mazd, engaged in a perpetual warfare with him. Whatever good thing
Ormazd creates, Ahriman corrupts and ruins it. Moral and physical evils
are alike at his disposal. He blasts the earth with barrenness, or
makes it produce thorns, thistles, and poisonous plants; his are the
earthquake, the storm, the plague of hail, the thunderbolt; he causes
disease and death, sweeps off a nation's flocks and herds by murrain, or
depopulates a continent by pestilence; ferocious wild beasts, serpents,
toads, mice, hornets, mosquitoes, are his creation; he invented and
introduced into the world the sins of witchcraft, murder, unbelief,
cannibalism, sodomy; he excites wars and tumults, stirs up the bad
against the good, and labors by every possible expedient to make vice
triumph over virtue. Ormazd can exercise no control over him; the utmost
that he can do is to keep a perpetual watch on his rival, and seek to
baffle and defeat him. This he is not always able to do. Despite his
best endeavors, Ahriman is not unfrequently victorious.

In the purer times of the Zoroastrian religion it would seem that
neither Ormazd nor Ahriman was represented by sculptured forms. A
symbolism alone was permitted, which none could mistake for a real
attempt to portray these august beings. But by the date of the Sassanian
revival, the original spirit of the religion had suffered considerable
modification; and it was no longer thought impious, or perilous, to
exhibit the heads of the Pantheon, in the forms regarded as appropriate
to them, upon public monuments. The great Artaxerxes, probably soon
after his accession, set up a memorial of his exploits, in which he
represented himself as receiving the insignia of royalty from Ormazd
himself, while Ahriman, prostrate and seemingly, though of course not
really, dead, lay at the feet of the steed on which Ormazd was mounted.
In the form of Ormazd there is nothing very remarkable; he is attired
like the king, has a long beard and flowing locks, and carries in his
left hand a huge staff or baton, which he holds erect in a slanting
position. The figure of Ahriman possesses more interest. The face wears
an expression of pain and suffering; but the features are calm, and in
no way disturbed. They are regular, and at least as handsome as those of
Artaxerxes and his divine patron. He wears a band or diadem across the
brow, above which we see a low cap or crown. From this escape the heads
and necks of a number of vipers or