User:Zhaladshar/Sandbox

the place of the λόγος of Ogmios. It is probable, however, that he owes certain of his attributes to his having assumed some of those of an ancient storm-god Trita,^[1] or perhaps of Dyaus; and among them may be reckoned the thunderbolt. Above all, one has to bear in mind the distortion which the Hindu side of the picture has undergone in consequence of the removal of the abode of the dead from the nether world to the most distant heaven. But when it is considered what a far cry it is from the shores of the Baltic to the land of the Five Rivers, how long it must have taken our kindred to reach it, and how largely their blood had by that time been mixed with that of other races, it is a matter of surprise that Sanskrit literature yields so many points of contact between Indra and Gwydion-Woden. Some of them are brought into prominence in the following verses^[2] from the Rig-Veda, with which these remarks may be closed (i. 53. 2, 5, 6):

'Thou art the giver of horses, Indra, thou art the giver of cows, the giver of corn, the strong lord of wealth: the old guide of man, disappointing no desires, a friend to friends. . . .'		'Du, Indra, schenkest Rosse, schenkest Rinder auch, du Bchenkest Korn und bist des Gutes starker Heir, Beschenkst die Männer, schmälerst ihre Wünsche nie, ein Freund den Freunden. . . .'
'Let us rejoice, Indra, in treasure and food, in wealth of manifold delight and splendour. Let us rejoice in the blessing of the gods, which gives us the strength of offspring, gives us cows first and horses.'		'Lass Reichthum, Indra, lass erlangen Labung uns, sehr glanzende Genusse, himmelstrebende, Und Huld der Götter, die den Männern Kraft verleiht und reich zuerst an Rindern und an Rossen ist.'
'These draughts inspired thee, O lord of the brave! these were vigour, these libations, in battles, when for the sake of the poet, the sacrificer, thou struckest down irresistibly ten thousands of enemies.'		'Dich haben diese Tränke, diese Kräftiger, die Soma's dich berauscht, o Fürst, im Vritrakampf, Als du dem Sänger, der die Streu bereitete, zehntausend Feinde schlugest ohne Widerstand.'

The inference to be drawn from the foregoing comparisons is, that the Aryan nations before their separation cherished a belief in a hero or god to whom they owed all their comforts in life: it was he that made the Sun shine and the Dawn keep her time; and it was to him they looked for the weather they wanted. The first breeds of animals useful to man, whether domestic or wild, were believed to have been obtained by him through craft or violence from the jealous powers who wished to keep them from the human race. They traced probably to the same origin the fire that served to cook their food, and the intoxicating drink which they knew as a stimulant and a source of inspiration. But their benefactor was believed to have undergone unspeakable hardship in his quest of the boons he conferred on their kin, and that for a time the jealous powers were able to wreak their wrath on him for his goodwill to man. It was probably this goodwill that constituted the gravamen of his crime, and not the crafty and unscrupulous way in which he had gone to work; for that was calculated in certain stages of civilization to call forth admiration rather than the contrary, while the habit of imagining both gods and demons to be jealous of the human race is familiar to all in the literatures of various ancient nations. Among others, that of the Greeks has already been alluded to in this connection more than once; but

1. Perry, pp. 142-6.
2. The English translation is from Max Müller's Chips, i. 31-2, and the German one from Grassmann's Rig-Veda Uebersetzt, ij. pp. 57-8.