The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c7.s2.49

c7.s2.49

Beneficent when he presses the soma, maleficent when he wipes off on human beings the impurity which the gods have wiped off on him, useful when one can, thanks to the gods, throw on him this impurity, Tritá in so far as he has a relationship with the diseases or with the soma, the liquid of immortality, does not possess a unequivocal character, whereas the Avestan Thrita appears as only a beneficent character. But there is here nothing surprising in a Vedic personage and it does not prevent him from going back to the same mythical Indo-Iranian figure, to whom goes his Avestan counterpart. Moreover, it is probable that he responds better than the other one to the image which can be conceived of their common mythical ancestor.