It has influenced Star Wars and Game of Thrones
characters as diverse as Voltaire, Nietzsche and Freddy Mercury have cited it as an inspiration.
So what is Zoroastrianism ?
alk of ‘us’ and ‘them’ has long dominated Iran-related politics in the West. At the same time, Christianity has frequently been used to define the identity and values of the US and Europe, as well as to contrast those values with those of a Middle Eastern ‘other’.
Yet, a brief glance at an ancient religion – still being practised today – suggests that what many take for granted as wholesome Western ideals, beliefs and culture may in fact have Iranian roots.
Well, an excellent reading Mr. Perfect, NH, SM and Doc
Now you guys understand what HP talking about.
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How did Zoroastrian ideas find their way into the Abrahamic faiths and elsewhere ?
According to scholars, many of these concepts were introduced to the Jews of Babylon upon being liberated by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great.
They trickled into mainstream Jewish thought, and figures like Beelzebub emerged.
And after Persia’s conquests of Greek lands during the heyday of the Achaemenid Empire, Greek philosophy took a different course.
The Greeks had previously believed humans had little agency, and that their fates were at the mercy of their many gods, whom often acted according to whim and fancy.
After their acquaintance with Iranian religion and philosophy, however, they began to feel more as if they were the masters of their destinies, and that their decisions were in their own hands.
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So enamoured with Iranian culture was Voltaire that he was known in his circles as ‘Sa’di’. In the same spirit, Goethe’s West-East Divan, dedicatedto the Persian poet Hafez, featured a Zoroastrian-themed chapter, while Thomas Moore lamented the fate of Iran’s Zoroastrians in Lalla Rookh.
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