Sadwēs and Pēsūs

Mary Boyce

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00124127

Sadwēs and Pēsūs

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

Mary Boyce

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Photographs of unpublished Parthian and Sogdian manuscripts were taken recently in Berlin by Captain J. A. Dabbs, of the University of Austin, Texas, and sent by him to Professor Henning, who kindly allowed me to look through the Parthian material at once. One fragment, M 741, proved to be of considerable interest. It contains portions of two hymns, which are alphabetic and may therefore be presumed to be original work in Parthian. The device of beginning every verse with a letter of the alphabet limits each hymn to some twenty-four verses; but in this case the two hymns are connected in their subject-matter and possibly formed part of a sequence. Several hymn-cycles have been identified in Parthian and Middle Persian, but the alphabetic device is not used in any of them. The hymns in M 741 have as their subject two myths of the creation, following chronologically one upon the other. The narrative would be difficult to follow, however, without some previous knowledge of the mythology, for the handling is poetic and allusive. Words and phrases occur which can be found in other similar texts, having been taken presumably from the prose scriptures which were the authority for all later renderings of the Manichsean myths. The author could assume a general familiarity with these scriptures, and so allow himself some freedom in his retelling of the stories.

The first hymn, which contains a new Parthian name for a divinity, has for its subject the seduction of the Archontes and the descent of active evil to the earth.

Type: Articles
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , February 1951 , pp. 907 - 915

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00124127 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1951

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References

^{page 907 note 1} See F. Cumont, Recherches sur le Manichéisme, i, 54 ff.

^{page 907 note 2} E.g. Keph. 35^16–17, 80^25–29, 87^7–9, 133^12–20.

^{page 907 note 3} For a recent discussion of the identity of the star Satavaēsa see Henning, JRAS., 1942, 246 ff. In the Avesta Satavaesa is a masculine deity, but the character of gods who are identified with stars is not always very distinct. Satavaesa was, moreover, the opponent of the planet Anāhitā, and was therefore linked in religious books with that essentially female divinity. This may have led to a confusion, once all grammatical trace of gender had disappeared.

^{page 909 note 1} I owe this reference and the translation of the Sogdian to Professor Henning.

^{page 909 note 2} De Menasce, P. J., Škand Gumānīk Vičār, Fribourg, 1945, 260Google Scholar, n. to 14.

^{page 910 note 1} W. Bang, “Manichæische Hymnen,” Muséon, xxxviii, 25.

^{page 910 note 2} C. Allberry, A Manichæan Psalm-Book, ii, 2^{27 29}.

^{page 910 note 3} Polotsky, Schmidt, “Ein Mani-Fund,” Sb. Pr. Ak. W., 1933, 65.Google Scholar

^{page 910 note 4} Mir. Man., i, 198²⁶.

^{page 910 note 5} Cumont, op. cit., 42 and n. 3.

^{page 910 note 6} Mir. Man., i, 194^1–4.

^{page 911 note 1} Keph., 137^23–26.

^{page 911 note 2} Keph., 138^10–13. The whole of the first part of ch. lvi is devoted to the question of how the Abortions were able to make Man in the shape of the unseen God.

^{page 911 note 3} Presumably the Third Messenger, chief of the redeeming gods. “It” must here mean the world.

^{page 911 note 4} For brhm see Henning, Trans. Phil. Soc, 1944, 108–118.

^{page 911 note 5} For nmyzyšn see Henning, BBB., 58, on 503.

^{page 911 note 6} i.e. the Arehontes fettered in the sky. Cf. Ephraim (on the Maiden of Light): she manifested her beauty to the Archons, so that they were ravished to run after her (C. W. Mitchell, S. Ephraim's Prose Refutations, I, lxi).

^{page 912 note 1} cyhrg (or cyhr) is the word generally used for the appearance of the gods in this myth. See Mir. Man., i, 196²² (of the Third Messenger), 198²⁶ (of the female divinity), Mir. Man., iii, n 30 (of both), cyhrg is also used for the form assumed by Christ upon earth (see Henning, Trans. Phil. Soc, 1944, 112).

^{page 912 note 2} The Demon presumably typifies the chained Archontes, spoken of in the plural in (2) (a).

^{page 912 note 3} The translation is doubtful.

^{page 912 note 4} The groaning of the demons comes to our ears as thunder; see Ephraim, transl. Kessler, Mani, 300.

^{page 912 note 5} Cf. Augustine, De nat. boni, Ch. 44 (Baur, 216): Id vero, quod adhuc adversi generis maculas portat,… descendit, atque arboribus ceterisque plantationibus ac satis omnibus miscetur …

^{page 912 note 6} This reading was suggested by Professor Henning, who refers to Pahl. (Gr. Bd. 43⁶) = free from, empty of, construed with az (on which, differently, Bailey, Zor. Problems, 83, n. 3).

^{page 912 note 7} gr'b = womb <*grāb(h)a-, cf. Skt. garbha-, Av. ganwa-, Pahl. (gavr). Cf. W.-L., i, 116², ’c ’sm’ n ’wd zmyg gr'b … Mir. Man., i, 177¹⁰, gbr ‘y zmyg; and Keph., 177²⁹, Gebärmütter aller Erden (Henning).

^{page 912 note 8} The abstract form of this word has not hitherto been recorded. For the meaning of the adj. see Henning, Trans. Phil. Soc, 1944, 111. The 'šmg represents in this verse the active spirit of Hyle, which now abandons the fettered Archontes to inhabit the earth.

^{page 913 note 1} According to general practice the alphabetical series finishes with the letter n. The final verse may be in praise of a divinity, possibly the Third Messenger.

^{page 913 note 2} This introductory verse is outside the alphabetical scheme. The second hymn begins properly with 10 (a).

^{page 913 note 3} It is interesting to find the ordinary verb of knowing used here for religious gnosticism.

^{page 913 note 4} i.e. the four elements of Greek philosophy (fire, aīr, water, earth) with the addition of plants and animals (Henning).

^{page 913 note 5} The meaning of prg’c- has been guessed from this passage. If it is correct, Professor Henning compares Sogd. prlc’š “incarceration” (SCE., 33, P 7, 42, 64) with the verb Man. prkšt-, prqyš-, Buddh. prk’yšt’yt, P 6, 151 (BSOAS., xi, 735), “to imprison,” see BBB., 96 on 674, and as regards the finals refers to Parth. ’gwc: Pers. aγōš, and Sogd. ākuγd-, ākōč- “suspend”: Pahl., Man. M. Pers. āgustan < *ākuštan (the discrepancy is found only in syllables that begin with k- and is therefore probably due to assimilation or dissimilation).

^{page 914 note 1} wf- = “to weave” (vab(h)) is not otherwise recorded in Parthian. In Sal. Man. St. wf- = “to spit” (vam). The reference here is elearly to the linking of Man to the demons and stars in the sky. Cf. Mir. Man., i, 196^24–27 also the Sogd. text M 178, 124 (BSOAS., xii, 312. and 313, n. 8). In the latter also the verb “to weave” (w’f-) is used.

^{page 914 note 2} Cf. Mir. Man., i, 200^10–12. There the watch is apparently set by Šaklōn (’wy ’sryštr’n s’r’r).

^{page 914 note 3} i.e. the particles of Light were shut into the human body with evil desires. Cf. Mir. Man., i, 196^1–16; ii, 300^1–3.

^{page 914 note 4} Professor Henning suggests that wēw (< Av. vayu-) wigānag may be the dark element opposed to ardāw frawardīn, i.e. the dark “ether”. Three of the dark elements are named in the M. Pers. text S13 V4–6 (Henning, NGGW. 1932, 216, and n. 5); other lists are cited by Polotsky, Pauly-Wiss., Suppl. vi, 249a; but no comprehensive list is known for Parthian. (Pahl. = breath has been read as wēn by Bailey, BSOS., vii, 1933, 83–4; but connected with vayu- by Nyberg, J.A., 1929, i, 302).

^{page 914 note 5} Phrases such as “Hyle and her sons” occur frequently in the Coptic psalms (e.g. Allberry, op. cit., 54¹⁷, 108²⁴). The meaning of the last line of this verse is obscure.

^{page 915 note 1} wišān- “shake out”, from Šan- “shake” (Henning); on related words see Bailey, BSOS., vii, 777. Cf. M 30, 62, hyrzyd dyw’n t’r prm’ng pzdyd wyšnyd ‘z (sic) gryw wxyby “abandon the demons’ dark thoughts, drive them away, shake them out from your minds”.

^{page 915 note 2} i.e. the Family of Light. For the phrase Iwg… ywzy cf. Mir. Man., iii, m 26: ywzy zmyg ‘wt ‘sm'n (also addressed to Narisaf Yazd).

^{page 915 note 3} ptbg occurs in a number of Parthian hymns and has been translated by Professor Henning as “splendour” (as from *patitapaka-), a meaning which appears to satisfy each context. The word must therefore be distinct from that represented by Hebr. patbāg (see Lagarde, Ges. Abh. 73).

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