#iranic

Gold Scythian belt title, Mingəçevir, Azerbaijan, 7th-4th century BCE.

The Scythians, also called Scyths or Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranic, horse-riding nomadic people who moved from Central Asia to the Pontic Steppe—today’s Ukraine and southern Russia—during the 9th to 8th centuries BCE, where they remained until the 3rd century BCE.

Masters of mounted warfare, they displaced groups such as the Agathyrsi and the Cimmerians to become the leading power of the western Eurasian Steppe in the 8th century BCE. In the following century, they crossed the Caucasus and frequently carried out raids into West Asia, sometimes alongside the Cimmerians.

Driven out of West Asia by the Medes in the 6th century BC, the Scythians withdrew to the Pontic Steppe, only to be conquered by the Sarmatians in the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC. Their remaining communities were later overwhelmed by the Goths in the 3rd century AD, and by the early medieval period the Scythians had been absorbed into the new peoples settling across the region.

Scythian Empire

Tomorrow night is ‘Shab-e Yaldā,’ the longest and darkest night of the year! Iranic peoples spend the night in celebration - but why is the winter solstice important to them?

Also known as Shab-e Chilla, Yaldā falls on December 21st, which is the end of the Iranian month ‘Āzar.’ Iranic peoples get together and stay up all eating pomegranates and other foods while sitting under a heated table called a ‘kursī.’

Persian readers go to Hāfez’s dīwān for divination (fāl-e hāfez): Each person present chooses a Hāfez poem at random, then the poem is read aloud and the others predict what life has in store for that person.

Yaldā marks the first forty nights of winter, hence its first name Shab-e Chilla, meaning ‘night of the forty[-day period].’ Forty-days intervals are significant in Iranic culture: Sufis go into forty-day seclusions and relatives visit the deceased forty days after burial.

Like Nawroz, Chilla has its roots in Zoroastrianism: Zoroastrians believed that the Ahriman (the evil spirit) was most active during the night, so they would stay up with company during the year's longest night to stay safe, eating what remained of that year’s harvest.

Chilla took its second name ‘Yaldā’ in the first century when Christians fleeing persecution settled in Persia. In Syriac, Christmas is ‘Yaldā,’ meaning birth or nativity (cognate to the Arabic w-l-d). Due to its proximity, Shab-e Chilla also took on the name Yaldā.

“The principles are two: one is the creator, one is the destroyer...”

(cf. VZ 1.21, 28; 22.5)

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Eudoxos, Theopompos, and Hermippus spoke of “two principles” (δύο ... ἀρχάς) that were called Oromazdes and Areimanios by the Magi. Aristotle uses δαίμων (≈ Av. mainiiu-) as the generic term for two opposing transcendent beings of the Iranian religion. In Plutarch’s de Iside (46), θεός, “god” is used as a general term for the two highest divinities (θεοὺς), which are seen as “rivals” (ἀντιτέχνους). Referring then back to the relevant Iranian terminology, Plutarch makes the distinction between θεός = Ahura Mazdā (Ὡρομάζης) and δαίμων = Aŋra Mainiiu (Ἀρειμάνιος).

This distinction between θεός vs. δαίμων could also be an an allusion to Av. ahura vs. daēuua.

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Ἀριστοτέλης δ' ἐν πρώτῳ Περὶ φιλοσοφίας καὶ πρεσβυτέρους εἶναι τῶν Αἰγυπτίων· καὶ δύο κατ' αὐτοὺς εἶναι ἀρχάς, ἀγαθὸν δαίμονα καὶ κακὸν δαίμονα· καὶ τῷ μὲν ὄνομα εἶναι Ζεὺς καὶ Ὠρομάσδης, τῷ δὲ Ἅιδης καὶ Ἀρειμάνιος.

“Aristotle in the first book of his dialogue ‘On Philosophy’ declares that the Magi are more ancient than the Egyptians; and further, that they believe in two principles, the good spirit and the evil spirit, the one called Zeus or Oromasdes, the other Hades or Arimanius.”

(Diog. Laert., Proem. 6.8)

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Now onto the actual Pārsīg term ‘bun(išt)(ag)’, ‘principle’, in Middle Persian and Avestan texts…

MPers. ‘bun’ (bwn), derives from OIr. *buna-/būna- (OAv. būna-, YAv. buna-), denoting ‘source, origin, foundation’ (a fundament or principle).

In the Avesta though, the word seems to denote a deep, dark, lightless, material place of origin/rest. One phrase from the Vidēvdāt (19.47) writes, “bunəm aŋhəūš təmaŋhe”, “(into the) ground of the dark existence (where demons reside)”. The Pahlavi translation of the line then uses the same ‘bun’; “ō bun ī axvān ī tom* kē ērang dūzax”, “into the basis of the dark-places of being, the horrible hell.” (*MPers. tom = Av. təma-, ‘dark’.)

It may be that the term underwent semantic development into a generic meaning of “source, principle” later on (post-Achaemenid). Hence we receive MPers. ‘dō-bun’, the two-origins — the creative and destructive forces (Dadar Ohrmazd & Ahriman, Yazata & Daeva, Asha & Druj) that battle in the material creation (gētīg/gusha/gita) through the linear cycles of finite time (linear-wise it’s 9,000 total warring years which make up the last 3 cyclical periods of Zurvan-Daregho-Xvadata).

Although that being stated, it seems that evil is ultimately finite vs. good which is always infinite.

Ohrmazd exists as zamān ī akanārag “for (as?) the infinite time.” The expression zamān ī akanārag is a calque for zurvān ī akanārag “infinite time/space.” The appearance of that Z/zurvān (endless space/time) in the cosmological context (cf. VZ 1.27-28) is motivated by the idea of a “pact” (paymān, pašt) between both principles (Ahriman & Ohrmazd) which again, lasts for 9,000 years (see Bundahišn 1.10 and then 1.24). Mithra/Mehr, who is the divinity of oath/contract, is sometimes identified as serving as the mediator between the duo’s battling.

In addition, the reason why the material creation and material/finite time/space are created by Ohrmazd is to serve as a trap for Ahriman, who through the prior mentioned reciprocal agreement leads himself unknowingly (as he has no foresight) to his demise (frašokereti). Otherwise they’d be in conflict for eternity (prior to Bundahišn/creation, they were unmanifest in Zurvan Akarana). Ohrmazd ultimately bases the world off of Asha, the order and flow of the cosmos. It is visually seen as a flame (thus the creation is like the living fire).