Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/31

Rh The deities of the Vedas vanish from our gaze, lost

After the lapse of ages they reappear upon the stage, so modified, however, that it is difficult to recognize their identity: on the southern side of the Himalayahs they assume the form of the great Brahminical trinity, Vishnu, Brahma, and Siva, emerging from a background of Pantheism; while in Greece we behold them metamorphosed into the hierarchy of the Olympian gods. So striking is the contrast between the deities apostrophized by the Vedic bards, and the grand impersonations of Grecian poetry and art, that without conclusive evidence the connection between them could hardly be recognized. This evidence is twofold;—in the first place, comparative philology reveals the fact that the sacred names of the Greek Pantheon are in the Vedas intelligible words, expressive of natural phenomena; while in the Iliad we are introduced to the Olympian deities during the process of transformation; we detect their forms gradually disengaging themselves from the physical phenomena with which they were associated, of which also they may be regarded as the spiritual but almost impalpable essence.

This transformation of physical into humanized deities has been compared by Welcker to the mysterious process by which the chrysalis passes into its more perfect form. "The Nature-god," he says, "became enveloped in a web of mythical fable, and emerged as a divine, humanized personality." For