Physiological Speculation and Social Patterning in a Pahlavi Text Author(s): Bruce Lincoln Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 108, No. 1 (Jan. Mar., 1988), pp. 135-140 Published by: American Oriental Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/603252 Accessed: 07-09-2016 22:07 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the American Oriental Society This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 22:07:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BRIEF COMMUNICATION Physiological Speculation and Social Patterning in a Pahlavi Text' Zidspram 30.14-19 is a passage that has been discussed on occasion as a clear example of the transmission of Greek scientific and philosophical teachings to Iran, being in effect a Middle Persian account of the Hippokratic system of four bodily fluids or humors. Beyond its importance as evidence bearing on questions of culture contact and influence, however, it holds considerable intrinsic interest, for this text employs the four humor system as a powerful instrument of ideological persuasion, through which a view of proper social, political, and gender hierarchy is skillfully advanced. The study of ancient science is frequently rewarding, for in certain instances it may furnish convincing evidence of culture contact and influence. Thus, some forty-odd years ago, Sir Harold W. Bailey was able to recognize the traces of Aristotelian and Hippokratic thought within discussions of the nature of the human body in several Middle Persian texts. In this study, among the most striking pieces of evidence which Bailey cited was a passage (Zadspram 30.14) concerned with the "watery" (dbig) elements of the body,3 said to be four in number, which, as he showed, closely parallel the four humors of Hippokratic theory.4 Although other elements of Bailey's broader argument may remain subject to debate, in this specific datum, the influence of Greek learning in an Iranian milieu is incontestably evident. There are, however, other reasons for studying ancient speculation on the nature and workings of the natural world, not least of which is the way in which they occasionally encode concerns of a distinctly sociopolitical nature. Such, I hope to show, is true in the case of the Iranian theory of the four humors, as becomes clear when one considers the full Zddspram passage in which they are treated.5 Although Bailey provided a transliteration of this text (Zsp. 30.14-19), he neither translated nor discussed any of its contents beyond the names given the four bodily fluids in Zsp. 30.14. The sole translation available, to the best of my knowledge, is that of Anklesaria, in which certain misunderstandings so distort its sense as to make the text quite incomprehensible.6 It thus seems worth providing a new rendition of Zddspram 30.14--19, paragraph by paragraph, with a detailed analysis of its content. 14. There are four essential fluids in the body, which are: Blood, Phlegm, Red Bile, and Black Bile.7 I Research carried out under the auspices of a single quarter leave from the University of Minnesota, which support I gratefully acknowledge. 1 am also most grateful to William Malandra for his valuable criticisms and suggestions on the translation offered below. 2 H. W. Bailey, Zoroastrian Problems in the Ninth Century Texts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1943), pp. 78-119. 3 Zddspram 30.3 asserts that "The body is threefold: the bodily being which is bone, and [that which is] of water, and [that which is] of wind": tanig 3 i ast tanigardig ud dbig ud wddig. There then follows an analysis of these three categories of bodily substance, of which the passage under consideration here is a part. 4 Bailey, op cit., p. 105. 5 As is so often the case, secure dating of the contents within a Middle Persian text composed in the Ninth Century of our era is virtually impossible. Given certain of the details within the passage to be considered, it seems most plausible to me that its key concepts are rooted in the Sassanian period, but I see no secure way to preclude either an earlier or later dating. 6 Behramgore Tehmurasp Anklesaria, Vichitakiha-i Zatsparam, with Text and Introduction (Bombay: Trustees of the Parsi Punchayet Funds & Properties, 1964), pp. cvi-cvii. Bailey's transliteration is found at pp. 211-12. 7 The full text is found in Anklesaria, p. 112, line 5 to p. 1 14, line 2. 112.5 ab[an] andar tan mAdagwar 4, i hast *x6n 6. ud dram ud wig X suxr ud wig i sya. TEXTUAL NOTES 112.5 mddagwar, not mddagwarihd, following the TD MS., pace Anglesaria and Bailey. The term is adjectival, modifying db. It is possible that the -ihd suffix might signify the plural, in which case, however, we ought expect *dbdn. 135 This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 22:07:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 136 Journal of the American Oriental Society 108.1 (1988) Although similar lists of bodily fluids can be found in other Middle Persian texts, it is in this passage that the closest correspondence can be found to the system which is common to Hippokratic medicine.8 Thus, if one compares Zsp. 30.14 to the Hippokratic text "Concerning the Nature of Man" (Peri Physios Anthr6pou) ?4, one finds virtually the same fluids listed in identical order: first blood (Pahl. x6n; Gk. haima), then phlegm (Pahl. dram; Gk. phlegma), and last black bile (Pahl. wig i syfi; Gk. kholin melainan). The sole divergence is that in the third position, where the Greek has "yellow bile" (kholkn xanthn), the Iranian has "red" (wi? i suxr), and even this minor difference is made more minimal still by the specification that the color of "red bile" is "variable from red to yellow,' (g6n suxr 6 zardih wardignig, Zddspram 30.15). Also of interest is the term that is used to describe these fluids as a set: db mddagwar, which I have translated "essential fluids," following established practice.9 As is plainly evident, however, madagwar is derived from mddag"female" (cf. Avestan matar, Sanskrit mfatr, Latin mater, Old High German muotar, etc.), and "essential" fails to capture this dimension of its meaning. Nyberg attempted to clarify things by arguing that the broader semantic range of m&dag included an abstract dimension (thus "the essential element of anything, its core, essence; materials,");'0 conversely, however, the designation of certain things as mddagwar includes an element of (gender-specific) concretion, such things being in some sense "maternal." The importance of this will become evident when the four "essential/ maternal" fluids are brought in conjunction with another, decidedly non-maternal fluid. 15. The nature of blood is warm and moist, its color red, its taste sweet, and its dwelling is in the liver. The nature of phlegm is cold and moist, its color white, its taste salt, and its dwelling is in the lungs. The nature of red bile is warm and dry, its color is variable from red to yellow, its taste bitter, and its dwelling is in the gall bladder. The nature of black bile is cold and dry, its color black, its taste sour, and its dwelling is in the spleen.'2 The first piece of information that is given regarding each of the fluids is its "nature" or "substance" (g6hr).'3 More precisely, an analysis is offered for each fluid as to whether it possesses warmth or cold, moisture or dryness. Classification along these lines yields a quadripartite taxonomy, as shown in Figure One. Moist Dry Warm Blood Red Bile Cold Phlegm Black Bile Fig. 1. Classification of the Four Humors based upon their "nature"(I) 112.5 Both of the manuscripts (TD and BK) omit x6n here, the TD MS. has 3 instead of 4, in keeping with this omission. BK, however, has 4 in accord with the full set of bodily fluids spelled out in the discussion that follows (Zsp. 30.15-19). 112.6 wig "bile" is homographic with weh "good." Anklesaria consistently misinterprets it as the latter term. x Thus, the set of four humors given at Dinkart 3.263 (MS. B 211.12-13) fails to differentiate between the two types of bile, and adds "breath" (waid) to fill out the set. A vague association is also there advanced between the humorsbreath, blood, bile, and phlegm-and the four "worldly elements of the body" (gihin amizignig tan ristfn): fire (cidur), wind (wdd), moisture (ndm), and clay (gil). Although it is not spelled out, one probably ought to correlate fire to blood, wind to breath, moisture to phlegm, and clay to bile. 9 Thus D. N. MacKenzie, A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary (London: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 53; Henrik Samuel Nyberg, A Manual of Pahlavi (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1974) 2:129. It Nyberg, 2:129 (under mdtakik). Cf. the relation between Lt. mater and mdteria. " Thus the text, although Anklesaria consistently translates jagar by "heart," in keeping with what is now known about the circulation of the blood. That this is the liver, however, and not the heart, is made certain not only by the etymology of Pahlavi jagar (cf. Avestan ydkara, Sanskrit yakrt, Persian jigar, Greek hipar, Latin jecur, Lithuanian jaknos [pl.]), but also by the specification later in the text that the gall bladder (zahrag) is located above the jagar (zahrag i azabarjagar be jahd). 2 112.7 x6n gohr garm ud xwed, us g6n suxr, us 8. mizag giren, us kadag pad jagar. dram sard <ud> xwed, 9. ud g6n sped, mizag s6r, us kadag pad sug. wig l 10. suxr garm <ud> husk ud gon suxr 6 zardih wardisnig, us 11. mizag taxl, us kadag pad zahrag. ud wig i syA 12. sard <ud> husk, us g6n sya us mizag *trufg, us 13. kadag pad spul. TEXTUAL NOTES 112.7 garm, the reading of the BK MS. is preferable to that of TD (drem), pace Anklesaria. 112.10 Again garm and not drem, following the BK reading, pace Anklesaria. '3 On this term, see Bailey, pp. 89-90. This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 22:07:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms LINCOLN: Physiological Speculation and Social Patterning in a Pahlavi Text 137 While accurate enough, such a representation is not the most instructive way to arrange these data, for the system does not really employ four variables, but only two, dryness being simply the absence of moisture, and cold the absence of warmth. Thus the taxonomy is actually constructed upon two binary oppositions, in proper LUvi-Straussian fashion. Moreover, there is a hierarchic dimension to this taxonomy, for in both cases, the presence of the taxonomizing property is considered preferable to its absence, moisture and warmth being regarded as beneficent and sustaining of life (i.e., Ohrmazdian) in Zoroastrian theology, while dryness and cold are evil, being characteristic of death and stagnation (i.e., Ahrimanian).'4 Thus, an initial distinction is apparent between those benign fluids which possess moisture (blood and phlegm), and those which do not (red bile and black bile), the latter being classified as "bilious" or "poisonous," for the term that is translated "bile" (Pahlavi wisg means more generally "venom, poison.""5 Further subdivision of the benign and bilious fluids according to the presence or absence of warmth yields the full system of relations that is shown in Figure Two.'6 Humors Taxonomizers 1. Moisture Benign Bilious + + 2. Warmth Blood Phlegm Red bile Black Bile Rank 1 2 3 4 Coding +/+ +/- -/+ -7Humor Blood Phlegm Red Bile Black Bile Fig. 2. Classification of the Four Humors based upon their "nature"(ll). Beyond the question of "nature" (g6hr), the four humors are described in terms of three other variables: color (g6n), taste (mizag), and bodily locus or "dwelling" (kadag). The result is a sixteen-item square (four humors x four variables), in which the properties of the four humors are carefully set forth, without overlap or duplication, save in a single instance: the common color of blood and red bile. Even here, the text is at pains to establish a clear differentiation, specifying that the latter fluid may vary in hue from red to yellow (g6n suxr 6 zardih wardisnig) as we have already noted. The system in full is shown in Figure Three. Nature Color Taste Dwelling Warm Blood Moist Red Sweet Liver Cold Phlegm Moist White Salt Lung Red Warm RedGall Bile Dry Yellow Bladder Black Cold Bile Dry Dark Sour Spleen Fig. 3. Properties of the Four Humors. Having established the differences among these four fluids, the text continues, in a somewhat less successful-if no less interesting-attempt to work out their complex interrelations. 16. Blood, the foremost of these elements, goes to the liver, and then in agitation goes mountain-climbing toward the head (?);'7 otherwise it collects and the phlegm awakes. Then the gall bladder, which is above the liver, draws up that which is thin and quickflowing, which becomes red bile. It always keeps its mouth open. Red bile flows over the stomach, which digests food. That coarseness which remains is thrown down into the spleen, and becomes black bile." '4 See, for instance, GBd. 181.6, Dinkart 3.105, 123, 162, and 390, and the discussion of Mansour Shaki, "Some Basic Tenets of the Eclectic Metaphysics of the Dinkart," Archiv Orientdini 38 (1970), pp. 295-96. " MacKenzie, p. 92. Nyberg 2:215 does not even list the more specialized meaning "bile." Derivation is from the Avestan via-, viga- "poison"; cf. Sanskrit visa-, Greek ios, Latin virus, Irishfi. 16 For further discussion of this means of representing classificatory systems, and on the hierarchic nature of classification in general, see Chapter Seven of my forthcoming book, The Politics of Myth, and Other Essays. 17 This sentence employs imagistic language to describe imaginary physiological processes, making it extremely difficult to interpret with any certainty. 18 112.14 pU6bAy az kmezisnan xOn o jagar sawed, 15. ud pas andar ayardenign k6f be sar abganMd enya 1 13.1 cinMd ud be 6 dram guhrayenUd. pas zahrag i azabar 2. jagar be estMd, an i bArig i t&z ul AhanjMd This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 22:07:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 138 Journal of the American Oriental Society 108.1 (1988) Blood, earlier said to have its "dwelling" in the liver (Zsp. 30.15), is here brought into association with a second bodily locus: the head, to which it travels in the course of normal circulation. When this second "dwelling" is considered alongside the loci assigned to the other humors (none of which is assigned such a secondary locus), a vertical mapping becomes apparent that parallels the hierarchy already established among the fluids based upon their "natures" (compare Figure Four to the rank order set forth in Figure Two).19 1. Head (Blood) 2. Lungs (Phlegm) 3. Gall Bladder (Red Bile) 4. Spleen (Black Bile) Fig. 4. Vertical Mapping of the Bodily Loci associated with the Four Humors. Should the blood (or a portion of the blood) not ascend to the head, this sets in motion a complicated set of events. For when blood does not rise from the liver, the result is phlegm, although it is not made clear just how this residual blood catalyzes the production of phlegm in the lungs. Rather, we are simply told that when the blood "collects" (cined) then the phlegm "awakes" (guhrdyened). In contrast, the relation of residual blood to the two kinds of bile is thoroughly explicated. For just as blood is made up of two parts-one which rises and one which does not (the latter being connected, somehow, with phlegm)-so also the residual blood consists of two similar parts. One of these, we are told, is thin, subtle, or rarefied in nature (Pahl. bdrig), and is thus capable of upward motion from the liver to the gall bladder (zahrag i azabar jagar be jahed, dn i bdrig ? tz ul dhanjed), where it becomes red bile. The other portion, in contrast, is coarse and heavy (Pahl. stabrfh) and thus falls downward to the spleen (stabrih ? abdz mfned fr6d 6 spul), where it becomes black bile. These interrelations may be graphed as in Figure Five. Blood in liver Taxonomizers 1. Capacity for + upward motion Blood in head Residual blood catalyze phlegm 2. Material rarefaction, which gives capacity + for upward motion Red Black Bile Bile Fig. 5. Interrelations of the Four Humors. Having named the four "essential/maternal fluids" (Zsp. 30.14), discussed the differences among them (30.15), and their interrelations (30.16), the text now proceeds to consider their unification within a fifth fluid, thus far unnamed. 17. Then, seeds from all four elements, which are in the top of the head, the place of the brain, go to the spinal cord. A libation, made up of all four fluids in proportion to their accomplishments, is drawn back to the head. That bodily being which is gathered up in that libation [comes] from all the body; its essence is made firm and it is poured forth in the form of seed. And from this there is the coming into being and the birth of mortals.20 3. be 6 wig 1 suxr bawed, bastan dahan wigad 4. dared. wig i suxr abar kumig rezed, i xwarign 5. gugAred, pas stabrlh 1 abAz maned fr6d 6 *spul 6. *abganihed be 6 wig i sya bawed. TEXTUAL NOTES 112.14 Both mss. have what amounts to a misspelling here, showing 'mzgn'n for 'mycn'n (in transliteration). 112.14 Where TD has jagar ("liver", i.e., the original dwelling place of the blood according to the preceding discussion), BK has sar ("head", i.e., the blood's destination, according to the following line, where both mss. have sar.). Graphically, the two are very easily confused, given the close resemblance of the ligature y + k in jagar (ykl) to the letter samek in sar (sl). 19 The relative positions of the gall bladder and spleen are established in Zsp. 30.16, where they are said be above and below the liver respectively. 20 113.7 pas az en harw 4 atmezisnan t6hmagan, ke pad 8. balist <i> sar, andar mazg gah, pad an rahag pad pust 9. abar sawe <n>d. z6hr-e 1 az harw 4 passAxtIh ray 10. paymAnagig, abaz 6 sar ahanj <ih>ed, az hamag kirb, tan 1 11. pad z6hr 1 abar cin <ih>ed, andar cihrag 6stIgan be kuned, 12. pad t6hm ewenag fraz rezlhed, [us] bawisn ud zayisn 13. mard6man az-is bawed. TEXTUAL NOTES 113.10 Pace Anklesaria and Bailey, the sar of MS. BK is preferable to TD'sjagar. This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 22:07:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms LINCOLN: Physiological Speculation and Social Patterning in a Pahlavi Text 139 There is much that remains unclear here. One is given no clue as to how the "seeds" (t6hmagdn) of the four humors come to be in the brain, nor what is meant by the specification that they are joined in a mixture that is somehow "in proportion to their accomplishments" (passdxtih rdy paymdnagig). The identity of that mixture, however, is no mystery, for it is nothing other than semen (t6hm),2' here viewed as being nothing other than an aggregate of the four other fundamental fluids. We are told, moreover, thatapparently as a result of its aggregate nature-semen possesses within itself the very essence of all bodily matter, drawn from all parts of the body (az hamdg kirb, tan i pad z6hr i abar cin&1, andar cihrag 6stigdn be kunMd), and it is this which makes it capable of producing new life, being in effect a microcosmic version of the body to be created. The "essence" (cihrag) contained within semen, moreover, is quite different from that of the four "essential" fluids. For whereas the latter were essential/maternal" (mddagwar), semen isof course-"essential/paternal," for cihrag means, most literally, "(male) seed."22 One further item in Zsp. 30.17 is noteworthy: the metaphoric description of seminal fluid as a "libation" (z6hr) that, apparently, is poured forth from its place of origin in the brain, through the spinal cord, down to the reproductive organs.23 In this fashion, the attempt is made to associate a physiological process-albeit one that is misunderstood by our standards-to a ritual action that is viewed as being no less creative: the pouring of libation offerings into the sacrificial fire.24 Sexual reproduction is thus presented as a sacred action, in which the male role-nothing similar is said of the female-is akin to that of the priest who presents a libation offering. This is the first point at which the text moves beyond its consideration of strictly physiological entities and processes, relating this area of concern to another, that of social relations. Of this, there is more to come. 18. These four elements, which are different in their nature and different in that which they do, [are like] the four social classes, which are: the Priest, who is a teacher; the Warrior, who is a fighter; the Pastoralist and Agriculturalist, who is a table-servant; and the Artisan, who is a menial-servant.25 Here, the four humors are correlated to the old Iranian social system of four hierarchically differentiated classes based upon occupation, which are also organized in a hierarchic set.26 No argument is advanced for a relation of analogy or homology between specific classes and corresponding humors, although with some difficulty elements of such an argument might be inferred.27 Instead of focusing 113.11 pad is omitted in MS. BK. When this is so, z6hr functions as the subject of the sentence and the active form of the verb is proper. With pad present, however, tan becomes the subject and a passive form (*cinihed) is required. 2 Nyberg 2:194; Bailey, pp. 106, 109. The view advanced by Shaki, "Some Basic Tenets," 289-291, that t6hmag denotes "substance" in a technically Aristotelian sense strikes me as overly restrictive, as do his interpretations of mddag (p. 179, n. 15) and cihr (p. 303). In stressing the abstract philosophical significance of these terms as they are employed in cosmogonic discussions, Shaki ignores their grounding in the physiology of human reproduction, whichas some of the texts he cites make clear-provided a model of cosmogonic processes (cf. GBd. 1.58 [TD MS.16.1-9] and Denkart 3.194 [MS. B, ed. Dresden, 161.16-163.2], cited at pp. 310 and 281-83 respectively). 22 MacKenzie, p. 22; Nyberg, 2:55 (under cihr). MacKenzie, apparently following Christian Bartholomae, Altiranisches Worterbuch (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1961 [orig. 1904]), 586-587, differentiates two homographic Pahlavi terms Icihr (derived from Avestan Icithra-) "form, shape, appearance, face," and 2cihr (from Av. 2cithra-) "seed, origin, nature, essence," cihrag being derived from the latter. 23 See further Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin, "Le Xvaianah," Annali dell' Istituto Orientale di Napoli, Sezione Linguistica 5 (1963), 19-31, esp. 25-26. 24 On sacrifice as the quintessentially creative act, see Marijan Mole, Culte, mythe, et cosmologie dans laran ancien (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1963). 25 113.14 an 4 amezign <an> 1 jud-cihrag jud-kar be 6 15. 4 pesag <i> mard6m i hand hammozgar asron ud zadar 16. artestAr ud *frawardar wAstary6g [ud] paristar *hutuxg. TEXTUAL NOTES 113.16 Reading *frawdrddr forfrawardar 113.16 Parallelism requires a connective particle between wdstary6? and paristdr, since the bipartite designators of the other three classes (action-describer plus formal title) are all separated by ud. The TD MS. contains an error, with the ud preceding wdstary6& instead of following it. 26 A half century later, the classic works on the ancient Iranian social order remain Georges Dumezil, "La prehistoire indo-iranienne des castes,"' Journal asiatique 216 (1930), 109-30; Emile Benveniste, "Les classes sociales dans la tradition avestique," Journal asiatique 221 (1932); 117-34; and idem, "Traditions indo-iraniennes sur les classes sociales," Journal asiatique 230 (1938), 529-49. More recently, see my Priests, Warriors, and Cattle: A Study in the Ecology of Religions (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), pp. 134-39. 27 This is easier as one moves toward the bottom of both hierarchic sets, for just as two types of bile occupy the third This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 22:07:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 140 Journal of the American Oriental Society 108.1 (1988) upon any perceived or imagined similarities between a given fluid and a correlated social class, however, the text is at pains to compare rather the hierarchic system under which two sets are organized. The correspondences as set forth in this text are in Figure Six. Rank Fluid Social Class Activity I Blood Priests Teaching 2 Phlegm Warriors Fighting 3 Red Bile Pastoralists & Serving Food Agriculturalists 4 Black Bile Artisans Menial Service Fig. 6. Correlations between the four humors and the four social classes. Representation of the social order as if it were but one example of a pattern also encountered in the natural world is quite common within Iranian texts, as in those of many other peoples.28 As such, it is a classic means of legitimating rigidly hierarchic and exploitative systems, the contingent natures of which are masked as they are made to appear but one expression among many of a natural-and therefore incontestable, immalleable, and perhaps even divine-order. Having thus dealt with the social order, the text concludes with a brief (albeit pointed) discussion of the central political institution in ancient Iran. 19. Semen is above those four [fluids] as the king is above the [four] social classes.29 That this is the key point, toward which the entire discourse was structured, is signalled by the fact that the opening words of this sentence were written in red ink in one of the two surviving manuscripts of Zadspram. Discussion of bodily fluids, far from being a topic of purely intrinsic interest, provided also the means to make a point more sociopolitical than physiological in nature.30 For we are told that just as semen is a master fluid, in which the others unite, making possible the (re-)production of life, so the king stands above the social classes, uniting all of them in his very being, and it is he who makes possible the ongoing life of society. Moreover, a subtle point of gender politics is also advanced, for just as the four "essential/maternal" (mddagwar) fluids, which all have their origin in the lower parts of the body, were set in contrast to the unique "essential/ paternal" (cihrag) semen, which has its origin in the brain, so the king stands apart from and above (abar) his people, with whom he may enter into fruitful relations, if the text is to be believed, but only as the dominant-i.e., malepartner. These relations are graphed in Figure Seven. Semen: Four Humors:: King: Four Classes:: Male: Female Fig. 7. Concluding Analogies as presented in Zddspram 30.14-19. BRUCE LINCOLN UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA and fourth positions within the system of four humors, so two types of servant are similarly placed within the social order. And just as the higher type of bile is concerned with the digestion of food (Zsp. 30.16), so the higher type of servant-the pastoralist-herdsman, whose chief activity is the production of food in its animal and vegetable forms-is called a frawdrddr, a "servant" from the verb frawdrdan "to serve," with particular reference to the presentation of meals. For its part, paristdr, the term used for the activity of the artisan class, is derived from the verb paristidan "to serve, to worship," and denotes not so much a specific activity as the enormous gulf which separates this kind of servant from the one who is served. Correlations between the upper two classes and the upper two humors are more difficult (if not impossible) to establish and the text wisely makes no such attempt. 28 In Myth, Cosmos, and Society: Indo-European Themes of Creation and Destruction (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), I have studied this pattern among the literatures of Indo-European speaking peoples. While common enough in this culture area, this ideological and rhetorical style is hardly unique to them; cf. the brief but insightful remarks of William J. Goode, The Celebration of Heroes: Prestige as a Control System (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), p. 147. 29 114.1 T6HMAG ABAR awesan ciy6n *9ahryar abar 4 2. pesagan. TEXTUAL NOTES 114.1 TOHMAG ABAR: In MS. BK, these words are written in red ink. '? One ought not, however, unduly and anachronistically dichotomize these two discursive spheres. Discussions on the interrelation of the individual body and that of the body politic (or social body) continues well into the early modern period. See, inter alia, the classic work of Ernst Kantorowicz, The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957). This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 22:07:33 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms