Gods often have many names and titles. ‘Many-named’ (purun
̇a ̄ ́man-,
πολυ.νυμο) in fact appears as a divine epithet in both Vedic and Greek:
RV 8. 93. 17, AV 6. 99. 1, of Indra; Hymn. Dem. 18 and 32, of Hades; Hymn.
Ap. 82, of Apollo; Soph. Ant. 1115, of Dionysus; Ar. Thesm. 320, of Artemis,
etc.^30 At the same time there was uncertainty about which of his names the
deity was to be called by in order for prayers to be effective; there was the
notion that he had one true name, which might in some circumstances be
kept secret.^31 The Soma, pressed, poured out, and imbibed, ‘reveals the secret
names of the gods for proclamation on the sacrificialfloor’ (RV 9. 95. 2).
Indra has a secret name as creator of the world (10. 55. 1 f.). In Euripides’
Phaethon (225 f. = fr. 781. 12 f.) Clymene cries to the Sun-god
p καλλιφεγγC =Ηλι,, v μ, qπ.λεσα
κα? το ́ νδ,. ,Απο ́ λλων δ, $ν βροτοι
%ρθ; καλη
ι,
Jστι τw σιγ;ντ, %νο ́ ματ, οjδε δαιμο ́ νων.
O fair-beamed Sun, how you have destroyed me
and him here. You are rightly called Apollon (‘Destroyer’) among mortals,
(by) whoever knows the divine powers’ unspoken names.The Romans held their city to be under the protection of a deity whose name
was a closely guarded secret, and Rome itself had an alternative name that was
uttered only in secret rites, in case an enemy should learn it and so acquire
power to harm the city.^32 Nordic gods’ names such as Freyr and Freyja, which
mean (the) Lord and Lady, may have been substitutes for these divinities’
‘real’ names.
Some gods are called ‘celebrated’, with an adjective formed on the old lu
root. The Maruts are prás ́ravas- (RV 5. 41. 16); Mithra is frasru ̄ta- (Yt. 10. 47),
as are the Fravashis (Yt. 13. 29, 30, 35), the divinized spirits of the faithful;
Poseidon and Hephaestus are familiar in Homer as κλυτ: ,Εννοσγαιο
and περικλυτ: Lμφιγυ ει respectively. There is a Gaulish dedication
‘to the Renowned Ones’,Ροκλοισιαβο, where the Ro- (< pro-) corresponds
to the pra-/fra- of the Vedic and Avestan passages.^33
Divine epithets often take the superlative form.^34 Indra is ‘the highest’ (RV
- 4 uttamá), as is Zeus ( πατο in Homer; ψιστο in Pindar, Nem. 1.
60, 11. 2, and Aeschylus, Eum. 28). The Yasna liturgy is performed (Y. 1. 1)
- 4 uttamá), as is Zeus ( πατο in Homer; ψιστο in Pindar, Nem. 1.
(^30) Usener (1896), 334–7; Schmitt (1967), 183 f.; Campanile (1977), 55–7, 76.
(^31) Cf. de Vries (1956), i. 299 f.; Campanile (1977), 59–61.
(^32) Plin. HN 3. 65, 28. 18; Macr. Sat. 3. 9. 3–5; Serv. ad Aen. 1. 277.
(^33) E. Campanile, Le lingue indoeuropee di frammentaria attestazione (Pisa 1983), 215; Meid
(1994), 25; inscr. G-65.
(^34) Usener (1896), 50–4, 343; C. Watkins in Mélanges Linguistiques offerts à Émile Benveniste
(Paris 1975), 531 f. = (1994), 510 f.; id. (1995), 485 n. 4.
- Gods and Goddesses 129