CERBERUS IN THE PERSIAN AVESTA.
No reasonable student of mythology will demand of a myth so clearly
destined for fructification an everlasting virginal inviolateness. From
the start almost the two dogs of Yama are the brood of Saram[=a]. Why?
Saram[=a] is the female messenger of the gods, at the root identical
with Hermes or Hermeias; she is therefore the predestined mother of
those other messengers, the two four-eyed dogs of Yama. And as the
latter are her litter the myth becomes retroactive; she herself is
fancied later on as a four-eyed bitch (_Atharva-Veda_, iv. 20. 7).
Similarly the epithet "broad-nosed" stands not in need of mythic
interpretation, as soon as it has become a question of life-hunting
dogs. Elusive and vague, I confess, is the persistent and important
attribute "four-eyed." This touch is both old and widespread. The
_Avesta_, the bible of the ancient Iranians, has reduced the Cerberus
myth to stunted rudiments. In _Vendidad_, xiii. 8. 9, the killing of
dogs is forbidden, because the soul of the slayer "when passing to the
other world, shall fly amid louder howling and fiercer pursuit than the
sheep does when the wolf rushes upon it in the lofty forest.
Pages:
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38