the mead of Suttung. We find a similar feat connected with Indra. Gubernatis says,[1] "In the Rig-Veda Indra often appears as a hawk. While the hawk carries the ambrosia through the air, he trembles for fear of the archer Kriçanus, who, in fact, shot off one of his claws, of which the hedgehog was born, according to the Aitareya Brahmana, and according to the Vedic hymn, one of his feathers, which, falling on the earth, afterwards became a tree."[2] Indra's very peculiar relations with rams are also referred to by Gubernatis.[3] They resemble a certain repulsive myth of Zeus, Demeter, and the ram referred to by the early Christian fathers. In the Satapatha Brahmana[4] Indra is called "ram of Medhâtithi," wife of Vrishanasva. Indra, like Loki, had taken the part of a woman.[5] In the shape of a ram he carried off Medhâtithi, an exploit like that of Zeus with Ganymede.[6]
In the Vedas, however, all the passages which connect Indra with animals will doubtless be explained away as metaphorical, though it is admitted that, like Zeus, he could assume whatever form he pleased.[7] Vedic poets, probably of a late period, made Indra as anthropomorphic as the Homeric Zeus. His domestic life in the society of his consort Indrani is described.[8] When he is starting for the war, Indrani calls him back, and gives him a stirrup-cup of soma. He and she quarrel very naturally about his pet monkey.[9]
- ↑ Zoological Mythology, ii. 182.
- ↑ Compare Rig-Veda, iv. 271.
- ↑ Zool. Myth., i. 414.
- ↑ ii. 81.
- ↑ Rig-Veda, i. 51, 13.
- ↑ Rig-Veda, viii. 2, 40.
- ↑ Rig-Veda, iii. 48, 4.
- ↑ Rig-Veda, iii, 53, 4–6; vii. 18, 2.
- ↑ Rig-Veda, x. 86.
