FRASHOKERETI. The Avestan term Frashōkereti ("making wonderful" or "rehabilitation" of existence) corresponds to Frashgird, the Middle Persian term for the Last Judgment, or final day of humanity's existence. The Avestan term derives from the expression "to make existence splendid." The concept is eschatological and soteriological and, already present in the Gāthās, is at the basis of Zoroastrian doctrine. With this concept Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) abolished the archaic ideology of the cosmic cycle and of the eternal return modeled on atemporal archetypes, proclaiming the expectation of, and hope for, an eschaton. He thus introduced a linear conception of cosmic time, an innovation in religious thought that had an enormous influence on humanity's subsequent spiritual history. According to his doctrine, the final event will be completed not because of a cosmogonic ritual but by the will of the creator: the resurrection of...