Gathas

The Gathas (/ˈɡɑːtəz, -tɑːz/;Avestan: Gāθās) are 17 hymns believed to have been composed by Zarathusthra (Zoroaster) himself. They are the most sacred texts of the Zoroastrian faith.

Structure and organization

The Gathas are in verse, metrical in the nature of ancient Iranian religious poetry, which is extremely terse, and in which grammatical constructs are an exception.

The 17 hymns of the Gathas consist of 238 stanzas, of about 1300 lines or 6000 words in total. They were later incorporated into the 72-chapter Yasna (chapter: ha or had, from the Avestan ha'iti, 'cut'), which in turn is the primary liturgical collection of texts within the greater compendium of the Avesta. The 17 hymns are identified by their chapter numbers in the Yasna, and are divided into five major sections:

With the exception of Ahunavaiti Gatha, which is named after the Ahuna Vairya prayer (Yasna 27, not in the Gathas), the names of the Gathas reflect the first word(s) of the first hymn within them. The meter of the hymns is historically related to the Vedic tristubh-jagati family of meters. Hymns of these meters are recited, not sung.