Guided Reading for The Western Traditions.

Find the answer to each of these questions as it is given in the textbook before moving on to the next question. Some answers, drawn from the textbook alone, will be rather simplistic. They can, and should, be elaborated upon as your knowledge of the subject grows.

The symbol (*) after a question indicates that these might be used for longer essays in your quizzes.

Pages 159 - 173:

  1. Who is Ahura Mazda?

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  2. How many Zoroastrians are there in the world today?

    3.  

  3. Why is Zoroastrianism counted among the great religions? (*)

    4.  

  4. What is a Zartoshti?

    5.  

  5. What are Parsis?

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  6. In what three main cultural eras can Zoroastrianism be usefully thought to have existed?

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  7. What four features of Zoroastrianism are of particular interest? (*)

    8.  

  8. What are the Gathas?

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  9. Why do the Gathas stand out from the rest of the Avesta?

    10.  

  10. What can we say with assurance about the dating of Zoroaster?

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  11. How did the Indo-Iranians refer to themselves? What did this come to mean in each context?

    12.  

  12. Why does it not follow that people who speak the same language are descended from a common ancestry and have the same culture?

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  13. What do we find when we look at the Hindu Vedas and compare them with the hymns of the Avesta?

    14.  

  14. What is the role of Mithra in both the Vedas and the Avesta?

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  15. What three scripts were used for Persian languages?

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  16. What are the dates of the Achaemenian (or Achaemenid), Parthian, and Sasanian (or Sasanid) eras?

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  17. Who are Angra Mainyu and Ahriman?

    18.  

  18. What are the principle extant parts of the Avestan literature?

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  19. What happened at Marathon in 490 B.C.E. and at Salamis in 480 B.C.E.?

    20.  

  20. What was the Achaemenian policy regarding local religious allegiances? (*)

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  21. What does the study of Zoroastrianism inevitably entail?

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  22. What do we know of the Achaemenian relationship with Zoroaster?

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  23. How does the classical portrayal of Zoroaster differ from the understanding of him as a "prophet?"

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  24. According to Zoroastrians, Zoroaster is the world’s ______ prophet.

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  25. If one is to maintain that the ethical ideas of the Gathas developed later than the ritual content of the Avesta what has one to account for? How might one account for this? (*)

    26.  

  26. Why is the historical dating of Zoroaster important to the contemporary faith?