And this is the opinion of the greatest and wisest
part of mankind. For some believe that there are two
Gods, as it were two rival workmen, the one whereof they
make to be the maker of good things, and the other of
bad. And some call the better of these God, and the other
Daemon; as doth Zoroaster the Magian whom they report
to be five thousand years elder than the Trojan times.
This Zoroaster now called the one of these Horomazes,
and the other Arimanius; and affirmed, moreover, that the
one of them did, of any thing sensible, the most resemble
light, and the other darkness and ignorance; but that
Mithras was in the middle betwixt them. For which cause
the Persians call Mithras the Mediator. And they tell us,
that he first taught mankind to make vows and offerings of
thanksgiving to the one, and to offer averting and feral
sacrifice to the other. For they beat a certain plant called
omomi in a mortar, and call upon Pluto and the dark; and
then mix it with the blood of a sacrificed wolf, and convey
[p. 107]
it to a certain place where the sun never shines, and there
cast it away. For of plants they believe that some appertain to the good God, and others again to the evil Daemon;
and likewise they think that such animals as dogs, fowls,
and urchins belong to the good, but water animals to the
bad, for which reason they account him happy that kills
most of these.
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