There is another Vedic myth in which a herd of cows is in the possession of a
three-headed dragon (áhi-); the dragon is killed, his heads cut off, and the
cows liberated. The dragon’s name is Vis ́varu ̄ pa, ‘Omniform’. He was the son
of Tvas
̇
t
̇r
̇, and had a wealth of cows and horses (RV 10. 76. 3). His slayer was
Trita A ̄ptya, a figure associated with Indra and the Maruts. Indra delivered
Vis ́varu ̄ pa to Trita (2. 11. 19). Trita fought him, killed him, and let the cows
out (10. 8. 8). Indra cut off his three heads and drove the cows home for Trita
(10. 8. 9, 48. 2).^69
A version of the same myth is alluded to in the Younger Avesta. The hero
who corresponds to Trita A ̄ptya is Θrae ̄taona, son of A ̄θβya. He defeated the
three-headed demon Azˇi Daha ̄ka^70 and took away, not a herd of cows, but his
two beautiful wives (Y. 9. 7–8, Yt. 5. 29–35, 9. 13–15, 14. 40, 15. 19–25, 19. 46–
50, Vd. 1. 17). ‘Θrae ̄taona son of A ̄θβya’ would seem to have replaced an
earlier *Θrita A ̄θβya = Trita A ̄ptya, perhaps signifying ‘Third McWaters’.^71 At
least in its Indic form the surname suggests that this deity was somehow
associated with the waters. The inference is that the demon he slays is, like
Vr
̇
tra, a blocker of the waters.
This Indo-Iranian myth has long been compared with another of Heracles’
exploits:^72 his journey across the western Ocean to the island of Erythea to
capture the cattle of Geryoneus, also called Geryon. Geryon had three heads
(Hes. Th. 287) and (at least from the time of Stesichorus) a triple body,
with six arms and six legs. Heracles borrowed the Sun’s cup in order to cross
to Erythea, killed Geryon together with his herdsman Eurytion and his
dog, and drove the cattle back to Greece. Geryon’s name is presumably related
to γHρυ, γηρ3ω, which are elevated poetic words for ‘voice, utter, sing’,
(^69) On Trita cf. Macdonell (1898), 67–9; Oldenberg (1917), 141 f.; K. Rönnow, Trita A ̄ptya.
Eine vedische Gottheit, i (Uppsala 1927); Hillebrandt (1927–9), ii. 307–11; Oberlies (1998),
195–9.
(^70) Azˇi-= Vedic áhi-, ‘serpent’;Daha ̄ka- is related to Vedic da ̄sá-, ‘devil’. The Iranian demon is
described as ‘three-headed, six-eyed’ (Y. 9. 8, Yt. 9. 34, al.), as is Vis ́varu ̄ pa (‘six-eyed, three-
headed’, RV 10. 99. 6). In Yt. 5. 61 Θrae ̄taona is called vərəθrajå,‘vərəθra-smasher’, which
implies the same label for the dragon as gave Vr
̇
tra his name; cf. Puhvel (1987), 102.
(^71) Cf. Mary Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism, i (Leiden–Köln 1975), 97–100; Puhvel (1987),
110 f.; Watkins (1995), 314; P. Jackson and N. Oettinger, IIJ 45 (2002), 221–9. The interpretation
of both terms is disputed. Θrita appears elsewhere as a separate hero (Y. 9. 9–11, Yt. 13. 113,
Vd. 20. 1–3; one of those who defeated the Turanian Da ̄navas, Yt. 5. 72–4). ‘Third’ as a mythical
name has been compared with Zeus’ title of Third Saviour (τρτο σωτ ρ); Athena
Τριτογνεια (Third-born? Born of Tritos?); the Norse þriði ‘Third’ (Grímnismál 46. 4, Gylf. 2).
Cf. Grimm (1883–8), 162; de Vries (1956), ii. 86 f.; F. R. Schröder (as n. 45), 26 f.; B. Lincoln,
History of Religions 16 (1976), 43–53. One might add the mysterious Troyan of Russian and
Serbian myth, cf. Vánˇa (1992), 83. Note that ‘Third’ would be a poetic or hieratic code-name,
fully comprehensible only with specialized knowledge.
(^72) M. Bréal, Hercule et Cacus (1850) =Mélanges de mythologie et de linguistique (Paris 1882),
1–162; Müller (1897), 766–8; Watkins (1995), 464–8.
260 6. Storm and Stream