I need to quote a long text from Hamlet's Mill (the chapter 'The Dephts of the Sea'). The beginning comes here: "Hast thou entered into the springs of the Sea? Or hast thou walked in the search of the depths? (Job XXXVIII. 16) It will help now to take a quick comparative look at the different 'dialects' of mythical language as applied to 'Phaeton' in Greece and India. The Pythagoreans make Phaeton fall into Eridanus, burning part of its water, and glowing still at the time when the Argonauts passed by. Ovid stated that since the fall the Nile hides its sources. Rigveda 9.73.3 says that the Great Varuna has hidden the ocean. The Mahabharata tells in its own style why the 'heavenly Ganga' had to be brought down. At the end of the Golden Age (Krita Yuga) a class of Asura who had fought against the 'gods' hid themselves in the ocean where the gods could not reach them, and planned to overthrow the government. So the gods implored Agastya (Canopus, alpha Carinae = Eridu) for help. The great Rishi did as he was bidden, drank up the water of the ocean, and thus laid bare the enemies, who were then slain by the gods. But now, there was no ocean anymore! Implored by the gods to fill the sea again, the Holy One replied: 'That water in sooth hath been digested by me. Some other expedient, therefore, must be thought of by you, if ye desire to make endeavour to fill the ocean ..." At this point I saw Aa6-66 in front of me:
The ua sign (rain water) is streaming down from above, as if the Holy One had arrived at a second thought. The ua sign can be regarded as the 'Y' of kai - a double set of 3 'fingers'. As Ogotemmêli said: 'The rays drink up the little waters of the earth, the shallow pools, making them rise, and then descend again in rain.' Then, leaving aside the question of water, he summed up his argument: 'To draw up and then return what one had drawn - that is the life of the world'. |
