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96-725: A daeva ( Avestan : 𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬎𐬎𐬀 daēuua ) is a Zoroastrian supernatural entity with disagreeable characteristics. In the Gathas , the oldest texts of the Zoroastrian canon, the daeva s are " gods that are (to be) rejected ". This meaning is – subject to interpretation – perhaps also evident in the Old Persian " daiva inscription" of the 5th century BCE . In the Younger Avesta , the daeva's are divinities that promote chaos and disorder. In later tradition and folklore,

192-429: A chapter in an edited volume on achievement, IQ researcher Arthur Jensen proposed a multiplicative model of genius consisting of high ability, high productivity, and high creativity. Jensen's model was motivated by the finding that eminent achievement is highly positively skewed, a finding known as Price's law , and related to Lotka's law . Some high IQ individuals join a High IQ society . The most famous and largest

288-423: A founder of the humanistic approach to psychology , expands on the idea of a genius trusting his or her intuition in a given field, writing: " El Greco , for example, must have realized as he looked at some of his early work, that 'good artists do not paint like that.' But somehow he trusted his own experiencing of life, the process of himself, sufficiently that he could go on expressing his own unique perceptions. It

384-455: A great deal of academic discussion revolved around questions of how Iranian daeva might have gained its derogatory meaning. This "fundamental fact of Iranian linguistics" is "impossible" to reconcile with the testimony of the Gathas, where the daeva s, though rejected, were still evidently gods that continued to have a following. The same is true of the daiva inscription, where the daiva are

480-408: A lower density of thalamic dopamine D 2 receptors . One of the investigators explained that "Fewer D 2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus." This could be a possible mechanism behind the ability of healthy highly creative people to see numerous uncommon connections in a problem-solving situation and

576-779: A number of reasons for this shift, based on both the Old Avestan and the Young Avestan material. As regards Old Avestan, the Gathas show strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the Rigveda , which in turn is assumed to represent the second half of the second millennium BC. As regards Young Avestan, texts like the Yashts and the Vendidad are situated in the eastern parts of Greater Iran and lack any discernible Persian or Median influence from Western Iran. This

672-475: A reference to a shrine or sanctuary. In his inscription, Xerxes records that "by the favour of Ahura Mazda I destroyed that establishment of the daivas and I proclaimed, 'The daivas thou shalt not worship!'" This statement has been interpreted either one of two ways. Either the statement is an ideological one and daiva s were gods that were to be rejected, or the statement was politically motivated and daiva s were gods that were followed by (potential) enemies of

768-486: A related noun referring to our innate dispositions, talents, and inborn nature. Beginning to blend the concepts of the divine and the talented, the Encyclopédie article on genius (génie) describes such a person as "he whose soul is more expansive and struck by the feelings of all others; interested by all that is in nature never to receive an idea unless it evokes a feeling; everything excites him and on which nothing

864-489: A self-reported IQ of 125 and went on to win the Nobel Prize in physics and become widely known as a genius, the current view of psychologists and other scholars of genius is that a minimum level of IQ (approximately 125) is necessary for genius but not sufficient, and must be combined with personality characteristics such as drive and persistence, plus the necessary opportunities for talent development. For instance, in

960-419: Is Mensa International , but many other more selective organizations also exist, including Intertel , Triple Nine Society , Prometheus Society, and Mega Society . Various philosophers have proposed definitions of what genius is and what that implies in the context of their philosophical theories. In the philosophy of David Hume , the way society perceives genius is similar to the way society perceives

1056-448: Is also found in the 9th/10th-century books of Zoroastrian tradition, and Gershevitch and others following Lommel consider the progression from "national" gods to demons to be attributable to the " genius of Zoroaster". Subsequent scholarship (so-called progressive hypothesis) has a more differentiated view of Zoroaster, and does not follow the unprovable assumption that prehistoric Iranian religion ever had "national" gods (and thus also that

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1152-498: Is altogether different. Originally, the term was used to denote beings of cultural folklore which predate use in scripture. Equivalents for Avestan daeva in Iranian languages include Pashto , Balochi , Kurdish dêw , Persian dīv / deev . The Iranian word was borrowed by Old Armenian as dew , Georgian as devi , Urdu as deo , and Turkish as dev with the same negative associations in those languages. In English,

1248-462: Is attested in roughly two forms, known as "Old Avestan" (or "Gathic Avestan") and "Younger Avestan". Younger Avestan did not evolve from Old Avestan; the two differ not only in time, but they are also different dialects. Every Avestan text, regardless of whether originally composed in Old or Younger Avestan, underwent several transformations. Karl Hoffmann traced the following stages for Avestan as found in

1344-408: Is characteristic of genius. Conversely, scholarship that was ripe for development, no matter how profound or prominent, is not necessarily indicative of genius. Geniuses are variously portrayed in literature and film as both protagonists and antagonists , and may be the hero or villain of the story. In pop culture , the genius is often stereotypically depicted as either the wisecracking whiz or

1440-566: Is classified as Eastern Old Iranian. But the east–west distinction is of limited meaning for Avestan, as the linguistic developments that later distinguish Eastern from Western Iranian had not yet occurred. Avestan does not display some typical (South-)Western Iranian innovations already visible in Old Persian, and so in this sense, "eastern" only means "non-western". Old Avestan is closely related to Old Persian and largely agrees morphologically with Vedic Sanskrit . The Avestan language

1536-419: Is effective in keeping the demons at bay. Demons are attracted by chatter at mealtimes and when silence is broken a demon takes the place of the angel at one's side. According to Shayest-ne-Shayest 9.8, eating at all after nightfall is not advisable since the night is the time of demons. In the 9th century rivayat s (65.14), the demons are described as issuing out at night to wreak mayhem, but forced back into

1632-465: Is inherited from ancestors, Galton did a study of families of eminent people in Britain, publishing it in 1869 as Hereditary Genius . Galton's ideas were elaborated from the work of two early 19th-century pioneers in statistics : Carl Friedrich Gauss and Adolphe Quetelet . Gauss discovered the normal distribution (bell-shaped curve): given a large number of measurements of the same variable under

1728-489: Is interpreted such that the bulk of this material, which has been produced several centuries after Zarathustra, must still predate the sixth century BC. As a result, more recent scholarship often assumes that the major parts of the Young Avestan texts mainly reflect the first half of the first millennia BC, whereas the Old Avestan texts of Zarathustra may have been composed around 1000 BC or even as early as 1500 BC. The script used for writing Avestan developed during

1824-533: Is lost." The assessment of intelligence was initiated by Francis Galton (1822–1911) and James McKeen Cattell . They had advocated the analysis of reaction time and sensory acuity as measures of "neurophysiological efficiency" and the analysis of sensory acuity as a measure of intelligence. Galton is regarded as the founder of psychometry . He studied the work of his older half-cousin Charles Darwin about biological evolution. Hypothesizing that eminence

1920-981: Is notably present in the characters of Dr. Bruce Banner in the Hulk and Dr. Henry Jekyll in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , among others. Although not as extreme, other examples of literary and filmic characterizations of the tortured genius stereotype, to varying degrees, include: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus , Dr. John Nash in A Beautiful Mind , Leonardo da Vinci in Da Vinci's Demons , Dr. Gregory House in House , Will Hunting in Good Will Hunting , and Dr. Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory . One of

2016-473: Is related to IQ scores. Many California pupils were recommended for the study by schoolteachers. Two pupils who were tested but rejected for inclusion in the study (because their IQ scores were too low) grew up to be Nobel Prize winners in physics, William Shockley , and Luis Walter Alvarez . Based on the historical findings of the Terman study and on biographical examples such as Richard Feynman , who had

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2112-489: Is supposed to lie between those extremes; retaining an equal ability and taste for books, company, and business; preserving in conversation that discernment and delicacy which arise from polite letters; and in business, that probity and accuracy which are the natural result of a just philosophy. In the philosophy of Immanuel Kant , genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person. For Kant, originality

2208-458: Is that, as Ahriman and the dew s can only destruct, they will ultimately destroy themselves ( Denkard 3). As the medieval texts also do for Ahriman, they question whether the dew s exist at all. Since "existence" is the domain of Ormuzd, and Ahriman and his dew s are anti-existence, it followed that Ahriman and his dew s could not possibly exist. One interpretation of the Denkard proposes that

2304-460: Is the daevanam daevo , " daeva of daeva s" or chief of the daeva s. The superlative daevo.taema is however assigned to the demon Paitisha ("opponent"). In an enumeration of the daeva s in Vendidad 1.43, Angra Mainyu appears first and Paitisha appears last. "Nowhere is Angra Mainyu said to be the creator of the daeva s or their father." The Vendidad is usually recited after nightfall since

2400-630: The c.  12th century texts of Neryosang Dhaval and other Parsi Sanskritist theologians of that era, which are roughly contemporary with the oldest surviving manuscripts in Avestan script. Today, Avestan is most commonly typeset in the Gujarati script ( Gujarati being the traditional language of the Indian Zoroastrians). Some Avestan letters with no corresponding symbol are synthesized with additional diacritical marks, for example,

2496-471: The Vendidad ("given against the demons"). A fire (cf. Adur ) is an effective weapon against the dew s, and keeping a hearth fire burning is a means to protect the home. The dew s are "particularly attracted by the organic productions of human beings, from excretion, reproduction, sex, and death". Prayer and other recitations of the liturgy, in particular the recitation of Yasht 1 (so Sad-dar 57),

2592-524: The /z/ in zaraθuštra is written with j with a dot below. Avestan has retained voiced sibilants, and has fricative rather than aspirate series. There are various conventions for transliteration of the Avestan alphabet , the one adopted for this article being: Vowels: Consonants: The glides y and w are often transcribed as < ii > and < uu >. The letter transcribed < t̰ > indicates an allophone of /t/ with no audible release at

2688-584: The Avesta , a collection of Zoroastrian religious literature composed in the language, the name of which comes from Persian اوستا , avestâ and is of obscure origin, though it might come from or be cognate with the Avestan term 𐬎𐬞𐬀𐬯𐬙𐬁𐬬𐬀𐬐𐬀 , upastāvaka , 'praise'. The language was sometimes called Zend in older works, stemming from a misunderstanding of the Zend (commentaries and interpretations of Zoroastrian scripture) as synonymous with

2784-508: The Sasanian period ". The Avestan language is only known from the Avesta and otherwise unattested. As a result, there is no external evidence on which to base the time frame during which the Avestan language was spoken and all attempts have to rely on internal evidence. Such attempts were often based on the life of Zarathustra as the most distinct event in the Avestan period . Zarathustra

2880-500: The daeva -worshipping priests debated frequently with Zoroaster, but failed to persuade him. In the Younger Avesta , the daeva s are unambiguously hostile entities. In contrast, the word daevayasna- (literally, "one who sacrifices to daeva s") denotes adherents of other religions and thus still preserves some semblance of the original meaning in that the daeva- prefix still denotes "other" gods. In Yasht 5.94 however,

2976-407: The daeva s could have represented such a group), nor does it involve hypothetical conjecture of whose gods the daeva s might/might not have been. While the progressive hypothesis gives Zoroaster credit for giving Iranian religion a moral and ethical dimension, it does not (with one notable exception) give Zoroaster credit for the development of the daeva s into demons. It assumes that the development

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3072-475: The daeva s in Iran both took place "so late that the associated terms cannot be considered a feature of Indo-Iranian religious dialectology". The view popularized by Nyberg, Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin , and Widengren of a prehistorical opposition of *asura/daiva involves "interminable and entirely conjectural discussions" on the status of various Indo-Iranian entities that in one culture are asura s/ ahura s and in

3168-579: The daeva s, or rather, their various manifestations and with ways to confound them. Vi.daeva- "rejecting the daeva s" qualifies the faithful Zoroastrian with the same force as mazdayasna- ('Mazda worshiper'). In Vendidad 10.9 and 19.43, three divinities of the Vedic pantheon follow Angra Mainyu in a list of demons: Completely adapted to Iranian phonology, these are Indra (Vedic Indra ), Sarva (Vedic Sarva, i.e. Rudra ), and Nanghaithya (Vedic Nasatya ). The process by which these three came to appear in

3264-427: The daevayasna- are those who sacrifice to Anahita during the hours of darkness, i.e., the hours when the daeva s lurk about, and daevayasna- appears then to be an epithet applied to those who deviate from accepted practice and/or harvested religious disapproval. The Vendidad , a contraction of vi-daevo-dāta , "given against the daeva s", is a collection of late Avestan texts that deals almost exclusively with

3360-661: The dew s are hordes of devils with a range of individual powers ranging from the almost benign to the most malign. They collectively rush out at nightfall to do their worst, which includes every possible form of corruption at every possible level of human existence. Their destructiveness is evident not only in disease, pain, and grief but also in cosmic events such as falling stars and climatic events such as droughts, cyclones and earthquakes. They are sometimes described as having anthropomorphic properties such as faces and feet, or given animal-like properties such as claws and body hair. They may produce semen, and may even mate with humans as in

3456-518: The dew s were perceived to be non-existent physically (that is, they were considered non-ontological) but present psychologically. (see also: Ahriman: In Zoroastrian tradition ) For a different set of texts, such as the Shayest ne shayest and the Book of Arda Wiraz , Ahriman and the dew s were utterly real, and are described as being potentially catastrophic. In such less philosophical representations,

3552-531: The dēw s (Zoroastrian Middle Persian ; New Persian div s) are personifications of every imaginable evil. Over time, the Daeva myth as Div became integrated to islam . Daeva , the Iranian language term, shares the same origin of " Deva " of Hinduism , which is a cognate with Latin deus ("god") and Greek Zeus . While the word for the Vedic spirits and the word for the Zoroastrian entities are etymologically related, their function and thematic development

3648-502: The "Man of Genius" possesses "the presence of God Most High in a man". The actions of the "Man of Genius" can manifest this in various ways: in his "transcendent capacity of taking trouble" (often misquoted as "an infinite capacity for taking pains"), in that he can "recognise how every object has a divine beauty in it" as a poet or painter does, or in that he has "an original power of thinking". In accordance with his Great Man theory , Carlyle considered such individuals as Odin , William

3744-414: The 3rd or 4th century AD. By then the language had been extinct for many centuries, and remained in use only as a liturgical language of the Avesta canon. As is still the case today, the liturgies were memorized by the priesthood and recited by rote. The script devised to render Avestan was natively known as Din dabireh "religion writing". It has 53 distinct characters and is written right-to-left. Among

3840-508: The 53 characters are about 30 letters that are – through the addition of various loops and flourishes – variations of the 13 graphemes of the cursive Pahlavi script (i.e. "Book" Pahlavi) that is known from the post-Sassanian texts of Zoroastrian tradition. These symbols, like those of all the Pahlavi scripts, are in turn based on Aramaic script symbols. Avestan also incorporates several letters from other writing systems, most notably

3936-409: The Avesta is uncertain. Together with three other daeva s, Tauru, Zairi and Nasu, that do not have Vedic equivalents, the six oppose the six Amesha Spentas . Vendidad 19.1 and 19.44 have Angra Mainyu dwelling in the region of the daeva s which the Vendidad sets in the north and/or the nether world ( Vendidad 19.47, Yasht 15.43), a world of darkness. In Vendidad 19.1 and 19.43–44, Angra Mainyu

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4032-583: The Avesta itself, due to both often being bundled together as "Zend-Avesta". Avestan and Old Persian are the two attested languages comprising Old Iranian , and while Avestan was localized in the northeastern parts of Greater Iran according to Paul Maximilian Tedesco  [ de ] (1921), other scholars have favored regarding Avestan as originating in eastern parts. Scholars traditionally classify Iranian languages as "old", "middle" and "new" according to their age, and as "eastern" or "western" according to geography, and within this framework Avestan

4128-564: The Conqueror and Frederick the Great to be "Men of Genius". In the philosophy of Bertrand Russell , genius entails that an individual possesses unique qualities and talents that make the genius especially valuable to the society in which he or she operates, once given the chance to contribute to society. Russell's philosophy further maintains, however, that it is possible for such geniuses to be crushed in their youth and lost forever when

4224-406: The Gathas, daeva s are censured as being incapable of discerning truth ( asha - ) from falsehood ( druj- ). They are consequently in "error" ( aēnah- ), but are never identified as drəguuaṇt- "people of the lie". The conclusion drawn from such ambiguity is that, at the time the Gathas were composed, "the process of rejection, negation, or daemonization of these gods was only just beginning, but, as

4320-510: The Indo-European stem thereof: "ǵenh" (to produce, to beget, to give birth). Because the achievements of exceptional individuals seemed to indicate the presence of a particularly powerful genius , by the time of Augustus , the word began to acquire its secondary meaning of "inspiration, talent". The term genius acquired its modern sense in the eighteenth century, and is a conflation of two Latin terms: genius , as above, and Ingenium ,

4416-536: The Iranian texts, ..."returning I protect the kingdom which awaits me" (from asuras) and therefore cannot have been a feature of a common heritage. The use of Asura in the Rigveda is unsystematic and inconsistent and "it can hardly be said to confirm the existence of a category of gods opposed to the deva s". Indeed, RigVedic Deva is variously applied to most gods, including many of the asura s. Likewise, at

4512-424: The bizarre associations found in schizophrenics. Galton was a pioneer in investigating both eminent human achievement and mental testing. In his book Hereditary Genius , written before the development of IQ testing, he proposed that hereditary influences on eminent achievement are strong, and that eminence is rare in the general population. Lewis Terman chose "'near' genius or genius" as the classification label for

4608-459: The characteristic, genius is associated with talent , but several authors such as Cesare Lombroso and Arthur Schopenhauer systematically distinguish these terms. Walter Isaacson , biographer of many well-known geniuses, explains that although high intelligence may be a prerequisite, the most common trait that actually defines a genius may be the extraordinary ability to apply creativity and imaginative thinking to almost any situation. In

4704-564: The contests that will continue until the end of time, at which time the fiend will become invisible and (God's) creatures will become pure. ( Dadestan-i Denig 59) But until the final renovation of the world, mankind "stands between the yazad s and the dēw s; the [ yazad s] are immortal in essence and inseparable from their bodies ( mēnōg ), men are immortal in essence but separable from their bodies (moving from gētīg to mēnōg condition), but dēw s are mortal in essence and inseparable from their bodies, which may be destroyed." In addition to

4800-607: The creation of Ormuzd (Avestan Ahura Mazda ). This notion is already alluded to in the Vendidad (see Younger Avestan texts above), but only properly developed in the Bundahishn . In particular, Ahriman is seen to create six dew s that in Zoroastrian tradition are the antitheses of the Amahraspand s (Avestan Amesha Spentas ). Mirroring the task of the Amesha Spentas through which Ahura Mazda realized creation,

4896-513: The demon of death that casts the noose of mortality around men's necks at birth, and Az , who is most capable of destroying the "innate wisdom" of man. Az is thus the cause of heresy and blinds the righteous man from being able to discern the truth and falsehood. A list of ten demons is provided in the Shahnameh : Besides the afore-mentioned Az "greed", Kashm "wrath" (Avestan Aeshma ), Nang "dishonor", Niaz "want", and Rashk "envy",

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4992-477: The early-19th century Carl von Clausewitz , who had a particular interest in what he called " military genius ", defined "the essence of Genius" ( German : der Genius ) in terms of "a very high mental capacity for certain employments". In ancient Rome , the genius (plural in Latin genii ) was the guiding spirit or tutelary deity of a person , family ( gens ), or place ( genius loci ). Connotations of

5088-468: The end of a word and before certain obstruents . According to Beekes, [ð] and [ɣ] are allophones of /θ/ and /x/ respectively (in Old Avestan). The following phrases were phonetically transcribed from Avestan: Genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for

5184-607: The enriched environment provided by wealthy families. Galton went on to develop the field of eugenics . Galton attempted to control for economic inheritance by comparing the adopted nephews of popes, who would have the advantage of wealth without being as closely related to popes as sons are to their fathers, to the biological children of eminent individuals. Genius is expressed in a variety of forms (e.g., mathematical, literary, musical performance). Persons with genius tend to have strong intuitions about their domains, and they build on these insights with tremendous energy. Carl Rogers ,

5280-478: The entirety of present-day Afghanistan as well as parts of Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , and Uzbekistan . The Yaz culture of Bactria–Margiana has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of the early " Eastern Iranian " culture that is described in the Zoroastrian Avesta . It is not known what the original speakers of Avestan called the language. The modern term "Avestan" comes from

5376-477: The environment around them is unsympathetic to their potential maladaptive traits. Russell rejected the notion he believed was popular during his lifetime that, "genius will out". In his classic work The Limitations of Science , J. W. N. Sullivan discussed a utilitarian philosophy on the retrospective classification of genius. Namely, scholarship that is so original that, were it not for that particular contributor, would not have emerged until much later (if ever)

5472-586: The epic poem includes Kin "vengeance", Nammam "tell-tale", Do-ruy "two-face", napak-din "heresy", and (not explicitly named) ungratefulness. Some of the entities that in the Middle Persian texts are demons, are in the Shahnameh attributes of demons, for instance, varuna "backwards" or "inside out", reflecting that they tend to do the opposite of what they are asked to do. Although Ferdowsi generally portrays div s as being distinct from humans,

5568-527: The evidence is full of gaps and ambiguities, this impression may be erroneous". In Yasna 32.4, the daeva s are revered by the Usij , described as a class of "false priests", devoid of goodness of mind and heart, and hostile to cattle and husbandry ( Yasna 32.10–11, 44.20). Like the daeva s that they follow, "the Usij are known throughout the seventh region of the earth as the offspring of aka mainyu, druj, and arrogance. ( Yasna 32.3)". Yasna 30.6 suggests

5664-513: The extant texts. In roughly chronological order: Many phonetic features cannot be ascribed with certainty to a particular stage since there may be more than one possibility. Every phonetic form that can be ascribed to the Sasanian archetype on the basis of critical assessment of the manuscript evidence must have gone through the stages mentioned above so that "Old Avestan" and "Young Avestan" really mean no more than "Old Avestan and Young Avestan of

5760-401: The future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabilities of competitors. Genius is associated with intellectual ability and creative productivity. The term genius can also be used to refer to people characterised by genius, and/or to polymaths who excel across many subjects. There is no scientifically precise definition of genius. When used to refer to

5856-547: The gods of (potential) rebels, but still evidently gods that continued to have a following. The issue is related to the question of how Zoroaster's own contribution to Iranian religion might be defined. In the older early/mid 20th-century view (so-called reform hypothesis), in which Zoroaster was perceived to be a revolutionary reformer, it was assumed that the daeva s must have been the "national" gods (see comparison with Indic usage , below) of pre-Zoroaster-ian Iran , which Zoroaster had then rejected. This attribution to Zoroaster

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5952-755: The highest classification on his 1916 version of the Stanford–Binet test. By 1926, Terman began publishing about a longitudinal study of California schoolchildren who were referred for IQ testing by their schoolteachers, called Genetic Studies of Genius , which he conducted for the rest of his life. Catherine M. Cox, a colleague of Terman's, wrote a whole book, The Early Mental Traits of 300 Geniuses , published as volume 2 of The Genetic Studies of Genius book series, in which she analyzed biographical data about historic geniuses. Although her estimates of childhood IQ scores of historical figures who never took IQ tests have been criticized on methodological grounds, Cox's study

6048-407: The history of the 20th century AD. The bell-shaped curve was not random, he concluded. The differences between the average and the upper end were due to a non-random factor, "natural ability", which he defined as "those qualities of intellect and disposition, which urge and qualify men to perform acts that lead to reputation…a nature which, when left to itself, will, urged by an inherent stimulus, climb

6144-492: The ignorant. Hume states that a person with the characteristics of a genius is looked at as a person disconnected from society, as well as a person who works remotely, at a distance, away from the rest of the world. On the other hand, the mere ignorant is still more despised; nor is any thing deemed a surer sign of an illiberal genius in an age and nation where the sciences flourish, than to be entirely destitute of all relish for those noble entertainments. The most perfect character

6240-470: The last part of the day is considered to be the time of the demons. Because the Vendidad is the means to disable them, this text is said to be effective only when recited between sunset and sunrise. Old Persian daiva occurs twice in Xerxes' daiva inscription (XPh, early 5th century BCE). This trilingual text also includes one reference to a daivadana "house of the daiva s", generally interpreted to be

6336-521: The latter of which being more common amongst relatives of schizophrenics, tend to show elevated creativity. Several people who have been regarded as geniuses were diagnosed with mental disorders ; examples include Vincent van Gogh , Virginia Woolf , John Forbes Nash Jr. , Domantas G. and Ernest Hemingway . In a 2010 study conducted by the Karolinska Institute , it was observed that highly creative individuals and schizophrenics have

6432-560: The mire while gazing at the stars, an allusion to Plato's dialogue Theætetus , in which Socrates tells of Thales (the first philosopher) being ridiculed for falling in such circumstances. As he says in Volume 2 of The World as Will and Representation : Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. In the philosophy of Thomas Carlyle , genius is called (in Past and Present ) "the inspired gift of God";

6528-655: The moral principles (that each Amesha Spenta represents) are opposed by immoral principles. This is not however a complete breach, for while in the Gathas asha —the principle—is the diametric opposite of the abstract druj , in Zoroastrian tradition, it is Ardawahisht , the Amesha Spenta that is the hypostasis of asha , that is opposed to by Indar, who freezes the minds of creatures from practicing "righteousness" ( asha ). Greater Bundahishn 34.27 adds two more arch-demons, which are not however in opposition to Amesha Spentas: Also mirroring Ormuzd's act of creation, i.e.,

6624-496: The number of individuals observed the more do peculiarities become effaced...". This ideal from which the peculiarities were effaced became "the average man". Galton was inspired by Quetelet to define the average man as "an entire normal scheme"; that is, if one combines the normal curves of every measurable human characteristic, one will, in theory, perceive a syndrome straddled by "the average man" and flanked by persons that are different. In contrast to Quetelet, Galton's average man

6720-504: The oldest layer, Zoroastrianism's daeva s are originally also gods (albeit gods to be rejected), and it is only in the younger texts that the word evolved to refer to evil creatures. And the Zoroastrian ahura s (etymologically related to the Vedic asura s) are also only vaguely defined, and only three in number. Moreover, the daemonization of the asura s in India and the daemonization of

6816-493: The other are deva s/ daeva s (see examples in the Younger Avesta , below). In the Gathas , the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and credited to Zoroaster himself, the daeva s are not yet the demons that they would become in later Zoroastrianism; though their rejection is notable in the Gathas themselves. The Gathas speak of the daeva s as a group, and do not mention individual daeva s by name. In these ancient texts,

6912-403: The path that leads to eminence." The apparent randomness of the scores was due to the randomness of this natural ability in the population as a whole, in theory. Criticisms include that Galton's study fails to account for the impact of social status and the associated availability of resources in the form of economic inheritance, meaning that inherited "eminence" or "genius" can be gained through

7008-640: The philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer , a genius is someone in whom intellect predominates over " will " much more than within the average person. In Schopenhauer's aesthetics , this predominance of the intellect over the will allows the genius to create artistic or academic works that are objects of pure, disinterested contemplation, the chief criterion of the aesthetic experience for Schopenhauer. Their remoteness from mundane concerns means that Schopenhauer's geniuses often display maladaptive traits in more mundane concerns; in Schopenhauer's words, they fall into

7104-482: The poet also uses the word to denote "evil people". One of the more popular stories from the Shahnameh is that of Rostam and the Dīv-e Sapīd , the "white demon" of Mazandaran , who blinds Rostam's men (who are then cured with the blood of the demon's gall). Avestan The Avestan text corpus was composed in the ancient Iranian satrapies of Arachosia , Aria , Bactria , and Margiana , corresponding to

7200-443: The realization of the Amesha Spentas by his "thought", is Ahriman's creation of the dew s through his "demonic essence". Other texts describe this event as being to Ahriman's detriment for his act of "creation" is actually an act of destruction. Ahriman is the very epitome (and hypostasis) of destruction, and hence he did not "create" the demons, he realized them through destruction, and they then became that destruction. The consequence

7296-522: The same conditions, they vary at random from a most frequent value, the "average", to two least frequent values at maximum differences greater and lower than the most frequent value. Quetelet discovered that the bell-shaped curve applied to social statistics gathered by the French government in the course of its normal processes on large numbers of people passing through the courts and the military. His initial work in criminology led him to observe "the greater

7392-410: The same meaning. For other Indo-European derivatives, see Dyeus . The Vedic Sanskrit cognate of Avestan daēuua is devá - , continuing in later Indo-Aryan languages as dev . Because all cognates of Iranian *daiva have a positive connotation, but "no known Iranian dialect attests clearly and certainly the survival of a positive sense for [Old Iranian] *daiva- ", in the 19th- and 20th-century

7488-536: The six antitheses are the instrument through which Angra Mainyu creates all the horrors in the world. Further, the arch- daeva s of Vendidad 10.9 and 19.43 are identified as the antithetical counterparts of the Amesha Spentas. The six arch-demons as listed in the Epistles of Zadspram (WZ 35.37) and the Greater Bundahishn (GBd. 34.27) are: These oppositions differ from those found in scripture, where

7584-462: The six arch-demons (see above) that oppose the six Amesha Spentas, numerous other figures appear in scripture and tradition. According to Bundahishn XXVII.12, the six arch-demons have cooperators ( hamkars ), arranged in a hierarchy (not further specified) similar to that of the yazata s . These are " dew s [...] created by the sins that creatures commit." ( Bundahishn XXVII.51) Other entities include: The most destructive of these are Astiwihad ,

7680-669: The state. In the Middle Persian texts of Zoroastrian tradition, the dew s are invariably rendered with the Aramaic ideogram ŠDYA or the more common plural ŠDYAʼn that signified "demons" even in the singular. Dew s play a crucial role in the cosmogonic drama of the Bundahishn , a Zoroastrian view of creation completed in the 12th century. In this text, the evil spirit Ahriman (the middle Persian equivalent of Avestan Angra Mainyu ) creates his hordes of dew s to counter

7776-416: The tale of Jam and Jamag ( Bundahishn 14B.1). But with the exception of the Book of Arda Wiraz , the dew s are not generally described as a force to be feared. With fundamental optimism, the texts describe how the dew s may be kept in check, ranging from cursing them to the active participation in life through good thoughts, words and deeds. Many of the medieval texts develop ideas already expressed in

7872-431: The term daeva s (also spelled 'daēuuas') occurs 19 times; wherein daeva s are a distinct category of "quite genuine gods, who had, however, been rejected". In Yasna 32.3 and 46.1, the daeva s are still worshipped by the Iranian peoples. Yasna 32.8 notes that some of the followers of Zoroaster had previously been followers of the daeva s; though, the daeva s are clearly identified with evil (e.g., Yasna 32.5). In

7968-557: The tortured genius. Throughout both literature and movies, the tortured genius character is often seen as an imperfect or tragic hero who wrestles with the burden of superior intelligence, arrogance, eccentricities, addiction, awkwardness, mental health issues, a lack of social skills, isolation, or other insecurities. They regularly experience existential crises, struggling to overcome personal challenges to employ their special abilities for good or succumbing to their own tragic flaws and vices. This common motif repeated throughout fiction

8064-465: The underworld by the divine glory ( khvarenah ) at sunrise. The Zoroastrianism of the medieval texts is unambiguous with respect to which force is the superior. Evil cannot create and is hence has a lower priority in the cosmic order ( asha ). According to Denkard 5.24.21a, the protection of the yazata s is ultimately greater than the power of the demons. The dew s are agents ("procurers— vashikano —of success") of Ahriman (Avestan Angra Mainyu ) in

8160-432: The vowels, which are mostly derived from Greek minuscules. A few letters were free inventions, as were also the symbols used for punctuation. Also, the Avestan alphabet has one letter that has no corresponding sound in the Avestan language; the character for /l/ (a sound that Avestan does not have) was added to write Pazend texts. The Avestan script is alphabetic , and the large number of letters suggests that its design

8256-478: The word appears as daeva , div , deev , and in the 18th century fantasy novels of William Thomas Beckford as dive . It has been speculated that the concept of the daevas as a malevolent force may have been inspired from the Scythian gods . Old Avestan daēuua or daēva derives from Old Iranian *daiva , which in turn derives from Indo-Iranian *daivá- "god", reflecting Proto-Indo-European *deywós with

8352-610: The word in Latin have a lineal relationship with the Greek word daemon in classical and medieval texts , and also share a relationship with the Arabic word al-ghul (as in the star Algol ; its literal meaning being "the Demon"). The noun is related to the Latin verbs "gignere" (to beget, to give birth to) and "generare" (to beget, to generate, to procreate), and derives directly from

8448-546: Was as though he could say, 'Good artists don't paint like this, but I paint like this.' Or to move to another field, Ernest Hemingway was surely aware that 'good writers do not write like this.' But fortunately he moved toward being Hemingway, being himself, rather than toward someone else's conception of a good writer." It has been suggested that there exists a connection between mental illness, in particular schizophrenia and bipolar disorder , and genius. Individuals with bipolar disorder and schizotypal personality disorder ,

8544-462: Was due to the need to render the orally recited texts with high phonetic precision. The correct enunciation of the liturgies was (and still is) considered necessary for the prayers to be effective. The Zoroastrians of India, who represent one of the largest surviving Zoroastrian communities worldwide, also transcribe Avestan in Brahmi -based scripts. This is a relatively recent development first seen in

8640-412: Was gradual, and that a general distrust of the daeva s already existed by the time the Gathas were composed. Although with some points of comparison such as shared etymology, Indic devá- is thematically different from Avestan daēva . While in the post-Rigvedic Indic texts the conflict between the two groups of deva s and asuras is a primary theme, this is not a theme in either the Rigveda nor in

8736-511: Was not statistical but was theoretical only. There was no measure of general averageness, only a large number of very specific averages. Setting out to discover a general measure of the average, Galton looked at educational statistics and found bell-curves in test results of all sorts; initially in mathematics grades for the final honors examination and in entrance examination scores for Sandhurst . Galton's method in Hereditary Genius

8832-514: Was the essential character of genius. The artworks of the Kantian genius are also characterized by their exemplarity which is imitated by other artists and serve as a rule for other aesthetical judgements. This genius is a talent for producing ideas which can be described as non-imitative. Kant's discussion of the characteristics of genius is largely contained within the Critique of Judgment and

8928-562: Was thorough in finding out what else matters besides IQ in becoming a genius. By the 1937 second revision of the Stanford–Binet test, Terman no longer used the term "genius" as an IQ classification, nor has any subsequent IQ test. In 1939, David Wechsler specifically commented that "we are rather hesitant about calling a person a genius on the basis of a single intelligence test score". The Terman longitudinal study in California eventually provided historical evidence regarding how genius

9024-399: Was to count and assess the eminent relatives of eminent men. He found that the number of eminent relatives was greater with a closer degree of kinship. This work is considered the first example of historiometry , an analytical study of historical human progress. The work is controversial and has been criticized for several reasons. Galton then departed from Gauss in a way that became crucial to

9120-556: Was traditionally based in the 6th century BC meaning that Old Avestan would have been spoken during the early Achaemenid period . Given that a substantial time must have passed between Old Avestan and Young Avestan, the latter would have been spoken somewhere during the Hellenistic or the Parthian period of Iranian history. However, more recent scholarship has increasingly shifted to an earlier dating. The literature presents

9216-516: Was well received by the Romantics of the early 19th century. In addition, much of Schopenhauer's theory of genius, particularly regarding talent and freedom from constraint, is directly derived from paragraphs of Part I of Kant's Critique of Judgment . Genius is a talent for producing something for which no determinate rule can be given, not a predisposition consisting of a skill for something that can be learned by following some rule or other. In

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