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CHAPTER II, 13-19.
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Kayân (Kai), whom they call Vohûman son of Spend-dâd, who is he who separates the demons from men, scatters them about, and makes the religion current in the whole world. 18. And that which was brazen is the reign of Ardakhshir, the arranger and restorer of the world, and that of King Shahpûr, when he arranges the world which I, Aûharmazd, created; he makes happiness (bûkhtakih) prevalent in the boundaries of the world, and goodness shall become manifest; and Âtarô-pâd of triumphant destiny, the restorer of the true religion, with the prepared brass, brings this religion, together with the transgressors, back to the truth. 19. And that which was of copper is the reign of the Askânian king, who removes from the world
'Reading mûn, 'whom,' instead of amat, 'when' (see the note on Bund. I, 7).
* Contracted here into Spendâd, as it is also in Bund. XXXIV, 8 in the old MSS. This name of the king is corrupted into Bahman son of Isfendiyâr in the Shâhnâmah.
This brazen age is evidently out of its proper chronological order. The Pâzand and Persian versions correct this blunder by describing the copper age before the brazen one here, but they place the brazen branch before the copper one in § 14, so it is doubtful how the text stood originally.
Artakhshatar son of Pâpakî and Shahpûharî son of Artakhshatar are the Sasanian forms of the names of the first two monarchs (A.D. 226-271) of the Sasanian dynasty, whose reigns constitute this brazen age.
'Literally,' deliverance from sin' or 'salvation' by one's own good works, and, therefore, not in a Christian sense.
• Referring to the ordeal of pouring molten brass on his chest, undergone by Âtarô-pâd son of Mâraspend, high-priest and prime minister of Shâpûr I, for the purpose of proving the truth of his religion to those who doubted it.
It is uncertain which of the Askânian sovereigns is meant, or whether several of the dynasty may not be referred to. The Greek
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