Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
appearing to weave it, in Aurnavabha, the wool-provider,
one of the enemies slain by Indra, in the Russian volna, the
Gothic vulla, the English wool, in the Latin villus and
vellus, and the English fleece. But as in Yaruna the idea
of covering gives place to that of guarding or shielding, so
uraua/t is a ram, but urawa/i is a protector. The meaning of
the word is further modified from hairiness or woolliness
into that of mere roughness, and the term varvara was
applied by the Aryan invaders to the negro-like aboriginal
tribes, whom the Greeks would have termed barbarians.
That this last word can be referred to no other root is
further proved by a comparison of the Sanskrit lomasya with
the Greek Saavrrjs, words in which the shagginess of hair
furnishes a metaphor denoting roughness of pronunciation. 1
But the Sanskrit varvara transliterated into Greek would
yield the word Belleros : and thus we retain some notion of
a being of whom the Greek myth gives otherwise no account
whatever. The invention of a noble Corinthian of this
name, to serve as the victim of Hipponoos the son of
Glaukos, is on a par with the explanations given by my-
thographers for such names as Pan, Odysseus, Oidipous, or
Aias. Belleros then is some shaggy or hairy monster, slain
by the hero named from this exploit,—in short, another
Cacus, or Ahi or Vritra ; and as Indra is Vritra-han, the
slayer of Indra, so is Bellerophon the slayer of Belleros. 2
Although no mythical being is actually found bearing this
name in the Rig Veda, yet the black cloud is one of the
chief enemies (dasas) of Indra. This cloud is sometimes
called the black skin, sometimes the rain-giving and fer-
tilising skin, 3 while the demon of the cloud appears as a
ram, or a shaggy and hairy creature, with ninety-nine arms.
This wool- or fleece-covered animal is therefore reproduced
not only in the monster Belleros, but in the Chimaira which
1 It is needless for me to do more Sanskrit han, the Greek