Likewise in the moral
world life, purity, truth, work are good things and come from Ormuzd;
death, filth, falsehood, idleness are bad, and issue from Ahriman.
=Worship.=--From these notions proceed worship and morality. Man ought
to adore the good god[31] and fight for him. According to Herodotus,
"The Persians are not accustomed to erect statues, temples, or altars
to their gods; they esteem those who do this as lacking in sense for
they do not believe, as the Greeks do, that the gods have human
forms."[32] Ormuzd manifests himself only under the form of fire or
the sun. This is why the Persians perform their worship in the open
air on the mountains, before a lighted fire. To worship Ormuzd they
sing hymns to his praise and sacrifice animals in his honor.
=Morality.=--Man fights for Ormuzd in aiding his efforts and in
overcoming Ahriman's. He wars against darkness in supplying the fire
with dry wood and perfumes; against the desert in tilling the soil and
in building houses; against the animals of Ahriman in killing
serpents, lizards, parasites, and beasts of prey. He battles against
impurity in keeping himself clean, in banishing from himself
everything that is dead, especially the nails and hair, for "where
hairs and clipped nails are, demons and unclean animals assemble.
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