Text
Avesta, Vendidad, Fargard 2:
‘I, Ahura Mazdā, told him: ‘Well, fair Yima, son of Vīvahvant, be you the preacher and the bearer of my law.’ And the fair Yima, O Zarathustra, replied to me, saying: ‘I was not born, I was not taught to be the preacher and the bearer of your law.’ Then I, Ahura Mazdā, said thus to him, O Zarathustra: ‘Since you want not to be the preacher and the bearer of my law, make my worlds thrive, make my worlds increase, undertake to nourish, to rule, and to watch over my world.’ And then the fair Yima replied to me, O Zarathustra, saying: ‘Yes, I will make your worlds increase, I will nourish and rule and watch over your world. There shall be, while I am king, neither cold wind not hot wind, neither disease nor death.’ Then I, Ahura Mazdā, brought two implements unto him: a golden arrow and a whip adorned with gold. Behold, here Yima bears the royal sway!
Thus, under the sway of Yima, three hundred winters passed away, and the earth was filled with small animals and big animals, with men and dogs and birds and with red blazing fires, and there was no more room for small animals and big animals and men. Then I warned the fair Yima, saying: ‘O fair Yima, son of Vīvahvant, the earth has become full of small animals and big animals, of men and dogs and birds and of red blazing fires, and there is no more room for small animals, big animals and men.’ Then Yima stepped forward, towards the luminous space, southwards, to meet the sun, and he rent the earth with the golden arrow, and lashed it with the whip, speaking thus: ‘O Spənta Ārmaiti, kindly open asunder and stretch yourself afar, to bear small animals and big animals and men.’ And Yima made the earth grow larger by one-third than it was before, and there came small animals and big animals and men, at his will and wish, as many as he wished. Thus, under the sway of Yima, six hundred winters passed away, and the earth was filled with small animals and big animals, with men and dogs and birds and with red blazing fires. Then I warned the fair Yima, saying: ‘O fair Yima, son of Vīvahvant, the earth has become full … (Yima enlarges the earth in the second time by two-thirds, after which the population continues to multiply and after 900 years Yima made the earth still larger, this time by three-thirds.)
Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Avesta, Vendidad, Fargard 2
Bibliography
| Dalley 1998, 172 | Dalley, Stephanie. “The Sassanian Period and Early Islam.” In: S. Dalley (ed.). The Legacy of Mesopotamia. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998, 163-181. |
Amar Annus
URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001163.php
|
