Early Zoroastrian Worship
No Temples or Altars. Worshiping on High Places
Open Air Fire Platform
(also thought to be
ossuaries)
at
Naqsh-e-Rustam, Iran
Reign of Darius 522-486 BCE
Greek historian and visitor to ancient Persia,
Herodotus, described (c. 430 BCE) the worship customs of the Persian Zoroastrians of his day as follows: "The customs which I know the Persians to observe are the following: they have no images of the gods (a Greek manner of speaking), no temples nor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly. This comes, I think, from their not believing the gods to have the same nature with men, as the Greeks imagine. Their wont, however, is to ascend the summits of the loftiest mountains..."
In addition to Herodotus' observations, there is evidence of early western (Persian and Median) open air places of worship in the higher reaches of the foothills of the Zagros and Bakhtiyari mountains (the western mountains of Iran, adjacent to the present Iran-Iraq border) dated to a few hundred years before Herodotus. Staircases led up to the terraces that had a podium on which fire containers were built or fire urns placed.
In the eastern (and perhaps original) regions of the Zoroastrian homeland, there are older (3,000 BCE?) outdoor worship sites in Tajikistan.
Outdoor Zoroastrian worship platform
overlooking Vrang village & Panj (Amu Darya) River,
Tajikistan - 3000 BCE (?)
In his epic, the
Shahnameh, Ferdowsi states that legendary King Jamshid created four professional guilds of which the priesthood was the first. The Shahnameh goes on to state that King Jamshid:
"... separated the priesthood from other folk
and made its place of service in the mountains,
that God be adored in quietude."
Strabo, a Greek writer from the first century ACE, confirms the observations of Herodotus and other writers that "the Persians do not erect statues or altars, but 'offer sacrifice' (worship) on a high place," and that the worship ceremonies were officiated by the
Magi, (the legendary Zoroastrian priests discussed further in the
Priesthood Page).
Despite this early tradition, Zoroastrians did later develop the concept of worshipping in temples.
4th century CE, Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus makes the following observations in his
Rerum gestarum libri 23.6.31-32: "They have also as many cities as Media, and villages as strongly built as towns in other countries, inhabited by large bodies of citizens. In short, it is the richest residence of the kings. In these districts the lands of the Magi are fertile; and it may be as well to give a short account of that sect and their studies, since we have occasion to mention their name. Plato (our note: at Ax. 371D; Isoc. II.28, 227A), that most learned deliverer of wise opinions, teaches us that Magiæ (Magism) is by a mystic name
Machagistia (Mazdayasni? If so, one of the few Western references to this name), that is to say, the purest worship of divine beings (cf. Pak Yazdan, the purest Divinity)."
Cheers, Doc