Zoroaster

Zoroaster (circa 630?-550 BC?), Persian religious prophet, who founded Zoroastrianism.

Because there are no direct accounts of events in his life, scholars have attempted to reconstruct Zoroaster's life dates using descriptions in his works and those of possible contemporaries. In recent years scholars have proposed that Zoroaster lived much earlier than was traditionally thought; their dates range from about 1000 BC to as early as the 2nd millennium BC.

Zoroaster (known in ancient Persian as Zarathustra) was born in the eastern Persian land of Airyana Vaejah, probably during the period preceding that of the Achaemenid kings, although earlier dates have been suggested.

When still a fairly young man he began receiving revelations from Ahura Mazda (the "Lord Wisdom"). His conversations with this godhead, and his difficulties while preaching, are recorded in the Gathas, part of the sacred scripture known as the Avesta. Apparently it was after years of struggle with priests of established cults (during which time he had made some converts among his relatives and others) that he found a champion in Vishtaspa, king of Chorasmia (now in Western Turkistan). Thereafter the religion preached by Zoroaster prospered.

Zoroaster's homeland was mountainous, devoted to the raising of cattle, which were considered sacred animals. Through his religion, he had hoped to unite cattle herders against nomadic marauders and practitioners of certain sacrificial cults. Still, the intellectual depth of his system may well have exerted a profound influence on Western thought; Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek thinkers showed a great interest in his doctrines.

It is at least likely that Zoroaster's ideas strongly affected the course of Judeo-Christian demonology, angelology, and eschatology. Influences have been noted in the Manual of Discipline found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

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