
do not mention the spread of the worships of Mitra and Anahita,
which, however, make their appearance in the later inscriptions of
Artaxerxes; in none of them is Ahriman spoken of. This, of course,
does not prove that he was not believed in; when the Jewish prophet
proclaims that Jehovah makes both light and darkness, that he both
wounds and heals, there may be a reference to Persian dualism. Yet
Mazdeism was capable of appearing, and did appear to the foreigner,
as a lofty worship of a god of light and goodness. The same
impression is produced by the descriptions of the Greek writers.
Herodotus (i. 131, 132) writes as follows; he is a contemporary of
Ezra: "The following statements as to the customs of the Persians is
to be relied on. They do not fashion images of the gods, nor build
temples, nor altars--they consider it wrong to do so, and count it a
proof of folly; their reason for this being, as I think, that they do
not believe the gods to be beings of the same nature with men as the
Greeks do. They are accustomed to offer sacrifices to Zeus on the
summits of mountains; they call the whole circle of heaven Zeus. They
sacrifice also to the sun, and the moon, and the earth, and to fire,
and to water, and to the winds. These are the ancient parts of their
ritual, but they have added the worship of the Queen of heaven,
Aphrodite; it was from the Assyrians and the Arabs that they acquired
this. The Assyrian name for Aphrodite is Mylitta, the Arabs call her
Alilat, the Persians, Anahita.[6] Such being their gods the Persians
sacrifice to them on this wise. They have no altar, and do not use
fire in sacrifice, nor do they have libations nor flutes, nor wreaths
nor barley. He who wishes to sacrifice takes his victim to a clean
spot and there calls on the deity, his turban wreathed, as a rule,
with myrtle. He does not think of praying for benefits for himself
individually in connection with his sacrifice; he prays for the
welfare of the Persian people and king; he himself is one of the
Persian people. He then cuts up the victim, boils the pieces and
spreads them out on the softest grass he can find--if possible, on
clover. This done, one of the Magians who has