Spentamainyu Gatha
The Spentamainyu Gatha is the third of the five Gathas, the most important texts of Zoroastrianism. It is named after Spenta Mainyu and with 164 verses grouped into four hymns, it is the third longest of the Gathas.
Overview
The name of the Spentamainyu Gatha, also rendered as Spə̄ṇtāmańiiu Gāθā, Gāθā spə̄ntā.mainiiuš or Spentamainyush Gatha, refers to Spenta Mainyu, a supernatural entity which is either the head of the Amesha Spenta or a direct emanation of Ahura Mazda. Like most other Gathas, the name is chosen from the first word of the first stanza, but Spenta Mainyu is also an important topic in the Gatha itself.Among the Gathas, the Spentamainyu Gatha is the third poem and also the third longest by number of verses. Following Geldner, the Gathas are edited as part of the wider Yasna and its chapters and stanzas are, therefore, referenced using the notation of the Yasna. Within this system, the Spentamainyu Gatha covers Yasna 47.1-50.11.
Structure
The Spentamainyu Gatha covers four chapters in the Yasna, namely 47-50. They are the Spentamainyu Haiti, the Yezida Haiti, the At Maiayu Haiti, and the Kat Moi Urva Haiti. Despite the poem being divided into several sections, it is generally seen as a coherent whole.The meter of the Spentamainyu Gatha consists of verses with eleven syllables with a caesura after the first four. Four verses form a single stanza. The first stanza reads as follows:
Among the Gathas, the meter of the Spentamainyu Gatha shows a particuar quantitative affinity to the Trishtubh metre found in the Vedas. It shares the eleven-syllable verse count as well as the caesura after the fourth syllable. Although the Gathic verses lack any qualitative structure, Gippert has noted a tendency of ᴗ ᴗ x for the end of a seven-syllable feet.