Pahlavi kirrenidan: traces of Iranian creation mythology.

• Author: Lincoln, Bruce

The occurrences of this etymon are examined for the light they throw on the Iranian mythologies of creation.

Pahlavi contrasts two of the verbs it uses for acts of creation along familiar dualistic lines. The ahuric term, brehenidan, replaces Avestan da- and means "to create," "to destine," and "to decree."(1) Generally, it implies that creation takes place by divine fiat, for which no prior material or spiritual being is necessary, save only Ohrmazd himself.(2) In similar fashion, the daevic term, kirrenidan carries two different senses.(3) The first of these implies the preexistence of material substance, and conforms to the semantics of its cognates throughout the Indo-European family: Sanskrit krt-, krntati, "cut, split, rend"; Homeric [Greek Text Omitted], "shear, clip, cut short (esp. hair)"; Old Norse skera "cut, slaughter, carve"; Old High German scrinden "divide, split up"; Russian [Greek Text Omitted], [Greek Text Omitted] "cut out (esp. cloth)"; and Old Irish scara(im) "separate, remove, cut off."(4) The verb's second semantic domain is unique to Iran, where it also denotes acts through which the Evil Spirit brought loathsome, destructive entities into the world as antagonistic counterparts to Ohrmazd's good creation.

When he saw the light of Ohrmazd, intangible and shining forth, due to his envious nature and desire to smite, [the Evil Spirit] made an attack to destroy it. Then he saw bravery and triumph that were greater than his own, and he scurried back to the darkness. He (mis-)created [kirrenid] many demons, a creation of destruction that was needed for battle. (GBd 1.16-17)(5)

Out of material darkness, which is his own body, the Evil Spirit (mis-)created [kirrenid] his creation in the form of blackness, the color of ashes, worthy of darkness, false like the most evil-bringing vermin. (GBd 1.47)(6)

The Evil Spirit, in the quality of the adversary, among the chief demons (mis-)created [kirrenid] first Akoman, then Indra, Saurva, Nahaithya, Taromand, Taric and Zaric, then the other demons. (GBd 1.55)(7)

Since Yima withstood terror, distress, and trouble, for that reason his soul is worshiped and invoked for resistance to demon-created (dewan-fraz-kirrenid) drought antithetical to the pasture and terror and trouble that moves in secrecy. (ZS 32.2)(8)

In the Avesta, the verb kart-, from which kirrenidan is derived, usually denotes simple acts of cutting.(9) On one occasion, however, it describes an act of demonic creation, when Azi Dahaka is named "the very most powerful lie the Evil Spirit created (kerentat) against the embodied creation, for the destruction of the creations of truth."(10)

Here, as in the case of Avestan tas and ??-,(11) an Iranian verb most concretely associated with acts of scission expands its semantic range into the field of creative action, a development that presumes a view of creation as a cutting of sorts: conceivably an artisanal, sculptural, surgical, martial, or sacrificial act. Vedic evidence could support the last two of these alternatives, since the verb krt- is twice used for heroic deeds with cosmogonic aspects, and once for the dismemberment of animals.(12) The latter occurrence holds particular interest.

What dereliction, O Agni, what fault did you commit among the gods? Now, I unknowing, ask you.

In order to eat, the golden, toothless one - playing and not-playing - cut apart [vi . . . cakarta] [the wood] limb by limb, just as a knife [cuts apart] the ox.(13)

Here, it is worth noting that the kind of knife specified - Vedic asi-, cognate to Latin ensis, "sword"(14) is not usually a ritual instrument.(15) Indeed, at times it appears to be the very antithesis of the tools that by their purity recode the violence of sacrifice as a sacred action. Thus, the passage just quoted playfully describes the way fire splits wood as a kind of ritual fault (enas-). More striking still is a verse addressed to the sacrificial horse just prior to its offering.

Let not your own self torment you as you enter, let not the axe cause harm to your body.

Let not a hasty, unskilled dismemberer proceed incorrectly and do wrong to your broken limbs with a knife [asi-].(16)

Although Pahlavi sources do not use kirrenidan for deeds of a heroic and cosmogonic nature, there is a passage where it appears not just in the general context of sacrifice, but in a sacrifice marked by grave faults regarding the dismemberment and distribution of the victim's body.

The god Haoma makes a curse on a person. He says: "May you have no child, and may you have an evil reputation and other evils of your own, you who do not order that a sacrifice be made to me with the portion my father, Ohrmazd, assigned to me: that is, the jaw, together with the tongue, and the left eye of all animals and animal species. You do not sacrifice; rather, you just gobble it up. He who does not offer the portion Ohrmazd assigned to me, but gobbles it up, let not a priest, warrior, or herdsman-pastoralist be born in his house. People of the line of sorcerers will be born in his house. He damages Ohrmazd's creation, that kirrenidar who destroys things." (PRDD 26.4)(17)

Here, the agent noun kirrenidar denotes a man who, like the Greek [Greek Text Omitted], has the ritual responsibility of dismembering the...