the thing. A number are shared by different branches of the tradition and
may represent a common inheritance. Several of them will come into view
in other contexts, for example ‘immortal gods’ in Chapter 3, ‘broad earth’ and
‘dark earth’ in Chapter 4, ‘swift horses’, ‘prizewinning horses’, ‘well-wheeled
chariot’ in Chapter 12. Here are some others.^26
A messenger is ‘swift’: RV 3. 9. 8, 4. 7. 4 a ̄s ́úm
̇
du ̄tám;Od. 16. 468 Eγγελο
Gκ3,Il. 24. 292 ταχ7ν Eγγελον, etc. a ̄s ́ú- and Gκ3 are etymologically
identical.
A woman is ‘well-clothed’: RV 1. 124. 7, 4. 3. 2, al. ja ̄ya ̄ ́ (married woman)
... suva ̄ ́sa ̄h
̇
; Il. 1. 429 $ϋζ.νοιο γυναικο ́ , Od. 6. 49 Ναυσικα ́ αν
εOπεπλον, etc. The prefixes su- and ε1- are cognate. We can also compare the
Homeric λευκ.λενο‘white-armed’ (applied to Hera, Helen, Andromache,
and others; also Od. 6. 239 α, μφπολοι λευκ.λενοι, 19. 60 δμωια?
λευκ.λενοι) with Hávamál 161. 5 hvítarmri konu, ‘a white-armed woman’.
Here there is no etymological correspondence, but the compound adjective is
formed in the same way (bahuvrı ̄hi).
Clothes are ‘bright, shining’. RV 1. 134. 4, 9. 97. 2 bhadra ̄ ́ vástra ̄‘shining
garments’ matches Od. 6. 74 $σθHτα φαειν ν in sense, and there is a double
etymological relationship, with the root bha in both adjectives and wes in
both nouns. It becomes a triple one in RV 3. 39. 2 bhadra ̄ ́ vástra ̄n
̇
i árjuna ̄
‘shining bright garments’ ~ Il. 3. 419 αν;ι α, ργHτι φαειν;ι, as ανο ́ ν also
contains wes, while árjuna- and α, ργ are both from the root h 2 r
̊
gˆ.
So is α, ργ‘swift’, a Homeric epithet of dogs and the name of Odysseus’
dog. The antiquity of the association is shown by the Vedic personal name
R
̇
jís ́van (= *Lργι-κ3ων). This does not show that the noun-epithet phrase
was a poetic formula outside Greek, but certainly α, ργο ́ is an archaism in
Greek. árjuna- as a colour word is applied to a dog in RV 7. 55. 2.^27
Wolves are embellished with a colour epithet, generally ‘grey’, though in
RV 1. 105.18 we have arun
̇
ó vr ́
̇kah
̇‘a ruddy wolf ’. In Homer it is πολιο4ο
λ3κοιο,πολιο τε λ3κοι; in the Exeter Gnomes (151) wulf se græga; in the
Edda, úlf grá(a)n (Helgakviða Hundingsbana B 1. 5); Fenrir in the Eiríksmál
(26, CPB i. 261) is úlfr inn ho ̨svi. A warrior in Y Gododdin 740 has the
nickname glasvleid (Greywolf ). ‘Grey wolf/wolves’ is also a formula in
Russian heroic poetry.^28
The Vedic phrase sva ̄dór ... mádhvah
̇
‘of the sweet mead’ has its etymo-
logical counterpart in the Homeric μθυ ]δ3, though the Greeks had
(^26) Cf. the material collected in Schmitt (1967), 221–60; Durante (1976), 91–8.
(^27) Cf. Durante (1976), 94; Watkins (1995), 172.
(^28) Igor 3, 25, 42, 189; Chadwick (1932), 41, line 168; 45, line 9. Cf. Gering–Sijmons (1927–31),
ii. 106; Wüst (1969), 28 f., 46–8.
84 2. Phrase and Figure