At this age he appeared before Gushtasp, in Balkh, and at this very time Hystaspes, father of Darius, may have reigned in Bactria. Zoroaster performed miracles during ten years: this is the period of his mission. After his first miracles, his reputation having spread afar, Changragháchah came to meet him. This Brahman treats him in his letter to Gushtasp as a young man, and well might an old man, such as Changragháchah was, have so called a man of forty years. It is also to this time that Anquetil refers what is said about the cypress-tree which Zoroaster planted before the Atesh-gadah, or the fire-temple, of Kichmar in Khorassan. Isfendiár was then very young, because about twenty-eight years later his elder son was not yet married; and Darius, 540 years B. C., might have been ten years old.
At the age of sixty-five years, Zoroaster delivered in Babylon lessons of philosophy, and counted Pythagoras among his disciples; Cambyses, according to the Greeks, filled then the throne of Persia. Three years afterwards, the legislator returned from Chaldæa for establishing the worship of the cypress, which lasted eight years. Persia had then acknowledged Darius, the son of Hystaspes, as king.
After these eight years, Zoroaster advised the war against Turan. He was very old. The Shahnamah calls him pír, “old.” Gushtasp, victorious over the Turaniáns, heaps every honor upon him, and he dies, some time after, at the age of seventy-seven years, in the interval of time which elapsed between the expedition of Gushtasp and the invasion of the Turaniáns. Báhmán, the eldest son of Isfendiar, was able to carry arms, and Darius, 512 B. C., might have been thirty-eight years old.
As to the posterity of Zoroaster—he had been successively married to three wives. With the first he had one son and three daughters; with the second two sons; it is not certain whether he had any offspring with his third wife, called Húó, the niece of Jamasp—the Zand-books however say, that she brought him three sons, who are to appear about the end of the world.—A. T.
According to Zand and Parsee writings, the birth and actions of these sons will be equally miraculous. Zoroaster, having visited Húó three times on her going to bathe, the germs remained in the water. The Izeds (or genii) Nerioseng and Anahid were charged with their custody, until the period when three virgins bathing in the same water, should receive these germs in succession, and bring into the world the three sons of Zoroaster.
The first is named Oshederbámi. He is to appear at the commencement of the last millennium of the world, and to arrest the sun’s course during ten days and nights; and as Zoroaster converted one of the four portions of the human race, he is to convert the second to the law, and give them the 22nd Nosk.
The second posthumous son is Oshedermáh. He is to appear four hundred years after Oshederbámi, and to arrest the sun’s course during ten days and nights; he is also to bring the 23rd Nosk of the law, and to convert the third portion of the human race.
The third is named Sosiosh. He shall appear at the end of ages, arrest the sun’s course during thirty days and nights, bring the 24th Nosk of the law, and the whole world is to embrace the faith of Zoroaster: after this comes on the resurrection.—(Zend.-Av., t. I. 2. P. pp. 45, 46).—D. S.
[434] In the Desátir (English transl. p. 126) he is called Biras.—A. T.
[435] Ardai Viráf or Arda Viráf or Virasp, also simply called Viraf or Virasp, was, about the year 200 of our era, one of the most zealous followers and defenders of Zoroaster’s religion, which, under Alexander the Great and the other kings of Persia, had lost its first authority (see Hyde, pp. 278, 279). Arda Viraf is mentioned in one of the Yeshts Sades, or prayers called Dup Néreng, which are recited when perfumes are thrown into the fire (Zend-Av., t. II, p. 53).—A. T.