Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

102 MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK
II.
disputed with each other for the throne, his mother Laodameia
offered him for the venture, when it was settled that
the kingdom should belong to the man who could shoot a
ring from the breast of a child without hurting him. The
tale is here inverted, and the shot is to be aimed at the child
who lies exposed like Oidipous on Kithairon, or Eomulus
among the reeds of the Tiber, but who is as sure to escape
the danger as Tell and the others are to avoid the trap in
which their enemies think to catch them.
To say more is but to slay the slain. ' William Tell, the
good archer, whose mythological character Dr. Dasent has
established beyond contradiction, is the last reflection of the
sun-god, whether we call him Indra, or Apollo, or Ulysses.' l
Section XIL-THE VIVIFYING SUN.
In strictness of speech the Vedic Vishnu is nothing but a
name. The writers of the Aitareya-brahmana could still
say, ' Agni is all the deities, Vishnu is all the deities.' 2 Hence
he rises sometimes to a dignity greater even than that of
Dyaus and Indra, while at others he is spoken of as subor-
dinate to them, or is regarded as simply another form of the
three deities Agni, Vayu, and Surya. In some hymns he is
associated with Indra as Varuna is linked with Mitra, and
Dyaus with Prithivi.
6 All divine power, like that of the sky, was completely
communicated to thee, Indra, by the gods (or worshippers),
when thou, impetuous deity, associated with Vishnu, didst
slay Vritra Ahi, stopping up the waters.' 3
In truth, it may almost without exaggeration be said that
the whole Vedic theology may be resolved into a series of
equations, the result being one quite consistent with a real
monotheism. Thus Vishnu is himself Agni and Indra.
' Thou, Agni, art Indra, bountiful to the excellent ; thou
art Vishnu, the wide-stepping, the adorable.' 4
These are again identified with other gods :
1 Max Muller,
See Appendix B.
Ch ips, &c. ii. 233.
Max Muller, Sanskrit Lit. 391.
3 E. V. vii. 20, 2; Muir, Sanskrit
Texts, part iv. ch. ii. sect. 1.
4 R. V. ii. 1, 3; Muir, ib.