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18. Odhinn and the Supreme Aryan God. 
We have already noticed* that the undivided Aryans 
worshipped a supreme god whose name implied either — 
1. Existence , e.g ., Asura, Ahura, (As plu., Aesir), Aesar, 
Hesus, etc. 
2. Brightness , e.g., Dyaus, Deva, Zeus, Theos, Ju-piter, 
Deus, Svar-ogu, Tiu, Zio, Tyr, Taith, etc. ; or, 
3. The Coverer (Proto-Aryan), Yarana; (Yedic), Yaruna; 
(Zend), Yarena; (Greek), Ouranos. And it will further be 
observed that Odhinn, the head of the completed Norse 
Pantheon, although at times almost spoken of as a supreme 
god, is nevertheless more or less faintly distinguished from 
the latter, possesses characteristics distinctly aerial and solar, 
which the supreme G-od does not, is overcome in the great 
conflict by the opposing evil power, a situation in which the 
supreme God is never represented; and finally, is distinct in 
name from the Asura-Dyaus-Yarana, thereby showing that he 
is also distinct in origin. 
The explanation of this singular circumstance reveals an 
historical fact of great importance in the consideration of the 
history of religion, namely, that the Supreme Aryan God in 
the course of time was, with a single exception, degraded in 
the cult of his votaries. In India, Yaruna was superseded by 
Indra, a local divinity, unknown to the Proto- Aryans, f and he 
had in turn to give way to Brahma. In Greece, Zeus sank 
lower and lower in general estimation, until the Aristophanic 
jest that Yertigo (Dinos) had expelled him,J became a most 
practical reality; whilst in the Roman Empire, Jupiter was 
reduced by Mithra and Serapis to a petty planetary genius. § 
Perkunas, the Hindu Parjanya, superseded the supreme 
Aryan divinity amongst the Lithuanians ; and, similarly, 
amongst the Germans and Scandinavians, Wuotan-Odhinn, 
the Hindu Yata, and like Perkunas and Indra, the lord of the 
stormy atmosphere, superseded Tiu-Tyr, who was relegated 
to a position altogether secondary. In Persia alone did the 
Aryan remain faithful, as the Parsi does to-day, to the 
belief in Ahura as the Supreme God.|| 
* Zoroaster, secs. 11, 12, 19, etc. ; sup. secs. 6, 7. 
t Vide Zoroaster, sec. 19. In voc. Indra ; Darmesteter, The Supreme 
God in the Indo-European Mythology (in The Contemporary Beview, Oct. 
1879, p. 287) ; Muir, Sanslcrit Texts, v. 121, et seq. 
I Nephelai, 1471. § Vide Zoroaster, sec. 15. 
|| Ibid., sec. 10. 
