ZOROASTER is the name of the founder of the religion of the Parsees, or Fire-worshipers of Persia. His family name was Spitama. His life is completely shrouded in darkness. Both the Greek and Roman, and most of the Zend accounts about his life and works, are legendary and utterly unhistorical. The time when he lived is not certainly known. The Parsees place him at the time of Hystaspes, the father of Darius. This account would place him at about 550 B.C. Yet there is scarcely a doubt that he must have belonged to a much earlier age, not later than 1000 B.C.; possibly ne was a conemporary of Moses. It is almost certain that he was one of the fire priests, with whom the religious reform which he carried out, arose. The phases of their primeval religion are unknown, but it is fully established by recent investigation, that this, and what afterwards became the Brahmanic religion of the Hindus, were originally identical; that between the Iranians and the Aryans, who afterwards peopled Hindustan, an undying feud arose, and that to Zoroaster belongs the decisive act of separating forever the contending parties, and of establishing a new community with a new faith.
The writings of Zoroaster, together with additions and commentaries by later Zoroastrian priests, are contained in the sacred book of the Parsees, called the Zend-Avesta. These priests are the Magi of the ancient world, and are alluded to in Jeremiah, where the chief of the Magi is mentioned among Nebuchadnezzar's retinue. In the New Testament, Magi came to worship Jesus at Bethlehem. Zoroaster taught a comparatively pure religion. He believed in one God, the invisible and supreme ruler of the universe. But in accounting for the origin of evil, he assumed two primeval forces, which though different, were united, and produced the world of material things as well as that of the spirit. These were the good mind and the naught mind. To the first belong all good, true, and perfect things; to the second all that is evil. These two principles soon came to be regarded as two powers; monothesim disappeared, and a dualism of God and devil became the characteristic doctrine of Zoroastian theology. Zoroaster taught the doctrine of immortality, and the life to come. Heaven is called the "House of Hymns," a place where angels praise God incessantly in song. It is also called the "Best Life," or Paradise. Hell is called the "House of Destruction." Between heaven and hell there is the bridge of the gatherer, or Judge, over which the soul of the pious passes in safety, while the wicked are precipitated from it into hell. In these points a close parallel will be noticed between the teachings of Zoroaster, and the doctrines of Christianity. Zoroastrianism or Parseeism, was for a long period the state religion of Persia, but its power was at length broken by the advance of Islam, and its followers are now comparatively few. It early became greatly corrupted by the addition of various superstitions.