Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/162

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
146
The Religion of the Veda

Rig-Veda and the Avesta report the names of the same ancient worthies that prepared the fluid for the gods: Vedic Vivasvant, Yama, and Trita Āptya; Avestan Vīvanhvant, Yima, Āthwya and Thrita. This marks the most intimate, if not the most important, relation between the two religious literatures.

Mythically, this wonderful drink was conceived as coming from heaven, the type on earth of the heavenly fluid that is hidden in the clouds. In the Veda a heavenly eagle, doubtless the lightning, breaks through the brazen castle, the cloud, within which the heavenly fluid is confined, and carries it off to earth, that is, causes it to pour down upon the earth. It is the simple phenomenon of cloud, lightning, and downpour of refreshing and life-giving rain which is turned into the heavenly prototype of this delightful drink.[1]

The Iranian haoma is also fetched from heaven by a bird, though the manner of his descent to earth is not told. In both literatures the drink finally turns god, slays demons, casts missiles, and gains in his perfect wisdom[2] light for

  1. ↑ See the author in Journal of the American Oriental Society, xvi., 1 ff. For analogous conceptions in Greek mythology, see Usener in Rheinisches Museum, lx., 24 ff. For winged lightning see Jacobsthal, Der Blitz in der Orientalischen und Griechischen Kunst, p. 19, 25 ff, 36 ff, 42.
  2. ↑ Vedic sukratu = Avestan hukhratu.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.