Note note 1 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

[448] The Viraf-nameh, a sort of Persian “Divina Commedia,” contains, in Pope’s translation, a description much more detailed than here, and even prolix, of Viraf’s journey in the other world. We there read of seven heavens, namely: the Hamestan, the Sitar-payah, the Mah-payah, the Khordad-payah, the Gerúshman, the Azar Róshní, and the Ana Gurra Roshní. In the last (pp. 38-39), in the centre of a building, on a throne was seated Zartusht, and by his side were standing his three sons, named Assad Avaster, Ozvar túr, and Khurshid chehár; attending on the prophet were Jemshid and other kings, among whom was Gushtasp and some sages, not without Changragácha, the converted Brahman. These seven heavens have been very ingeniously referred by M. Felix Lajard (see Mémoire sur les deux bas-reliefs mithriaques qui ont été découverts en Transylvanie, pp. 49 et seq.) to a passage which Origenes has preserved to us, from a treatise of Celsus against the Christians. This philosopher, speaking of certain mysteries among the Persians, mentions seven doors, which are of lead, tin, brass, iron, mixed metal, silver, and gold, corresponding in their order to the heavenly bodies, Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, the moon, and the sun; above the last is an eighth door, most likely the heavenly Alborz, “the region of the primordial light (see note, p. 232).” We learn from the Boun-Dehesh, the Zardúsht-nameh, and other works, that the ascension of the souls was effected through the five planets which, in the mysterious ladder of Celsus, are placed before the moon and the sun, who himself rests upon mount Alborz. M. F. Lajard makes use with great sagacity of the passage of Celsus, in support of his explanation of the mithriacal monuments which are the subjects of his learned Memoir.—A. T.