The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s3.32

v1.c16.s3.32

The similarity of Pūṣan to Hermes is undoubted:⁶ both have in common the duty of conducting men or the souls of the dead on the roads: they are closely connected with the herds, confer wealth, act as convoys, are connected with the goat, and even the braided hair of Pūṣan has been compared with the Krobalos of Hermes.⁷ But it is impossible to lay much stress on the parallelism in view of the lack of similarity of name, and the difficulty of determining the original character of Hermes is much greater than that of determining that of Pūṣan. His name denotes the prosperor, and Yāska⁸ distinctly declares him to be the sun. This traditional interpretation is not inconsistent with any of his characteristics: it certainly accounts for his character as glowing, for his connexion with the sun-maiden, and his wealth: again it accounts for his power to show paths, from which it is not difficult to deduce his duty of conducting the souls or his going on errands. As the increase-giving sun, his close connexion with cattle is natural: Mithra in Iran, an almost undoubted sun-god, has the power to increase cattle, and bring lost animals home. The goat would be a natural animal to be associated with the god whose duty it was to go on difficult pathways. As against this natural explanation it is difficult to take very seriously the theory that he is not the representative of any natural phenomenon, but a god of the ways.¹ Much of his nature can thus be explained, but not the close connexion with the prospering of cattle and of men which is clearly his, but which cannot without difficulty be deduced from his nature as a god of ways, though attempts to do so may have been known in the oldest times. The only explanation which is possible as an alternative is to regard Pūṣan as in origin an animal god, embodied in the goat, or a vegetation spirit which might be conceived in goat shape.² But in that case much of the mythology would remain wholly unexplained.³