Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/188

156 BOOK II. The phy- sical and spiritual Vanina.

person, one of the daughters of Daksha, the wife of Kasyapa, the mother of the enemies of the gods, the Daityas " (such, Professor Muller remarks, being " the growth of legend, mythology, and reli- gion "), while on the other, Aditi herself was fast becoming " one of those deities, who would best remove the bonds of sin or misery." Thus the poet prays to Agni, —

"Whatever, O youthful god, we have committed against thee, men as we are, whatever sin through thoughtlessness, make us guilt- less of Aditi, loosen the sins on all sides."

All this, however, simply reproduces the Hesiodic theogony, in which Eros precedes Ouranos, to be represented again in Himeros. Some light is thrown on the relations of Varuna with Mitra by the Hesiodic description of Ouranos as the lover of the earth over which he broods each night ; ^ and thus Varuna, like Ouranos, is specially the veiHng heaven whose presence is most felt at nightfall, when the sky seems to descend nearest to the earth, while Mitra, like Dyu and Zeus, represents the firmament glistening -with the splendour of noon-day. But although the same root which furnished the names of Varuna and Ouranos yielded a name also for the evil power, first of physical, and afterwards of moral darkness, still the idea of Varuna has nothing in common with that of Vritra His destructive nooses are prepared for the wicked only. They ensnare the man who speaks lies and pass by the man who speaks truth.^ Like the Greek Poseidon Pylaochos, he holds the unrighteous fast in prison : but it is as the punisher of iniquity which cannot be hidden from his piercing eye,^ and not as the gloomy and inflexible Hades of the nether world. He is the omniscient Asura or spirit who props up the sky,* and this epithet may almost suffice to identify him with the Zendic Ahura who appears commonly in conjunction with Mithras, as Varuna is linked with Mitra.^ From the simple germ

die daily in the sight of men." Mar- tanda thus answers to the Egyptian golden ape, which has neither hands nor feet. — Brown, Religion of Zoroaster, §28.

' Theog. 176. 'Atharva Veda, iv. 16, 6. Muir, Principal Deities of R. V., 558. ^ " King 'arinia perceives all that is within and all that is beyond heaven and earth. The winkings of men's eyes are numbered by him." Cf. "the very hairs of your head are all numbered : " ndvra l^wv Aths 0(p9afws koX irdvTa voT)(Tas' — /As. Op. et Dies, 265. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. ' Texts, part iv. chap. ii. sect. 2. The name Asura belongs to the same root with that of the Teutonic ^sir. this conclusion are given by Dr. Muir, Principal Deities of R. V., 556, as fol- lows : ( I ) the name Asura, etymologi- cally identical with Ahura, is a common epithet of Varuna; ^(2) the class of Indian gods called Adityas, of whom Varuna is the highest, bears a certain analogy to the Zendic Amshaspands, of whom Aliura-Mazdao is the highest ; (3) a close connexion exists between Varuna and Mitra, just as Ahura and Mithra are frequently associated in the
 * R. V. viii. 42, I. Muir, Sansirit
 * The reasons urged in support of