MAGIAN Spersonification of Infinite Time and the father of the twin personifi-
cations of good and evil, Ohrmazd and Ahriman. It was a mythol-
ogized form of speculation on the nature of time and on how good
and evil work in a temporal framework. There are traces of the Zur-
vanite myth in the Sasanian period, but later Mazdaean doctrine tended
to subordinate Zurvan to Ohrmazd and made Zurvan the principle
behind the motion of the celestial sphere after Ohrmazd had created
it.^62
The definition of time in terms of astral motion made Zurvanism a
form of Magian astrological fatalism that was very close to Babylonian
astrology and was probably influenced by it. Zurvan was a fourfold
god of the starry firmament. In the sixth-century Menok-i Khrat, Zur-
van is explicitly identified as the foreordained, inexorable destiny (M.P.
breh) and as time (M.P. zamiinak), which determine what happens in
the world. As such, Zurvan was the source of the allotted fortune
(M.P. bakht) of each person.^63 The twelve signs of the zodiac were
agents of Ohrmazd and brought good fortune; the seven planets were
agents of Ahriman and brought evil fortune. Fate not only controlled
welfare and adversity but also determined a person's character.^64 This
mechanistic, impersonal version of astral fatalism in the Menok-i Khrat
tended to become personalized in later Zoroastrian literature, which
regards the bright stars as the just divine beings (yazdiin) of destiny
that oppose and check the influence of the dark, malicious, demonic
planets. But this personified version of astral fatalism may be much
older, since it contains a form of the ancient Babylonian myth of the
binding of the demons as planets in the heavens.^65
Since fate depended on the stars, it was predictable. The desire to
foretell what had been foreordained was responsible for the intro-
duction and development of the Hellenistic tradition of scientific as-
trology under the Sasimians. The first-century work of Dorotheus of
Sidon on casting horoscopes, as well as other Greek and Sanskrit texts,
62 Boyce, "Reflections on Zurvanism," pp. 304, 306, 308, 310; Casartelli, Philosophy,
p. 8; Duchesne-Guillemin, "The Religion of Ancient Iran," p. 349; Zaehner, Dawn and
Twilight, p. 194.
63 Bailey, Zoroastrian Problems, pp. 34-35,38; Boyce, "Reflections of Zurvanism,"
p. 304; Casartelli, Philosophy, pp. 6-7; Zaehner, Zurvan, pp. 19-20.
64 Duchesne-Guillemin, "Religion of Ancient Iran," p. 349; Zaehner, Dawn and
Twilight, pp. 205-6, 238.
65 B. N. Dhabhar, The Persian Rivayats of Hormazyar Framarz (Bombay, 1932), pp.
277, 429-31; K. M. Jamasp-Asa, "Emet I Asavahistan," Kuru! Memorial Volume
(Bombay, 1974), pp. 39-41, 173-76; E. W. West, Shikand Gumanfk Vijar (Bombay,
1887), p. x.