3. JMif/ioii. — The ancient religion of the Medes must undoubtedly have been that simple creed which is placed before us in the earlier portions of the Zcndavesta. Its peculiar cliaracteristic was Dualism, the belief in the existence of two opposite principles of good and evil, nearly if not quite on a par with one another. Ormazd and Ahriman were both self-caused and self-existent, both indestructible, both potent to work their will — their warfare had been from all eternity, and would con- tinue to all eternity, though on the whole the struggle was to the disadvantage of the Prince of Darkness. Or- mazd was the (lod of the Arians, the object of their worship and trust; Ahriman was their enemy, an object of fear and abhorrence, but not of any religious rite. Besides Ormazd, the Arians worshipped the sun and moon, under the names of Mithra and Homa; and they believed in the existence of numerous si)irits or genii, some good, some bad, the subjects and ministers respec- tively of the two powers of Good and Evil. Their cult was simple, consisting in processions, religious chants and hymns, and a few plain offerings, expressions of devotion and thankfulness. Such was the worship and such the belief which the whole Arian race brought with them from the remote east when they migrated westward. Their migration brought them into contact with the fire-worshippers of Armenia and Mount Zagros, among wliom Magism had been established from a re- mote antiquity. The result was either a combination of the two religions, or in some cases an actual conver- sion of the conquerors to the faith and worship of the conquered. So far as can be gathered from the scanty materials in our possession, the latter was the case with the Medes. While in Persia the true Arian creed main- tained itself, at least to the time of Darius Ilystaspis, in tolerable purity, in the neighboring kingdom of !^ledia it was early swallowed up in iMagism, which was prob- ably established by Cyaxares or his successor as the re- ligion of the state. The essence of Magism was the worship of the elements, tire, water, air, and earth, with a special preference of fire to the remainder. Temjiles were not allowed, but fire-altars were maintained on va- rious sacred sites, generally mountain-tops, where sacri- fices were continually offered, and the fiame was never suffered to go out. A hierarcliy naturally followed, to perform these constant rites, and the magi became rec- ognised as a sacred caste entitled to the veneration of the faithful. They claimed in many cases a power of divining the future, and practiced largely those occult arts which are still called by their name in most of the languages of modern Europe. The fear of polluting the elements gave rise to a number of curious superstitions among the professors of the Jlagian religion (Herod, i, 1.38) ; among the rest to the strange practice of neither burying nor burning their dead, but exjiosing them to be devoured by beasts or birds of prey (Ilerod. i. 110; Strabo, xv, 3, § 20). This custom is still observed by their representatives, the modern Parsecs. See Khode, Jhil. ^(iffc der Baktr. Medcr vnd Perser, p. 820; ylbhil- dunqen cms der Mythol. der A Iten Welt ; Pers. Med. plate 10,11.
4. The language of the ancient ISIedes was not con- nected with the Shemitic, but with the Indian, and di-
vided itself into two chief branches, the Zend, spoken in North Media, and the Pehlvi, spoken in Lower Media and Parthia, which last was the dominant tongue among the Parthians (Adelung, Milhridates, i, 25G sq. ; Eich- horn, Gesc/i. der Lit. v, ], 294 sq.).
5. References to (he Medes in Scripture. — The refer- ences to the Medes in the canonical Scriptures are not very numerous, but they are striking. We first hear of certain '■ cities of the Medes," in wliich the captive Is- raelites were placed by " the king of Assyria" on the de- struction of Samaria, B.C. 721 (2 Kings xvii, 6; xviii, 11). This implies the subjection of ^ledia to Assyria at the time of Shalmaneser, or of Sargon, his successor, and accords (as Ave liave shown) very closely with the ac- count given by the latter of certain milit.irj- colonies which he planted in the Median country. Soon after- wards Isaiah proidiesies the part which the Jledes should take in the destruction of Babylon (Isa. xiii,17; xxi,2), and this is again still more distinctly declared by Jere- miah (li, 11 and 28), who sufficiently indicates the inde- pendence of Media in his day (xxv, 25). Daniel re- lates, as a historian, the fact of the Medo-Persic con- quest (v, 28, 31), giving an account of the reign of Da- rius the Mede, who appears to have been made viceroy by Cyrus (vi, 1-28). In Ezra we have a mention of Achmetha (Ecbatana), " the palace in the province of the jMedes," where the decree of Cyrus was found (vi, 2-5) — a notice which accords with the known facts that the Median capital was the seat of government under Cyrus, but a royal residence only and not the seat of government under Darius Ilystaspis. Finally, in Es- ther, the high rank of ;Media under the Persian kings is marked by the frequent combination of the two names in phrases of honor.