Indo-European Poetry and Myth

The root *wes‘clothe’ has similar metaphorical applications in the Rigveda
and in Homer.^58 An unseen divinity may be clothed in a cloud. Soma in RV 9.

83. 5 is nábho vása ̄nah
    ̇

, where nábhas- and vas- are the exact cognates of Greek
νφο and
σ-. In other cases the ‘garment’ is a mist or storm (míh-, abhrá-)
that is an actual part of the weather, clothing the storm-demon Vr
̇

tra (2. 30.
3), the Maruts (5. 63. 6), or the mountains (5. 85. 4). This naturistic inter-
pretation is not excluded in Il. 14. 350 f., where Zeus and Hera lie on Ida, $π?
δC νεφλην aσσαντο | καλ^ν χρυσεην, στιλπνα? δ’α, ππιπτον $ρσαι, ‘clothed
themselves in a cloud, a lovely golden one, and a glistening precipitation fell
from it’, though there is nothing to suggest it in 15. 308 εTμνο cμοιϊν νεφλην
or 20. 150 α, μφ? δ’Eρ’Eρρηκτον νεφλην cμοισιν aσαντο. In other Homeric
passagesaννυσθαι is constructed with (ρα‘air, mist’, or νεφλη and νφο are
combined with different verbs for ‘wrap in, conceal in’.
The two Ajaxes are three times described as θου

ριν $πιειμνοι α, λκν,
‘clad in furious valour’, and a similar phrase is used of Achilles (Il. 20. 381).
Durante has compared RV 4. 16. 14 (of Indra) mr
̇

gó ná hastı ̄ ́ távis

̇

ı ̄m us

̇

a ̄n

̇

áh

̇

,
‘clothing yourself with strength like an elephant’; 9. 7. 4 pári ... ka ̄ ́viya ̄ ...
nr
̇

mn

̇

a ̄ ́ vása ̄nah

̇

, (a seer) ‘clothing himself about with seerdom and manhood’;

9. 
   
   
   
   80. 3 u ̄ ́rjam
       ̇
   
   
   
   

vása ̄nah

̇

, (Soma) ‘clothed with invigoration’.^59

NARRATIVE GAMBITS

Under this heading I collect some typical programmatic expressions used
at the outset of a poem or story. One thing that naturally has its place there
is the call to attention. Franz Specht observed the similarity between the
openings of two Vedic hymns and of the Eddic Vo ̨luspá:

idám

̇

jana ̄so vidata: mahád bráhma vadis

̇

yate.

Know this, peoples: a great song will be uttered. (AV 1. 32. 1)

idám

̇

jana ̄ úpa s ́ruta: nára ̄s ́ám

̇

sa stavis

̇

yate.

Hear this, peoples: a heroic eulogy will be proclaimed. (AV 20. 127. 1)

Hlióðs bið ec allar helgar kindir,

meiri oc minni mo ̨ go Heimdalar:

vildo at ec, Valfo ̨ðr, vel fyrtelia

forn spio ̨llfira, þau er fremst um man.

(^58) Durante (1976), 96 n. 15, 114.
(^59) Durante (1976), 114. For Semitic parallels see West (1997), 239.
92 2. Phrase and Figure