Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/451

Rh CHAP, unfrequently Indra is said to be Agni, and Agni is said to be Indra, while both aUke are Skambha, the supporter of the universe.^

Hence the character of the god, as we might expect, is ahiiost Physical wholly physical. The blessings which his worshippers pray for are of Ao-ni. commonly temporal, and very rarely is he asked, like Varuna, to forgive sin. In the earlier hymns, he is generally addressed as the fire which to mortal men is an indispensable boon : in the more developed ceremonialism of later times he is chiefly concerned with the ordering of the sacrifice. As bearing up the offerings on the flames which mount to the sky, he stands in the place of Hermes as the messenger between gods and men. Like Phoibos and Indra, he is full of a secret wisdom. He is the tongue (of fire) through which gods and men receive each their share of the victims offered on the altar. Nay, so clearly is his mythical character still understood, that, although he is sometimes the originator of all things, at others he is said to have been kindled by Manu (man), and the expression at once carries us to the legends of Prometheus, Hermes, and Phoroneus, who is him- self the Vedic god of fire Bhuranyu. The very sticks which Manu rubbed together are with his ten fingers called the parents of Agni, who is said to have destroyed them, as Oidipous and Perseus, Cyrus and Romulus are said to have destroyed their fathers. The hymns describe simply the phenomena of fire, which disappears or dies with a hiss or scream when it touches the water, even as the sun's orb is extinguished when it plunges into the seething bosom of the ocean.

" O Agni, thou from whom, as a new-born male, undying flames proceed, the brilliant smoke-god goes towards the sky, for as messenger thou art sent to the gods.

" Thou, whose power spreads over the earth in a moment when thou hast grasped food with thy jaws — like a dashing army thy blast goes forth ; with thy lambent flame thou seemest to tear up the grass.

" Him alone, the ever youthful Agni, men groom, like a horse in the evening and at dawn ; they bed him as a stranger in his couch ; the light of Agni, the worshipped male, is lighted.

" Thy appearance is fair to behold, thou bright-faced Agni, when like gold thou shinest at hand ; thy brightness comes like the lightning of heaven ; thou showest splendour like the bright sun." ^

' Although in a multitude of passages is ordinary earthly flame, in his highest Agni is spoken of in terms which can is identical with Varuna himself, is the be predicated only of a suj)reme deity, Asura, the ultimate source of all light, this, it has been well said, proves no heat, life, and energy." — Brown, AV- more than that " all the diviniiies are ligio)i of Zoroaster, §31. of the same igneous nature, and that ^ R. W vii. 3 ; Max Midler, .Srt/wXv. Agni who in his lowest manifestation /,//. 5O7.