The passage about Dyaus ‘bellowing down’ (áva krad) may recall one of the
formulaic epithets applied to Zeus: 0ψιβρεμτη, ‘roaring on high’ (also
once $ριβρεμτη). The verb on which this is formed, βρμω, has no
particular association with bulls. On the other hand, there are several Greek
myths in which Zeus takes the form of a bull, or his partner that of a cow.
It is as a bull that he seduces Europa. She appears in the story simply as a
girl, but her name, ‘the broad of aspect’, is appropriate to the Earth-goddess,
ε1ρε4α χθ.ν: we have seen that ‘the Broad One’ (Pr
̇
thivı ̄, Folde, etc.) is a
typical name of hers. Ε1ρ.πη is used in early poetry as a name for central
and northern Greece (Hymn. Ap. 251, 291); from that it developed into the
term for the continent of Europe as opposed to Asia.
Then there was Io, who was turned into a cow by Hera, or according to
others by Zeus himself. He metamorphosed into a bull and mated with her
(Aesch. Supp. 301), in consequence of which she gave birth to Epaphos.
Io appears in the myth as a mortal, but she has a close connection with
Zeus’ regular consort, Hera: she is her priestess. It may be that she was an old
goddess whose cult was taken over by Hera. Hera herself has in Homer the
strange formulaic epithet βο;πι, ‘cow-faced’.
One of the Latvian songs, recorded in several variants, runs:
Where have they gone, the great rains?
–– They have all run into the river.
Where has it gone, this river?
–– God’s bulls (Dieva ve ̄rs ˇi) have drunk it up.
Where have they gone, God’s bulls?
–– They have gone a long way away.^69
In place of Dieva ve ̄rs ˇi another version has melni ve ̄rs ˇi, ‘black bulls’. These
bulls seem to be the rain-clouds.
Finally, a Russian riddle: dva byka bodutsja, vmeste ne sojdutsja, ‘two bulls
are butting, they do not come together’. The solution is Sky and Earth.^70
CHILDREN OF *DYEUSThe Vedic Dyaus is not explicitly called ‘father of gods and men’, as Zeus is,
but it would have been an appropriate title, as he and Pr
̇
thivı ̄ are the universal(^69) LD 2221, quoted by D. Calin (as n. 15); my translation is based on his German version. He
draws attention to the verbal parallel between Dieva ve ̄rs ˇi and vr ́
̇
sa ̄ divó in RV 6. 44. 21 quoted
above. Latvian ve ̄rsis and Vedic vr ́
̇
s
̇
an- come from the same root with different stems. The same
word is used of Dyaus in RV 5. 36. 5 (also quoted above).
(^70) Krek (1887), 812.
- Sky and Earth 185