man thinning out a clump of trees is directed to say si deus si dea es quoium
illud sacrum sit, ‘be you god or goddess to whom this place is sacred’.^95 In a
Vedic spell we read s ́alabhasya s ́alabhiya ̄s... api nahya ̄ma a ̄syam‘of the
he-locust, of the she-locust... we tie up the mouth’ (AV Paipp. 5. 20. 5).^96
Sometimes the effort is made to stop a possible loophole by adding
the middle term to the pair of opposites; the opposites are regularly placed
first, with the intermediate term following. So in RV 4. 25. 8 páre ávare
madhyama ̄ ́sah
̇
‘the higher, the lower, the middle-ranking’;^97 Theognis 3, ‘I will
always sing of thee first and last and in the middle’; [Aeschylus], Prom. 115,
‘what sound, what invisible fragrance floats upon me –– godsent, or mortal,
or a blend of the two?’ Aeschylus’ Eteocles demands obedience from every
citizen of Thebes, α, ν^ρ γυν τε χcτι τω
ν μεταχμιον, ‘man and woman
and whatever is in the area between’ (Sept. 197); and similarly in the
Maha ̄bha ̄rata (12. 250. 30), ‘among men you will become a man in form,
among women a female, among the third class a neuter’ (napum
̇
sakam,
literally ‘a non-male, an unmannikin’).
In another idiom universality is expressed as the sum of past and future, or
of past, present, and future, or rather ‘what has been, what is, and what is
to be’.^98 ‘Purusha is this universe, yád bhu ̄tám
̇
yác ca bháviyam, the one
that has been and the one that is to be’ (RV 10. 90. 2, cf. AV 10. 7. 22, 8. 1);
bhu ̄tasyes ́a ̄na ̄ bhuvanasya devı ̄‘goddess who has power over what has been
(and) what is’ (AV Paipp. 11. 1. 5); vı ̄spås tå hujı ̄tayo ̄ yå zı ̄åŋharə ̄ yåsca ̄ hən
̇
tı ̄ |
yåsca ̄, Mazda ̄, buvain
̇
tı ̄‘all those good lives that have been and those that are
and those, Wise One, that shall be’ (Y. 33. 10, cf. 45. 7, 51. 22); πα ́ νθ’Jσα τ’
6ν Jσα τ’$στ? κα? #σται‘everything that was and that is and will be’
(Empedocles B 21. 9).
These expressions appear particularly in connection with divine or vatic
knowledge. Varuna in RV 1. 25. 11 sees kr
̇
ta ̄ ́ni ya ̄ ́ ca kártuva ̄, ‘things done and
yet to be done’. The sage Ma ̄rkan
̇
d
̇eya knows past, present, and future (MBh.
- 85; cf. 9. 62. 38; 12. 47. 65, 50. 18, 82. 30, 275). The wise queen Vidura ̄
isbhavis
̇
- 85; cf. 9. 62. 38; 12. 47. 65, 50. 18, 82. 30, 275). The wise queen Vidura ̄
yad-bhu ̄ta-dars ́inı ̄, a ‘future-and-past-beholder’ (MBh. 5. 134. 12).
Calchas knew τα ́ τ’$ο ́ ντα τα ́ τ’$σσο ́ μενα προ ́ τ’$ο ́ ντα, ‘what is and what
will be and what was before’ (Il. 1. 70). Hesiod uses the same words of the
songs that the Muses sing on Olympus, and claims a similar power for himself
(^95) Cf. also CIL i. (^2 801) sei deo sei deiuae sacrum; 1485 sei deus sei dea; 2644 sei deo sei deae; and
the early evocatio reported by Furius Philus ap. Macr. Sat. 3. 9. 7.
(^96) Cf. also AV 1. 8. 1 yá idám
̇
strı ̄ ́ púma ̄n ákar ihá, ‘whoever –– woman, man –– has done this
here’;Od. 4. 142; Gonda (1959), 342.
(^97) Similarly in RV 10. 81. 5; AV 1. 17. 2; 6. 103. 2; 7. 83. 3; 10. 7. 8; 18. 4. 69.
(^98) Cf. Schmitt (1967), 252–4; Schlerath (1968), ii. 159.
- Phrase and Figure 103