Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/181

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Transparent and Opaque Gods 165

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I have followed the main current of Agni's life in order to make clear the meaning of arrested person- iﬁcation, o ‘ arrested antl‘xropomorphism. The Vedic poets are ar from restricting themselves to this one View. Fire is not only in the sacral ﬁre-sticks, but he is visible t‘werywhere: as sun and lightning in the sky; as glint on the surface of the waters; as the embryo of plants and trees that willingly give it up when in flames; as the spark of flint and the rocks; and even in the heat of the body, and as vital force latent in all living things. Especially remarkable is the certainly Indo-Iiiluropcan myth which deals very clearly with a twin descent from

heaven: the descent of ﬁre, and the descent of the heavenly ﬂuid. In its Vedic treatment the heavenly ﬁre is Agni of the lightning; the heavenly ﬂuid is some, the ambrosial drink: “ The one (namely, the heavenly ﬁre) Matarigvan brought from heaven; the other (namely, some) the eagle brought from the rock." i I have spoken before of the descent of the heavenly ﬂuid 3; the descent of Agni from heaven is doubtless connected with the lightning ﬁre. Ms— tarigvan, however, who brings Agni, belongs to the class of mythic persons for whom I have reserved the attribute “ opaque.’ Even this dramatic: nature

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1 Rig-Veda I. 93.. 6. 9 Above, p. 146..