Note 432 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

In the Desátir (English translat., p. 120) the Greek philosopher is called Tútíanush. We are at a loss even to guess at the Greek to whom these names may be applied. We may however remember that St. Clement of Alexandria places Pythagoras about the 62nd Olympiad, or about 528 years B. C., and says that he was a zealous follower of Zoroaster, and had consulted the Magi. Jamblicus, in his life of Pythagoras (cap. 4) states, that this philosopher was taken prisoner by Cambyses and carried to Babylon, where, in his intercourse with the Magi, he was instructed in their modes of worship, perhaps by Zoroaster himself, if Zabratus and Nazaratus, mentioned as his instructors by Diogenes and Alexander, can be identified with the Persian prophet. Now, the long reign of Lohrasp (of 120 years) is supposed by some chronologers to comprehend the reigns of Cambyses and of Smerdis. Upon this uncertain chronological ground, Pythagoras may be placed in the times of Gushtasp, to whom, as was before said, Foucher with others assigns an epocha more remote than that of Darius Hystaspes of the Greeks. It is known that Alexander, by the conquest of Persia, accomplished, to a certain degree and for a certain time, his glorious project to connect the East with the West; an open intercourse took place between the Asiatics and the Greeks, whose language was widely spread in Asia. The Macedonian conqueror is there generally believed to have been the son of Darab (Darius), and the brother of Báhmán Isfendiar. He received, says the Desátir (p. 123), from the hands of his Persian spouse Pari-dokht Roshenak (Parysatis Roxana), “the bright daughter of the fairy,” a book of Zardusht addressed to him, and forming a part of the Desátir. Alexander ordered the Persian books to be translated into Greek, called the Nurakhi language, in the Desatir, in which is also said (p. 124): “Hence the sect of Internal Illumination will arise among the Nurakhis, as well as that of Reason.” To this passage the Commentary subjoins: “The sect of Gúshtaspians of Iran and Yunán is a medium between the Illuminated and the Rationalist. When Sekander came to Iran, he found that the Gúshtaspians of Iran were the better and wiser; and he found that they had such power that, when they pleased, they left the body, which they treated as a garment. And besides them he saw another class of men in Irán, who, by means of reason and meditation (nurnu´d) discovered the real nature of things as they actually exist; and there was no such class of men in Yunán. Having collected all their books, he translated them into the Yunáni and Rúmi tongues. He then gave his prime minister (Dostur) and teacher the title of the chief Mobéd and Sage, and made him the head of the Nirnúdis. From this time forward the sect of Rationalists prevailed among the Yunanis and Rúmis.” Alexander’s prime minister is supposed by the Asiatics to have been Aristotle; we know that this philosopher had an accurate knowledge of Zoroaster’s doctrine. Although the history, religion, and science of the Asiatics have certainly not been neglected by the inquisitive Greeks, Alexander’s companions, among whom was Callisthenes, a relation of Aristotle, yet we find in the western histories no particular notice corroborating the account just quoted of the Desátir. Unfortunately we may be more positive about the destruction of ancient monumental works in Persia by the son of Philip; it is for having burnt the Nosks that he is said by the Persians to be burning in hell (see Anquetil, vol. II. p. 338).—A. T.