II6 The Religion of the Veda
the divinities of morning light overcome the hostile powers of darkness. We are not quite so certain as are some excellent scholars that the heavenly pair were originally the morning and evening star, nor has any other naturalistic explanation been pro~ posed which is finally satissiactory.3t In any case, one of the pair, at least, to which the other has been subordinated, belongs to tho events of nature in the morning, and the marriage is with the “ Sanaiden ” (Sfirya, Saule); or the “Sun Maiden ” is imagined to be their sister (Helena), or even their mother (Sar— z-rnyr'.‘1).‘I The myth of which I have given here the merest outline flits about considerably among super- ficially discrepant notions. It is overlaid with many secondary fancies of the poet and storyteller. No sane scholar will now, as was once the habit, try to make each of the silly “stunts” which the Vedic hymns ascribe to the Agvins part of the organic matter contained in the myth. They are mostly later fancy. And even after deducting the cruditics of past interpreters we must not quarrel with certain mental reservations as to this and that detail. But in the last outcome no rational historian or anti“-
1 All eXplanations have been subjected to searching criticism by Professor Hillebrandt in the third volume of his great work on Veda? flfjrixiolagy, p. 379
2 In Greek mythology also the Dioscuri are placed in the relation of sons to a mother, namely, Antiope of Boeotia.
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