Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

718

Animals sacrificed to Zeus

primitive conception of the Hellenic Zeus was closely analogous
to that of the Vedic Dyaus1.

1 A. A. Macdonell Vedic Mythology Strassburg 1897 p. 22 says of Dyaus : ' The only
essential feature of the personification in the RV. is in fact his paternity. In a few
passages Dyaus is called a bull (1, 1603; 5, 36s) that bellows (5, 58s). Here we have
a touch of theriomorphism inasmuch as he is conceived as a roaring animal that fertilizes
the earth.' My friend Prof. E. J. Rapson has most kindly supplied me (October 12, 1907)
with the following translation of, and commentary on, the passages in question :—■
'Rig-Veda I. 160. 3. "To Heaven and Earth."

Sa vahnih putrah pitroh pavitravdn
punati dhiro bhuvandni mayaya;
dhemim ca prs'nim vrsabham surelasam
7)isvaha sukravi payo asya diihsata.

"The swift-comer, the son of these two parents, the purifier,
the wise one, purifieth (or enlighteneth) the worlds through his power;
From the speckled cow and from the bull l'ich in seed
he milketh ever his gleaming fluid."

Dyaus, the Heaven, is the bull rich in seed : and Prthivi, the Earth, is the speckled
cow. The son of Heaven and Earth is the Sun-god. The gleaming fluid is the rain.
R.V. v. 36. 5. "To India."

Vrsa tvd vrsanam vardhatu Dyaur:
vrsa vrsdbhydm vahase haribhyam.
Sa no vrsa viyarathah susipra

vrsakrato vrsa vajrin bhare dhah.

" May the bull, the Heaven, cherish thee, the bull :
As a bull thou drivest with thy two mighty (bull-like) horses.
Do thou the bull, with bulls in thy chariot, O fair-lipped one,

O thou who hast the strength of a bull, do thou, O god of the thunderbolt, as a bull
give us (booty) in the battle."

There is a constant play here on the two meanings of vrsan = (i) a mighty one,
(2) a bull; and it is difficult to know which meaning to select in each case. I have
translated it by " bull" in every case, except in reference to the two horses, where it
must mean "mighty" or '*like a bull."

R.V. v. 58. 6. "To. the Maruts."

Yat prdyasista prsatibhir asvair

vilupavibhir, Maruto, rathebhih,
ksodanta dpo, riitate vandny.

Avosriyo vrsabhah krandatu Dyauh.

" When ye go forth with speckled deer for your steeds,
in chariots with strong wheels, O ye Maruts,
the waters raise themselves, and the floods well forth ;
Then let the Heaven, the tawny bull, thunder."

The words for "bull," viz. vrsan and vrsabha, are probably derived from the root
vrs=" to water," from which the ordinary word for " rain" varsd comes. A secondary
meaning is "to impregnate," and this is the meaning which underlies that of vrsan,
which always has the idea of " male." The word is so constantly used when the idea
of masculine strength is intended, that it is not easy to know when, as applied to deities,
it has or has not the further specific idea of "bull." It is applied to gods, in this
general sense, almost indiscriminately—to Agni, Indra, the Maruts and to Soma for
instance.

I should scarcely have thought that Dyaus was ever conceived by the Vedic poets as