earth and sun endure’ (Theognis 252); ‘so long as waters flow and trees grow
tall, and the sun rises and shines, and the radiant moon’ (Hom. Epigr. 3). And
in the Celtic literatures: ‘as long as the sun shall cross the sky’ (oiret rabh grian
ar deiseal, verse in Acallam na Senórach 520 Stokes); ‘as long as heaven
remains above earth’ (Moliant Cadwallon 21).^32 I have collected a few similar
expressions from Hebrew and Assyrian texts, but they are no older than the
first millennium .^33
The world we live in can be equated with the world under the sun. Indeed
the Baltic word for ‘world’, Lithuanian pasaulis, Latvian pasaule, means
literally ‘under the sun’. ‘There are many birds flying about under the sun’s
beams’ (Od. 2. 181) means no more than ‘in the world’. In an early British
poem we already meet the expression ‘everyone under the sun’.^34 The phrase
is especially used to emphasize uniqueness in respect of some quality. The
horses that Zeus gave to Tros were ‘the best of all the horses that there are
under the day’s light and the sun’ (Il. 5. 266 f., 0π’(; τ’(λιο ́ ν τε; cf. 4. 44).
Euripides’ Alcestis is declared to be ‘by far the finest woman of those under
the sun’ (Alc. 151). In an early Irish poem we read that ‘under heaven (fo
nimib) there was none so strong as the son of Áine’.^35 In the Edda Helgi
Hjorvardsson is proclaimed ‘the prince who was best under the sun’. Sigurd is
told ‘a mightier man will not come on the earth, under the sun’s seat, than
you are deemed’. Hervor’s dead father tells her that she will bear a son who
will be ‘the most glorious raised under the sun’s tent’.^36
To be here under the sun, to be able to see the sun, is synonymous with
being alive. ‘Do not give us over to death, O Soma; may we yet see the sun
going up’ (RV 10. 59. 4); ‘let this man be here with his life, in the portion
of the sun (su ̄ ́ryasya bha ̄gé), in the world of non-dying’ (AV 8. 1. 1). svàr or
su ̄ ́ryam dr
̇
s ́é‘see the sun’ stands for being alive (RV 1. 23. 21, al.), as does the
simple ‘seeing’ (pás ́yan, 1. 116. 25). Similarly in the Ga ̄tha ̄s,astvat
̃
asˇ
̇əm x ́ya ̄t
̃,
‘may Truth be there corporeal’ (i.e. in the corporeal world), is parallel to xvə ̄n
̇
g
darəso ̄i xsˇaθro ̄i x ́ya ̄t
̃
a ̄rmaitisˇ, ‘may Rightmindedness be there in the realm
in the sight of the sun’.^37 In Greek we have, for instance, ‘while I am alive and
(^32) Ed. R. G. Gruffydd in R. Bromwich and R. B. Jones, Astudiethau ar yr Hengredd (Cardiff
1978), 27ff. On this poem cf. Jarman, Y Gododdin, xxiii.
(^33) West (1997), 515.
(^34) Trawsganu Kynan Garwyn 95–8 (Book of Taliesin 45; Koch–Carey (2000), 303). Some
Semitic parallels (none earlier than the seventh century ) in West (1997), 235.
(^35) Campanile (1988), 27 no. 4. 2; a parallel in Kuno Meyer, Bruchstücke der älteren Lyrik
Irlands (Berlin 1919), 115.
(^36) Helgakviða Hio ̨rvarðzsonar 39. 4, cf. 43. 8; Grípisspá 52. 5–8, cf. 7. 2; Waking of Angantyr 17
(Edd. min. 17).
(^37) Y. 43. 16. Cf. Y. 32. 10, ‘that man corrupts the Message, who declares that the worst thing to
behold with the eyes is the cow and the sun.’
86 2. Phrase and Figure