The Encyclopedia of World Religions

488 S Zend Avesta

thunderbolt. He looks after those who require spe cial protection: suppliants and travelers. He also punishes those who break oaths. According to Homer, Zeus is “the father of gods and men.” His dwelling is on Mount Olym pus. There he presides over a somewhat dysfunc tional divine family. Hesiod tells how Zeus came to power by deposing his father Kronos. A few myths hint that Zeus himself may one day be deposed. Zeus’s adventures in marital infidelity became, quite literally, legendary. In classical times (600–350 B . C . E .) Zeus was the highest god of the Greek states. His major sanctuary was at Olympia. There the Greeks cel ebrated their common identity in a great Panhel lenic festival. According to tradition, the Olympic games held every four years in conjunction with this festival began in 776 B . C . E . Artwork showed Zeus as a bearded man, with bulging muscles and at times unclothed. Zionism A Jewish movement in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Its goal was the founding of a Jewish state. In late-19th-century Europe many judged the worth of a people by whether or not they had their own nation-state. Theodor Herzl (1860–1904), a newspaper reporter, wanted Jews to receive full respect among Gentiles and escape the dangers of European ANTI -S EMITISM . He argued that these goals required Jews to have their own state. In 1897 he founded the World Zionist Congress to work for a Jewish state. Zionists overwhelmingly favored the ancient homeland of Israel as the proper site for a Jewish state. In the early 20th century Zionists began settling in Palestine, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. During World War I Great Britain’s Balfour Declaration promised that, if the Allies won, territory would be set aside for a Jewish state. But it was only after World War II, the murder of millions of European Jews in the H OLOCAUST , and considerable Zionist agita tion that the state of Israel was established on May 14, 1948.

has been male-oriented, but especially in North America and Europe women, too, have assumed prominent roles. SIGNIFICANCE Although Zen is not the most popular form of Bud dhism in Japan, its influence on Japanese life has been profound. During the 20th century Zen also became one of the most popular schools of Bud dhism in North America. Further reading: Soko Morinaga, Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2002); Eshin Nishimura, Unsui: A Diary of Zen Monastic Life, drawings by Giei Sato¯ (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1973); Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (New York: Weatherhill, 2003). Zend Avesta Also called simply the Avesta; the sacred collection of writings in Z OROASTRIANISM . The texts of the Zend Avesta are very old. Some seem to go back to Z ARATHUSTRA himself. But the writ ten collection did not come into existence until the middle of the first millennium (1–1000) C . E . The Zend Avesta that we have today preserves only a portion of the original. The most important part of the Zend Avesta is a collection of poems known as Gathas. Many say that Zarathustra himself wrote them. They resem ble the hymns of the Rig V EDA in India. The Gathas make up part of a section known as the Yasna, “Sacrifice.” When a Zoroastrian priest performs the SACRIFICE , he recites this section. Other sections of the Zend Avesta include the Yashts, hymns to different ahuras (good spirits), and the Vendidad, laws that someone who wishes to remain pure must observe. Zeus In Greek religion the most powerful of the Olympian gods. Zeus seems to be descended from a god of the sky whom Indo-Europeans wor shipped. At least his name is related to a Sanskrit name for a sky god, Dyaus. Zeus’s weapon is the