(now interpreted as the sun) took the form of a horse and pursued her, and it
was then that she conceived.^92 Common to the Indian and the Greek myth
are the union of immortal bride and mortal bridegroom, the substitution of
a facsimile for the wife, the motif of horse-metamorphosis, and the birth of a
son or sons with equine characteristics.
Finally, we should consider the Homeric epithet δ4α, meaning originally
‘belonging to Zeus’. We have noted that this is applied in epic formula to Eos,
the Dawn, originally the daughter of Dyeus. It is also applied to χθ.ν, the
earth.^93 It is possible to speculate that this goes back to a time when Dh
gho ̄m
was still the consort of *Dyeus, and that from this collocation χθdν δ4α
the adjective came to seem appropriate to other major constituents of the
cosmos, hence {λα δ4αν, α!θρα δ4αν. It may also be suggested that the
formulae δ4α θεα ́ ων and δ4α γυναικ;ν, in extant epic applied freely to any
goddess, nymph, or respectable woman, originally designated consorts of
Zeus.
(^92) RV 10. 17. 1 f.; AV 18. 2. 33; Ya ̄ska, Nirukta 12. 10; Br
̇
haddevata ̄ 6. 162–7. 7; Wendy D.
O’Flaherty, Hindu Myths (Harmondsworth 1975), 60 f., 69, 318.
(^93) Il. 14. 347 χθdν δ4α, 24. 532 χθο ́ να δ4αν, etc.
- Sky and Earth 193