Merseburg spell (pp. 336 f.) –– but rather as a kind of shamanic figure. He
presides over the poetic art, and he is associated with the wolf and the raven.
Just as Apollo’s raven reports to him the lovemaking of Ischys and Coronis, so
Odin’s two ravens fly about the world all day and then return to perch on his
shoulders and speak into his ears of all they have seen or heard.^96
The affinity between the two gods extends to the Celtic Lugus, Irish Lug.
He, like Odin, is a chief among gods, a leader in battle who fights with a great
spear, a master of poetry and magic; he has two ravens who warn him when
the enemy Fomoire are approaching.^97 Neither deity does much healing, but
Lug heals his wounded son Cú Chulainn and Odin heals the Danish prince
Sivard.^98
However, to the extent that these gods have significant points in common
with Apollo, I should be inclined to ascribe them not to (Indo-)European
inheritance but to the diffusion of shamanistic motifs from the Finno-Ugric
peoples, from the east to Scandinavia and from the north, across Scythia and
Thrace, to the Greeks.
MYTHICAL THEMESThe mighty infant; the typical weaponA god, like a hero, grows up with extraordinary rapidity: both estates are
defined by competence, and helpless infancy does not suit them.^99 Indra was
a warrior as soon as he was born (RV 1. 102. 8; 3. 51. 8); heaven and earth
trembled, and all the gods were afraid (1. 61. 14; 4. 17. 2, 22. 4; 5. 30. 5); he put
his opponents to flight, and looked for further deeds of heroism (10. 113. 4).
Hesiod (Th. 492–6) relates how the baby Zeus’ body and strength grew
swiftly, and within a year he was able to overthrow his father Kronos. In the
Homeric Hymns (3. 127–34; 4. 17 f.) we read how Apollo, as soon as he had
had a feed of nectar and ambrosia, burst out of his swaddling, announced
what sort of a god he was going to be, and began walking; and how Hermes
on the first day of his life invented the lyre and stole Apollo’s cattle. Nordic
(^96) ‘Hesiod’, fr. 60; Gylf. 38; cf. Grimm (1883–8), 147, 671, 1333. For the raven’s association
with Apollo cf. Hdt. 4. 15. 2; Ael. HA 1. 48. There are Gaulish monuments representing a god
and goddess with birds (doves or ravens?) on their shoulders, their beaks facing inwards as if
speaking into their ears: Duval (1957), 51; de Vries (1961), 166 f.
(^97) Cf. de Vries (1961), 54; Davidson (1988), 90 f.; B. Sergent, Lug et Apollon (Brussels 1995).
(^98) Táin (I) 2088–115; Saxo 9. 4. 12 p. 254.
(^99) Grimm (1883–8), 320 f. We shall examine the motif in relation to heroes in Chapter 11.
- Gods and Goddesses 149