✡ I can’t recall her name, Copeland, Cumberland, something like that. The only other person in her faculty I can recall is the renowned Greek sexist prick whose name any one who attended BHS can recall. Beyond all that, and the vivid recollection I have of the cheep tile on the classroom floor, there was a moment when I become fascinated with Zoroaster.
There are 2 reasons for this longer term, now almost 20 year, curiosity; it was the first time I ever heard of a religion that wasn’t Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist and I had learned way way back what the NYTimes summarizes as:
Zoroastrianism predates Christianity and Islam, and many historians say it influenced those faiths and cross-fertilized Judaism as well, with its doctrines of one God, a dualistic universe of good and evil and a final day of judgment.
It is well known that the the Eastern philosophies added much to Judaism, as did Zoroastrianism. I recall reading in The Mystical Dimension by Schochet “…there is wisdom among the nations, believe it!” (Eichah Rabba 2:13), more than a few notes in my Talmud reading, and the writings of Gershom Sholem. It is impossible for people to have been trading partners and no talked about “stuff” and part of that “stuff” would have been, at times, philosophy.
What is curious is the plight of Zoroastrians, again the NYTimes, reports:
The Zoroastrians’ mobility and adaptability has contributed to their demographic crisis. They assimilate and intermarry, virtually disappearing into their adopted cultures.
…
Despite their shrinking numbers, Zoroastrians — who follow the Prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster in Greek) — are divided over whether to accept intermarried families and converts and what defines a Zoroastrian.
This sounds remarkably like the existential musing of Jews: who is a Jew, what makes a Jew, how to keep the culture alive, what is the culture, what is the religion, what are the ethics, and on and on.
But more importantly, I never noticed that Zoroaster is called Zarathustra, and never put 2 and 2 together that Nietzsche’s Zarathustra is Zoroaster. I have no idea how I missed this. Now to find the professor who taught me Nietzsche and interrogate him.