Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

The Clouds personified in Cult and Myth 97

filled with the virtue of my religious labours, you must bring forth out of your own body
a son as described above. We shall perform for your sake a sacrifice of wonderful effect,
SO that you will bring forth a son equal to Indra. You will not feel any pain at the time
of the delivery. When one hundred years passed away, a son, as effulgent as the sun,
came out by riving the left side of that high-souled king. The greatly effulgent child
came out, but king Yuvanashwa did not die,—it was no doubt a great wonder. Then
greatly effulgent Indra came there with the desire of seeing him. Thereupon the celestials
asked Indra, "What is to be sucked by this boy?" Then Indra gave his own fore finger
'nto his mouth (to suck), and the wielder of thunder said, "he will suck me." Thereupon
the dwellers of heaven with Indra gave him the name " Mandhatta",' H. H. Wilson
°P- cit. London 1866 viii. 267= Vishnu Purdna 4. 2 'When the Munis rose, and found
that the water had been drunk, they inquired who had taken it, and said: "The queen
that has drunk this water shall give birth to a mighty and valiant son." "It was I,"
exclaimed the Raja, "who unwittingly drank the water": and, accordingly, in the belly
°f \uvanaswa was conceived a child. And it grew; and, in due time, it ripped open the
nght side of the Raja, and was born: and the Raja did not die. Upon the birth of the
child, "Who will be its nurse?" said the Munis; when (Indra,) the king of the gods
aPpeared, and said, " He shall have me for his nurse " (mam ayarh dhasyati); and, hence,
the boy was named Mandhatri. Indra put his fore-finger into the mouth of the infant,
who sucked it, and drew from it (heavenly) nectar.'

(4) The Buddha-Varita of Ajvaghosha (c. 100 A.D.) narrates the birth of Buddha from
the side of queen Maya: Buddka-karita trans. E. B. Cowell 1. 25, 26, 29 (The Sacred
Books of the East Oxford 1894 xlix. jf.) 'At that time the constellation Pushya was
auspicious, and from the side of the queen, who was purified by her vow, her son was
horn for the welfare of the world, without pain and without illness. Like the sun bursting
from a cloud in the morning,—so he too, when he was born from his mother's womb,
Wade the world bright like gold, bursting forth with his rays which dispelled the dark-
ness.... As was Aurva's birth from the thigh, and Prtthu's from the hand, and Mandhatfz's,
who was like Indra himself, from the forehead [but see supra (3)], and Kakshivat's from
'he upper end of the arm,—thus too was his birth (miraculous).' The Fo-sko-hing-
tsan-king, a translation of the Buddka-karita into Chinese made by the Indian priest
Dharmaraksha (c. 420 A.D.), repeats the narrative: Fo-sko-kiug-tsan-king trans. S. Beal
'■ 1. 9—11 (The Sacred Books of the East Oxford 1883 xix. 2 f.) 'While she (thus)
'eligiously observed the rules of a pure discipline, Bodhisattva was born from her right
s'de, (come) to deliver the world, constrained by great pity, without causing his mother
Pain or anguish. As king Yu-liu [sc. Aurva] was born from the thigh, as king Pi-t'au
[sc. Pr/thu] was born from the hand, as king Man-to [sc. Mandhatrz] was born from the
'op of the head [but see supra (3)], as king Kia-k'ka [sc. Kakshivat] was born from the
arm-pit, So also was Bodhisattva on the day of his birth produced from the right side;
gradually emerging from the womb, he shed in every direction the rays of his glory.'

(5) F. Liebrecht Dts Gervasius von Tilbury Otia Imperialia Hannover 1856 p. 72
n°tes that, according to an Old French legend, Phanuel once peeled an apple and wiped
lhe knife on his thigh. The juice soaked into and impregnated his thigh, from which
n,rie months later a girl—the mother of the Virgin Mary—was born (J. von Lassberg
&in schoen alt Lied von Grave Friz von Zolre, dem Oettinger, und der Belagerung von Hohcn
Zolren, nebst nock ellichen andcrn Liedern (Constanz 1842) p. 76 f.: 'Sainz fanoel se sist
Un Jour I Emmi sa sale ala froideur j Seur vn coulstes de cendaul | II apela son senechaul |
^es pomes li fit apourter | Es melades en veut doner | Ses seneschauz laut apourta | Et
a ses piez sa genoilla | Trois des pomes et un coutel | Mit en la main sainz fanoel | Ly

°'s les prit sy les tailla | Et es melades en dona | Quant ly rois ot taille la pome | De
Ja seue qui tant fut bone | Entint vn poy a son coutel [ Or oiez de saint fanoel | Quant
" v't son coutel moille | De la pome quil ot taille | A sa cuisse le ressuia | Et la seue ly
engenra | Vne mout gentil demoiselle | Qui mout parfut cortoise et belle. || Qvant ly rois
v't la grand meruoille | A cui nulle ne sa peroille | II hamende tous ses amis | Et les
Wires de son pais | II ny vint mires tant senez J Ne feciein tant letrez | Qui sehut dire la

C. 111. 7