132 The Religion of the Veda
myth of Varuna and the Adityas. The interpre- tation of Aditi as “ houndlessness,“ or “ universe,” sits very well upon an assumed mother of these great gods. Aditi is later defined as “earth,” a narrowing of her scope, somewhat as we of the modern languages make synonymous the terms “world” and “ earth.” 1
The mythic cycle represented by Mitra~Mithra and Varuna—Ahura is important for early Vedie reli— gion, and, more permanently, for the whole history of Persian religion. There is no chapter of Aryan religion and mythology that has stimulated the instinct of ultimate interpretation more persist- ently than this very one. I am of those who can». not imagine any cessation of these attempts for any great length of time. The one solid point in. the genesis of these myths is the solar character of the Aryan Mitra. In later Persian the word mix/ant in the form mikir is the name of the sun. As pro viously stated,” this solar Mithras passed, in the centuries after Christ, out of the bounds of Per.- sia and started upon a career of conquest which threatened at one time to subject all Western
civilisation.
’See the author in Zeifrr/iarz'ft o’er Drummer: flforgmldifldimlzm Gerellrr/Eaft, xlviii., 552, note ; Macdonell, Vrdi: Myflwlagy, p. 1:25.. E"Atbcnnne, p. 85.
