The Words of Zarathushtra Himself

The Gathas are the oldest and most sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, seventeen hymns traditionally ascribed to the prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) and widely accepted by scholars as very likely his own composition, which would make them among the oldest religious poetry of any living faith. They are written in Old Avestan, a language markedly more archaic than the rest of the Avesta and closely akin to the Sanskrit of the Rig Veda, and their great age makes them famously difficult to translate. They are not narrative but intense, personal, often questioning hymns addressed to Ahura Mazda, the "Wise Lord," setting out the core of Zoroastrian thought: the supremacy of the one wise God, the cosmic opposition of truth and order (asha) to falsehood and disorder (druj), the moral responsibility and free choice of each person, and a coming judgement. Preserved by being embedded within the Yasna liturgy and transmitted orally by priests for many centuries before being written down, the Gathas are the theological bedrock on which the whole later tradition rests.