Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

youth of fifteen years. The evil created by the demons did not cross the boundaries of
Yima's world (The Younger Yasna, ch. 9). 22
Yima was the favorite of Ahura Mazda, the highest god. Still he had a will of his
own. The first mortal with whom Ahura Mazda talked was Yima, and he taught him the
true faith, and desired that Yima should spread it among the mortals. But Yima answered:
"I was not born, I was not taught to be the preacher and the bearer of thy law" (Vendidad,
Fargard 2, I, 3 ). 23 [In this manner, it is explained why the true doctrine did not become
known among men before the reformer Zarathustra came, and why Yima, the possessor
of the mead of inspiration, nevertheless, was in possession of the true wisdom.]
It is mentioned (in Gôsh Yahst and Râm Yasht) 24 that Yima held two beings in
honor, which did not belong to Ahura Mazda's celestial circle, but were regarded as
worthy of worship. These two were:
1. The cow (Gosh), that lived in the beginning of time, and whose blood, when
she was slain, fertilized the earth with the seed of life.
2. Vajush, the heavenly breeze. He is identical with the ruler of the air and wind
in Rigveda, the mighty god Vâyu-Vâta.
In regard to the origin and purpose of the kingdom ruled by Yima, in which
neither frost nor drought, nor aging nor death, nor moral evil, can enter, Vendidad relates
the following: 25
Zend-Avesta.
Fargard 2, I
21. The Maker Ahura Mazda, of high renown in the Airyana Vaejo, by the good
river Daitya; called together a meeting of the celestial gods…
To that meeting came the fair Yima, the good shepherd of high renown in
the Airyana Vaejo, by the good river Daitya; he came together with the best of the
mortals.
22 Yasna, ch. 9, verse 5. "In the reign of Yima, swift of motion, was there neither cold nor heat, there was
neither age nor death, nor envy demon-made. Like fifteen yearlings walked the two forth, son and father, in
their stature and their form, so long as Yima, son of Vivanghvant ruled, he of the many herds!" L.H. Mills
translation.
23 I have chosen to follow a direct translation of the passage rather than a passage translated from Zend into
English, into Swedish, and back into English. This passage, and those hereafter are from The Sacred Books
of the East, edited by F. Max Müller, The Zend-Avesta in 3 volumes, translated by James Darmesteter and
L.H. Mills; vol. 4 The Zend-Avesta part 1, the Vendidad Oxford University Press, 1887.
The Zend-Avesta consists of the Avesta and its later commentary, known as the Zend, written in a
different language. Together, they form the basis of the Zorastrian religion, whose chief deity is Ahura
Mazda. The Avesta proper, written in the Zend language, is a collection of fragments of an older Iranian
religious document, largely lost during a war with Alexander the Great. It contains the Vendidad, the
Viserad, and the Yasna, each generally accompanied by its later Pahvali translation.
24
The Yashts are found in the Khorda Avesta, The Book of Common Prayer.
25 Rydberg only provided the outlines of the contents here from the interpretation found in Haug-West's
Essays on the Sacred Language of the Parsis (London, 1878). I have supplemented the text with passages
from Darmesteter's translation to give a more vivid description of Yima's garden, which springs from the
same soil as Mimir's grove in our mythology. Where the translations deviate, I have followed the sense of
the Haug-West translation.