:: Our God, who art in heaven, and who art totally the best ::

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

A passing reference to Zoroastrianism* led me to briefly review its history and tenets, during which I discovered some nicknames for Ahura Mazda, its supreme deity. Here, some are invoked in a sacred hymn:

Then Zarathushtra said: 'Reveal unto me that name of thine, O Ahura Mazda! that is the greatest, the best, the fairest, the most effective, the most fiend-smiting, the best-healing, that destroyeth best the malice of Daevas and Men;

A designer friend of mine once told me that you should never try to steer clients in a given direction by including choices that are patently inferior to those you want them to select, because inevitably the inferior will be chosen. Maybe something has been lost in the translation, but I imagine "the best" and "the most effective" were lobbed up to the naming committee to make "fiend-smiting" all the more intimidating and somehow made it through. Ahura Mazda: the best choice for fast-acting, effective salvation.

*No, not the one about Freddy Mercury having directly descended from a group of ancient Zoroastrians fleeing to India from Persia around the 8th century who still live as a tight-knit mostly-endogamous enclave to this day (the Parsis), although I do wish that reference would come up more often as it is highly awesome.

Posted by morland @ 12:41 PM

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