which they fought against the Olympian gods; a Homeric allusion (Il. 14.
203 f.) refers to Zeus’ setting Kronos below earth and sea. The agreement with
the Hittite myth points to an ancient mythical prototype. But the question is
complicated. On the one hand, Babylonian myth, at least from the time
ofEnu ̄ma elisˇ (late second millennium), presents a parallel story, that the
Anunnaki were confined below the earth by the chief god, Marduk. It
could be argued that both the Hittite and the Greek myths derive from the
Babylonian.^144 On the other hand, other Indo-European traditions tell of a
conflict in which the dominant gods defeated a rival set, and we must enter-
tain the possibility of an Indo-European origin for the motif. It is a priori
likely that people who recognized an order of Former Gods had some account
of the events that caused them to be deposed.
In Indian texts, though not in the older body of the Rigveda, the gods are
pitted against the Asuras. The word ásura- was an old divine title, probably
meaning ‘lord’; it was applied especially to Varuna or Mitra–Varuna. But it
came to have a bad sense, ‘demon’, in opposition to devá- ‘god’.^145 The Asuras
are associated with sorcery and the night. They are nowhere identified with
the Former Gods. But there are references to the gods having defeated them:
When the gods, having struck the Asuras, went off guarding their godhead,
they brought the sunlight back by their arts. (RV 10. 157. 4, cf. 124. 5 f.)
(Earth,) on whom the gods overturned the Asuras. (AV 12. 1. 5)However, it was also possible to speak of a continuing struggle:
Today may I meditate, as the beginning of my utterance,
that by which the gods may overcome the Asuras. (RV 10. 53. 4)According to the Black Yajurveda (TS 5. 7. 3. 1) the Asuras tried to evict the
gods from heaven, but were repulsed with arrows and thunderbolts.
There are further references to the conflict in the epics. We hear of a terrific
cosmic battle, at the end of which the Asuras (or Da ̄navas) took refuge below
earth and sea (MBh. 1. 17). The Asuras, elder brothers of the gods, were
defeated by them with trickery (3. 34. 58). In olden times they had frequent
battles, and the Asuras/Da ̄navas always had the upper hand until the
champion Skanda took command (3. 213. 3–6, 221. 32–69; cf. 269. 10; 4. 31.
4). The gods always sought the hero Bhı ̄s
̇
ma’s aid against them (6. 15. 38).
Varuna fettered the Da ̄navas and keeps them under guard in the ocean
(^144) Cf. West (1997), 298 f.
(^145) In Avestan the opposite development occurred. Mazda ̄ and his associates were Ahuras,
while the Dae ̄vas were the ‘heathen’ gods that Zarathushtra discarded and his followers
abhorred. Cf. Macdonell (1898), 156 f. On ásura-/ahura- cf. above, n. 6.
- Gods and Goddesses 163