In addition, as Marjan Molé points out, we must not expect of a king the actions and formulas of priests; he does not perform a liturgy but accomplishes concrete acts; now this accomplishment is fraša, a term that expresses “what is good, what constitutes man’s happiness, what allows the king to exercise his faculties.”29 In the first inscription that Darius causes to be engraved at Naqš-i-Rustam, near Persepolis, Ahuramazdā is extolled as “a great god, who created this earth, who created yonder sky, who created man, who created happiness for man, who made Darius king, one king of many, one
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