Avestan xratu, ḵratü, Homeric krátos “triumph of the spirit, seer-will, superior wisdom.”
Persian xratu is the word for “superior wisdom.” The ancient Indo- Iranian xratu or accurately ḵratü is interchangeable with Mazdá, the supreme god in the poetic gathas.
Avestan ḵratü, Vedic kratú, Greek krátos is “the triumph of the spirit or superiority of mind-power.” Ḵratü is closely associated with manas “passion, energy, spirit, sensuous force.”
Avestan ḵratü is “the unmatched creativity of the Seer-Will.” In it “vision, wisdom and superior skill” are ONE. Lommel’s translation of ḵratü as “Geisteskraft” or “the unmatched power of spirit/mind to create, manifest” is right on the dot.
Mazdá and/or Ma(n)zdá (*mens-dheh-) incorporates the Indo European noun *mens of the stem ménos (spirit/mind, will power, passion, sensuous force) and the verb *dheh “to set, establish, do, create.” Hence, Mazdá translates into “setting mind power, spirit, fiery passion to do, create, manifest.”
In the Older Avesta and the rest of the Zoroastrian sacred lore, Ahûrás are ahûrá or god beings because of their ḵratü “superior mind-power and unmatched creativity, good genius.”
In the Rig Veda, kratú is best translated as “wisdom of manifestation.” The word is used in the context of spiritual power or the seer/poet’s craft. The Rig Veda conceives the seer/poet as a kárú, meaning “maker, creator, worker.” The notion of the Rig Vedic seer/poets is one of uniting spiritual energy with accomplishment and result called kratú in Sanskrit. Kratú is also the “answer to prayers” during the Yajna offering.
In Homeric terms krátos is “superiority.” Krátos is to be connected with the Avestan ḵratü “the triumph of the spirit, the magical will-power.” The Greek term kratús, just like the Avestan ḵraôžd (See Yasna 30.5, 2nd rhymed verse line) is related to Gothic hardus “hard, solid, firm.”
In both Greek and Avestan there is an overlap of the two word families. This is well illustrated by the twofold use of the word kraterós for example.
“Come to my aid, friends, I am alone,” shouts Idomeneus, “I am sorely afraid of swift-footed Aeneas, who is coming against me; he is very karterós to slay men in battle and he is in the flower of youth, which is the greatest krátos” (Il. 13, 481ff.).
Tomorrow the god will give krátos to whom he wishes,” says Odysseus to his young rivals (Od. 21, 280).
When Idomeneus sees Aeneas coming against him he calls on his friends: “I am afraid: he has the flower of youth, this greatest superiority (krátos mégiston). For if we were of like age in this our ardor, swiftly would he win great advantage (méga krátos) or else I would” (Il. 13, 486).
Zeus proclaims (11, 191; cf. 17, 205). Peleus, when sending his son Achilles to Agamemnon, gave him this advice: “Krátos will be given you by Athena and Hera if they so wish. Do you restrain your proud heart in your breast” (9, 254).
“to have the advantage, triumph” (Il. 5, 175; 21, 315); secondly, “exercise power,” often with a determinant in the genitive, the name of a country or people: “over the Argives” (1, 79), “over all” (1, 288), or in the dative in the Odyssey, “over the dead” (11, 485), “over men and gods” (16, 265).
Avestan ḵratü is “the triumph of the spirit or the superiority of mind-power” which animates the Seer-Will into being. It has the same conceptual nucleus as the Homeric krátos.
I shall conclude by the 3rd rhymed verse line of Yasna 28.1: “Through the unmatched creativity (ḵratüm) of vôhü-man (awe-inspiring spirit/mind;) You will delight the soul of the living universe (primordial cow.) ”
ardeshir
The term ḵratü appears in the following places in the poetic gathas:
In the form of “Ḵratüš”
Yasna 31.9 in the first rhymed verse line, second stanza
Yasna 31.11 in the second rhymed verse line, first stanza
Yasna 32.14 in the first rhymed verse line, second stanza
In the form of “Ḵratavö”
Yasna 45.2 in the third rhymed verse line
Yasna 46.3 in the third rhymed verse line
In the form of “Ḵratüm”
Yasna 28.1 in the third rhymed verse line first stanza
Yasna 32.9 b the first rhymed verse line, second stanza
(Yasna 48.3 in the fourth rhymed verse line is comparable to Yasna 28.1 in the third rhymed verse line first stanza.)
In the form of “hû-ḵratüsh”
Yasna 34.10 in the first rhymed verse line second stanza
Yasna 51. 5 in the second rhymed verse line second stanza
In the form of “Ḵratü”
Yasna 45.6 in the fifth rhymed verse line
Yasna 48.10 in the fourth rhymed verse line
(Yasna 48.10 in the fourth rhymed verse line is comparable to Yasna 49.4 in the first rhymed verse line.)
In the form of “Ḵrathwá”
Yasna 31.7 in the second rhymed verse line, first stanza
Yasna 48.3 in the fourth rhymed verse line
Yasna 53.3 in the fourth rhymed verse line
In the form of “Ḵratéûsh”
Yasna 32.4 in the third rhymed verse line, first stanza
Yasna 34.14 in the third rhymed verse line, second stanza
Yasna 43.6 in the fifth rhymed verse line
Yasna 46.18 in the fifth rhymed verse line
Yasna 49.6 in the second rhymed verse line
Yasna 50.6 in the third rhymed verse line
In the form of Ḵratháv
Yasna 48.4 in the fourth rhymed verse line
In the form of Ḵrapaitî
Yasna 40.1 in the second rhymed verse line.
ardeshir
