Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/261

Rh value to almost every expression of praise in the hymns addressed CHAP. to her.

" She shines upon us like a young wife, rousing every living being to go to his work. The fire had to be kindled by men : she brought light by striking down darkness.

" She rose up, spreading far and wide, and moving towards every one she grew in brightness, wearing her brilliant garment. The mother of the cows, the leader of the dogs, she shone gold-coloured, lovely to behold.

"She, the fortunate, who brings the eye of the god, who leads the white and lovely steed (of the sun), the Dawn was seen revealed by her rays, with brilliant treasures she follows every one.

" Thou, who art a blessing when thou art near, drive far away the unfriendly ; make the pastures wide, give us safety. Remove the haters, bring treasures. Raise up wealth to the worshipper, thou mighty Dawn,

"Shine for us with thy best rays, thou bright Dawn, thou who lengthenest our life, thou the love of all, who givest us food, who givest us wealth in cows, horses, and chariots." ^

The hymns speak especially of the broad-spreading light of Ushas ; Ushas the and this flush of dawn suddenly passing across the heaven takes us spreading. at once to the many names of like meaning which belong to the Hellenic solar beings. She "shines wide" (Urvasi), like Euryphassa and Eurydike, like Euryganeia, Eurynome, and Europe. As the daughter of Dyaus, who chases away the darkness of the night, she goes before Indra, Savitar, and Surya. She reveals mysteries and opens the ends of heaven, where the Panis had hidden away the cows of which she is the mother. She tells the Angiras where they are to be found, and as she lightens the sky she is said to drive her own herds to their pastures. She is sent especially to awaken men ; but she is charged to let the Panis (the dark powders) sleep. She is the beloved of all men and the darling of the god of love, Aniruddha, the resistless,^ who thus receives the name Ushapati, lord of the dawn ; and finally, we have in Ushas the germ of the idea which found its most graceful expression in the Hellenic Athene, and its most majestic developement in the Latin Minerva. The Sanskrit l)ud/i means both to wake and to know, and vayuna has the double meaning of light and knowledge, just as the notions of knowledge

l)ringing to an end the days which king is accused of l)eing a murderess spring from her is closely allied to the who destroys her own children, mylh of Kronos, and seems to lie at the ' R. V. vii. 77. root of the many popular German and * tpuis kviKo-Ti fi.dxav. — Soph. Anf, Norse stories, in which the bride of the 78 1.