clear, but a reference to the slowness of the Dawn[1] is supposed to supply the key to it: in other words, the Dawn was dallying too long with one of the powers of night, an interpretation which is favoured by the fact that the verses preceding one of the passages in question mention Indra taking the Sun from them in order that he might be seen of men.[2] If this view be approximately correct, we have in it a remarkable parallel to the story of Blodeueᵭ: Llew the sun-god was Gwydion's son, and Gwydion had created Blodeueᵭ:, a personification of the Dawn and the Gloaming, to be his son's wife; but one day when Llew was away, his wife was visited in the evening by a stranger, who made love to her and with whom she compassed her husband's death. This was followed, as you will remember, by Gwydion bringing Llew back to this life to avenge his sufferings. The wicked woman fled in terror before Gwydion, until her maidens fell into a lake and she herself was converted by the touch of Gwydion's wand into an owl; but according to another story,[3] the one here in point, it was across the heavens that Gwydion chased her, when he left the landmarks of the Milky Way to indicate the course of his march when he was engaged in the pursuit.
Such are some of the points of similarity between Indra and Gwydion-Woden; and some of the differences between their stories have also been indicated: the recurrence of Indra's help to man is, as already suggested, not emphasized in the case of his European counterpart; and the prayers of his worshippers stand in his case in
- ↑ Bergaigne, ij. 193 (Rig-Veda, ij. 15, 6, v. 79, 9).
- ↑ Ib. ij. 192 (Rig-Veda, iv. 30, 3—6).
- ↑ Morris' Celtic Remains, p. 231, s.v. Gwydion.
