Math fab Mathonwy, the Celtic Savitr-Prajapati and Goewin, the Goddess of Night: Part 2
One further level of comparison must be brought to bear on this picture by examining an esoteric analogy of the Savitr-Ratri myth. This Night goddess, Ratri/Goewin, can also be seen as an instantiation of the cosmic “Uncreate” (that is, the dark, unmanifest state underlying existence), but within the material cycle. In the Vedic interpretation of scholar Stella Kramrisch, this "pre-cosmic" darkness is analogous, though on a different level, to the darkness of the cycle which is Night. Night’s rape would then be a repetition on the level of the individual day of the violation of the Uncreate by the more abstract and primordial Prajapati ("Lord of Creatures," Vedic creator god), who, according to Kramrisch1, in some sense creates the cosmos out of a violation of the Uncreate in the Brahmanas.
The only use of the title Prajapati within the most archaic “Family Books” of the Rig Veda is attached to Savitr and he is thus the Prajapati within the cycle, as several other details suggest. This archaic use of the title Prajapati occurs when Savitr is called the "Prajapati of the world" in RV 4.53.2. Prajapati is not depicted as his own distinct deity until the 10th and final mandala, usually considered a less archaic section of the Rig Veda. Arthur A. Macdonell also notes that “In the SB [Satapatha Brahmana] (12, 3, 5, 1) people are said to identify Savitr with Prajapati; and in the TB [Taittiriya Brahmana] (1, 6, 4, 1) it is stated that Prajapati becoming Savitr created living beings. Savitr is alone lord of vivifying power and by his movements (yamabhih) becomes Pusan (5, 82, 5)" (Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, 119). Savitr is also compared to a “linch-pin, firm” on which rest “things immortal”3. This “Prajapati of the world” quality ought to be clear in the actions of Math from the foregoing discussion, in his role of creating various beings and setting the cycle of the day in motion.
As Arthur A. Macdonell explains, regarding the myth of Prajapati's rape of his daughter which begins creation: “A myth is told in the MS. (4, 2, 12) of Prajapati being enamoured of his daughter Usas. She transformed herself into a gazelle; whereupon he transformed himself into the corresponding male. Rudra incensed at this aimed his arrow at him, when Prajapati promised to make him lord of beasts if he did not shoot (cp. RV. 10,61, 7). The story is several times referred to in the Brahmanas (AB. 3, 33; SB. 1, 7, 4, 1; PB. 8, 2, 10). The basis of this myth seem to be two passages of the RV. (1, 71, 5; 10, 61, 5-7) in which the incest of a father (who seems to be Dyaus) with his daughter (here apparently the Earth) is referred to and an archer is mentioned” (Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, 119). Although the original protagonist of this myth seems to be Dyaus in the Rig Veda, and the identity of the daughter is not stated (Macdonell interpreting her as Earth), the Brahmanas versions seem to indicate a merging of two myths: the Dyaus motif of the rape of his daughter from the Vedas, and the "Prajapati" motif that we have seen with regard to Math as Savitr-Prajapati. This conflation found in the Brahmanas version draws from Savitr’s archaic role of "Prajapati" and Dyaus' "Prajapati-like" role in the myth of the rape of his daughter.
We can see that a conflation may have happened here because, when compared to the myth of Math, we see some overlap of elements in the Brahmana tale: the creative heavenly lord at the time of origin, rape of a primordial goddess (here Earth or Dawn, but here performed by the creator rather than by a second deity as in Math's tale), a punishment for the violation, and finally a transformation of two deities into deer and an incestuous mating in this form, though the order of these elements is not exactly the same. This Prajapati also creates reptiles, fish, birds, then animals with teats, milk and food5and creates the castes6. Compared to Math, who, via Gwydion and Gilfaethwy, creates three lineages of animals, this raises the question of whether the deer, wolf and swine that the brothers sire could reflect the ordering of the human castes: deer as first function (sovereign-priest), wolf as second (warrior), swine as third (producer). As Dawn is Prajapati's daughter in some Brahmanas, in the Kausitaki Brahmana Prajapati also is said to create the goddess Dawn, while Math creates Blodeuwedd. In all, the Prajapati of the Brahmanas has more in common with the Vedic Dyaus, with some possible bleed-over with motifs found in the myth of Math-Savitr, which suggests that Dyaus was also seen as a cosmic Prajapati, elements of whose myth are being echoed in Math-Savitr's, the god who repeats part of his role within the cycle.
1“Creation is an act of violence that infringes upon the Uncreate, the undifferentiated wholeness that is before the beginning of things” Kramrisch, The Presence of Siva, 20.
2. SB. (12, 3, 5, 1): “Of old, indeed, they were wont to seize this victim as one dedicated to Savitri, but now they seize it as one dedicated to Pragâpati, saying, 'Savitri, in truth, is the same as Pragâpati.'” See also: “at JB. 1, 6 with a motivation which reminds the reader of the connexion with the god’s creative activity: the appearance of light at the moment of offering is Savitar, who is Prajapati, who generated the creatures at daybreak ...the light at these moments (daybreak and sunset) is Savitar and Savitar is Prajapati… That is why the agnihotra is sacred to Prajapati. When here at daybreak the light appears, in this very appearance of light Prajapati created the creatures” (Gonda, Prajapati’s Rise, 13)
“in Sb. 11,5,4,2 ff, Prajapati and Savitar are named together as the two most important (varisthe) deities. Prajapati has generated the bhutas or living beings, of which he is said to be the self see SB 10,4,2,2; 10,4,2,3; 10,4,2,27.”
Gonda notes that Savitr is the same as Prajapati in: SB 10,2,2,4; 12,3,5,1 and Savitr functions as an intermediate (madhyatah) progenitor in SB 2,5,1,10. But in SB 11, 5, 4, 3 they are 2 distinct deities.
3RV 1. XXXV.6. RV 1. XXXV.6. See also Savitr described as in a role at the beginning of creation in Mandala 10: “Well knoweth Savitr, O Child of Waters, where ocean, firmly fixt, o’erflowed its limit.
Thence sprang the world, from that uprose the region: thence heaven spread out and the wide earth expanded” 10.CXLIX.2 “Then, with a full crowd of Immortal Beings, this other realm came later, high and holy.
First, verily, Savitr's strong-pinioned Eagle was born: and he obeys his law for ever” 10.CXLIX.3
5JB. 2, 228 f.
6SB 2, 1, 4, 11
Drawing Math-Savitr and Dyaus into alignment as two successive Prajapatis helps us to see Math-Savitr's relationship to the goddess Night as echoing Dyaus' relation to the dark state of the Uncreate, however we choose to conceptualize it, the state which Dyaus breaches. As Math rests in the goddess Night's lap, there is also a theme of "laps" in the Rig Veda connected to Savitr and the primordial cosmic goddess Nirrti, whose "lap" is the dark abyss of the Uncreate. As Kramrisch quotes and explains:
“'Three are the heavens of Savitr, two are his lap, one in the world of Yama.' The lap of Savitr, the Impeller, which is on high, is at the very end of the axis, opposite to the 'lap of Nirrti' (note 15) at the lower end of the axis. Below, in the lap of Nirrti, yawns the chasm, into which have fallen beyond release those who have gone against the rta, the cosmic order. Above, in the lap of Savitr, at the height, is the opposite place of “no return” where the Liberated dwell” (Kramrisch, "Pusan," 120).
"Below the pit of danger and treasure lies the Lap of Nirrti ( 7. 104. 9 ), the lap of destruction with its endless pit (7.104.17) below all creation (7.104.6). This deep dark place is the Asat, the Non-existent, "The Rg Vedic Equivalent for Hell," as shown by W. Norman Brown, JAOS, vol. 61, pp. 76-80. This deep substratum of the ordered cosmos, of the Existent (sat), the abyss that yawns at the bottom of the pit, in the lap of Destruction ( nirrti ) is the necessary opposite in the first pair of contraries. There they are from the beginning of things prior to which neither of them existed. The Asat, the Non-existent below the pit, is the remainder " apud principium " of the all engulfing darkness, ante principium. The Cosmic Darkness ante principium is distinguished from the darkness of the 'night of the cycle.'" (Kramrisch, "Pusan," 108)
We see Nirrti here identified with the Cosmic Darkness and the "remainder." This important concept of the remainder will be returned to as we will see it develop in an interesting direction in later texts. Nirrti is not identical to Ratri then, but is goddess of disordered non-existence and absolute darkness, the Uncreate, and so an analogy between Nirrti and Ratri should be imagined, just as an analogy is drawn explicitly between Prajapati and Savitr within the Vedic corpus. As Savitr is the Prajapati of the world and Prajapati has the same role as Savitr, but on the scale of the cosmos rather than of the day, Ratri is the Nirrti of the world, and Nirrti is the mirror of Ratri on the cosmic scale. To put it in directly applicable terms relating to the cycle of the day: the cosmos begins out of the dark Uncreate which is Nirrti, while the day begins out of the dark night which is Ratri.
Rātri (रात्रि) is thought to have a literal meaning of ‘bestower’, from the root √rā, from PIE *Hréh₁trih. What appears to be a secondary etymology of Ratri’s name is "rest," thus, “season of rest,” viz, "night," deriving from √ram, रम्, (see Monier-Williams p. 867, Whitney p. 137). This root is also found in the name rātrau śayanam, a festival on the 11th day of the month Āṣāḍha, which is regarded as the night of the gods, and is said to be when Viṣṇu reposes for four months on the serpent Śeṣa. This Śeṣa is depicted as forming the bed of Visnu upon the cosmic ocean, while Visnu is attended by his consort Laksmi.
Śeṣa is called Ananta, “endless,” and his own name means “remainder,” as he is what remains when the cosmos has been destroyed at the end of the kalpa. As the great naga or serpent, he is conceived in the Bhagavata Purana as the tamasic or dark energy of the supreme being Narayana, and has lived in the dark realm of the nagas since before the creation of the universe. Under the name of Sankarshana, Śeṣa is said in this text to expand himself as Garbhodakshayi-Vishnu in the beginning of the universe to create Brahma, a god who takes over the role of Prajapati. Śeṣa also incarnated during the Satya Yuga to form a similar seat for Lord Narasimha and additionally is once (Mahabharata, Adi Parva) tasked by Brahma to go under the earth to become its support. As such, the Brahmanical and Puranic mythos of Śeṣa may be an elaboration of the earlier Rig Vedic concept of the dark element (which is Ratri or Nirrti) forming the seat of rest for the creative solar deity during the cosmic night before the creation.
With this we must also consider the Greek case in which the goddess of Night (Nyx) is born directly from primordial Chaos according to Hesiod (Theogony, 115), sister of primordial darkness Erebus and mother of day (Hemera) among many other beings. In Orphic fragments (The Orphic Fragments of Otto Kern), not Chaos but Nyx is the first being who gives birth to the rest of the primordial beings and the rest of the cosmos, and in Aristophanes’ The Birds (693), Nyx is presented as the first principle and the mother of Eros. Many other sources record similar descriptions of Night at or just after the origin of all things: even Aristotle three times in the Metaphysics mentions theogonies that begin with Night as the first being. “The theologians who generate everything from Night” ; “Chaos and Night did not endure for an unlimited time”; and he names “Night and Ouranos or Chaos or Ocean” as deities who appeared as the first in ancient poets. Night appears as the first deity in both the Derveni and Eudemeian theogonies, but Aristophanes also mentions Chaos, Erebus, and Tartarus along with Nyx. See also Orphic Hymn 3 to Nyx: "parent goddess, source of sweet repose from whom at first both Gods and men arose"; and Nonnus, Dionysiaca 31: "Do not provoke Gaia (Earth), my [Nyx's] father's [Khaos'] agemate, from whom alone we are all sprung, we who dwell in Olympos."
In the seemingly Orphic material such as The Birds and the Eudemian Theogony, Cronus (who is called "he who strikes (awakens) the mind (κρούων τον νοῦν)") is chained (immobilized similar to Math), drunken on honey and asleep within Nyx's cave. Although in other ways Cronus does not necessarily align with Savitr or Visnu, Phanes being more directly their parallel, this image of Cronus immobilized at the beginning of creation in the cave of Night is strangely reminiscent to Visnu dreaming the cosmos resting on the serpent of cosmic darkness, and, though it could be coincidence, Scheide suggests an etymology of Cronus' name from κρουνός, the "spring" or "well-head of all things." Phanes, the bringer of light, is then paired with Nyx, either as her husband (consider the light-bringing Math as husband of Goewin), child or father, and from him Day is created, the world is brightened and begun. Phanes also invents the method of creation by means of mingling, brings to mind the mingling of Gwydion and Gilfaethwy to sire the animals or castes. Phanes even gives his scepter to Nyx (Orphica, Argonautica 12), while Savitr promotes Goewin to queen after her rape, and Phanes' scepter is eventually passed to Zeus, as Lleu finally inherits Math’s rulership.
Phanes is also known as Protogonos, which has been linked linguistically with Prajapati. He is said at first to rise from the watery abyss to give birth to the cosmos, and this compares well with what we know of both Savitr and Prajapati in the Rig Veda. In the Rig Veda, Savitr is said to know where the ocean overflowed to bring forth the world, and in a different hymn Prajapati is described as the golden germ (which is an egg in the Brahmanas), hiranyagarbha, arisen from the waters, from which the cosmos has sprung:
“Well knoweth Savitr, O Child of Waters, where ocean, firmly fixt, o’erflowed its limit. Thence sprang the world, from that uprose the region: thence heaven spread out and the wide earth expanded/ Then, with a full crowd of Immortal Beings, this other realm came later, high and holy.”
“In the beginning rose Hiranyagarbha, born Only Lord of all created beings.”
“What time the mighty waters came, containing the universal germ, producing Agni, Thence sprang the Gods’ one spirit into being. What God shall we adore with our oblation?/ He in his might surveyed the floods containing productive force and generating Worship.”
“Neer may he harm us who is earth's Begetter, nor he whose laws are sure, the heavens' Creator, He who brought forth the great and lucid waters. What God shall we adore with our oblation?/Prajāpati!”
In Ovid, Chaos is at the beginning and the Earth is bare. Eros, god of love, pierces the bosom of the Earth with his arrows, causing verdure and animal life to spring forth. This again has several of the elements seen in the Vedic and Brahmanical tradition: the “piercing,” if not exactly rape, of the fundamental, supporting goddess, here Earth; an archer; and the resultant springing of life and growth. In the aforementioned play of Aristophanes, The Birds, it is Eros with shining wings who is born from an egg which is generated by Nyx and which is then placed in the “boundless lap” of Erebus, which image brings us, once again, back to the theme of the "lap" of darkness on which a bringer of life rests: "“First there was Chaos and Night, black Erebus and wide Tartarus, but neither earth nor air nor sky existed. In Erebus’ boundless bosom first of all black-winged Night produced an egg" (Aristophanes, 693). Eros then mates with Chaos and (with likely satirical intent on Aristophanes' part) brings forth the birds, while Math brings forth other kinds of creatures, as does Savitr. Orphic hymn 6 To Protogonos states: “You scattered the dark mist that lay before your eyes and, flapping your wings, you whirled about, and throughout this world you brought pure light. For this I call you Phanes, I call you Lord Priapos, I call you sparkling with bright eyes.”
Epiphanius states that the cosmic egg was surrounded by Time and Inevitability like two serpents. Recall here the endless and tamasic or dark serpent Sesa again, who is the seat of Visnu when nothing else remains. Together Time and Inevitability constricted the egg until it divided in two, and thus Protogonos is called “two-natured.” Interestingly, before the 10th mandala, Prajapati is used only as a title of Savitr (the sun at night) and Soma (the moon), which could correspond to the two halves or natures of the creative germ of light as they first appear and then divide in the pre-cosmic night. This also brings us back to the Mabinogion; for the tale Math fab Mathonwy is the final climactic part of a four-part cycle, and as we have previously shown at length, the parts or branches which precede Math fab Mathonwy constitute a “lunar cycle,” centering around and concerning the events that are set in motion by the lunar king of the underworld, Arawn, the parallel of Soma (who is also called Prajapati along with Savitr). If Math fab Mathonwy is the myth of the rising of the sun, the Lunar Cycle portion that precedes it could then be interpreted, if looked at on a cosmogonic level, as the mythic cycle of the pre-cosmic night, ruled by the lunar half of the original divine germ of light, the moon god Arawn/Soma.
The tale of Math and Goewin is followed by the birth of Lleu, Mitraic sovereign of early morning sky, son of Gwydion. Lleu is then cuckolded of his Dawn-connected wife by another sun god, Gronw (Surya), the daytime sun taking away the glow of dawn/sovereignty, which Lleu has to retrieve by overcoming the sun god, completing the cycle. Thus this series of myths which is collected as Math fab Mathonwy would be the series of precise divine events, starting in the dead of night, considered the time of cyclic beginning, that were seen as beginning the day and the greater cycle by analogy. Math marries the no-longer virgin Goewin after her rape, but he still needs a new virgin footholder, as this is his trait — this footholder would be the next Night, and the cycle repeats. Math does not succeed in finding a new footholder in the story as we have it (though he does attempt to), but we must assume that at the next turn of the daily cycle essentially the same story begins once again, a new Night appears who is virgin once more. Savitr being succeeded by Pushan — this then would be what we are seeing with Math and his nephew Gwydion, who he teaches his magic to and with whom he collaborates but whom he also rules over.
We may see another, more obscure version of this myth in the Norse material: Dellingr's name has been glossed as "the Dayspring" or "Shining One," and his son is Dagr, the god of Day. Dellingr's people are called "bright and beautiful" in Gylfaginning. Even more striking, Dellingr is said to be the third husband of the goddess Nott, Night. If we consider that Gwydion and Gilfaethwy both had a hand in the rape of Goewin and as such are punished equally for the crime, then Gwydion and Gilfaethwy may be considered Goewin’s first two husbands before Math marries her as a result of her loss of virginity. Goewin’s rape is alluded to in two passages as follows:
“And at night Gwydion the son of Don, and Gilvaethwy his brother, returned to Caerdathyl; and Gilvaethwy took Math the son of Mathonwy's couch. And while he turned out the other damsels from the room discourteously, he made Goewin unwillingly remain.”
And afterward:
“Now the attack was made by thy nephews, lord, the sons of thy sister, Gwydion the son of Don, and Gilvaethwy the son of Don; unto me they did wrong, and unto thee dishonour.’” (Math fab Mathonwy)
The fact that, after the rape occurs, Goewin names both Gwydion and Gilfaethwy as her attackers, and they both do indeed return to Caerdathyl together before the crime is committed, makes it plausible that Gwydion was more directly involved in some part of the rape. His punishment matching Gilfaethwy’s supports this possibility, and in a metaphysical sense Gwydion is certainly present at the divine conjunction that this rape marks. In this sense, Gwydion and Gilfaethwy can reasonably be said to match the first two husbands of Nott. Dellingr is the "dayspring" or "shining one," and with him Nott then gives birth to Dagr, the god of the Day. It is interesting also to note in passing the similar terminations of the names Dellingr and Savitr.
After the rape of Goewin, which is the violation of Night by a transition into day, and after the war of Math with Pryderi, who in another respect is deity ruling over a precise phenomena related to the morning star or early morning transition, Math and Gwydion, who in this capacity (as equivalent to Savitr and Pushan) are two divine aspects of the sunrise, then collaborate to create the woman Blodeuwedd for Lleu, the son of Gwydion and Arianrhod who was born in the interim and is now reaching maturation. As such, the creation of Blodeuwedd out of flowers commemorates the creation of Dawn for the Mitraic lord of the morning sky by the Savitrian and Pushanic deities, sunrise deities who though distinct are as extensions of one another, the Impeller of life and the lord of glowing luminosity who extends the Savitrian power in a direct manner into the sphere of generation.
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The Gayatri Mantra taken from a Rig Vedic hymn to Savitr is one of the most well-known and important Vedic mantras still used in Hinduism. It was and is chanted at sunrise. If we roughly convert Savitr to Math in the lines of the mantra we can see how such a mantra could sing the praise as well of the Celtic god of sunrise, the impeller and inspirer of life and mental illumination each day.
"We meditate on the effulgent glory of the divine Math; may he inspire our understanding." (tr. S. Radhakrishnan)
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