Essay on the Sacred Fire and on the Vestals

From this come their hurried judgments and the fables with which they have sown their writings. Could men who worshiped physical Gods, and who had no idea of spirituality, find it anywhere else? The high opinion they held of themselves, and the general contempt they felt for all other nations, did not allow them to think that wise customs existed beyond the borders of Greece; if they perceived any, they turned their eyes away. They preferred to fill their writings with what they invented rather than what they saw; thus, they have given us many romances in place of history.

They called the Persians cultores elementorum Latin: "worshipers of the elements". By examining the conduct of modern Persians and their customs, which they evidently received from their ancestors, one sees that this accusation is entirely unfounded. They regard the Elements as the seed of all Beings; consequently, they apply themselves to preserving them from defilement. Their attention is principally focused on Fire and Water; in the former, they revere the Divinity, while the latter serves their purifications. Nothing is more ancient than this practice; the purity of the body is the emblem of that of the soul. The diseases caused by uncleanness made the peoples living in hot climates feel the necessity of frequent ablutions early on; a religious principle later mingled with this political institution; it became more sacred. The

Magi The priestly caste of ancient Persia could not approach the Pyreia Fire temples or altars where the sacred fire was kept without this preparation.

The monuments remaining from the ancient Persians often present statues of Princes prostrate before the Sun and Fire; it has been concluded from this that they worshiped them. But is it not natural, when one wishes to depict a man engaged in exercises of piety, to place him in the posture he usually assumes when he prays? One also objects to the representations of the Sun, the Planets, etc., which were formerly found in that country, and of which remains are still seen. These figures could, it is true, later become objects of idolatrous worship among the Peoples of the East; but is it unreasonable to think that the Magi regarded these representations only as symbolic images of the true system of the Universe? It is known that they were astronomers as well as the Chaldeans Ancient people of Mesopotamia famous for their astrological and astronomical knowledge. This natural explanation presented itself at first glance, yet withering ones were preferred.

The Persians have sometimes varied in their ideas about the Sun; some regarded it as the throne of God, others as Paradise, and the majority as the emblem of the Divinity; none imagined that Mithra The Persian deity associated with light and covenants was a God unto himself; their prayers, addressed to this Star, began and ended with the praises of the Being it represented. When the Magi prepared to go to the Fire Temple, they purified themselves; they then dressed in garments...