Vishtaspa
Vishtaspa (Avestan: 𐬬𐬌𐬱𐬙𐬁𐬯𐬞𐬀 Vištāspa; Old Persian: 𐎻𐏁𐎫𐎠𐎿𐎱 Vištāspa; Persian: گشتاسپ Guštāsp; Ancient Greek: Ὑστάσπης Hustáspēs) is the Avestan-language name of a figure appearing in Zoroastrian scripture and tradition, portrayed as an early follower of Zoroaster, and his patron, and instrumental in the diffusion of the prophet's message.
Although Vishtaspa is not epigraphically attested, he is – like Zoroaster – traditionally assumed to have been a historical figure, although obscured by accretions from legend and myth.
In Zoroastrian tradition, which builds on allusions found in the Avesta, Vishtaspa is a righteous king who helped propagate and defend the faith.
In the non-Zoroastrian Sistan cycle texts, Vishtaspa is a loathsome ruler of the Kayanian dynasty[1] who intentionally sends his eldest son to a certain death.
[5] In Yasht 9.30, Vishtaspa himself appeals for the ability to drive off the attacks of the daeva-worshipping Arejat.aspa and other members of drujvant Hyaona family.
[11] The Yasht 13 mentions Zairiuuairi, Piší šiiaoθna (Vishtaspa's eschatological son Pišišōtan), Spəṇtōδāta (Spandyād), Bastauuairi (Bastwar), Kauuarazman, Frašaoštra and Jāmāspa (the Huuōguua brothers in the Gathas), all of whom are featured in the Pahlavi narrative about the war between Vishtaspa and Arzāsp (Arjāsp, king of the Xiiaonas).
In Yasht 9.31, Vishtaspa prays to Druuāspā that he may successfully fight and kill various opponents and, apparently, turn Humaiiā and Varəδakanā away from the lands of the Xiiaonas.
So for example the surviving fragments of a fragmentary text that celebrates the deeds of Zairivairi, Vishtaspa's brother and captain of his forces against Arejat.aspa, chief of the Hyonas.
[9] The conversion of Vishtaspa is likewise a theme of the 9th–11th century books, and these legends remain the "best known and most current" among Zoroastrians today.
"[19] The tradition goes on to relate that Zoroaster triumphed after three days of debate, only to be maligned by his enemies to Vishtaspa, who then had the prophet imprisoned.
When these four wishes are granted, the horse stands up rejuvenated.Vishtaspa, having accepted the faith from Zoroaster, then asks for four favours in return:[22] first, that he, Vishtaspa, should know his place in the next world; secondly, that he should become invulnerable; third, that he should know the future; and fourth that his body should not leave his soul until the resurrection.
Zoroaster then gives him consecrated wine to drink, which puts Vishtaspa in a trance in which he has an epiphany; he sees his spirit ascend to heaven where it beholds the glories of God.
[n 6] Vishtaspa's conversion is traditionally said to have taken place during Zoroaster's forty-second year, "a figure undoubtedly reached by later calculation".
[8] In medieval Zoroastrian chronology, Vishtaspa is identified as a grandfather of "Ardashir", i.e. the 5th century BCE Artaxerxes I (or II).
"[25] The association of Artaxerxes with the Kayanids occurred through the identification of Artaxerxes II's title ('Mnemon' in Greek) with the name of Vishtaspa's legendary grandson and successor, Wahman: both are theophorics of Avestan Vohu Manah "Good Mind(ed)"; Middle Persian 'Wahman' is a contraction of the Avestan name, while Greek 'Mnemon' is a calque of it.
The Sassanid association of their dynasty with Vishtaspa's is a development dated to the end of the 4th century, and which "arose to some extent because this was when the Sasanians conquered Balkh, the birthplace of Vishtasp and the 'holy land' of Zoroastrianism.
According to the Sistan tradition, Goshtasb demands the throne from his father Lohrasp, but storms off to India ("Hind") when the king declines.
In the Shahnameh, the nobles upbraid Goshtasb as a disgrace to the throne; his daughters denounce him as a heinous criminal; and his younger son Bashutan (Avestan Peshotanu) condemns him as a wanton destroyer of Iran.
[11][1] As in Zoroastrian tradition, in the Sistan cycle texts Goshtasp is succeeded by Esfandiar's son, Bahman (< MP Wahman).
[n 9] Although the works attributed to Pseudo-Hystaspes draw on real Zoroastrian sources, the Greek and Roman portraits of his person are just as fanciful as those of the other two les Mages hellénisés, Pseudo-Zoroaster and Pseudo-Ostanes.
[29] While Pseudo-Zoroaster was identified as the "inventor" of astrology, and Pseudo-Ostanes was imagined to be a master sorcerer, Pseudo-Hystaspes seems to have been stereotyped as an apocalyptic prophet.
100-165 CE) in Samaria and the mid-3rd century Lactantius in North Africa – who drew on them by way of confirmation that what themselves held to be revealed truth had already been uttered.
This is duly accomplished by a young boy, "here representing, according to convention, the openness of youth and innocent to divine visitations.
The righteous implore to "Jupiter", who sends them a saviour, who will descend from heaven accompanied by angels and before him a flaming sword.
It was "presumably"[33] the prophecy of the destruction of a victorious power (i.e. the Roman Empire) that caused the work to be proscribed by Rome; according to Justin Martyr (Apologia, I.
[34][35] Unlike the works attributed to the other two les Mages hellénisés, the Oracles of Hystaspes was apparently based on the genuine Zoroastrian myths, and "the argument for ultimate magian composition is a strong one.
[...] As prophecies they have a political context, a function, and a focus which radically distinguish them from the philosophical and encyclopedic wisdom of the other pseudepigrapha.
4), which credits "the Chaldeans in the circle of Zoroaster and Hystaspes and the Egyptians" for the creation of the seven-day week after the number of planets.
The sixth century Agathias was more ambivalent, observing that it wasn't clear to him whether the name of Zoroaster's patron referred to the father of Darius or to another Hystaspes (ii.
As with the medieval Zoroastrian chronology that identifies Vishtaspa with "Ardashir" (see above), Ammianus' identification was once considered to substantiate the "traditional date" of Zoroaster.
