Papers by Martin Schwartz
L’annuaire du Collège de France, 2008
Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2014
Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1982)
Zarathushtra's opposition to the cult of Haoma may now be
affirmed due to new and extensive evide... more Zarathushtra's opposition to the cult of Haoma may now be
affirmed due to new and extensive evidence of matters of both
composition and content. This involves analysis of the structural relationship of Yasnas 32 and Yasna 48, and the relationship of both these poems to what must be posited as an earlier form of the material Yasnas 9 and 10 of the "Hôm Yasht". New techniques
for Gathic compositional study will be adduced for this demonstration. and new translations will be presented. The results
are important for the history of religion in archaic Iran and the development of early Zoroastrianism.
I devote this article, which aims systematically to prove that Y(asna) 33.2c 1 contains an oral a... more I devote this article, which aims systematically to prove that Y(asna) 33.2c 1 contains an oral acrostic, to the commemoration of our dear late colleague Hanns-Peter Schmidt, a great Indo-Iranist whose close studies of the Gathas were both innovative and highly reliable. I'll begin with Schmidt's (1985: 53) insightful summary of 33.2 (seq.): " If man treats his fellow-men according to their allegiance to truth or deceit, if he follows the rules of hospitality and if he overcomes the strife existing in society…, he then pleases God and reaps the benefits of the restoration of the original paradisical life, a state in which man totally communes with God and His entities. " Schmidt's overview will be borne out by the independent analysis to be given in the course of the present article. It was under the stimulus of Schmidt 1966 and 1985, with their attention to various lexical-semantic linkages between stanzas of Gathic poems, that I produced an account of the systematically concentric ring composition which governs each of the completed Gathic poems, 1 The two-digit numbering of the seventeen Gathic poems refers to to the traditional numerations of the seventeen Gathic poems, whereby eachGathic poem has a Yasna-number in accord wth placement in the post-Gathic sequence of Yasna-s, i.e. heterogeneous compositions (most more recent than the Gathas and not authored by Zarathushtra) which were to be recited in the course of the Yasna liturgy. The seventeen Gathic poems are thereby numbered as This numbering is based chiefly on a pentadic grouping of the seventeen poems according to metrical and stanzaic criteria. The numbers have nothing tio do with the original order of composition. Thus for example, the Gathic poem Yasna (= Y) 32 need not at all have been composed before (Yasna) 46, and indeed my SCRIM charting shows that the reverse is true. The Yasna number followed by period and one-or two-digit numbers indicate the stanzas of that poem, and the letters sa to e the lines in that stanza, and single or double quotation mark after those letters specify whether the citation is respectively from the first part or the second part of a line with regard to the obligatory metrically-based breakage (caesura) in each line. Thus 33.2c means '(the Gathic poem) Yasna 33, second stanza, third line; 33.2c' refers to the first part of that line, and 33.2c" to the second part of that same line. In the SCRIM charts in this article, the first (leftmost) columns of Gathic words represent words from poems whose composition is theorized as earlier than that of poems from which are given the related words in the second columns. The most important discussions of the SCRIM principle are given in
It is my genuine pleasure to dedicate this article to my
dear colleague Hanns-Peter Schmidt. Amon... more It is my genuine pleasure to dedicate this article to my
dear colleague Hanns-Peter Schmidt. Among his many
accomplishments as an Tndo-Iranist are his important
studies of the Gathas of Zarathushtra, in which he shows a rare combination of meticulous textual investigation, judicious argumentation, and original, often bold, conclusions. My present study has its ultimate methodological underpinnings in some
innovative observations which Professor Schmidt made concerning Gathic compositional techniques (discussed in my next paragraph) which I subsequently expanded and systematized. I shall here apply this theoretical development to prove an independent hypothesis, or cluster of hypotheses, which Prof. Schmidt has elaborated in several articles pertaining to bovine
symbolism in the Gathas, views which have been controverted, especially by Helmut Humbach. For all these issues of composition and synthesis, my focal text will be Y(asna) 29, which is particularly full of difficult words and is in other ways as well probably the most mystifying text of the Gathas. The study of Y 29 will lead me to examine some remarkable features of other Gathic poems.
This chapter shall adduce and address striking poetic aspects of the seventeen Old
Avestan religi... more This chapter shall adduce and address striking poetic aspects of the seventeen Old
Avestan religious hymns comprising the five poems called the Gathas, whose authorship
is here accepted as that of the historical Zarathustra (for his historicity, see Schwartz
2007: 54–56).
I intend to show in this article that what appears to be straightforward passage,
whose pragmati... more I intend to show in this article that what appears to be straightforward passage,
whose pragmatically descriptive phrasing follows from the occurrence of
the event commemorated therein, instead, like the rest of Y53, results from the
strictest compositional constraints, whereby Y53 (far from being, as some have
supposed, not part of the Gathas as composed by Zarathushtra) is the culmination
of a long-range plan which extends through the bulk of the Gathic corpus.
Bulletin of Asia Institute, 2002
In this article I shall set forth my most recent discoveries
concerning the principles of Gathic ... more In this article I shall set forth my most recent discoveries
concerning the principles of Gathic composition.
After summarizing the observations I
had made in earlier publications1 as concerns (I.1)
ring-composition, (I.2) proto-poems, and final poems,
I shall (I.2) update the latter exposition as
to both principles and examples. Then (II) I shall
briefly explain the principles of cross-textual recursive
composition whereby Zarathushtra generated
the sequence of his poems. This will be
followed (III.1 and 2) by illustration of these principles
with instances involving the etymology of
Gathic personal names.
Talks by Martin Schwartz
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Papers by Martin Schwartz
affirmed due to new and extensive evidence of matters of both
composition and content. This involves analysis of the structural relationship of Yasnas 32 and Yasna 48, and the relationship of both these poems to what must be posited as an earlier form of the material Yasnas 9 and 10 of the "Hôm Yasht". New techniques
for Gathic compositional study will be adduced for this demonstration. and new translations will be presented. The results
are important for the history of religion in archaic Iran and the development of early Zoroastrianism.
dear colleague Hanns-Peter Schmidt. Among his many
accomplishments as an Tndo-Iranist are his important
studies of the Gathas of Zarathushtra, in which he shows a rare combination of meticulous textual investigation, judicious argumentation, and original, often bold, conclusions. My present study has its ultimate methodological underpinnings in some
innovative observations which Professor Schmidt made concerning Gathic compositional techniques (discussed in my next paragraph) which I subsequently expanded and systematized. I shall here apply this theoretical development to prove an independent hypothesis, or cluster of hypotheses, which Prof. Schmidt has elaborated in several articles pertaining to bovine
symbolism in the Gathas, views which have been controverted, especially by Helmut Humbach. For all these issues of composition and synthesis, my focal text will be Y(asna) 29, which is particularly full of difficult words and is in other ways as well probably the most mystifying text of the Gathas. The study of Y 29 will lead me to examine some remarkable features of other Gathic poems.
Avestan religious hymns comprising the five poems called the Gathas, whose authorship
is here accepted as that of the historical Zarathustra (for his historicity, see Schwartz
2007: 54–56).
whose pragmatically descriptive phrasing follows from the occurrence of
the event commemorated therein, instead, like the rest of Y53, results from the
strictest compositional constraints, whereby Y53 (far from being, as some have
supposed, not part of the Gathas as composed by Zarathushtra) is the culmination
of a long-range plan which extends through the bulk of the Gathic corpus.
concerning the principles of Gathic composition.
After summarizing the observations I
had made in earlier publications1 as concerns (I.1)
ring-composition, (I.2) proto-poems, and final poems,
I shall (I.2) update the latter exposition as
to both principles and examples. Then (II) I shall
briefly explain the principles of cross-textual recursive
composition whereby Zarathushtra generated
the sequence of his poems. This will be
followed (III.1 and 2) by illustration of these principles
with instances involving the etymology of
Gathic personal names.
Talks by Martin Schwartz
affirmed due to new and extensive evidence of matters of both
composition and content. This involves analysis of the structural relationship of Yasnas 32 and Yasna 48, and the relationship of both these poems to what must be posited as an earlier form of the material Yasnas 9 and 10 of the "Hôm Yasht". New techniques
for Gathic compositional study will be adduced for this demonstration. and new translations will be presented. The results
are important for the history of religion in archaic Iran and the development of early Zoroastrianism.
dear colleague Hanns-Peter Schmidt. Among his many
accomplishments as an Tndo-Iranist are his important
studies of the Gathas of Zarathushtra, in which he shows a rare combination of meticulous textual investigation, judicious argumentation, and original, often bold, conclusions. My present study has its ultimate methodological underpinnings in some
innovative observations which Professor Schmidt made concerning Gathic compositional techniques (discussed in my next paragraph) which I subsequently expanded and systematized. I shall here apply this theoretical development to prove an independent hypothesis, or cluster of hypotheses, which Prof. Schmidt has elaborated in several articles pertaining to bovine
symbolism in the Gathas, views which have been controverted, especially by Helmut Humbach. For all these issues of composition and synthesis, my focal text will be Y(asna) 29, which is particularly full of difficult words and is in other ways as well probably the most mystifying text of the Gathas. The study of Y 29 will lead me to examine some remarkable features of other Gathic poems.
Avestan religious hymns comprising the five poems called the Gathas, whose authorship
is here accepted as that of the historical Zarathustra (for his historicity, see Schwartz
2007: 54–56).
whose pragmatically descriptive phrasing follows from the occurrence of
the event commemorated therein, instead, like the rest of Y53, results from the
strictest compositional constraints, whereby Y53 (far from being, as some have
supposed, not part of the Gathas as composed by Zarathushtra) is the culmination
of a long-range plan which extends through the bulk of the Gathic corpus.
concerning the principles of Gathic composition.
After summarizing the observations I
had made in earlier publications1 as concerns (I.1)
ring-composition, (I.2) proto-poems, and final poems,
I shall (I.2) update the latter exposition as
to both principles and examples. Then (II) I shall
briefly explain the principles of cross-textual recursive
composition whereby Zarathushtra generated
the sequence of his poems. This will be
followed (III.1 and 2) by illustration of these principles
with instances involving the etymology of
Gathic personal names.