They did not, he says, consider as the Greeks did that the gods were (ἀνθρωποφυέας) anthropophuistic[933]. They called the entire circle of heaven by the name of Jupiter. They originally worshipped no gods except the sun, the moon, the earth, fire, water, and the winds. Afterwards they learned from the Assyrians and Arabians to worship Οὐρανίη under the name of Mitra.
I shall not attempt in this place to discuss the difficult subject of the Persian or Magian religions as they are in themselves; farther than to observe, that they appear to have been different. Here we have only to consider the relation, if any, between that system which the sketch by Herodotus describes, and the religion of heroic Greece.
It appears that the religion of the Persians[934], either as anterior to, or as independent of that of Zoroaster and the Magi, embraced, (1) the belief in one Supreme and incorporeal God, and (2) the worship of the host of heaven.
The sketch of Herodotus appears to be a representation of this religion: it contains no evidence of dualism, and fire-worship appears in it only as a subordinate characteristic. Only it would appear as if the historian had reflected upon Persia the leading idea of the Greek mythology, namely, that which invested Jupiter, as the supreme deity, especially with the charge of the sky and atmosphere: and that when he says the Persians call the heavens Jupiter, he probably means that they consider the Supreme Being not to be circumscribed, but to pervade all space. The powers of outward Nature were doubtless worshipped by them, in the first instance, as organs of the Supreme Being.
In this sketch there is something to remind us of a primitive religion, or at least to suggest the traditional forms in which that religion was conveyed: it teaches the unity of God, and then steps only into the most natural and proximate form of deviation. It is well called by Dr. Döllinger ‘a monotheism with polytheistic elements[935].’
It is unlike the Homeric religion, inasmuch as it does not contain any evidences of traditive derivation nearly so abundant or so specific as, I think, we shall find manifest in the Homeric system[936]. But then we must remember that it is junior, by many centuries, to the system of Homer: and that these evidences had become far less palpable, at the epoch when Herodotus lived, in the contemporary religion of Greece.
On the other hand, with respect to its human, inventive, and polytheistic element, it is evidently akin to the Homeric religion; under which Nature is everywhere animated and uplifted, and teems at every pore with some expression of divinity. The Greek scheme is indeed still more human, (for it takes everywhere the human dress,) more poetical and imaginative, than the Persian one; but the generative principle is one and the same, namely, the impersonation, though not necessarily in both cases alike under human conditions, of all powers observed and felt in outward nature. The whole group may well remind us, both in letter and in spirit, of the invocation of Agamemnon, which after Jupiter enumerates the sun, the rivers, and the earth: though it also adds the infernal gods[937]. We find from another place in Herodotus, that he knew the Persians to believe in an infernal deity, to whom they offered human sacrifices[938].
If we conceive the Persians moving westward, and gathering mental and imaginative, as well as warlike and political energy, on their way, we shall see that they are only enlarging the scheme reported in Herodotus by a consistent application of its principles, and following them out in an imaginative and dramatic spirit to their results, when they people every meadow, wood, and fountain with deity, and when they construct the great Olympian court for heaven, with its several reflections; in the sea, around the throne of Nereus, and, in the nether world, under the gloomy sway of Aidoneus and Persephone.
As to ritual and other resemblances.
Herodotus[939] also gives us a sketch of the Persian system as to ritual. Each person sacrificed for himself: without libation, music, garlands, or cakes: only in a becoming spot, and having the tiara wreathed usually with myrtle. When he had performed the essential part of the function, a Magus recited a religious chant; and no one could perform sacrifice except in presence of a Magus. It is plain that we see here, if not, as Mr. Blakesley thinks[940], the confusion, at any rate the combination, of the genuine Persian with the Median ritual. The presence of the Magian was required, or let us suppose that it was simply usual: yet he did not offer the sacrifice. This was perhaps the compromise between the sacerdotal system of the Pelasgians, and the independent or patriarchal principle of the Hellenes, who exhibit to us first ὑποφῆται, then μάντιες and θυοσκόοι, but who seem to know nothing, as among themselves, of priests.