The Arctic Home in the Vedas c7.34

c7.34

The same traditions are also found in the literature of many other branches of the Aryan race, besides the Hindus and the Parsis. For instance, Dr. Warren quotes Greek traditions similar to those we have discussed above. Regarding the primitive revolution of the sky, Anaximenes, we are told, likened the motions of the heaven in early days to "the rotating of a man's hat on his head".¹ Another Greek writer is quoted to show that "at first the Pole-star always appeared in the zenith." It is also stated, on the authority of Anton Krichenbauer, that in the Iliad and Odyssey two kinds of days are continually referred to, one of a year's duration, especially when describing the life and exploits of the Gods, and the other of twenty-four hours. The night of the Gods has its parallel also in the Norse mythology, which mentions "the Twilight of the Gods," denoting by that phrase the time when the reign of Odin and the Æsir, or Gods, would come to an end, not forever, but to be again revived; for we are told that "from the dead sun springs a daughter more beautiful than her sire, and mankind starts afresh from the Life-raiser and his bride Life."² If these traditions and statements are correct, they show that the idea of half-yearly night and day of the Gods is not only Indo-Iranian, but Indo-Germanic, and that it must, therefore, have originated in the original home of the Aryans. Comparative mythology, it will be shown in a subsequent chapter, fully supports the view of an original Arctic home of the Aryan races, and there is nothing surprising if the traditions about a day and a night of six months are found not only in the Vedic and the Iranian, but also in the Greek and the Norse literature. It seems to have been an idea traditionally inherited by all the branches of the Aryan race, and, as it is distinctly Polar in character, it is alone enough to establish the existence of an Arctic home. But fortunately for us our edifice need not be erected on this solitary pillar, as there is ample evidence in the Vedic literature which supports the Arctic theory by satisfying almost all the Polar and Circum-Polar tests laid down in the last chapter. The long revolving dawn is another peculiar characteristic of the North Pole, and we shall see in the next chapter that the Rig-Vedic account of the dawn is intelligible only if we take it as referring to the Polar dawn.