considered as an active principle. This suggests, at least as a potentiality, the
treatment of fire as a divinity.
In India he does indeed appear as a divinity, an important one, under the
name Agni, which is the direct continuation of *hn
̊
gwni-. Elsewhere –– even in
lands where reflexes of *hn
̊
gwni- served as the ordinary word for fire –– we find
fire-gods under a variety of other names. The diversity makes it harder to
argue for their original identity. But fire has always played a major role in cult
and must always have retained its sacral character in that context. And in the
case of such a dangerous entity it is only to be expected that its primary name
should often have become taboo and alternative names substituted. So we
should keep an open mind, and be alert for points of contact that go beyond
the simple association with fire.
Agni is fire of all kinds, terrestrial and celestial: the fire of the sun and
lightning, a forest fire, the fire of the domestic hearth and the sacrificial altar.
Two of his attributes, ‘seen from afar’ and ‘untiring’, correspond in sense,
though not etymologically, to epithets applied in Greek to the impersonal
‘fire’.^93 It is the sacrificialfire that is of central importance for religion, and
this is why Agni is celebrated in over two hundred hymns in the Rigveda.
Lit anew every morning, this fire carries the oblation to the gods and also
brings them to the sacrifice, thus linking heaven and earth. In looking for
cognate fire-gods in other traditions we must keep the fires of altar and
hearth, regulated as they are by ceremony and ritual, as a central point of
reference.
Herodotus in the passage quoted above includes fire among the Persians’
objects of worship. The Avestan word for it is a ̄tar- (masculine). In its scope it
is entirely comparable to Vedic agní-. It denotes fire generally, and especially
the sacral and hearth fire, often personified and honoured as a god. A ̄tar is
closely associated with Ahura Mazda ̄ as his ally and agent; he is indeed con-
stantly called his son (Y. 1. 12, 3. 2, 22. 3, etc.). It may be that this filiation was
adapted from an Indo-Iranian tradition that Agni was the son of Dyaus, as he
is in the Rigveda (4. 15. 6; 6. 49. 2; son of Dyaus and Pr
̇
thivı ̄, 3. 2. 2, 3. 11, al.).
In Yt. 19. 46–51 a mythical account is given of the contest for the sovereign
glory (xvarənah-) between Spənta Mainyu and Aŋra Mainyu, the Bounteous
Will and the Hostile Will. It is fought for by their respective champions A ̄tar
and Azˇi Daha ̄ka, the three-headed dragon. The latter threatens that he will
extinguish A ̄tar, and A ̄tar is deterred. But then he counter-attacks, threatening
to shoot a jet of flame through the monster from his rear end to his mouths,
(^93) RV 7. 1. 1 du ̄redr ́
̇
s ́a, cf. TS 4. 1. 3. 4 ~ Hes. Th. 566 πυρ: τηλσκοπον α1γ ν; RV 2. 35. 8;
- 21, 54. 1, al. ájasra- ~ Il. 5. 4, al. qκα ́ ματον πυ
ρ. The latter parallel is noted by Durante
(1976), 93.
266 6. Storm and Stream