asma ̄ id u stómam ́
̇sám
̇hinomi
rátham
̇ná tás
̇t
̇eva tátsina ̄ya.
For him I deliver the praise-song
as a joiner does a chariot to him who commissioned it. (1. 61. 4)
ima ̄ bráhma ́ ̄n
̇
i... ya ̄ táks ́
̇
a ̄ma rátha ̄m ̇ iva.
These prayers which we have built like chariots. (5. 73. 10)Similarly 1. 94. 1, 130. 6; 5. 2. 11, 29. 15; 10. 39. 14.
In other places the poets imagine the car being harnessed and set in
motion. Sometimes they are in competition for a prize, and the poetic contest
is likened to a chariot race:
ı ̄ ́l
̄
e Agním
̇
suávasam
̇
námobhir...
ráthair iva prá bhare va ̄jayádbhih
̇;
pradaks
̇
in
̇
ín Marúta ̄m
̇
stómam r
̇
dhya ̄m.
I call on Agni the gracious with homage...
As if with racing chariots I am borne onward;
with him on my right hand may I make a success of the Maruts’ praise-song.
(5. 60. 1)Cf. 2. 31. 1–4; 5. 66. 3; 7. 24. 5; 8. 3. 15, 80. 4–8; 10. 26. 1/9. It is not necessarily
the poet who rides in the car. In 2. 18. 1–7 the poet harnesses the horses to
the chariot and urges Indra to mount it and come in it, and similarly in 3. 35.
- In 5. 61. 17 the goddess Night is besought to convey the poet’s praise-song
to his patron, ‘like a charioteer’.
Chariot imagery appears twice in the Ga ̄tha ̄s. At Y. 50. 6 f. Zarathushtra
prays:
may He who gives wisdom to be the charioteer of my tongue
teach me his rules with good thought.
And I will yoke you the swiftest steeds,
ones widely victorious in your laudation,
Wise One, in truth sturdy with good thought:
ride ye with them, and may ye be there for my succour.Here are combined three of the concepts seen in the Vedic passages: the hymn
as a chariot to be guided, the chariot-team as a contender for victory, and its
yoking by the poet for the god to ride in. At 30. 10 the prophet declares that
when his religion triumphs, ‘the swiftest (steeds) will be yoked from the fair
dwelling of Good Thought, of the Wise One, and of Truth, and they will win
good fame’.
In the Greek poets the chariot is usually identified as that of the Muse
or Muses. Empedocles (fr. 3. 5 Diels–Kranz) asks her to drive it ‘from (the
dwelling-place of ) Piety’, which makes a curious parallel to the last Gathic
42 1. Poet and Poesy