in human history; few, if any, sacred writings, extant
to this day, are so naïve, simple, unsophisticated. ¹

That out of this should so quickly have developed
the religion of adepts, the Magi, in full ritual form,
famed even in distant Greece and really well under-
stood there, and, in addition, established as the royal
creed in Persia's days of splendor, may have been true;
but, if so, it is indeed singular that no note should have
been taken of how remarkable a thing this was but
that, instead, the ancient testimony is virtually unani-
mous that its origin was much earlier in human history.

It is said that Pythagoras visited Zoroaster, which
fixes his date much later, and that Plato designed to
go to the East for study with the Magi when a new war
with Persia broke out and prevented the journey. The
disciples of Prodicus, a contemporary of Socrates, are
reported to have had a copy of Zoroaster's scriptures,
the Gathas.

He was so highly esteemed by Greek and Roman
writers that, as stated, a vast number of references to
him and to his conceptions have been found in ancient
books; these have been collected with marvelous fitness
in Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran, by Profes-
sor Jackson, and in Early Zoroastrianism, by Professor
Moulton. The information concerning him has
largely reached the West within the last hundred years
in translations from the Parsi scriptures and other writ-
ings. For instance, the translation of the Gathas into
English by Moulton, which is easily the best, appeared
in print in 1913.

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