literatures of the Near East.^102 But it also appears in a number of other Indo-
European traditions. In the Maha ̄bha ̄rata the gods assemble for debate on the
mythical Mt Meru (1. 15. 5–10), which is where they dwell (3. 160. 16, cf. 247.
8). On other occasions they meet on Hima ̄laya (3. 40. 31), or on Mt Kaila ̄sa
(3. 140. 10). When Indra joins them, they stand up for him (3. 89. 2), just as
the Olympians do for Zeus in the Iliad (1. 533–5). Similarly in a Hittite
fragment all the gods stand up before Ea.^103
That the gods are located on the highest and most inaccessible mountains
is typical. The Homeric gods live and meet on Olympus, the highest moun-
tain in Greece. In Caucasian story the gods live on the summit of Wiriwsh
Yiqimghwa, on Mt Elbruz; in Albanian folk-tale, on Mt Tomor(r), near Berat
in south Albania.^104
The Norse gods have their stronghold of Ásgarð, which means ‘god-
enclosure’. In the Eddic poems they meet to deliberate on weighty matters.
Þá gengo regin o ̨ll á ro ̨ cstóla,
ginnheilog goð, oc um þat gættuz.
Then all the Governors went to the destiny seats,
the most holy gods, and took counsel about it.
(Vo ̨luspá 6, 9, 23, 25)
Senn vóro æsir allir á þingi
oc ásynior allar á máli.
All the gods were together at assembly,
and all the goddesses at the debate.(Þrymskviða 14 =Baldrs draumar 1; cf. Vo ̨luspá 48. 4.) According to another
passage they meet every day at Yggdrasil’s Ash (Grímnismál 30). An Irish
saga tells of the Dé Danann meeting in council to judge a woman taken in
sin.^105
The reference in the Vo ̨luspá to the gods’ individual seats recalls the aδεα
from which the Olympians spring up when Zeus arrives. In Gylfaginning
(14, cf. 17) it is related that after Ásgarð was made, the gods built the hall
that their seats (sæti) stand in, twelve of them plus a high seat (hásæti) for
Odin. They set themselves up on their seats and made their decisions (réttu
dóma sína).^106
(^102) West (1997), 177–80.
(^103) See West (1997), 354, where a second-millennium Babylonian parallel is also cited.
(^104) Colarusso (2002), 266; Lambertz (1973), 504.
(^105) Echtrae Airt meic Cuinn 3 in R. I. Best, Ériu 3 (1907), 150.
(^106) The Babylonian and Ugaritic gods also sit on seats in their assemblies: West (1997), 179.
- Gods and Goddesses 151