On the Calamities That Have Befallen Iran, Millennium by Millennium

Chapter 33 describes the events that occurred and will occur in each millennium from creation to the coming of the final savior, Sōšāns. While the first two millennia, covering creation and the thousand-year-long misrule of Dahāg, are passed over quickly, the following sections concisely recount the exploits of the central characters of Iranian myth. The next section lists a series of prophecies. Finally, the chapter turns to the end of days and the coming of three saviors, all of whom are posthumous sons of the prophet Zoroaster.

On the Glorious Kayanid Palaces, Which They Call Wonders and Marvels

Chapter 32 presents a list of the marvelous palaces built by Iranian heroes and their enemies, several of which are also mentioned elsewhere in Middle Persian literature and in the Avesta.

On the Celebrated Lands of Iran and the Kayanid HouseOn the Celebrated Lands of Iran and the Kayanid House

Chapter 31 describes the sixteen lands of Iran and the adversary that Ahriman sent against each one. The Bundahišn’s list is modeled on the first chapter of the Vidēvdād, which describes Ērānwēz and fifteen adjacent countries, most of which are located in today’s northeastern Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. As is often the case in Sasanian reimaginings of Avestan geography, the chapter reascribes originally eastern toponyms to the southwestern districts that were the heartland of the Sasanian Empire as a form of mythic relocation.

On Various Things: How They Were Created and How Their Adversaries Came

Chapter 24 discusses the mythical creatures that play a role in the earthly battle against evil animals and in Zoroastrian eschatology. Among others, the chapter devotes a lengthy discussion to the three-legged donkey and its function in rainmaking. However, in this and other cases, though the donkey and other creatures are mentioned already in the Zoroastrian sacred scripture, the Avesta, their mythic function remains obscure. The second part of the chapter lists which good animals oppose which evil creations and demons.

On the Nature of Vermin

Chapter 22 is devoted to xrafstar, the evil animals created by Ahriman in dualistic opposition to Ohrmazd’s animal creation. Like the discussion of Ohrmazd’s animal creation in chapter 13, this chapter, too, classifies Ahrimanic vermin. Reptiles—in particular serpents—insects, and mythological animals are divided into aquatic, terrestrial, and flying categories. Wolves, a separate category of evil animals, are discussed in chapter 23.

On the Nature of Sleep

Chapters 19 and 19A contain a short description of the nature and function of sleep (xwāb). The chapters describe the creation of sleep and its appearance. They also proscribe the proper length of sleep as three or four recitations of one of the central Zoroastrian prayers.

On the Nature of the Five Forms of Animals

Chapter 13 focuses on zoology and the taxonomy of animals. The chapter organizes animals into three kingdoms: grazing animals, mountain animals, and burrowing and aquatic animals. The chapter also describes the various species of plants that grew out of the body of the primordial cow and the 282 species of animals created from the cow’s seed, which was entrusted to the moon for safekeeping. The remainder of the chapter concerns important natural and supernatural animals and dogs and describes how animals spread over the world’s seven continents.

On the Stages of the Battle of Material Creation against the Evil Spirit

This chapter describes the response of the good creations to the onslaught of evil. Particularly interesting are the myth describing the role of the star Sirius in ensuring rainfall and the horoscope of the first man, Gayōmard, which provides an astrological explanation of his life and death.

Afterword

The Bundahišn was redacted after the end of the Sasanian Empire, at a time when Zoroastrians were adapting to their new, fragile situation as a tolerated minority under Islamic rule. Like most other Pahlavi literary texts, however, much of its contents reflects older conceptions, and it often presents theological and mythological traditions from the ancient past. A major question confronting scholars of ancient Iranian literature concerns the dating of these traditions, all the more so as this literature had been preserved orally for centuries before being committed to writing. It is often extremely difficult, or altogether impossible, to disentangle older layers from later accretions. Just like religious beliefs and practices, indeed like language itself, myths never remain static but constantly evolve, driven by an inner logic of development and under the impact of foreign traditions with which they are in contact....

On the Family and Lineage of the Kayanids

Chapters 35 and 35A provide genealogies of the epic and the religious heroes of the Iranian tradition, as well as the priestly families of the mowbeds. The second part of the chapter deals with the genealogy of the prophet Zoroaster. It describes the prophet’s ancestry, as well as the names of his historical sons and daughters.