_Recent Discoveries._--F. Cumont (_Revue d'histoire et de littérature religieuse_, t. xii., 1907, No. 2) showed that one at least of the fundamental myths of Mani was borrowed from the Avesta, namely, that which recounts how through the manifestation of the virgin of light and of the messenger of salvation to the libidinous princes of darkness the vital substance or light held captive in their limbs was liberated and recovered for the realm of light. The legend of the _Omophorus_ and _Splenditeneus_, rival giants who sustain earth and luminous heavens on their respective shoulders, even if it already figures in the cuneiform texts of Assyria, is yet to be traced in Mithraic bas-reliefs. It also may therefore have come to Mani through Magian channels.
When, however, we turn to the numerous fragments of authentic Manichaean liturgies and hymns lately discovered in Turfan in East Turkestan, Mani's direct indebtedness to the cycle of Magian legends rather than to Chaldaic sources (as Kessler argued) is clearly exhibited.
In fr. 472, taken from the Shapurakan, as part of a description of the sun-god in his ship or reservoir the sun, we have a mention of Az and Ahriman and the devas (demons), the Pairikas. Az in the Avestan mythology was the demon serpent who murders Gayomert in the old Persian legend, and an ally of Ahriman, as also are the _Pairikas_ or Peris. In the same fragment we read of the ruin of _Azidahaka Mazainya_, which name Darmesteter interprets in the Persian sources as the demon serpent, the sorcerer (_Ormazd et Ahriman_, Paris, 1877, p. 157). In fr. 470, descriptive of the conflagration of the world, we read of how, after Az and the demons have been struck down, the pious man is purified and led up to sun and moon and to the being of Ahura Mazda, the Divine.
In another fragment (388) of a hymn Mani describes himself as "the first stranger" (cf. Matt. xxv. 43), the son of the god Zarvan, the Ruler-Child. In the orthodox literature of fire-worship Zarvan was Time or Destiny. Later on Zarvan was elevated to the position of supreme principle, creator of Ormazd and Ahriman, and, long before Mani, Zarvan accompanied Mithras in all his westward migrations.
In fr. 20, in an enumeration of angels, we hear of Narsus, who may be the Neryosang (Armenian Nerses or Narsai) of the Avesta. The other angels are Jacob, the mighty angel and leader of angels, the Lord Bar Simus, Qaftinus the mighty, Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, Sarael and Nastikus--a truly Catholic list.