dialecton ̇k, in B en ̇kwe, is held to derive from *n
̊
ku -ó- ‘subject to death,
mortal’.^26
Readers of Homer will remember that the gods there are not only immortal
but also unageing. We tend to associate old age and death together, as major
inconveniences of our existence, and it was natural enough to conceive the
gods as being exempt from both. The two ideas are coupled in the recurrent
formula qθα ́ νατο κα? qγ ραο, with that anaphora of the negative prefix
q- (< *n
̊
- ) that was illustrated in the last chapter. It is paralleled in the Veda
and Avesta.^27 The goddess Dawn in RV 1. 113. 13 is ajára ̄ amr ́
̇
ta ̄, where ajára ̄
contains a root cognate with that of Greek γρων,γη
ρα. Similar phrases are
used of other entities with divine status: 3. 53. 15 amr ́
̇
tam ajuryám, 10. 94. 11
ámr
̇
tavah
̇| ana ̄tura ̄ ́ (unimpaired) ajára ̄h
̇; AV 10. 8. 26 ajára ̄ mártiyasya ̄mr ́
̇ta ̄
gr
̇
hé, ‘unageing, an immortal in a mortal’s house’. The men formed by Ahura
Mazda ̄ will, under his sovereignty, reshape the world to be azarəsˇəntəm
amərəsˇəntəm afriθyantəm apuyantəm, ‘unageing, undying, undecaying,
unrotting’ (Yt. 19. 11). In the Old English Maxims A (9–12) similar attributes
are predicated of the Christian God: ‘nor does sickness or age trouble the
Almighty in any way; he does not grow old in heart, but is still as he was, the
patient Lord’.
Cosmic divinities such as the Sun and the Earth impress us with their
untiring stamina.^28 Vedic ámr
̇
dhra-‘unwearying, unfailing’ is applied to the
Dawns (RV 5. 37. 1), Heaven and Earth (5. 43. 2), Agni (ibid. 13), Indra (8. 80.
2). Fire is ájasra-‘untiring’ (2. 35. 8; 3. 1. 21, al.), and so are the Sun and
Moon (10. 12. 7). In Greek the similar-meaning (though not cognate)
qκα ́ ματο is formulaically applied to fire (Il. 5. 4, 15. 598, etc.). The Sun is
qκα ́ μα (18. 239, 484, etc.), as is the river Spercheios (16. 176). Earth, ‘high-
est of the gods’, is Eφθιτο qκαμα ́ τα (Soph. Ant. 339). The winds are also
qκα ́ ματοι (Empedocles B 111), and the sea (Bacchyl. 5. 25, cf. Pind. Nem. 6.
39).
Of certain gods who watch over the world it is said that they never sleep.
Aryaman, Varuna, and Mitra are ásvapnajo animis
̇
a ̄ ́ádabdha ̄h
̇, ‘unsleeping,
unblinking, undeceived’ (RV 2. 27. 9; cf. 4. 4. 12). ásvapna(j)- corresponds to
Avestan axvafna- (Yt. 10. 7 of Mithra; Vd. 19. 20 of Ahura Mazda ̄) and Greek
Eϋπνο.^29 One of the tragedians wrote that ‘the eye of Zeus does not sleep’
(Trag. Adesp. 485); another, that his power never falls victim to sleep (Soph.
Ant. 606).
(^26) Cf. Greek νκυ, Avestan nasu-, ‘dead person, corpse’, Old Irish e ̄c < *n
̊
kú-‘death’, etc.;
Gamkrelidze–Ivanov (1995), 396; D. Q. Adams in EIEC 150b.
(^27) Durante (1976), 98, cf. 101. On the Greek formula cf. West (1966), 246.
(^28) Cf. Durante (1976), 93.
(^29) Euler (1979), 99.
128 3. Gods and Goddesses