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Most histories meet the Persians when Cyrus takes Babylon. The sources on this site meet them much earlier. Their own tradition, as the nineteenth century read it, starts with a first man made of clay and with a last survivor of a cycle before ours. Their calendar starts close to the date Plato gives for the end of Atlantis. That is why the Persians keep appearing in my research on the flood and the ages before it, and this page brings those threads together.
Kyomarz, the clay-king
Paschal Beverly Randolph, in Pre-Adamite Man, retells the Persian account of the first man. On Kyomarz or Gil-shah:
"When all this was done, God called into existence a being named Kyomarz, or Gil-Shah; and he was the father of all the present human race—that is to say, of the Persians. ‘Gil’ means ‘clay,’ ‘Shah’ means ‘king,’ ‘Kyomurz’ means ‘First Man.’
Paschal Beverly Randolph, Pre-Adamite Man
A first man of clay is Adam under another name, and Randolph sets him at least a hundred thousand years back. The Zoroastrian version of the same figure is on Gayomart, the first mortal human being, and Randolph’s wider argument is on Pre-Adamite Man.
Mahabad and the cycles
Before Kyomarz there was another world. On Mahabad – the last survivor, Randolph again:
At the end of the great cycle that preceded the present one, the last survivor was a being named Mahabad; and he was the first lawgiver, priest and king.
Paschal Beverly Randolph, Pre-Adamite Man
Mahabad taught the primitive arts to thirteen descendants, and the world fell into corruption and was restored again and again. It is the Persian form of the idea I follow on Cyclical time in ancient legends: humanity is not on one line but on a wheel.
A calendar that starts near Atlantis
The date is what made me look twice. Andrew Tomas, on Atlantis: From Legend to Discovery:
The first year of Zoroastrian chronology is 9660 B.C. when "time began". This is very close to the date given by Egyptian priests to Solon for the doomsday of Atlantis, or 9560 B.C.
Andrew Tomas. Atlantis: From Legend to Discovery (Sphere, 1973), p. 34
Marie, Countess of Caithness, went further and placed the Persians among the heirs of Atlantis. On The Mystery of the Ages:
in the Hebrews, and possibly also the Persians, we behold tribes of ancient Atlantis, who preserved the tradition of Monotheism and Soul-Worship in greater purity
Marie, Countess of Caithness, The Mystery of the Ages (C. L. H. Wallace, 1887), p. 202
That monotheism is the religion of Ahura Mazda, the source of light and wisdom on Ormazd. Oahspe has its own prophet of that cycle on Zarathustra, mortal prophet, set around 3000 BCE.
The prince of Persia
In the Bible the Persians arrive with an unseen ruler of their own. On Archangels the messenger tells Daniel why he was late:
But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.
Daniel 10:13
A nation with a heavenly prince who can hold back an angel fits the idea, on The Bible: Blend and unify the Gods into One, that each people was assigned its own ruler among the Elohim.
The Magi
The Persians come back at the birth of Jesus. On The Magi between history and later legend, ESOTERICA starts from their real role:
Magi were the tutors of the Persian kings
ESOTERICA, Magi in history and later legend, at 20:32
And on Persian stories of the missing years of Jesus the History Guy follows Iranian texts that send Jesus east:
According to expanded Persian sources, Jesus's journey east was far more detailed than a simple passage through regions.
History Guy, An Iranian Bible and the missing years, at 1:59
Rudolf Steiner read the Magi in his own esoteric way. On Rudolf Steiner on the Three Magi he links the 6 January feast of the kings to the Egyptian festival of the finding of Osiris.
Related pages
- Kyomarz or Gil-shah
- Mahabad – the last survivor
- Gayomart, the first mortal human being
- Zoroastrianism: Ahura Mazda
- Ormazd
- Zarathustra, mortal prophet
- The Magi between history and later legend
- Persian stories of the missing years of Jesus
For every page I tagged with persian, see the persian tag archive.
