Yasht 10 of the Avesta, read for the Scythian shelf

The Mithra Yasht belongs beside the Scythian evidence for oath, sword and kingship. Mithra watches the covenant, sees the lie, strengthens the truthful side in battle, and measures obligation from the bond of friends to the bond of nations.

This is not a Scythian ritual text. It is an Iranian ritual text. Its value for the Scythian shelf lies in the world the two shared: oath, horse, weapon, light and sovereign truth.

Read the whole hymn

The complete Mithra Yasht, all thirty-five sections in a Good Works Translation from the Avestan with the Avestan text beside it, is on the Zoroastrian shelf: The Mithra Yasht.

What to look for

• The covenant that binds both sides. In the opening sections Ahura Mazda says a man who lies to Mithra ruins the whole land. The covenant must not be broken, whether it was made with a truthful man or a false one. Compare the Greek reports of Scythian oaths sworn over blood and weapons.
• The god of battle-lines. The lords of lands call on Mithra when they ride out against enemy hosts. The hymn's horses, chariots and weapons belong to the same horse-and-bow world as the steppe peoples.
• The scale of obligation. Near the end of the hymn (verses 115–118), Mithra's force grows with each bond, from two friends to two nations, a ladder of loyalties any steppe confederation would recognise.

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