The reaction soon made itself felt, and the prophet had to flee. “To what land shall I flee?” he exclaims. “Where flee, where go? I am separated from my tribe and my family; neither the village nor the wicked chiefs of the land are favorable to me” (Yasna 46. 1). He took refuge with Vishtaspa, chief of the Fryāna tribe, whom he succeeded in converting, and who became his friend and protector (46. 14; 15. 16). Yet the resistance did not weaken, and in the gāthās Zarathustra publicly denounces some of his personal enemies: Bandva, who “is always the chief obstacle” (49. 1–2), and “the little
...more
