Frashokereti: Restoring the Creation from a Zoroastrian Eschatological Perspective

The paper at hand deals with Zoroastrian eschatology. Frashokereti, as it is called, is the term which is used in Zoroastrianism in order to express the end of times. This being the main focus of the current paper, the topics that will be unfolded are the arrival of the Saoshyant, who is the central Zoroastrian salvific figure and Zarathustra’s biological descendant who has been miraculously born of a virgin, the resurrection of the dead, their last judgement and the final battle between the forces of good and evil. The general clash between good and evil acquires a more precise character and becomes personified in the deities of Ahura Mazda and Ahriman respectively, the fundamental sources of morality and immorality. Regarding the above, the interrelated themes of man’s salvation and the restoration of the universe to its primary undefiled state are presented as results of the victory of good over evil. It will also be displayed how the concept of universal renewal is viewed not merely as a countdown, but moreover as a stepping-backwards to the conditions of the first state of creation, Frashokereti becoming thus a mirror of the first things in terms of Zoroastrian cosmogony. At the same time, other aspects, namely the Zoroastrian story of creation, its corresponding cosmology, the dichotomization of the world into two opposite spheres and the dualism that penetrates the universe in relation to the free will of man are introduced to the reader, so that a deeper understanding may be acquired in regard to the ways, the quality and the content of universal purification and renovation.