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ἀγάλματα κτλ. This passage is accurate in the general sense; there were no cult-statues in Persia (but v. i.), and the Persians worshipped in the open air; Dinon, a fourth-century writer (fr. 9, F. H. G. ii. 91), affirms this, adding θεῶν ἀγάλματα μόνα τὸ πῦρ καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ νομίζοντες, They had, however, huge altars on the hill-tops (cf. Maspero, iii. 591, for picture of those at Nakhsh-I-Roustem), and there were others in temples (cf. further in App. VIII, § 4), on which the everburning fire was maintained. H. here gives the strict theory of the religion, but there were inconsistencies in practice. For a similar belief and a similar inconsistency in Germany cf. Tac. Germ. c. 9 contrasted with cc. 7, 40; we might add that there is a similar reasonable inconsistency in Christianity. H. is on the whole confirmed by the usage of the Parsees, among whom the word for fire-temple (Dâdgâh) seems to mean also the place for any object (e.g. for the dead or the dog). Spiegel, Avesta, vol. ii, p. lxiv (1859).

ἀνθρωποφυέας. Ormazd (cf. figs. in Maspero, iii. 577, 681) is represented e.g. on B. I. as a form, human to the waist, proceeding from the winged disk, the symbol of eternity and omnipresence; this was borrowed from Assyria (cf. 135. 1), which perhaps had in turn borrowed it from the winged sun-orb of Egypt.

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