There are a few possible traces of these motifs in Greece. The fiery god
nurtured in the waters by their female embodiments recalls the Homeric
myth that Hephaestus, having been thrown out of heaven at birth by his
mother Hera, was reared in secret in Ocean’s stream by Eurynome and Thetis,
chief of the Oceanids and Nereids respectively, who received him in their
bosom. For nine years he stayed with them, crafting lovely ornaments, with
Ocean flowing all around (Il. 18. 395–405). As usual, Hephaestus is here por-
trayed as a smith. But if we think of him in his more basic identity as fire, a
similarity to the Agni myth becomes apparent.
It has been suggested that the story related by Bacchylides in his ,ΗRθεοι
(poem 17) is relevant.^114 Theseus, claiming to be a son of Poseidon, is chal-
lenged to recover a gold ring that Minos throws into the sea from the ship in
which they are travelling. Theseus dives in and is carried by dolphins to his
father’s home beneath the waves. There he sees the Nereids dancing, their
bodies shining like fire. The similarity with Apa ̄m napa ̄t is somewhat
indistinct, but the fiery apparition deep in the water, with the female spirits of
the water circling about, may possibly owe something to the old myth. The
dive for the gleaming gold ring, which might be taken as the concrete symbol
of Minos’ sovereignty, has an analogue in the Avestan myth that the Turanian
warrior Fraŋrasyan dived three times into the lake Vourukasˇa in a misguided
attempt to obtain the shining xvarənah- (sovereign glory) which Apa ̨m napa ̄t
held in the depths of its waters for the Aryans (Yt. 19. 51–64); there is evi-
dently a close relationship here between the effulgent symbol of sovereignty
and Apa ̨m napa ̄t himself.^115
A poetic formula resembling apa ̄ ́m
̇
nápa ̄t- seems to occur at Od. 4. 404,
where Proteus’ seals are called νποδε καλH UΑλοσ3δνη, ‘thenepodes of
fair Halosydna’.Nepodes is apparently a Greek cognate of nápa ̄t-/nepos, while
Halosydna ‘Sea-watery’ is in another place a name or epithet of Thetis (Il. 20.
207; of Nereids collectively, Ap. Rhod. 4. 1599). We might hypothesize that
there had once been a figure called *nepo ̄s Hudna ̄s, ‘Grandson of the Watery
(goddess)’, and that after his nature had been forgotten the phrase was
adapted as a picturesque designation of other denizens of the deep.^116
The old Armenian poem about the birth of the hero Vahagn may preserve
another reflex of the motif of the fiery divine figure in the waters.^117 A little
red reed in the sea bursts into flame, and from the flame a golden-haired
youth leaps forth, with hair and beard of fire and eyes that are suns.
(^114) B. Louden, JIES 27 (1999), 57–78.
(^115) Yt. 19. 51–64. Cf 13. 95, where Apa ̨m napa ̄t appears as a guarantor of governmental
authority; Gershevitch (1959), 27 f., 59 f.
(^116) Cf. Louden (as n. 114), 73 f.
(^117) Compared by Watkins (1995), 254.
- Storm and Stream 271