164 The Religion of the Veda
sages,” applies to him particularly, and the epithet fame/afar, “having innate wisdom,” is exclusively his own“ From the function of archpriest and arch sage to godhead it is but a step. Agni is the divine benefactor of his worshipper who sweats to carry him fuel: him he protects with a hundred iron walls, or takes across all calamities, as in a ship over the sea. And then, finally, he is divine monarch, surpassing mighty heaven and all the worlds, is superior to all the other gods who worship him, or takes his place in the long line of supreme gods whom the poets indifferently, or henotheistically, as Max Muller put it, praise at convenient times with all the fervor and all the resourceful verbiage which marks the
diction of the Rig-Veda:
Then hail to Agni on his brilliant chariot, The shining signal of every holy sacrifice, Of every god in might divine the equal,
The gracious guest of every pious mortal !
Dressed out in all thy ornamented garments,
Thou standest on the very navel of the earth,
The hearth of sacrifice. Born of the light,
Both priest and king, shalt hither fetch th’ immortals 1
For thou hast ever spread both earth and heaven, Tho’ being their son thou hast spread out thy parents. Come hither, youthful god, to us that long for thee, And bring, 0 Son of Strength, the bright immortals !
(Rig-Veda to. 1:. 3—7.)
