Digital Rare Book:
The Hymns of Zoroaster, usually called the Gathas
By Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie
Published by George Bell & Sons, Brooklyn - 1914

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The GATHAS are 17 hymns believed to have been composed by Zarathusthra (Zoroaster) himself. They are the most sacred texts of the Zoroastrian faith.

The Gathas are in verse, metrical in the nature of ancient Iranian religious poetry, which is extremely terse, and in which grammatical constructs are an exception.

Some of the verses of the Gathas are directly addressed to the Omniscient Creator Ahura Mazda. These verses, devotional in character, expound on the divine essences of truth (Asha), the good-mind (Vohu Manah), and the spirit of righteousness. Some other verses are addressed to the public that may have come to hear the prophet, and in these he exhorts his audience to live a life as Ahura Mazda has directed, and pleads to Ahura Mazda to intervene on their behalf.

Other verses, from which some aspects of Zoroaster's life have been inferred, are semi-(auto)biographical, but all revolve around Zarathustra's mission to promote his view of the Truth (again Asha). For instance, some of the passages describe Zarathustra's first attempts to promote the teachings of Ahura Mazda, and the subsequent rejection by his kinsmen. This and other rejection led him to have doubts about his message, and in the Gathas he asked for assurance from Ahura Mazda, and requests repudiation of his opponents.

The various hymns appear to have been composed at different periods in his life, and read chronologically, a certain earnestness and conviction in his message are apparent. While in earlier verses, Zarathustra occasionally expresses his doubts on his own suitability of the mission, he never wavers in his conviction that the message is correct. A tone of contentment and belief in his vindication is apparent only in the last few hymns, and to the last, where he officiates at the wedding of his youngest daughter, he remains the persevering predicant.

Aspects of Zoroastrian philosophy are distributed over the entire collection of Gathas. There is no systematic arrangement of doctrine in the texts.

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