Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

192 MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK horse in the evening and at dawn ; they bed him as a stran-
._ IL
, ger in his conch ; the light of Agni, the worshipped male, is
lighted.
6 Thy appearance is fair to behold, thon bright-faced Agni,
when like gold thon shinest at hand ; thy brightness comes
like the lightning of heaven ; thou showest splendour like
the bright sun.' 1
' Adorable and excellent Agni, emit the moving and grace-
ful smoke.
' The flames of Agni are luminous, powerful, fearful, and
not to be trusted :
2
phrases which bring before us at once the capriciousness
and sullenness of Meleagros and Achilleus. Like Indra,
A^ni is also Yritrahan.
' 1 extol the greatness of that showerer of rain whom men
celebrate as the slayer of Yritra : the Agni, Vaiswanara, slew
the stealer of the waters.' 3
Like Indra, again, and the later Krishna, he is ' the lover
of the maidens, the husband of the wives.' 4 He is ' black-
backed ' and ' many-limbed ;
'
' his hair is flame,' and c he it
is whom the two sticks have engendered, like a new-born
babe.'
c Thou art laid hold of with difficulty,' the poet truly says,
' like the } roung of tortuously twining snakes, thou who art a