Vr
̇tra is a huge serpent, áhi-. The same verb that appears in vr
̇trahán- is
used in the formula áhann áhim, ‘(Indra) smashed the serpent’ (RV 1. 32. 1, 2,
- 2, etc.). This has an almost exact counterpart in Avestan janat
̃
azˇı ̄m (Y. 9.
8, Yt. 14. 40, of Θrae ̄taona’s defeat of a three-headed dragon), and Calvert
Watkins has shown how cognates and variants of the phrase can be traced
extensively in Hittite, Indo-Iranian, and Greek.^63
A translation of part of RV 1. 32 will serve to convey the essential features
of the Vr
̇
tra myth.^64
1 Of Indra’s heroic deeds will I now tell,
the ones that the vajra-bearer did first.
He smashed the Serpent, pierced a path for the waters;
he split the innards of the mountains.
2 He smashed the Serpent that lay on the mountain;
Tvas
̇t
̇r
̇fashioned for him the roaring vajra.
Streaming like lowing cows,
the waters ran straight down to the sea....
4 When, Indra, you smashed the firstborn of serpents
and shrivelled the magicians’ magics,
then, bringing sun, sky, and dawn to birth ––
since then you have truly found no antagonist.
5 He smashed Vr
̇
tra the vr
̇
tra-most, the wide-shouldered,
Indra with his vajra, his great weapon.
Like branches lopped off by an axe,
the Serpent lies flat on the earth....
7 Without feet, without hands, he fought against Indra,
(but) he smashed his vajra into his shoulderblades.
A castrated ox matching himself with a bull,
Vr
̇tra lay shot to pieces all over the place.
8 As he lies thus like a broken reed,
Manu’s rising waters go over him:
the very ones that Vr
̇
tra had surrounded in his greatness,
at their feet the Serpent was prostrate...
10 In the unstaying, unresting
watercourses’ midst his body is laid away.
Over Vr
̇
tra’s concealment the waters ride;
into long darkness he sank, Indra’s antagonist.
11 Demon’s wives, Serpent’s herd they had stood
shut in, the waters, as the cows by Pan
̇i.(^63) Watkins (1995), 297–407. This is the basis of his splendid title, How to Kill a Dragon.
(^64) Cf. also Macdonell (1898), 58–60, 158 f.; Oldenberg (1917), 133–41; Joseph Fontenrose,
Python (Berkeley–Los Angeles 1959), 194–201.
256 6. Storm and Stream