of interpretation it would
result that all Vedic mythology was the child of the liturgy[2].

As earthly fire Agni is first ignis:[3] "Driven by the wind, he
hastens through the forest with roaring tongues.... black is thy path,
O bright immortal!" "He mows down, as no herd can do, the green
fields; bright his tooth, and golden his beard." "He devours like a
steer that one has tied up." This is common fire, divine, but not of
the altar. The latter Agni is of every hymn. For instance, the first
stanza of the Rig Veda: "Agni, the family priest, I worship; the
divine priest of sacrifice; the oblation priest, who bestows riches,"
where he is invoked under the names of different priests. But Agni is
even more than this; he is the fire (heat) that causes production and
reproduction, visibly manifest in the sun. This dual Agni, it is to be
noticed, is at times the only Agni recognized. The third form is then
added, lightning, and therewith Agni is begotten of Indra, and is,
therefore, one with Indra: "There is only one fire lighted in many
places" (V[=a]l. 10. 2). As a poetical expression, Agni in the last
form is the 'Son of Waters,' an epithet not without significance in
philosophical speculation; for water, through all periods, was
regarded as the material origin of the universe.

Agni is one with the sun, with lightning (and thunder), and descends
into the plants.[4] To man he is house-priest and friend. It is he
that has "grouped men in dwelling-places" (iii. 1. 17) like
Prometheus, in whose dialectic name, Promantheus, lingers still the
fire-creator, the twirling (_math_) sticks which make fire in the
wood. He is man's guest and best friend (Mitra, iv. 1. 9; above).

An hymn or two entire will show what was Agni to the Vedic poet. In
the following, the Rig Veda's first hymn, he is addressed, in the
opening stanza, under the names of house-priest, the chief sacrificial
priest, and the priest that pours oblations. In the second stanza he
is extolled as the messenger who brings the gods to the sacrifice,
himself rising up in sacrificial flames, and forming a link between
earth and heaven. In a later stanza he is called the Messenger
(Angiras =[Greek: aggelos]),--one of his ordinary titles:

To AGNI (i. 1).

I worship Agni; house-priest, he,
And priest divine of sacrifice,
Th' oblation priest, who giveth wealth.

Agni, by seers of old adored,
To be adored by those to-day--
May he the gods bring here to