BOOK II.
and of creative power are both expressed by the root j'an and the
English can and /Cr;/. Hence Ushas is said to enable men to cross
the frontier of darkness, and, as the seer, to give light far and wide.
" Waking every mortal to walk about, she receives praise from every
thinker." Thus, as the Day, she is the mother of the Divine Night,
who reveals all her splendour after she has driven away her sister
the Twilight.^ Of the birth of Athene fully armed from the head
of Zeus, when cloven by the axe of Hephaistos, the poets of the
Iliad and Odyssey say nothing ; but the presence of the story in
the Hesiodic Theogony is a conclusive argument against any infer-
ence which might be drawn from their silence, even if Ushas were
not, as she actually is, spoken of in the Veda as sprung from the
forehead of Dyaus, the sky.^
But Ushas is only one of many names for ihe light of early morning. As Ahana, she plays the part as well as bears the name of Athene and of Daphne. The word expresses the idea of burning light ; and although it occurs only once in the Rig Veda,* the flexibility of the old mythology justifies us in attributing to Ahana all that is told us of Ushas or of Sarama.* If then we apply to Dahana the phrases which spoke of Ushas as pursued by the Sun, who slays though he loves her, or as dying in his arms, we see at once an offshoot from the parent stem which in the West yielded the myths of Daphne and of Prokris. Daphne too is loved by Phoibos, and, like Ahana, she flies from his face until she takes refuge in the Peneian stream. But in some passages of the Veda the idea of her might remains too prominent to allow much room for that of love.
" This strong and manly deed also thou hast performed, O Indra, that thou struckest the daughter of Dyaus, a woman difficult to vanquish.
"Yes, even the daughter of Dyaus, the magnified, the Dawn, thou, O Indra, a great hero, hast ground to pieces.
' The benignant aspect of night must be carefully i)ornc in mind, as the germ of the myths of Asteria, Astenxlia, Kalypso, and other Fairy Queens. Under all these forms we have the vh^ ^ila fxfydhwv K6(Tixa)v Kreareipa of JF.schyios, A go lit. 356. As such, Night is invoked in the 'eda to "drive away the wolf and the thief, and carry her worshippers safely across" (to the light). — A'. V. X. 127 ; Muir, SausArii J'lXts, part iv. p. 123. ' Max Miillcr, Lectures on Laiigiinge, second series, 503. ' ' ' Ahana comes near to every house, she who makes every day to be known. " Dyotana (the dawn), the active maiden, comes back for evermore ; she enjoys always the first of all goods." — R. V. i. 1-23, 4.
- "Athene, as far as letters go, would
correspond to a Sanskrit Ahana, which is but a slightly differing variety of Ahana." — Max ^luller, Lectures, second scries, 503.
