Verethraghna's work. The armies that meet on the battlefield invoke Verethraghna for victory. He favours that army which first seeks his help. The army that secures his aid is sure to conquer and not to be conquered, it smites and is not smitten.[1] He breaks asunder the columns of the enemy, wounds them, shakes them, and cuts them to pieces.[2] He brings illness and death into the army that has lied unto Mithra, binds their hands and feet, and deprives them of their eyesight and hearing.[3] He destroys the malice of the malicious demons and men, sorcerers and fairies, the wilfully blind, and the wilfully deaf.[4] Zarathushtra sacrificed unto Verethraghna, imploring from him victory in thought, victory in word, victory in deed, victory in addressing, and victory in replying.[5] Verethraghna imparts to the prophet the excellence of uprightness, the strength of the arms, the health of the body, the strength of the body, and the powerful vision of the eyes.[6]
His metamorphoses. Verethraghna, along with Dahma Afriti and Damoish Upamana, imports a peculiar aspect into the Iranian pantheon, that of assuming various shapes and manifesting his individuality in many forms. As the lord of victory he is ever ready to help those who invoke him, and comes down to his votary under different guises. Ten of such forms of Verethraghna are mentioned, when he appeared to Zarathushtra. The divinity successively assumes the form of the wind, a bull, a horse, a camel, a boar, a youth, a raven, a ram, a he-goat, and finally of a man.[7] He escorts Mithra in the shape of a boar to smite those that have lied unto the guardian of truth.[8]
Raman
He causes the joy of life. Another instance of a hymn consecrated in name to one Yazata, but wholly devoted to the praise and glorification of another, is furnished by Ram Yasht (15). Raman is merely invoked by name along with Vayu at the be-
