Zoroaster

Zarathushtra (Zara?u?tra), usually known in English as Zoroaster after the Greek version of the name, ??????????, was a Persian (Iranian) prophet and the founder of Zoroastrianism, which was the national religion of Persia from the time of the Achaemenidae to the close of the Sassanid period. Zoroaster was probably born in the northeastern part of Persia (Iran), though there is also a tradition that he came from Balkh in modern day Afghanistan. In Modern Persian the name takes the form of Zarto?t or Zardo?t (?????).

Zoroaster in the West

Zoroaster was known as a sage, magician and miracle-worker in post-Classical Western culture, though almost nothing was known of his ideas until the late eighteenth century. By this time his name was associated with lost ancient wisdom and was appropriated by Freemasons and other groups who claimed access to such knowledge. He appears in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute under the variant name "Sarastro", who represents moral order in opposition to the "Queen of the Night".

Related Topics:
Eighteenth century - Freemasons - The Magic Flute - Moral

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Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire promoted research into Zoroastrianism in the belief that it was a form of rational Deism, preferable to Christianity. With the translation of the Avesta by Abraham Anquetil-Duperron, Western scholarship of Zoroastrianism began. In the nineteenth century, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche used the name of Zarathustra in his seminal book Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra). Nietzsche fictionalizes and dramatizes Zarathustra toward his own literary and philosophical aims, presenting him as a returning visionary who repudiates the designation of good and evil and thus marks the observation of the death of God. Nietzsche asserted that he had chosen to put his ideas into the mouth of Zarathustra because the historical prophet had been the first to proclaim the opposition between "good" and "evil", by rejecting the Daeva (representing natural forces) in favor of a moral order represented by the Ahuras. It was this act that Nietzsche proposed to invert.

Related Topics:
Enlightenment - Voltaire - Deism - Christianity - Avesta - Abraham Anquetil-Duperron - Nineteenth century - Friedrich Nietzsche - Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) - God

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Richard Strauss's Opus 30, inspired by Nietzsche's book, is also called Also sprach Zarathustra. Its opening fanfare (corresponding to the book's prologue) was memorably used to score the opening sequence of Stanley Kubrick's movie '.

Related Topics:
Richard Strauss - Also sprach Zarathustra - Stanley Kubrick - Movie

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