Mythology

deal with. Unless before embarking the shade of the deceased newcomer presented Charon with his obolus, he would mercilessly drive away an intruder so ignorant of local usage. The shade was then condemned to wander the deserted shore and never find refuge. The Greeks therefore carefully put an obolus into the mouths of the dead. The Styx surrounded the Underworld with its nine loops. The Styx was personified as a nymph, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She was loved, it was said, by the Titan Pallas and by him had Zelos (Jealousy); Nike (Victory); Kratos (Force); and Bia (Violence). As a reward for the help she rendered the Olympians during the revolt of the Titans it was decided that the Immortals should swear by her name, and such vows were irrevocable. Those who drank of the waters of Lethe forgot the past. Lethe flowed, according to some, at the extremity of the Llysian fields: according to others at the edge of Tartarus. The Elysian fields and Tartarus were the two great regions of the Underworld. THE SOVEREIGN OF THE UNDERWORLD It seems that the name of the ruler of the Underworld derives from the privative prefix ‘a’ and the verb ‘to see’, evoking an idea of mystery. He was the Invisible. He was also called Pluto, from the word for ‘riches’. It was he who received buried treasure: he was then considered the god of agricultural wealth. From the centre of earth he exerted his influence on cultivation and crops. Hades - he was also called Aidoneus - was the son of Rhea and the ferocious Cronus who devoured him as he devoured his brothers and sisters. Fortunately he was delivered by his brother Zeus, from whom he received as his share of the inheritance the Kingdom of the Underworld. Over this domain Hades ruled as absolute master. He seemed happy there and was only seen to leave his Kingdom on two occasions: once to abduct Persephone and the other time to go in search of Paean in order to be cured of a wound inflicted by Hercules who struck his shoulder with a sharp-pointed arrow. On the other hand, if an impulse to emerge from the Underworld seized him, no one could see him; for his helmet made him invisible. Hades was not a particularly inconstant husband. Persephone had only twice to complain of his infidelity. First he became interested in Minthe, a nymph of the Cocytus. Persephone - or perhaps it was Demeter - pursued the unfortunate nymph and trod her ferociously underfoot. Hades transformed her into a plant which first grew in Triphylia; it was mint which was afterwards sacred to Hades. Hades also brought a daughter of Oceanus to his kingdom, one Leuce, who died a natural death and became a white poplar, the tree of the Elysian Fields. When Hercules came up from the Underworld he was crowned with its foliage. Hades was very little venerated, though as Pluto he received much more homage. This was because Hades was essentially a god of terror, mystery and the inexorable. Pluto, on the contrary, was regarded as a benevolent deity and his cult was sometimes associated with that of Demeter. To pray to him - Homer says - one struck the ground with bare hands or with rods. One sacrificed to him a black ewe or a black ram. Plants sacred to the god of the Underworld were the cypress and the narcissus. Persephone. The name of the wife of Hades occurs in several forms: Persephone, Persephoneia, Phersephone, Persephassa, Phersephatta. It is difficult to discover the etymology of all these variations. It is believed that the last half of the word Persephone comes from a word meaning ‘to show’ and evokes an idea of light. Whether the first half derives from a word meaning ‘to destroy’ - in which case Persephone would be ’she who destroys the light’ - or from an adverbial root signifying ‘dazzling brilliance’ as in the name Perseus, it is difficult to decide.

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In order to repair the damage done by the treacherous Ate, Zeus sent the Litae after her. The Litae were Prayers and also daughters of Zeus. Wrinkled and lame, they limped after their sister Ate, trying to mitigate the evils she caused. Whoever welcomed the Litae with respect was showered with blessings. THE UNDERWORLD In Greek mythology the Infernal Regions were the mournful abode where, separated from their bodies, the souls of those who had finished their earthly existence took refuge. There were two successive conceptions of where the afterworld was situated. ‘The Afterworld,’ says Circe to Odysseus, ‘lies at the extremity of the earth, beyond the vast Ocean.’ The earth was thought of as a flat surface limited by an immense encircling river Ocean. One must cross this river in order to reach the desolate and uncultivated shore of the infernal regions. There few things grew, the soil was barren and no living being could survive, for the sun’s rays could not penetrate so far. Black poplars were found there, and willows which never bore fruit. The ground supported asphodel, a funerary plant of ruins and cemeteries. This was the tradition of the epic poems. It was altered with the progress of geography when navigators discovered that very far to the west - where the infernal regions were supposed to be - there existed lands which were in fact inhabited. Popular belief then placed the kingdom of Shadows elsewhere: from then on it was situated in the centre of the earth. It continued to remain a place of shadows and mystery, of Erebus. Its approaches were no longer the Ocean. The Underworld communicated with the earth by direct channels. These were caverns whose depths were unplumbed, like that of Acherusia in Epirus, or Heraclea Pontica. Near Cape Taenarum there was one of these entrance gates and also at Colonus in a place dedicated to the Eumenides. In the same way certain rivers whose course was partly underground were thought to lead to the infernal regions. Such was the Acheron in Thesprotia into which flowed the Cocytus. It must be remarked, moreover, that the names of these rivers were given to them because they were believed to flow into the underworld. Acheron derives from the word which means ‘affliction’. It was the river of sadness and Cocytus was the river of lamentation. Though the ancients carefully described the exterior appearance and approaches of the underworld, they were vaguer about its interior. On this aspect of the Infernal Regions we have little information. According to what we have, the actual Underworld was preceded by a vestibule called the Grove of Persephone. Here the black poplars and sterile willows were again found. It had to be crossed before reaching the gate of the Kingdom of Hades. At the gate was posted Cerberus, the monstrous watch-dog with fifty heads and a voice of bronze. He was born of the love of the giant Typhoeus for Echidna. Cerberus was variously represented. Sometimes he had only three heads, sometimes he bristled with serpents and his mouth dribbled black venom. He was always to be feared. When entering the underworld, to be sure, the terrible beast would appear prepossessing, wagging its tail and ears. But never again could one come out. Cerberus, however, could be appeased by tossing to him cakes of flour and honey. Hermes could calm him down with his caduceus and Orpheus charmed him with his lyre. Only Hercules dared measure his strength with Cerberus and, vanquishing him, carried him for a moment up to earth. Cerberus infected certain herbs with his venom which were afterwards gathered by magicians and used in the preparation of baleful philtres. Within the Underworld flowed subterranean rivers: Acheron with its affluent the Cocytus swelled by the Phlegethon, Lethe and, finally, the Styx. Acheron was the son of Gaea. He had quenched the thirst of the Titans during their war with Zeus and been thrown into the Underworld where he was changed into a a river. To cross Acheron it was necessary to apply to old Charon, the official ferryman of the Underworld. He was a hard old man, difficult to

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. Man could displease the gods in two manners, either by offending the moral law - in which case he incurred their wrath or by attaining too much happiness or riches - in which case he excited their jealousy. In either of these cases the imprudent mortal was pursued by Nemesis, or the divine anger. If he had offended only by an excess of good fortune he might hope to propitiate the goddess by sacrificing a part of his happiness. Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, was terrified of the unheard-of luck which followed him, and wished to forestall the jealousy of the gods by throwing into the sea a priceless ring of which he was especially fond. But when the ring was returned to him by a fisherman who had found it in the belly of a fish, Polycrates realised that Nemesis had refused to accept his sacrifice and that unhappiness was in store for him. And, indeed, it overtook him shortly afterwards. Nemesis later became a goddess with more definitely defined personality, and various genealogies were ascribed to her. According to some she was the daughter of Oceanus. According to others she was born of Night and Erebus, in which case she was a deadly power. But when Dike was made her mother she became an equitable divinity. She was, however, always responsible for seeing that order was maintained. One of her titles was Adrasteia - the Inevitable. She is sometimes depicted with a finger to her lips -suggesting that silence is advisable in order not to attract the divine anger. The principal sanctuary of Nemesis was at Rhamnus, a small town in Attica. There was a statue of the goddess there which Phidias carved from the marble which the Persians, rashly counting on victory in advance, had brought with them before the battle of Marathon, expecting to erect a trophy with it. Tyche, Ate, Litae. To complete the list of divinities whose functions were moral, there is Tyche, goddess of fortune. Hesiod calls her the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She was represented variously by various cities, each having its own Tyche. Adorned with the mural crown, she wears the attributes of abundance. Ate, daughter of Eris or of Zeus, was on the other hand a malevolent divinity who prompted men to irresponsible acts. She led both men and gods into error and aberration. It was she who, when Hercules was born, suggested to Zeus the imprudent vow which caused the hero such subsequent misery. Hence the master of the gods punished the wicked goddess by banishing her permanently from Olympus and ‘from the heights of heaven flung her into the midst of man’s affairs’.

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and explain the god’s precepts. Patients would thank Asclepius by tossing gold into the sacred fountain and by hanging ex-votos on the walls of the temple. DIVINITIES CONCERNED WITH MORALITY The Moerae or Fates. The Moerae, whom the Romans called the Parcae, were for Homer the individual and inescapable destiny which followed every mortal being. Only in Hesiod’s Theogony are they treated as goddesses. They were three in number, daughters of Night, and they were called: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. Clotho, the spinner, personified the thread of life. Lachesis was chance, the element of luck that a man had the right to expect. Atropos was inescapable fate, against which there was no appeal. The whole of man’s life was shadowed by the Moerae. They arrived at his birth with Ilithyia. When he was married the three Moerae had to be invoked so that the union should be happy. And when the end approached the Moerae hastened to cut the thread of his life. Hesiod placed them with the Keres, thus giving them the role of divinities of violent death. The Moerae were submitted to the authority of Zeus who commanded them to see that the natural order of things was respected They sat in the assemblies of the gods and possessed the gift of prophecy. Nemesis. Like the Fates, Nemesis had at first been a moral idea, that of the inexorable equilibrium of the human

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The two llithyias finally merged into a single person, the goddess of childbirth. She was, in fact, a very ancient divinity believed to have originated in Crete. She is most often depicted kneeling, a position which was believed to aid delivery, and carrying a torch, symbol of light, while with her other hand she makes a gesture of encouragement. Certain goddesses known to be particularly concerned with women were sometimes given the epithet Ilithyia: Hera at Argos. Tor instance, and Artemis at Delos. It may even be asked if Ilithyia is not simply a double of Hera’s. Asclepius. We have seen, in discussing Apollo, the tragic circumstances of the birth of Asclepius, son of Apollo and Coronis. Apollo snatched him from the burning pyre on which his mother’s body had just been consumed and carried him to Mount Pelion where he was confided to the care of the Centaur Chiron. Chiron taught him to hunt and instructed him in the science of medicine. The medical career x)f Asclepius then began. With his miraculous cures he soon earned immense renown. He even succeeded in restoring the dead to life, thanks either to the Gorgon’s blood which Athene had given him or to the properties of a plant which a serpent had told him about. Hades felt that he was being wronged. He went .to Zeus to complain, and Zeus agreed that mortals must follow their destiny. Thus Asclepius was guilty of thwarting the order of nature and Zeus struck him dead with a thunderbolt. Apollo avenged the death of his son by exterminating the Cyclopes who had forged the thunderbolt. Apollo was banished from Olympus for a considerable time as a result of this massacre. At Epidaurus another tradition of the birth of Asclepius was current. They said that Coronis gave birth to her son Asclepius while her father, Phlegyas, was on an expedition to the Peloponnese. She exposed the new-born child on Mount Titthion where a goat fed it and a dog guarded it. One day Aresthanas, a shepherd, discovered it and was struck by the supernatural light which played over the child. Be that as it may, the god of health was always considered to be the offspring of light or fire. To the sick he restored the warmth they had lost. Hence he was the object of great veneration in Greece. He was surrounded by auxiliary divinities: to begin with, Epione, his wife, who bore the two Asclepiads, Podaleirius and Machaon. Both took part, at the head of the Thessalians of Tricca, in the Trojan war. They were as skilled in medicine as their father. Machaon, especially, cured Menelaus of an arrow wound. He also cured Philoctetes. He himself was killed before Troy and Nestor brought his body back to Greece. Podaleirius survived the expedition and on his return was cast by a tempest on to the shores of Caria where he settled. Asclepius also had daughters: laso, Panacea, Aegle and, above all, Hygieia, who was closely associated with the cult of her father as goddess of health. Finally we must mention the guardian spirit of convalescence, Telesphorus, who was represented wearing a hooded cape, the costume of those who had just recovered from illness. Asclepius was sometimes represented as a serpent, but more frequently as a man of middle age with an expression of benevolence, and his cult was at the same time a,religion and a system of therapeutics. His sanctuaries, such as those at Tricca, Epidaurus, Cos and Pergamus, were built outside the towns on particularly healthy sites. ‘The priests in charge of them at first held a monopoly of medical knowledge which was handed down from father to son. It was only later that they admitted outsiders as neophytes. In the Asdepeia special rites were observed. After much purificatory preparation, baths, fasting, sacrifices, the patient was permitted to spend the night in the temple of Asclepius where he slept either on the skin of the sacrificed animal or on a couch placed near the statue of the god. This was the period of incubation. During the night Asclepius would appear to the patient in a dream and give him advice. In the morning the priests would interpret the dream

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In the Senegambia group, the ‘Serers’, who divide the Uolofs of the north from those of the south, are a very superstitious and fetish-ridden people. They believe in metempsychosis and are afraid of sorcerers, who are supposed to cause death. The Serers are primitive men, and have a superstitious belief for every natural force. They believe in one god, Rock-Sene, who shows his anger by thunder and lightning, and his kindness by rain and good harvests. The Serers worship the spirits of the ancestors and the family spirits which they think live in baobabs or near burial places. The natives give offerings to them since after God they are the masters of good and evil. They have a cosmogony legend of the sun and moon. ‘One day, the Sun’s mother and the Moon’s mother were bathing naked in a little waterfall. The Sun turned his back so as not to see his mother naked, but the Moon looked very keenly at her mother. After the bath the Sun was called by his mother who said: “My son, you have always respected me, may God bless you! You did not look at me in the waterfall; and as you turned your eyes away from me I pray God that he will allow no living being to look steadily at you.” The Moon was called in turn by her mother, who said: “Daughter, you did not respect me in the waterfall, and you stared at me as if I were some bright object, so I want everyone to be able to look at you without ever tiring his eyes.”

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him: “You are always complaining that I have made you one of the unfortunate. It isn’t my fault. This village is occupied by the families of all men on earth - choose the dwelling you would like to stay in.” ‘God gave him a guide, and ‘the man explored the village which was very large. He saw splendid houses occupied by people who did no work and had many servants. He saw wretched huts where the poor carried on the same occupations as poor human beings. In one of the houses he saw his parents and said to the guide: “There’s my house.” They returned to Nyamia, who said: “Look at your courtyard, you can see you have nothing, and you know that the child of poor parents can never become rich. If he gains some wealth, the money slips through his fingers. However, I am giving you a present. Here are two sacks, a large and a small, one of which is for you and the other for your master. You will not open yours until you have delivered my present to the king of the Kumasi.” ‘ ‘The child came for the man and took him back to earth. On the way the servant thought to himself: “Nobody knows that God has given me two sacks. I’ll hide the big one and give my master the little one. ‘When he got back to the plantation, the son of heaven left the man and went back to his father. The man then dug a hole and hid the big sack in it. He went to Kumasi where the king greeted him with joy, for he had thought the man was lost. The servant told his story, and handed over the little sack. The master opened it, and found it full of gold dust. In great joy the man who had been to heaven said to himself: “I’m rich.” He ran to his field, dug up the big sack, and found it full of stones. , ‘Thus was verified the word of God - the poor man can never become rich.’ The religion of the people of Dahomey includes a fetishist cult. Mahou or Mao is the superior being, the good spirit. The Rainbow Snake, servant of Thunder, is also considered as a beneficent spirit. Thunder, who dwells in the clouds, is a dreaded spirit, whom the natives try to placate with offerings made by fetish-doctors. The sea is a power surrounded by a large family - the splashing of the water, sirens, the python. Alongside these spirits there are personal spirits who are particularly venerated. Such for the people of Dahomey are Legba and Fa. Similar ideas may be found among the Baramba. With them the Wokolo is a little devil who must be avoided if you don’t want to receive his treacherous arrows. Wokolo likes trees and the banks of streams. The Baramba have a special cult for trees, sacrifice domestic animals to them and smear the blood of the victims on the trunks, while praying to the spirit dwelling there. The tribes speaking the Ewe language, who live in Togo, think that to this day God still makes human beings out of clay. When he wants to make a good man he uses good clay, and for a wicked man he uses bad clay. In the beginning God made a man and set him on earth, and then a woman. The two looked at each other, and burst out laughing. After which they wandered over the earth. The same natives of Togo have a myth about death. One day men sent a dog to God to ask that they might be reborn after death. The dog went off to carry his message. On the way he felt hungry, and went into a house where a man was boiling magical herbs. Meanwhile the frog had started off to tell God that men preferred not to live again. Nobody had told him to take this message. The dog who was watching the soup on the boil saw the frog go past, but thought: ‘When I’ve had something to eat I can soon catch him up.’ However, the frog arrived first and gave its message to God, and then along came the dog who explained his mission. God was extremely embarrassed and said to the dog: ‘Really, I can’t understand these two messages, but as the frog got here first, I shall grant its request.’ And that is why men die, and never return to life.

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Although its chief origins are derived from ancient Aryan practice, the mythology of the priestly caste corresponds to a later phase. In contrast to the simplicity of the religion of Indra, that of the Brahmans, the religion of Agni, allowed of endless developments and variations. The Religion of Agni Agni is a personification of fire, which had such immense prestige in the esteem of the Indo- Europeans, especially the Iranians. It started as the instrument of the cult, and became its object. The same flame wavers and crackles on the hearth, in the burning sunshine and in the flash of lightning. So Agni, like Indra, but in another sense, became the equivalent of the starry hearth-fire of the world and of the lightning which hurls down rain on the thirsty earth. They both, from this point of view, symbolise the relationship of Father Heaven and Mother Earth, which haunted Indo-European imagination. The anthropomorphic transformation of Agni scarcely started, but his ritualistic descriptions occupy a privileged place in the Veda and the Brahmanas - the face smeared with butter, the wild hair, swift tongues, sharpened jaws, golden teeth, are all aspects of the flames on which the oblation is thrown; the diverse nature which is described both as eagle and bull; Agni is born from the rubbing together ot two pieces of wood, the ‘Aranis’, and the poets marvel at the sight of a being so alive leaping from dry dead wood. His very growth is miraculous. Since his parents are incapable of providing for him, he devours them as soon as he is born, and then feeds on the oblations of clarified butter poured into his mouths of devouring flame. Agni also dwells in the waters and in the sky - under the form of lightning he tears asunder the cloud whose beneficent waters will fertilise the earth, and it is he who flames at the heart of the sun. He has many shapes, he plays the part of mediator let us say mythically, of messenger - for the gods as well as for mankind. He despises nobody, since he is the guest of every hearth. He is the intimate protector of the home, he is the domestic priest, yet reconciles the various priestly functions. He watches with a thousand eyes over Man who feeds him and brings him offerings, protects him against his enemies and grants him immortality. In a funerary hymn Agni is requested to rewarm with his flames the immortal being which subsists in the dead man, and to lead him to the world of the Just. Agni carries a man through calamities as a ship carries him over the sea. The wealth of all worlds is under his power, and that is why he is invoked to obtain abundant food, prosperity, and all temporal goods generally. He is also invoked for the forgiveness of sins committed under the sway of passing folly. He is called Agni, son of Heaven and of Earth, or the son of Brahma, or of Kasyapa and of Aditi, or of Angiras, king of the Manes. He is the husband of Svaha, and by her has three sons: Pavaka, Pavamana and Suci. Again, he is described as a red man with three legs, seven arms and black eyes and hair. He rides on a ram, and wears the Brahmanic cord with a garland of fruits. Flames spout from his mouth, and his body sends forth seven rays of light. His attributes are the axe, wood, the bellows (a fan), the torch, and the sacrificial spoon. Agni made the sun, and filled the night with stars. The gods fear him and do him homage, for he knows the secrets of mortals. According to the ritual directions, three different kinds of fire should be lighted - to the East, the ahavaniya or vaisvanara fire, for offerings to the gods; to the South, the dakshina (narasamsa) fire for the cult of the Manes: and to the West, the garhapatya fire for the cooking of food and for offerings. These hearths represent respectively the sky with the sun, the intermediate air (abode of the dead and domain of the winds), and the earth. The sacrificial rites symbolise the correspondences between these three worlds. Numerous myths express these fundamental correlations. We may note that of the Bhrigus, aerial gods of the storm who bring heaven and earth into communication; and the myth of Matarisvan, who receives and

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Their equivalence to the Greek Dioscuri cannot be called in question; they are Indo-European, and not solely Indian. They bear witness to that knightly ideal of the conquering aristocrats who introduced the horse to central and southern Asia. Their name Nasatya, which can be interpreted from the root-form nas, meaning ‘to save’, seems to be an allusion to their mission of beneficence. They are the doctors of the gods, the friends of the sick and unfortunate. They heal the blind, and the lame, and give back their youth to the old. They are kindly disposed to love and marriage. Their parents were the Sun and the cloud-goddess, Saranyu. As wife they have in common Surya, the daughter of Savitri, another aspect of solar light. Their whip scatters the dew. Their three-wheeled chariot was made by the triad of Rhibus, sons of the ‘good archer’, Sudhanvan. The name ‘rhibu’ implies genii skilled in constructing. They possess their own horses and prepare the equipment of the warrior gods, and they revolve chiefly round Indra. A graceful legend attests the ‘chivalrous’ character of the Asvins. In spite of their beauty and their beneficence they found that entry to heaven was forbidden them by the gods, on account of their humble birth. And this is how the wealthy Syavana, who received eternal youth from them, persuaded Indra to allow them among the gods. This old Risi had a beautiful young wife, Sukanya. The twins watched her when she was bathing and said to her: ‘O woman of delicious limbs, why did thy father bestow thee on such an old man, on the edge of the grave? Thou art radiant as summer lightning, we have seen none like thee even in heaven. Even without any ornament thou art an embellishment to the whole forest. How much more beautiful wouldst thou be in rich robes and splendid jewels! Abandon thine ancient husband and choose one of us, for youth does not endure.’ She replied: ‘I am devoted to my husband, Syavana.’ They insisted: ‘We will make thy husband young and beautiful, and then thou shall choose which of us three thou wilt take as thy lord.’ Sukanya repealed these words to her husband, who gave his consent He bathed in the lake along with the Asvins, and all three emerged young and radiant Sukanya, seeing all three alike, hesilated long in her choice, but when she finally recognized her husband she refused all except him. Syavana, delighted that he had kept his wife as well as receiving youth and beauly, persuaded Indra to allow the two horsemen to share the sacrifices made to the gods and lo enjoy ’soma’ with them. Myths of Royalty. With the historical times which succeeded the age of the Vedas we find following on the religion of Indra and the Adityas certain Kshatriyan rites which gave rise to myths of supreme power. The Brahmans were careful to take part in these rites, in order to lose no occasion of influencing the rival caste. Whether it was a matter of the frequent investitures or the rare consecration of a king, the ceremonies of the aristocracy were intended to endow the beneficiaries with the authority of the noble or of the king, and as every divinity tends to become the absolute god, so every petty king imagined himself a ruler without an equal. Hence the obsessive myth of the cakravartin, the controller of the universal Dharma, a sovereign on an equality with a demiurge. Here may be seen the most decisive influence of Persia on India, among so many fundamental and permanent affinities. The cakravartin unites the fascinating legitimacy of Varuna with, the vigour of Indra. The asvamedha or horse-sacrifice was the most solemn of these rites. The slaying of a sacred horse, the peculiarly Aryan animal and constant symbol of the Sun, marked the taking possession, by the exceptionally powerful sovereign who carried out the rite, of the four cardinal points- hence, of everything. A quasi-coupling of the animal with the queen founded in addition the fecundity of Nature. Nothing was spared to give splendour to a ceremony whereby henceforth a potentate became identified with the solar body, the heart of the universe. The Kshatriya thus became the center of the world. MYTHOLOGY OF THE PRIESTLY CASTE

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who as he had promised had entered into this strange weapon, and nobody can resist him. The gods rejoiced and Nature with them; the sky was filled with light and a soft breeze began to blow; even the beasts of the field rejoiced. But Indra felt that he carried the burden of a great sin, for he had slain a Brahman. Gods of Universal Power: Mitra and Varuna Mitra and Varuna, made in India the sons of Aditi or Adityas, form a dyad. They are called kings (Raja), possessors of that power, kshatram, which forms the essence of the Kshatriya caste. They are endowed with universal power (samraj). Yet they scarcely possess human shape, which puts them in contrast to Indra. They have magical powers, maya and asuras, a term which comprehends not only the mysterious powers of certain devas (or gods) but the evil influence of demons. Mitra and Varuna did not institute but maintain universal order, rita: that is their essential function. For this reason the former presides over friendship and ratifies contracts, while the latter looks after oaths. To carry out their functions as guardians and witnesses they must see, or shine, for in primitive minds these two ideas are interchangeable. And so one sees or shines during the day - Mitra or the Sun; the other at night - Varuna or the Moon. Their other characteristics are less significant and more arbitrary. The Indian Mitra coincides with the Iranian Mithra, except that the former, unlike the latter, is not closely associated with a brother. But the Persians frequently linked his name with that of the great Ahura (asura) Mazda. From this standpoint Varuna should appear to us as an Indian transposition of the god preached by Zoroaster. Nothing escapes him. He restrains with his bonds those who break rules. He rewards and punishes, taking into account intention and penitence. He directs the physical as well as the moral world. His decrees (vrata) regulate the motions of the heavens and the circulation of waters - two closely connected facts. Of course some have exaggerated the apparent identity of Varuna with Uranus, as well as the supposedly marine character of Varuna. But the regulator of the seasons also controls the system of rains. This god presides over the sky, the air, and the waters. The wind is his breath, the stars are his eyes. He sees everything going on in the world, including every secret thought. Shining with a ’sombre light’ Varuna is especially linked with the moon, that reservoir of sacrificial liquid, Soma. He presides over the care of this ambrosia throughout the alternating waxings and wanings of the planet. Moreover, the moon is the abiding place of the dead, and so Varuna shares with Yama, the first person who died, the title of King of the Dead. Varuna is represented as a white man riding on a sea monster, the makara, and holding a lasso - an allusion to his functions as judge. Hence his name of Pasi, as well as the epithets given him as the supremely wise, Prasetas, or as lord of the waters, Jalapati, Jadapati, Amburaja. It seems he fell in love with the nymph, Urvasi, at the same time as the Sun, Surya, and by her they had a son, Agastya, famous as an ascetic. Lord of physical and moral order, Varuna is omnipresent. ‘He follows the track of the birds which fly in the sky like the wake of a ship’ ploughing through the waves (Rig-Veda, I. 25); and knows the past and the future. He is a witness of every action, he is the ‘third party’ present at every gathering. No authority is equal to his. Nasatyas or Asvins: Ribhus There are almost as many opinions as experts in the interpretation of the last pair of gods mentioned as watching over the Mitanni. Their Vedic name most commonly used is ‘the knights’ or ‘the horsemen’, two golden or honey-colored twins. They bring up the morning light of the sky, making a path through the clouds for the Dawn-goddess, Ushas. At the evening twilight they play a similar part, and perhaps they must be identified with the Morning and Evening star.

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