analogue to this in the Hesperides’ tree which grows golden apples, has a
guardian serpent at its base, and is located close to Atlas who supports the sky
(Hes. Th. 215 f., 334 f., 518). When Greek poets speak of the ‘roots’ of the
earth or sea, the metaphor might go back to a forgotten notion of a world
tree.^23 The strange cosmology of Pherecydes of Syros involved a winged
oak upon which was hung the embroidered robe of Earth; but wherever
Pherecydes got this idea from, it can hardly have been from any ancestral
Greek tradition.^24
The cosmic serpentThe serpent or dragon that resides at the base of the Iranian tree Gaokərəna,
the tree in the Hesperides’ garden, and the Nordic Yggdrasil has a negative
personality. The Greek monster denies access to the life-giving apples; the
Iranian one seeks the elixir for himself; Nidhogg erodes the tree’s structure
and will eventually cause it to collapse.
There are other references to a cosmic serpent who is not associated with
a tree but lurks in the depths of the waters. ‘The Serpent of the Deep’,Áhir
budhnyàh
̇
, is mentioned a dozen times in the Rigveda and actually invoked as
a deity. Budhnyà- is the adjective from budhná- ‘base’; the noun is related to
Greek πυθ-μ ν, which is occasionally found in a cosmic sense, referring
to the bottom of the sea, earth, etc.^25 The creature is associated with waters
(RV 6. 49. 19), indeed born in them (abja ̄ ́-, 7. 34. 16). He sits in darkness in
the depths of rivers (budhné nadı ̄ ́na ̄m, ibid.).^26
No myth is related about him in the Veda, and as a recipient of prayers he is
clearly distinct from Vr
̇
tra, the water serpent overcome by Indra (Chapter 6),
though they might originally have been the same. We saw that Vr
̇
tra had
something in common with Typhoeus/Typhaon and Python, the monsters
struck down by Zeus and Apollo respectively. V. N. Toporov has argued that
both of these names contain the same root (bhudh- or dhubh-) as the Vedic
budh-ná-.^27
In later Indic myth the earth lies sunk in the ocean between one creation
and the next, surrounded by the vast coils of the serpent S ́es
̇
a, who is a form(^23) Cf. West (1966), 351; H. S. Schibli, Pherekydes of Syros (Oxford 1990), 70.
(^24) Cf. West (1971), 27, 55–60; H. S. Schibli (as n. 23), 69–77.
(^25) Hes. Th. 932 with West (1966), 414.
(^26) The other passages are 1. 186. 5; 2. 31. 6; 5. 41. 16; 6. 50. 14; 7. 35. 13, 38. 5; 10. 64. 4, 66. 11,
- 12, 93. 5. Cf. Macdonell (1898), 72 f.; Hillebrandt (1927–9), ii. 305 f.; Watkins (1995), 460–2.
(^27) Followed by Watkins (1995), 461 f. The variations in the quantity of the [u] (short in
budhná-, πυθμ ν, Τυφωε3, Τυφα ́ ων, but long in Π3θων, Τυφ;ν) are problematic.
- Cosmos and Canon 347