A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1998

c5.1998

The correspondence of Varuna with Ouranos has been already noted, but “the parallel will not hold in all points. There is not in the Vedic mythology any special relation between Varuna and Prithivī (the earth) as husband and wife, as there is between Ouranos and Gaia in the theogony of Hesiod; nor is Varuna represented in the Veda, as Ouranos is by the Greek poet, as the progenitor of Dyaus (Zeus), except in the general way in which he is said to have formed and to preserve heaven and earth” (*Muir's Texts*, v. 58). Manu also refers to Varuna as “binding the guilty in fatal cords.”