ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY

OR

THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS

BY

ANGELO DE GUBERNATIS

PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN THE ISTITUTO DI STUDII

SUPERIORI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO, AT FLORENCE

FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PHILOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY

OF THE DUTCH INDIES

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I.

LONDON

TRÜBNER & CO., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW

1872

[All rights reserved]

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANYEDINBURGH AND LONDON

TO

MICHELE AMARI AND MICHELE COPPINO

This Work

IS DEDICATED

AS A TRIBUTE OF LIVELY GRATITUDE AND

PROFOUND ESTEEM

BY

THE AUTHOR.

[Pg 1]

ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY;

OR

THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS.

First Part.

THE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH.

CHAPTER I.

THE COW AND THE BULL.

Section I.—The Cow and the Bull in the Vedic Hymns.

SUMMARY.

Prelude.—The vault of Heaven as a luminous cow.—The gods andgoddesses, sons and daughters of this cow.—The vault of Heavenas a spotted cow.—The sons and daughters of this cow, i.e. thewinds, Marutas, and the clouds, Pṛiçnayas.—The wind-bulls subduethe cloud-cows.—Indras, the rain-sending, thundering, lightening,radiant sun, who makes the rain fall and the light return, calledthe bull of bulls.—The bull Indras drinks the water of strength.—Hungerand thirst of the heroes of mythology.—The cloud-barrel.—Thehorns of the bull and of the cow are sharpened.—Thethunderbolt-horns.—The cloud as a cow, and even as a stable orhiding-place for cows.—Cavern where the cows are shut up, ofwhich cavern the bull Indras and the bulls Marutas remove thestone, and force the entrance, to reconquer the cows, delivering themfrom the monster; the male Indras finds himself again with hiswife.—The cloud-fortress, which Indras destroys and Agnis setson fire.—The cloud-forest, which the gods destroy.—The cloud-cow;the cow-bow; the bird-thunderbolts; the birds come out ofthe cow.—The monstrous cloud-cow, the wife of the monster.—Some[Pg 2]phenomena of the cloudy sky are analogous to those of thegloomy sky of night and of winter.—The moment most fit for anepic poem is the meeting of such phenomena in a nocturnal tempest.—Thestars, cows put to flight by the sun.—The moon, a milk-yieldingcow.—The ambrosial moon fished up in the fountain, givesnourishment to Indras.—The moon as a male, or bull, discomfits,with the bull Indras, the monster.—The two bulls, or the twostallions, the two horsemen, the twins.—The bull chases the wolffrom the waters.—The cow tied.—The aurora, or ambrosial cow,formed out of the skin of another cow by the Ṛibhavas.—TheṚibhavas, bulls and wise birds.—The three Ṛibhavas reproducethe triple Indras and the triple Vishṇus; their three relationships;the three brothers, eldest, middle, youngest; the three brotherworkmen; the youngest brother is the most intelligent, althoughat first thought stupid; the reason why.—The three brothersguests of a king.—The third of the Ṛibhavas, the third andyoungest son becomes Tritas the third, in the heroic form ofIndras, who kills the monster; Tritas, the third brother

...

BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!

Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR!