een framed before that
separation, and which occur therefore, though greatly modified in
character, sometimes in Greek, sometimes in Latin, sometimes in the
Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic dialects. D y a u s, for instance, is the
same word as Zeus or Jupiter, U s h a s is Eos, N a k t a is Nyx, S u r
y a is Helios, A g n i is ignis, B h a g a is Baga in Old Persian, B o g
u in Old Slavonic, V a r u _n_ a is Uranos, V a t a is Wotan, V a _k_ is
vox, and in the name of the _Maruts_, or the storm-gods, the germs of
the Italic god of war, Mars, have been discovered. Besides these direct
coincidences, some indirect relations have been established between
Hermes and S a r a m e y a, Dionysos and D y u n i _s_ y a, Prometheus
and p r a m a n t h a, Orpheus and _R i_ b h u, Erinnys and S a r a _n_
y u, Pan and P a v a n a.[231]

But while the name of Indra as the god of the sky, also as the god of
the thunderstorm, and the giver of rain, is unknown among the
north-western members of the Aryan family, the name of another god who
sometimes acts the part of Indra (Indra_h_ Par_g_anyatma), but is much
less prominent in the Veda, I mean Par_g_anya, must have existed
before that of Indra, because two at least of the Aryan languages have
carried it, as we shall see, to Germany, and to the very shores of the
Baltic.

Sometimes this Par_g_anya stands in the place of Dyaus, the sky. Thus
we read in the Atharva-Veda, XII. 1, 12:[232] "The Earth is the
mother, and I am the son of the Earth. Par_g_anya is the father; may
he help us!"

In another place (XII. 1, 42) the Earth, instead of being the wife of
Heaven or Dyaus, is called the wife of Par_g_anya.

Now who or what is this Par_g_anya? There have been long controversies
about him,[233] as to whether he is the same as Dyaus, Heaven, or the
same as Indra, the successor of Dyaus, whether he is the god of the
sky, of the cloud, or of the rain.

To me it seems that this very expression, god of the sky, god of the
cloud, is so entire an anachronism that we could not even translate it
into Vedic Sanskrit without committing a solecism. It is true, no doubt,
we must use our modern ways of speaking when we wish to represent the
thoughts of the ancient world; but we cannot be too much on our guard
against accepting the dictionary representative of an ancient word for
its real counterpart. Deva, no doubt, means "gods" and "god," and P a r
_g_ a n y a means "cloud," but no one could say in San