Argonautica and India

 

According to: http://www.argonauts-book.com/argonautica-and-india.html

The Indian god Krishna subdues a poisonous serpent in a river before a magic tree in an Indian myth that parallels aspects of the Argonautica. (Wikimedia Commons)

The eighteenth-century insight that Sanskrit was related to Greek and Latin opened the field of Indo-European studies and sparked an interest in all things Indian (British colonization only encouraged such interests) under the presumption, false it would turn out, that Indian mythology was the wellspring of Greek and Roman beliefs. For example, in the hymn from the Rig-Veda given below, the ancient Indian epic makes reference to an elixir or immortality or rejuvenation (like Medea's potions), fleeces associated with gold coloring, bulls, and other elements found in different combinations in the Jason myth. Indra, referenced in the hymn, was famed for his slaying of the chaos dragon Vritra, much as Jason either slays or subdues the sleepless dragon guarding the Fleece.

 

Later scholars would come to understand that Indian myths drew from the same body or Indo-European mythology as its Greek and Roman counterparts, accounting for the similarities some would glean between the stories of Jason and those told in the epics of ancient India without the need for direct transmission from the subcontinent to the Aegean. This did not stop some, however, from proposing all manner of connections between the Argonauts and the subcontinent, including claims that the Golden Fleece was simply the representation of Indian wealth.

The Rig-Veda
Book IX, Hymn LXIX

1. Laid like an arrow on the bow the hymn hath been loosed like a young calf to the udder of its dam.

As one who cometh first with full stream she is milked the Soma is impelled to this man's holy rites.

2 The thought is deeply fixed; the savoury juice is shed; the tongue with joyous sound is stirring in the mouth;

And Pavamana, like the shout of combatants, the drop rising in sweet juice, is flowing through the fleece.

3 He flows about the sheep-skin, longing for a bride: he looses Aditi's Daughters for the worshipper.

The sacred drink hath come, gold-tinted, well-restrained: like a strong Bull he shines, whetting his manly might.

4 The Bull is bellowing; the Cows are coming nigh: the Goddesses approach the God's own resting-place.

Onward hath Soma passed through the sheep's fair bright fleece, and hath, as ’twere, endued a garment newly washed.

5 The golden-hued, Immortal, newly bathed, puts on a brightly shining vesture that is never harmed.

He made the ridge of heaven to be his radiant robe, by sprinkling of the bowls from moisture of the sky.

6 Even as the beams of Sūrya, urging men to speed, that cheer and send to sleep, together rush they forth,

These swift outpourings in long course of holy rites: no form save only Indra shows itself so pure.

7 As down the steep slope of a river to the vale, drawn from the Steer the swift strong draughts have found a way.

Well be it with the men and cattle in our home. May powers, O Soma, may the people stay with us.

8 Pour out upon us wealth in goods, in gold, in steeds, in cattle and in corn, and great heroic strength.

Ye, Soma, are my Fathers, lifted up on high as heads of heaven and makers of the strength of life.

9 These Pavamanas here, these drops of Soma, to Indra have sped forth like cars to booty.

Effused, they pass the cleansing fleece, while, gold-hued, they cast their covering off to pour the rain down.

10 O Indu, flow thou on for lofty Indra, flow blameless, very gracious, foe-destroyer.

Bring splendid treasures to the man who lauds thee. O Heaven and Earth, with all the Gods protect. us.

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But we [AMAIC] prefer John R. Salverda's notion of origins:


John says: :

The Argonauts were all the heroes from the various places within the Greek sphere of influence, written into a story that puts them all “in the same boat” accomplishing the same task, which was a religious quest. This was done, much like the contemporaneous story of the twelve labors of Heracles, (where the one hero performs all the various versions of the Messianic task) in order to propagate the idea of an amphictyonic league among the many Greek city states.

They all agreed to seek the relic of the sacrificed “lamb” of god who hangs in a tree, in a sacred grove. It was guarded by serpent that they would have to overcome. An obvious Messianic theme, which they shared through their Israelite/Phoenician heritage as descendants of Abraham, whom they called Athamas.

The prototype to the Greek Argonautica was probably the Hebrew story of Jonah (Sept. Jonas = Jason) and his famous sea voyage. Ginzberg’s legends makes all the companions of Jonah out to be representatives of every nation on Earth, each carrying their respective idols which they all forsake in favor of the one God of Jonah, because of the sea serpent episode.

See the famous image of Jason being regurgitated after he was swallowed by the serpent;

 

February 22, 2011 at 6:14 am(6) ancienthistory says: :

 

 

I got rid of the the “a poet.” Thanks for the comment.

 

February 23, 2011 at 2:55 pm(7) Bill says: :

 

I liked that comparison of Jason to Jonah, even acknowlegding that the image of Jason in the dragon’s mouth is rare. So John R. Salverda please tell us more about Ginzberg’s legends Thanks

 

Bill

 

 

February 24, 2011 at 2:02 pm(8) John R. Salverda says: :

 

Thanks Bill, the pertinent quote from Ginzberg’s “legends” runs thus; “On the same vessel were representatives of the seventy nations of the earth, each with his peculiar idols. They all resolved to entreat their gods for succor, and the god from whom help would come should be recognized and worshipped at the only one true God. … Jonah confessed to the captain that he was to blame for the whole misfortune, and he besought him to cast him adrift, and appease the storm. The other passengers refused to consent to so cruel an act. … they first tried to save the vessel by throwing the cargo overboard.”

 

Elsewhere in Ginzberg we may glean more clues to Jonah’s “Messiahship.” For instance, he had died and was resurrected by Elijah (the forerunner of the Messiah); “God resorted to the expedient of causing him pain through the death of the son of the widow with whom Elijah was abiding, and by whom he had been received with great honor. When her son, who was later to be known as the prophet Jonah, died, … Elijah supplicated God to revive the child.” And that he had achieved a kind of immortality; “God exempted him from death: living he was permitted to enter Paradise.”

 

There is much more to the story of Jonah than the Scriptures have afforded us. (The Jews often downplayed the role of any “supposed” character of Messianic attributes, such as Jesus or Jonah, making them out to be “merely” a prophet. In the case of Jonah, the Jews referred to him as “the false prophet.”) Jesus, the Christian Messiah, compared his Messianic attributes to that of Jonah; “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Mat 12:40, See also Luke 11:29-32). It seems that the “swallowing and regurgitation” of Jonah was known, in the days of Jesus, to be an allegory to the “death and resurrection” of the Messiah.

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Taken from: http://ancienthistory.about.com/b/2011/02/14/myth-monday-who-were-the-argonauts.htm

for movie, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ2ljAPBIVc&feature=watch-now-button&wide=1