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23
AVESTAN HAECAT.ASPA- AND THE MYTH OF THE
DIVINE TWINS*
Резюме. Предметом данной статьи служит имя мифического предка Заратуштры Ha§cataspa~: в статье обосновывается перевод ‘тот, чьи лошади плещутся, обрызгиваются (водой)’. Это имя находит фразеологическое соответствие в ведийском гимне Ашвинам: (sindhur) sincad asvan (RV 4.43.6). Интерпретация этого сложного места, в котором речь идет о дочери Солнца, становится возможным благодаря параллелям с латышскими дайнами: в древнем и.-е. мифе божественные близнецы-всадники спасают тонущую богиню Зари или Солнца, и их лошади при этом вынуждены искупаться в водах мирового океана. Haёcal.aspa- содержит в себе отсылку в этому мифу.
Ключевые слова: Авеста, Ригведа, сравнительная мифология, Ашвины, Диоскуры, ономастика.
Avestan ИаёсаЪаБра-, known from later Zoroastrian tradition as the name of an ancestor of ZaraBustra,1 is twice attested in the Gathas. In Y. 46 the singer addresses several characters of the Gathic world by name, beginning with ZaraBustra himself and continuing in stanza 15 with Наёса1азра spitamayhd (voc. pl.), apparently a branch of ZaraBustra’s own clan. Bartholomae interpreted the form as a genitival formation ‘descendants of H.’, derived from the name of that individual through accent shift (Bartholomae 1904: col. 1728), but it seems likelier that haёcat.aspd here is simply the plural of the ancestor’s name used to designate the entire family (Rau 2007: 60 n. 27). In addition, in Y. 53.3 we learn that ZaraBustra’s daughter Pourucista had a propatronymic haёcat.aspdnd (on the patronymic
* It is a pleasure to thank Timothy Barnes, Jay Jasanoff, Alexis Manaster Ramer, Jeremy Rau, Martin Schwartz, Daniel Sheffield, and Martin West for their careful reading of an earlier version of this note and for their remarks. Usual disclaimer applies. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Research Council of the President of the Russian Federation (grant nr. MK-389.2011.6).
1 Haecatasp (Pazand) was ZaraOustra’s great-great-grandfather according to the Iranian Bundahisn 35.52 (ed. Pakzad = IranBund 32.1) and Denkard 7.2.70 (ed. Mole).
suffix -ana- see Rau 2007: 60-65). On the basis of this evidence a personal name *haicat-acua- can be safely posited2.
The first member of this verbal governing compound is clearly derived from the root of Avestan hinca-tl, Vedic sinca-tl ‘pour out’ . This verb is used with different kinds of liquids and substances, including semen and urine; accordingly, Haecat.aspa- has been translated as ‘having stud-horses’ (Justi4) or as ‘having horses that urinate’ (Humbach, followed by Mayrhofer)5. Both of these translations lack conviction. Humbach’s reference to Yt. 5.120 for a myth about the urine of the heavenly steeds does not support his argument, because the critical form misti which he, following Geldner6, translated as ‘with urine’ is extremely unclear: the context and etymology allow a plethora of other possibilities, including ‘with seed’, ‘by care’, ‘always’ or ‘together’7. The alleged Vedic parallel cited by Humbach also fails, if RV 10.96.1 ghrtam na yo haribhis caru secate means “[soma] which flows like lovely butter in golden
2 The accent is reconstructed based on the accentuation of Vedic compounds of the bharad-vaja- type.
3 Schwartz 2006: 55, 61 has shown that Pourucista’s patronymic is compositionally connected with instr. sg. hica in Y 32.14b (see also Schwartz 2009: 431).
4 Justi 1895: 124: “Springhengste besitzend”.
5 Humbach 1973: 96: “mit sich ergiessenden Rossen”. This interpretation was accepted by Mayrhofer 1979: 48-49 and Remmer 2006: 210 n. 210.
6 Geldner 1881: 399; 1904: 1095. Geldner, apparently, assumed that misti-was remade from *mizdi- (Avestan maez-, Sanskrit mih-). According to de Vaan (2003: 238), Oettinger in his 1983 monographic study of Yt. 5 likewise translated misti as ‘mit Harnen’.
n . r °
7 The text of Yt. 5.120 is: yeyhe caQfiaro arsana / hqm tasat[ ahuro mazda / vatdmca vardmca maeydmca fiiayhumca / misti (v. l. musti) zi me him / spitama zara&ustra / vardntaeca snaezintaeca / srascintaeca / fiiayhuntaeca / yeyhe auuauuat haenanqm / nauua satais hazayrdmca “for whom Ahura Mazda fashioned together four males: the wind, the rain, the fog, and the hail. For by misti, O Spitama Zarathustra, they rain, snow, drip, and hail on her for me, who has as many armies as nine hundred and a thousand.” The translation ‘seed’ is based on a comparison with Khotanese massa-‘field’, Lithuanian mieziai ‘barley’ (Bailey 1956: 38). However, ‘care’ has been proposed as well, this time on the basis of Old Avestan minas, mizdn (Kellens 1984: 166). Next, the problematic misti could be the same word as misti (Yt. 7.2; Ny 3.6) ‘together’, ‘l’un avec l’autre’, vizJ ‘in mixture’ (Kellens 1974: 302). Lastly, Bartholomae also analyzed misti as derived from the root of Sanskrit meksay-11 ‘mix’ (1904: col. 1187; 1906: 207-8), but attributed to it the rather different meaning ‘always’ on the basis of the Armenian borrowing mist.
[drops]” (Goto 1987: 327), and not “[soma], like lovely butter, which is gushed out by the golden [steeds]” .
In my opinion, the translation of Haecataspa- to be preferred is ‘having horses that splash’, ‘having horses that besprinkle themselves (with water)’ 9. Importantly, the first member of the compound is synchronically associated with the middle stem10: even though *haeca-te is not attested in Avestan, its absence is likely to be fortuitous, since such a stem is the expected cognate of Vedic seca-te11. The translation of the compound should therefore be ‘having horses that besprinkle/bathe themselves’ and not ‘sprinkling/bathing the horses’12.
But what is such a name actually supposed to mean? It looks like a reference to a mythological narrative of some sort. The first step towards a solution was made by Kellens, who noted en passant that both members of *haicat-acua- corresponded exactly to the Vedic phrase sincad asvan (RV 4.43.6)13. Kellens did not attempt to build on this important observation, and this Vedic parallel has been overlooked by nearly all later scholarship14. It behooves us therefore to examine the context in which sincad asvan is attested.
RV 4.43 is a hymn to the Asvins. In it we learn first that Surya had chosen the chariot of the divine twins (2cd: ratham ... yam
8 Geldner 1951: 3, 304: “Oder ist gemeint daB die Falben den Soma als Ham herabgieBen?”
9 Cf. Bartholomae’s “Rosse mit Wasser besprengend, badend” (1904: col. 1728).
10 For a middle stem used in a bharad-vaja- compound cf. rapsad-udhan-‘having an udder that is full’ (RV 2.34.5) vs. rapsa-te 'is full’, perf. rarapse.
11 The stem seca-te is only attested in the Rigveda once (RV 10.96.1, cited above in the main text), but nevertheless seems quite secure: the pair seca-te (intrans.) : sinca-tl (trans.) corresponds to a pattern that is well established in the language; moreover, the full grade *seikwe/o- is also reflected in Germanic *sejhwa- ‘sieve’ (trans.), see Joachim 1978: 166-67.
12 This was seen by Kellens, who had originally followed Bartholomae (above n. 9), translating Haecataspa- as “celui qui asperge les chevaux” (Kellens-Pirart 1988: 8), but later changed this to “celui dont les chevaux s’eclaboussent” (Kellens 1991: 68; 1995: 72).
13 Kellens 1977: 663 n.5; the Vedic-Avestan correspondence is mentioned in Kellens-Pirart 1988: 8 and Pirart 1995.
14 It is missing from Mayrhofer’s standard handbook of Iranian onomastics (1979: 49) and his Sanskrit etymological dictionary (that Mayrhofer did not take the Vedic parallel into account is all the more surprising given that it was pointed out in a review of his own earlier book).
suryasya duhitavrnita), that this chariot came from the ocean (5ab: rathah ... a yat samudrad abhi vartate vam), and finally (in stanza 6) that the Asvins obtained Surya on a trip during which their horses were bathed in the water:
sindhur ha vam rasaya sincad asvan ghrna vayo arusasah pari gman tad u su vam ajiram ceti yanam yena pati bhavathah suriyayah
Sindhu sprinkled your horses together with Rasa15;
the red birds (viz. horses — A. N.) have escaped the heat16.
This rapid journey of yours appeared splendid, through which you have become the masters of Surya.
There is no consensus among the commentators regarding this passage. Bergaigne thought that asvan here is a metaphor for streams poured forth by both Sindhu and Rasa (Bergaigne 1878: 258). Others have assumed that sincad asvan refers to a moistening that protected the horses from overheating during a race: as the result, Asvins won and obtained Surya (Geldner 1951: 1, 476). But nothing else in the hymn suggests a chariot race, nor are there any hints of such a competition in two other Rigvedic stanzas, where the Asvins’ horses are said to suffer from heat in the presence of Surya17. Moreover, whenever in the Rigveda Surya ascends the Asvins’ chariot, she does so of her own will (avrnita), which seems to be at odds with the interpretation according to which Surya was a prize in a race.
15 Or: “with moisture / water”, see below n. 18.
1 f\ .
16 The second pada has a few problems which, while not insurmountable, are significant enough to be signaled here. First, the padapatha has instr. sg. ghrna, for which acc. pl. ghrna(h) is usually accepted (Oldenberg 1909: 303). Secondly, the meaning ‘to avoid’ is not attested for pari-gam- and is posited solely on the strength of the usage of pari-ga- (e.g. RV 2.33.14b pari tvesasya durmatir mahi gat ‘may the great hatred of the boisterous one pass (us) by’, cited by Luders 1951: 139). While Geldner apparently considered both difficulties negligible and translated “Sindhu mit der Rasa benetzte eure Pferde; die rotlichen Vogelrosse entgingen den Gluten”, Renou with some hesitation offered an alternative translation: “ils ont fait le tour (du ciel) sous la chaleur-torride” (1967: 35).
17 RV 5.73.5; 7.69.4. The race for the Sun Maiden is known only from the Brahmanas (JB 1.213; AB 4.7-11; KB 18.1-5), but see Oertel (1909: 174) who compellingly argued that the legend about a race of the gods was only secondarily connected with originally separate story of the wedding.
According to yet another proposal the horses were moistened for some other purpose, for instance, in grooming, but this idea lacks textual support and as such is difficult to prove or disprove (Schwartz 2006: 56).
Now the presence of sindhu- in pada 6a is potentially significant, and the word is a promising starting point for the exegesis of the entire passage, because sindhu- is not just any river, but rather the frontier of the inhabited world (Thieme 1970) or a mythical stream in heaven(Luders 1951: 138-51). What the Vedic text is telling us therefore is that the Asvins went to the ends of the earth or to heaven, where their horses got wet in the waters of some mythical stream18, and as the result of this adventure Surya willingly got into the Asvins’ chariot. Is there any evidence for a myth in which the Asvins took such a trip? Yes, but it has to be reconstructed from scattered
19
parts .
Firstly, we know that the Asvins, one of whose epithets is sindhumatara ‘having sindhu- as their mother’ (RV 1.46.2), are
strongly associated with water. The evidence is ubiquitous: they are
20
said to be in company with rivers , their chariot comes out of the 21 22 sea or is parked right at a ford , they often ride it at sea, etc.
Secondly, the Asvins are known for their ability to save others,
especially from drowning; in fact, their “middle name” Nasatya
18 —
As for rasa-, this word elsewhere denotes a remote mythical stream (just like its Avestan cognate rayha-): for instance, it is in the Rasa that the island with the Vala cave and primordial cows is located. Still, the etymological meaning of the word is ‘dew’ (cognates include Latin ros, OCS rosa, Lithuanian rasa ‘dew’), and in principle nothing seems to stand in the way of translation ‘water, liquid, moisture’ for our passage: this was Sayana’s understanding, followed by the St.Petersburg dictionary and Lommel 1926: 194: “Sindhu mit ihrem Nass”. (Cf. Luders’ heated objection: “Ein Femininum rasa mit der Bedeutung “Feuchtigkeit” [...] ist ganzlich unwahrscheinlich” (1951: 139 n. 1)).
19 The following review of the relevant facts is admittedly cursory; the excuse for this is that these facts will be quite familiar to most readers. For
the Asvins see Zeller 1990; Oberlies 1992; 1993; Goto 2006.
20 — — — —
RV 5.74.2 ko vam nadinam saca “Which of you two is in company with
rivers?”
21 RV 4.43.5 rathah ... / ... samudrad abhi vartate vam “your chariot turned up from the ocean”.
2 RV 1.46.8 tirthe sindhunam rathah “[your] chariot is at the ford of the rivers”.
— 23
(Avestan NayhaiOiia-) is derived from the root *nes- ‘to save’ . The most frequently occurring story is the one about Tugra’s son Bhujyu, who was drowning in a shipwreck, when the Asvins came to the rescue (18x in the RV) (see recently Ronzitti 2010). The theme of rescue at sea must predate the Rigveda simply because the immense ocean (samudra-) in which Bhujyu was fighting for his life is unlikely to have been inspired by any of the river basins with which the Rigvedic Aryans were familiar (e.g. the Punjab) (Michalski 1961: 12). And indeed, this narrative finds a close parallel in Yt. 5.61-63 (the story of Pauruua) and can therefore be projected to the Common Indo-Iranian period (Oettinger 1988; Goto 2000: 152 n. 18).
Thirdly, Surya is one of the three female deities to which the Asvins are linked in the Vedic myth (along with Usas and Saranyu). Their tangled relationship is characterized by polyandry and incest: the divo napata “scions of the sky” act as suitors and joint husbands of the “Sun maiden”, divo duhita (RV 1.92.5+)24.
All of the above is also true of the “sons of the sky” in Baltic mythology, Lithuanian Dievo suneliai and Latvian Dieva deli, whose unmistakable affinity with the Vedic Asvins has long been noted and has become firmly entrenched in handbooks of comparative
25
mythology .
23 Gothic nasjands ‘arox'np’, Vedic nasate and Greek veopai ‘return home safely’ (see Guntert 1923: 259; Frame 1978: 134-52; Goto 2006: 262-63).
24 E.g. RV 1.116.17: a vam ratham duhita suriyasya / karsmevatisthad arvata jayanti // visve deva anv amanyanta hrdbhih / sam u sriya nasatiya sacethe “the Daughter of the Sun stepped on your chariot, as if she were winning a race on a steed. All deities assented with their hearts, and you, Nasatyas, united yourselves with the beauty” (sri = Surya). In RV 10.85 (the Surya-Sukta) the Asvins appear as suitors wooing Surya both for them and for Soma.
25 Mannhardt 1875; Ward 1968: 9-29; Puhvel 1987: 284-90; Euler 1987: 46-51; Nagy 1990: 92-93, 112-13; West 2007: 186-91; Frame 2009: 59102. The tertium comparationis for the Asvins and the Dieva deli has long been sought in the Greek Dioscuri who exhibit all the characteristics intrinsic to the Divine Twins in the other traditions: they often act as rescuers from danger, hence their most frequent epiclesis aroxfipec ‘saviors’ (cf. © Z^voc Kai A^Sac KaHiaxoi aroxfipec “O most handsome saviors, of Zeus and Leda (born)” PMG 1027c adesp. = Terp. fr. 9 Gostoli). The Dioscuri were protectors of the sailors, invoked before a sea trip or during the storm (see Jaisle 1907: 6-23; Sunv^xoc 1982-83). Finally, Dioscuri are closely associated with a female figure, their sister Helen: the key theme of this relationship is the saving of Helen, whether from Athens or from Egypt (see West 1975).
The Latvian dainas, despite being merely short folk songs, nearly devoid of plot, actually help us to tie up the loose ends and reconstruct the relevant exploits of the Nasatyas. In several dainas the “sons of the sky” are called the suitors (precinieki26) of the daughter of the sun, which immediately calls to mind the Asvins wooing Surya’ even more importantly, one can easily glimpse a narrative about the sons of the sky coming to the rescue of the daughter of the sun, who was drowning. For instance: Saules meita juru brida, / Ne matinus neredzeja; / Dieva deli gan redzeja, / Kur met_jura burbulisus “Daughter of the sun went to walk in the sea, (and now) not even a hair to be seen, the sons of the sky only saw where the sea bubbled (over her)” (LTD 11.33965); Saules meita juru brida, / Vainadzinu vien redzeja. / Iriet laivu, Dieva deli, / Glabiet Saules dveseliti “Daughter of the sun was wading in the sea, (and now) only her crown was visible, row your boat, sons of the sky, rescue the soul of the sun” (LTD 11.33969).
It is thus only in Latvian folk songs that we find all of the three themes, each of which is amply, but separately attested in the Rigveda in connection to the Asvins: the sea, the rescue, and the Sun Maiden. In view of the comparative evidence marshalled above, it seems quite plausible that the inherited mythological narrative, reconstructible on the basis of at least three traditions, featured the Divine Twins rescuing the drowning Sun Maiden from the sea.27 The union of the Asvins and Surya, in RV 4.43 and elsewhere in the
Rigveda, can therefore be viewed as a result of her successful
28
deliverance from the waters of the sindhu- .
26 For instance: Saules_ meita jostas auda, / Menesmca sededama; / Dieva deli precinieki, / Abolaini kumelini “Sun’s daughter was weaving a band, while the moon was sitting; sons of heaven - suitors, dappled studs” (LTD 11.33962).
7 As far the interpretation of this myth is concerned, ever since A. Weber the Indologists have viewed the story of Surya / Usas (and Bhujyu) rescued by the Asvins as an allegory of the sun, going into the ocean in the west and brought back by the morning star and the evening star (Weber 1862: 234; Myriantheus 1876: 161-69; von Schroeder 1916: 442-43; Oldenberg 1917: 207-15; Guntert 1923: 253-77). Crusades against the “solar mythology” rendered this interpretation unpopular for some time, but first G. Nagy and D. Frame in 1970’s, and then, more recently, T. Goto and A. Manaster Ramer, have shown that in the case of the Divine Twins and the Sun Maiden the arguments in favor of a solar interpretation are overwhelmingly strong (Nagy 1973: 172-73; Goto 2006: 263-66; Manaster Ramer ms.).
28 Under the allegorical interpretation presented in the previous footnote
Let us sum up what we have learned thus far. One of the episodes in the career of the Indo-European divine twins involved rescuing a person from drowning somewhere at the ends of the earth and taking her home across a large mass of water. We know from Latvian dainas that the drowning person in this myth was the twins’ consort or sister who also had distinctive solar properties. Now the role of the Sun Maiden in the story is confirmed through a new interpretation of RV 4.43: this hymn features Surya, rescued by the Asvins, and the horses of the Nasatyas who get wet in the waters of the ocean during the most important rescue operation of the divine Twins. This is the myth that the phrase *saik- *acua(n)s reconstructible for Common Indo-Iranian refers to .
I have tried to demonstrate a relationship between the phraseology and the myth; but it does not follow from the results of this inquiry that a personal name like Haecataspa- was necessarily a “speaking name” at the time when the Gathas were composed. Rather, I have shown what *sajcat-acua- may have meant when it was first coined, but the name may have lost any connection to the
sindhu- in RV 4.43.6 denotes a mass of water into which the sun is thought to go on sunset and which is therefore thought of as situated on the earth. As Luders (n.) and others have repeatedly emphasized, sindhu- may also denote a heavenly river (e.g. RV 1.164.25 sindhum dm), but there is no reason to think that the word has this meaning in our passage: the Asvins perform their rescuing feats in various locations, some of them quite bizarre (for instance, Bhujyu is drowning anarambhane tamasi ‘in the anchorless darkness’ RV 1.116.5; 182.6), but never in heaven.
29 Many features of the Asvins find correspondences not only in the Baltic folklore, but also in Greek (see above n. 25): a Greek juncture “moistening horses” vel sim. would therefore be entirely expected. It is found, I think, in the Athenian personal name NoOinno^, well attested in Attic prosopography from the 5th century onwards: e.g., one bearer of the name was an Athenian tragedian who probably performed 430/29 BC (Hermippus fr. 46 PCG). The name is translated as “spurius” in Pape-Benseler, and Bechtel (1917: 335) likewise connects it to voOo<; ‘bastard’, but this does not give a satisfactory sense for the compound. A personal name in Greek could be mechanically construed from frequent elements and therefore be meaningless, but the names in -ircrco^ normally make sense, either as verbal governing or as possessive compounds. A better way of analyzing NoOinno^ seems to align the first member of the compound with such words as voxio<; ‘wet’, voxe© ‘to be wet’, voxepo<; ‘damp’, thus *Nox(o)-inno^ ‘having wet horses’, a reasonably close match to Haecataspa-. (Thematic voxo<; ‘moist’ does not seem to be attested, but its erstwhile existence can be inferred from its abstract o voxo<; reinterpreted in the meaning ‘south wind’).
myth it encapsulated on the way from Indo-Iranian to the lineage of
ZaraBustra, real or fictional, where it was inserted into a series of
зо
names in -aspa .
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A. S. Nikolaev. Avestan Haecataspa- and the myth of the Divine Twins
This paper argues that Gathic Haecataspa-, the name of ZaraOustra’s mythical ancestor, should be translated as ‘he whose horses splash, besprinkle themselves’. This name finds an exact parallel in the Rigvedic hymn to the Asvins: (sindhur) sincad asvan (RV 4.43.6). This obscure stanza also features Surya; its contents become clear once viewed through the lens of comparative mythology: drawing on the material of Latvian dainas, we can reconstruct the core myth about the Divine Twins in which they rescue the Sun Maiden from drowning. The horses of the Nasatyas get wet in the waters of the ocean during this rescue operation, and this is the part of the myth that Avestan Haecataspa- contains a compressed reference to.
