The Open court . r, i. e., the word that ex-isted before everything else, reminding us of the eternal Word, the Divine Logosof the Gospel. {Histoire ancienne de VOrient, V., p. 388.) Concerning Ahriman, Lenormant says : The creation came forth from the hands of Ormuzd, pure and perfect likehimself. It was Ahriman who perverted it by his infamous influence, and labored 1 Translated from Lenormants Histoire ancienne de IOrient, Vol. V., p. MAZDAISM. 143 continually to destroy and overthrow it, for he is the destroyer (paurou marka) aswell as the spirit of evil. The struggle between these two pri
The Open court . r, i. e., the word that ex-isted before everything else, reminding us of the eternal Word, the Divine Logosof the Gospel. {Histoire ancienne de VOrient, V., p. 388.) Concerning Ahriman, Lenormant says : The creation came forth from the hands of Ormuzd, pure and perfect likehimself. It was Ahriman who perverted it by his infamous influence, and labored 1 Translated from Lenormants Histoire ancienne de IOrient, Vol. V., p. MAZDAISM. 143 continually to destroy and overthrow it, for he is the destroyer (paurou marka) aswell as the spirit of evil. The struggle between these two principles, of good andof evil, constitutes the worlds history. In Ahriman we find again the old wrathfulserpent of the Indo-Iranian period, who is the personification of evil and who inVedism, under the name of AM, is regarded as an individual being. The myth ofthe serpent and the legends of the Avesta are mingled in Ahriman under the nameof AJi Dahdka, who is said to have attacked Atar, Tra^taona, and Yima, but is. Fig. 3. The Tree of Life. Decorations on the embroidery of a royal mantle. (British Museum. Layard, Monmnents, ist series, pi. 6. Lenormant, /. /. V., p. 108.) himself dethroned. It is the source of the Greek myth that Apollo slays the dragonPython. The Indo-Iranian religion knew only the struggle that was carried on inthe atmosphere between the fire-god and the serpent-demon Afrasiab. And it was,according to Professor Darmesteter, the doctrine of this struggle, which, when gen-eralised and applied to all things in the world, finally led to the establishment ofdualism. (Ibid., p. 392.) The tree of life, which is known to us through the first chapterof Genesis, is an old Accadian idea, which is of immemorial origin. 144 THE OPEN COURT. dating perhaps from the dajs when men lived mainly upon the fruitsof trees,^ and having been handed down through the Assyrians to theBabylonians and Persians. It always remained a favorite idea amongthe artists of the various nations tha
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