Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/36

16 atmosphere is above, not below, the earth, so that the sun does not return from west to east under the earth, but goes back by the way it came, turning its light side up to the sky and thus leaving earth in darkness. The earth, conceived as extended, broad, and boundless, is compared in shape to a wheel, but no ocean surrounds it, as in Greek and later Indian mythology. The earth has four points, or five when we include the place where the speaker stands.

An older conception is that of the earth and the sky alone as constituting the universe. In that case the idea of the shape of the earth varies, for when it is united with the sky, it is compared to two great bowls turned toward each other; while from another point of view earth and sky are likened to the wheels at the ends of an axle. So closely united are the pair that, as a deity, Dyāvāpṛthivī ("Sky and Earth") is far more frequently invoked than either Dyaus ("Sky") or Pṛthivī ("Earth"). The joint deity can claim six hymns in the Ṛgveda, the Earth only one, and the Sky none. Even in her solitary hymn (v. 84) the Earth is praised for sending the rain from her cloud, though that is, as a matter of fact, her husband's function. The two are called the primeval parents, who make and sustain all creatures; and the gods themselves are their children: they are the parents of Bṛhaspati ("Lord of Devotion") and with the waters and Tvaṣṭṛ ("Fashioner") they engendered Agni. Yet with characteristic impartiality they are said themselves to be created, for a poet marvels at the skill which wrought them, and others attribute their fashioning to Indra, to Viśvakarman ("All-Maker") or to Tvaṣṭṛ. They are far-extending, unaging, yielding milk, ghee (clarified butter), and honey in abundance. The one is a prolific bull, the other a variegated cow; and both are rich in seed. They are wise also, and they promote righteousness and accord protection and aid to their worshippers.

The constant problem of the fashioning of the world is expressed in many ways. With the suns Varuṇa measures the world; Indra made the wide expanse of earth and the high