ASOCIACIÓN LATINO AMERICANA DE SANSCRITISTAS

COORDINACIÓN DE HUMANIDADES . Memória do Primeiro Simpósio Internacional da Lingua Sanscrita

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UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO México 1984 K~-5~A AS THE EIGHTH CHILD

by Dr. Benjamín Preciado Solís El Colef?;iode México México, D.F ., México.

The story of the birth of Kr~~a has, in common with an older Indian tradition, an episode that keeps it apart from the ~eneral pattern of the birth of the Hero as outlined by Hahn, Rank, Ra~lan and others. This episode refers to the account of Kr~I,la as the eighth child and the killing of previous brothers. This episode the story of Kr~~a shares with the myth of the birth of MartáI,lc;la, in the Rg Veda, with the story of the birth of the Maruts and with the story of the birth of Bhi~ma. The birth of MartaI,l4a is only passinwy referred to in the ~g Veda. Verses eight and nine of 10.72, a hymn dedicated to the gods in general, say:

Of Aditi 's eight sons, born from her body, she carne to the gods with seven, and cast away Mart:i1,1Qa. With seven sons Aditi carne to the previous era. After that, she bore MartaQQa for birth and death.l

These words are apparently unintelligible, but, examining them in the light of the stories mentioned, as well as in the

1 R. V. 10.72.8-9 ; ~~au putraso aditer ye jatas tanvas pari f devan upa pra ait saptabhiJ.1 pará martiil.t4am asyat 118 11 saptabhiJ.1 putrair áditih upa prait pürvyam yugam 1 prajayai m!tyave tvat punar martiil.t4am ábharat 11911

309 light of commentaries and variants in other texts, we can get a clearer view of the passage. In Atharva Veda 8.9.21 it is mentioned tha.t Aditi had eight sons and eight wombsl and in Taittiríya Aral:tYaka 1.13.1 the earth had eight wombs, eight sons and eight husbands.2 In Satapatha Bráhma':la 3.1.3-4 another version of the myth is tound:

Now Aditi had eight sons. But those who are called 'the gods, sons of Aditi' were only seven, for the eighth, Mártá.'4a, she brought forth unformed: it was a mere lump of bodily matter as broad as it was high. Some however, say tha t he was of the size of a man . -The gods, sons of Aditi, then spake, 'that which was born after us must not be lost: come let us fashion it.' They accordingly fashioned it as this man is fashioned. The flesh which was cut off him, and thrown down in a lump, became an elephant: hence they say that one must not accept an elephant [as a giftJ, since the elephant has sprung from man. Now he whom they thus fashioned was Vivasvat, the Aditya [or the sunJ; and of him [ came J these creatures.3

This version does not, as the one in ~g Veda, stress the fact that Martá1J<;la was cast away; it does, however, following the words 'she bore Martá1JQa for birth and death " identify Marta1J<;la as the ancestor of the human race: 'They accord- ingly fashioned it as this man is fashioned ...and of him [ carne] these creatures. ' This seems to be the original purpose of the myth, tracing the ancestry of the human race to the gods, to whom man is brother but, having been cast away by his own mother, different, since he is subject to birth and death. . A later version of the myth of Martal:t<;la (Md'.ka':14eya Purd1;1a 105 ) stresses the solar aspect of the god and makes him incarnate in order to help the gods against the asuras, a theme that also appears in the Kr~~a story .In this version

1 astayonir aditir astaputra. 2 ~iayonim ~~ap.;tram a~~apatlÜm imam mahím. 3 ~~au ha vai putral,1 aditel:t I Y3I!1stvetad deval:t ádityaI,1 ity acak~ate sapta ha evate I avikrtan:l ha a~~aman:ljanayañcakara martal]4am I sandegho ha evasa yav3n evordhvas tavallls tiryan puru~asammital:t ity uha eke ahul:t I te u ha ete ücur deval,1 adityaf:t ..yad asman anu ajanima tad amuya iva bhüd hanta imalll vikara- vama.. iti t~ vicakrur yatha ayam puru~o vikrtas tasya y3ni malllsani salllkl;tya sannyásus tato hasti samabhavat I tasmad ahur ..na hastinam pratigrhl;1iyat puru- ~aj3no hi hastr.' iti I yam y ha tad vicakru1,t sa vivasv3n ádityas tasya im-a1,lprajil:t I Eggeling tr .

310 Aditi does not cast away the child in the real sense,but rather delivers the foetus prematurely. The story goes that at the beginning of time, just after creation, the demons defeated the gods and obtained sovereignty over the three worlds. Aditi, the mother of the gods, seeing this, engaged in severe austerities to propitiate the sun. After a long time of this tapasya the sun appeared toher and granted her a boon. Aditi prayed for the sun to be incarnated in her womb for the deliverance of the universe. In a remarkable passageshe addresses him as 'Lord of the cows', 1 an epithet that imme- diately recalls Kr~l:ta. The sun therefore entered Aditi 's womb and started growin~ there as an embryo. Aditi then commen- ced a severe fast to purify herself. Realizing her state and seeing her fast Kasyapa, her husband, told her angrily that she would destroy that embryo. Much annoyed at Kasyapa's words, she retorted that the embryo was not being destroyed but was growing for the destruction of the demons, and then and there she delivered a shining egg from which carne out the sun. And that is why this son of Aditi was called Mar- taJ:l4a 'the dead embryo', according to the words of KaSyapa. This version fails to mention the number of Aditi's other sons, therefore leaving out the important detail of Marta1.14a being the eighth. It does however introduce, as we noted, the messianic aspect, as well as emphasizing the solar charac- ter of the god. It also specifically mentions an embryo (gaT- bha) that justifies the name Martal)4a. The Sátapatha BTah- mat:la on the other hand, does not accentuate these aspects but lays stress on Martal)4a being the originator of humanity . Together both these versions provide a better viewpoint from which to consider the two obscure Rg vedic verses.We cannot yet however explain the words 'she came to the gods with seven' and 'with seven sons Aditi carne to the previous era '. These words can be interpreted best, we suggest, with the help of another variant of the myth, that of the birth of Bhi~ma found in the MahdbhdTata. The story of the birth of Bhi~ma 2 is a very close parallel to the myth of Mart~4a, as well as to the legend ofKr~l.1a's birth. It has however been overlooked as a key link and as a key that would prove helpful in analysing the meanin~ of the eighth child motif. The myth of Marta1.14aagrees with the Kr:~J:laone, both in the number eight and in the casting away of the last child. It does not~

1 MarP. IO5.5a, tannimittaprasidarp tv~ kuru~va mama gopate 2 Mbh. 1.91.3.

311 agree with it in the killing of the rest. The Epk narrative of the birth of Bhi~ma agrees with the Kr~r:tastory in the killing of the other brothers, but not in the casting away of the eigh th. The tale begins when on one occasion all the gods and r'\"is as well as a certain King MahabhÍ.'la,who had attained to heaven, were worshipping Brahmá. To that assembly carne also the goddess Gailga and it happened that a breeze blew her gar- ment, revealing her body to the eyes of all present. All the gods and r$is cast down their eyes, all but Mahábhi~a, who looked at her intently. Brahmá, angry at this lack of respect, cursed the king to be born again on earth. But the goddess of the river herself was not completely dissatisfied at the audacity of the king, since she promised the eight Vasus, who had on their part been cursed too, to take birth among mortals, to be their mother on earth, and for this purpose to join king Mahábhi~a's next incarnation. The Vasus, who dreaded very much to live as mortals, begged of Gañga to be spared that fate and to be killed as soon as they were born. She agreed, but asked that one of them should be permitted to live so that her union with king Mahábhi~a should bear fruit. So, eventually, all of them appeared on earth. Mahábhi~a was born as Saq1tanu, the grandfather of the par:t<;lavas,a king of great virtue and truthfulness. Once when this king was out hunting he met a ma1Vellously beautiful girl, with whom he fell passionately in love. This girl was, of course, the goddess Ga1iga, and she agreed to his advances on condi- tion that he would never question any of her actions. The king accepted whatever she asked and in that manner won her and enjoyed her for a long time. They begot seven chil- dren, but each time one of them was born the mother would throw him into the river. King Saq1tanu, remembering his promise, never questioned her actions, but when an eighth child was born and the lady was about to throw him too into the river, the king could nbt stand it any more and spoke out to her, venting his Iong-suppressed grievance. The goddess then explained to him the circumstances of the curse, took the child with her and left. This story can be used to interpret those obscure words in R V 10.72.89. If we take into account the belief that there is a heavenly as welI as a terrestrial world and that to heav- enly beings birth on earth is like death, then we have the elements to soIve the riddle of: 'she carne to the gods with seven; with seven sons Aditi carne to the previous era'. While

312 in the ~g Veda Aditi cast away the eighth son. in the Mahá- bharata Gai1ga spares the eighth. Sparing him. however . means excluding him from the celestial realm. the previous era or condition to which his brothers attained. Bhi$ma is not a saviour as Martat:lQa is. but the tale of his birth brings us a step closer to the story of the birth of Kr$l.la. Another feature in Bhí$ma .s story also suggests connections with Krsna. This is the account in Mahabhárata of the cause for th~ .curse placed on the Vasus and principally on Dyaus. the one that was born as Bhi~ma. They were cursed by Vasi$~ha because once. instigated by Dyaus and his wife. they stole the sage's wonderful cows. Cattle rustling is also attributed to Kr~t:la. and on this subject we shall have more to say later . We can also refer to the Hariva111saaccount of the incarnation of Kasyapa and Aditi as Vasudeva and Devaki. Kr$t:la's pa- rents, because they stole Varul.la's cowS.l In Maitrayat;1¡ Sal?t:hitá2 we have another version of the birth of Mártanda within an account of the birth of Indra. This later acco~~t also resembles the legends of the birth of Kr~t:la and of his brothers.

Wishing for children Aditi cooked a pap. She ate what was left over. Dhátr and Aryaman were bom to her. She cooked another. She ate what was left over. Mitra and VaruQa were born to her. She cooked another. She ate what was left over. AlJ:1saand Bhaga were born to her. She cooked another. She thought: Each time I eat what is left over, two sons are bom to me. Probably I shall get something still better when I eat beforehand. After she had eaten beforehand she served the pap. Her two next sons spoke even as children in the womb: ..We both shall be as much as all the sons of Aditi". The sons of Aditi searched for someone to procure their abortion. AlJ:1saand Bhaga procured the abortion of those two. Therefore no oblation is made to them at the sacri.fi~e. Instead AIJ:1Sa'sportion is the stake in betting. Bhaga (Fortune') went abroad. Therefore people say: ..Go abroad, you meet fortune there!" Due to his vital energy Indra rose up. The other foetus fell down de:id. This, forsooth, was MártáQ

I H. V. 45.33-35. 2 1.6.12.

313 Aditi turned to her sons saying: "This should be mine, this ought not to perish uselessly!" They said: "He should then call himself one of us, he should not look down on us!" This, verily, was Aditi's son Vivasvat, the father of Manu Vaivasvata and Yama. Manu dwelled in this, Yama in yonder world!

In this version the brothers want to kill the eighth child (se- venth and eighth here), whereas we have other versions that make Indra, the first brother, kill his seven brothers. Accord- ing to the Puranic accounts Kasyapa, Indra 's father, promised his wife Diti, Aditi 's sister, that she would have a son who would rule the gods. Knowing Diti's son, Indra by deception managed to come close to Diti and then penetrated into her womb where he cut the embryo in seven parts with his thun- derbolt. His brother cried out with pain and Indra, telling him to be quiet, cut again each part in seven. So the forty- nine Maruts were born.2 The nuniber forty-nine here is obviously just a substitution for the more common number seven, and Indra, being contrasted to his brothers, is here again the eighth.3 Reviewing all the variants, we have here accounts of the birth of the eight Adityas from Aditi, the eighth Vasus from Gai¡ga, and the forty-nine Maruts (seven squared) plus Indra from Diti and Aditi, Kr~l:ta was, as is well known, also the eighth son, in this case of Devakí, who, according to the Harjva?:nsaand the Devi Bhdgavata Pura1;la,4 was also an incar- nation of Aditi. Krsl:ta's fIrst six brothers were destroyed and the seventh, Balarama, was transferred to another womb, so that he was, in a certain sense, a miscarriage. Kr~l:ta himself had to be taken to Gokula, far from the royal palace, that is he was cast away. I t is highly probable that Kr~~a 's story was modelled upon those older versions. In fact in the one from the Majtraya1;li Sart1hjta the first six sons are separa- ted from the last two, th.e seventh was an abortion and the eighth survived,just as in the legend ofKr~l:ta's birth. The view that the account of the birth of Krsna as the eighth child may be taken from the myth ofthe ~ight Vasus and that of the eight Adityas can be better assessed if we examine the meaning of the number eight in this context

1 Wilhelm Rau tr. in .Twenty Indra Legends.. German Scholars on India. V. 1. p. 202. Delhi 1973. 2 See VP 1.21;HV 1.3.23 ff;andDBP4.3.21-55. 3 See R V 8.85.16; 10.99.2; Bergaigne. La Reljgíon v.3. p. 108. 4 DBP 4.20.62;HV 45.33-36. 3! arid the names and functions of those eight gods. The Indian mind is very fond of classifications and Indian mytholoJ!;y is no exception to this. Gods and other mythical beings are frequently mentioned in r,roups. and are arrayed together according to various criteria. Thus we find the Rudras. the Maruts. the Vasus. the Adityas and several others. Not only is Kr:~~a the supreme and ultimate divinity. but he also belongs to several of these groupin~ and it is as a member of one of them that he has to be born as the eighth. Kr:~~a is also one of a divine pair. He is not only coupled with Balarama. his brother and fast companion in the Pura~ic legends. but also with Arjuna. With this latter he keeps a close friendship that goes back to the pair Nara and NárayaI}a. of whom they are incamations according to the Mahabharata, and also to the pair Indra- Vi~~u of the ~? Veda. since In- dra commends Arjuna to Kr~I}a.s care. Arjuna being Indra.s son. i.e. like himself. and Kr~I}a being Indra .s younger bro- ther. Kr~I}a is also one of a triad. together with his brother Balarama and their sister Subhadra. a group that is worshipped to this very day in the great temple at Puri, Orissa. A~ain. Kr~~a is of1e of a group of four. the famous four Vyühas of the Pañcaratras: Vasudeva. Samkar~a~a, Pradyumna and Ani- ruddha. these last two his son and grandson respectively. Another group. this with five members. is compounded around Kr~~a; there are the pañcavlras. the five heroes of the Vr~~i tri~e that have been identified as Kr~I}a Baladeva. Pradyumna. samba and Aniruddha.l And finally we are told that Kr~~a is the eighth child of Devak¡ and therefore. a mem- ber of a group of eight. As we said before. the variant of the Maitrdya1;li Satrthita agreed more closedly than the other with the Purat:lic account of Kr:~t:la.sbirth. in that two of the brothers are contrasted to the other six and it is not a case of one brother alone being separated from seven others. The version of the Harivams'a and Visnu Purdna is that when Visnu decided to inca;nate as Krs~a to sav~ the earth once m~~e. he ordered the goddess of d~lusion to fetch from hell the six sons of the demon Hyrat:lYakasipu. who were lying theI'e as embryos. due to a curse from their father. These demons were successively born from Devak¡ and killed by Kan:tsa.2 In the Bhdgavata Pura1;la10.85. Kr:~t:laand Balarama

1 j.N. Banerjea, Evolution of Indian Iconography, 1956, (2nd. ed.) p. 94 PauraniCand Tantric Religion, 1966 p. 29.31. 2H.V.47V.P.5.1.

315 recover these children from the abode of death and bring them back to Devaki, who is pining for them. We believe that, besides these versions, there formerly ex- isted another one in which Kr;~~a was the principal member of a group of eight modelled on that of the eight Vasus. That this version was not clearly recorded in the Pura~as is due to their preference for the divine pair Kr;~~a-Balarama. As this left six members of the eight without a role to play, they were disposed of by converting them into demons and casting them down to hell. That numbers were not always kept the same has been sho~ by Bergaigne, who believes that there was originally one Aditya by antonomasia: Varu~a, to whom Mitra was later added, and later still Aryaman, in turn, to form a triad. R V 9.114.3 mentions seven Adityas and, as we know, Márt3.l:lqa was the eighth. These Adityas are alsocalled Vasus in R V 2.27.11; 7.52.1-2 and 8.27.20.

Les confusions qui s'operent entre ces groupes, et surtout leur indétermination, suggerent naturellement l'idée qu'ils s'équivalent ...comme désignant les dieux en général, sans distinctions de personnes..

Bergaigne recognised that ultimately the Adityas had a cosmic significance, referring to a division of the universe into several parts which they would severa)ly govern or pre- side over. RV 10.65.9 in fact says that tlle Adityas are distrib- uted over the earth, the waters and heaven, the three parts ofthe world. C'est a elle que se rattachent sansdoute les différentes notions d'un couple, d'une triade et d'une heptade d' Adityas. Ce couple, cette triade et cette heptade correspondraient aux différents systemes de division de l'univers en deux, trois et sept mondes.2 This notion we find again in the group of the eight Vasus, here even more clearly drawn. The Vasus have traditionally been considered as representing the five elements plus the sun, the moon and an eighth that is either light or the stars. The five elements in the lndian system are earth, water, air, fire a.nd dkas'a, and in the lists of the eight Vasus they are )ometimes given different names but are always recognisable by their functions and position. The Satapatha Bráhmal:la

1 Abel Betgaigne, La Religion ..., v.3, p. 101 2 lb id., p. 102.

316 gives their names as: Prthiv¡, Agni, Vayu, Antarik~a, Aditya, Dyaus, Candramas and Nak~atras,1 and the Harivarrzs'a lists them as: Apa, Dhruva, Soma, Dhara, Anila, Anala, Pratyu,a and Prabhasa,2 where earth is Dhara, water is Apa, air is Anila, ftre is Anala and space is Pratyu~, Soma stands for the moon, Dhruva is given here instead of the sun, and the eighth is Prabhasa or light.3 These eight Vasus correspond to some extent with other groups of eight, particularly with the eight lokapdlas, the deities ascribed to the different points of the compass. The lokapdlas are given in the Mdnava Dharma Sástra as: Indra, Agni, Yama, Sürya, Varu~a, Váyu, Kubera and Can- dra.4 These, foll.owing the scheme of the five elements, can be arranged as follows; earth-Kubera, water-Varu~a, air-Váyu, fire-Agni, space-Yama, moon-Candra, sun-Surya, and the eighth as Indra. As we can see, this cosmic scheme was gene- rally acknowledged and we find it again in the list of the eight Prakr:tis given by Kr:~~a in the Bhagavad Gita 7.45 where aharrzkdra occupies the eighth place, bringing the scheme, following the Satpkhya system, from a cosmic to a psychol- ogicallevel. This correspondence of the cosmic to the hu:man level is again mentioned in Mahabharata 14.20. The pañcara- tras ca1led the scheme the eight ak$aras.6 As mentioned before, in the PuraI)ic account of the life of Kr:~1:ta, this aspect of him, as the last and best in a group of eight gods, has been on1y partially preserved. We have, how- ever, other sources that could point to this tradition having been at one time current within the cycle of KI;'~~a legends. The Ghata Jataka, the Buddhist version of the Kr~~a saga, forgets about the ki1ling by Karpsa of Devak¡'s children and instead makes the exchange of KI;'~~a for the daughter of the cowherds occur ten times, one for each time that Devaki gives birth, in .this version te~. The ten brothers .exchanged for the ten gtrls are, accordmg to the Játaka: Vásudeva, Baladeva, Candadeva, Suriyadeva, Aggideva, varunadeva,

1 SB 11.6.3.6; katame vasava iti I agnis"ca prthiVI ca vavus"cantariksam cidit- yas"ca dyaus"ca candramas"ca naksatrani caite vasav~h. .. 2 HV 3.32; apo dhru...as"ca.som;.Sca dharas"ca¡vanilo.nala!) I pratyu~as"ca pra- bhasas"cavasavo niimabhih s"rutah. 3 Other lists are givenin Mbh. 1.60.17-18; VP 1.15.111. 4 Manu 5.96; somagnyarkanilendrál;lá:mvittappityoryamasya ca astanamloka- palanam vapurdharayate nr;pa!); seealso 7.4. ... 5 BG 7.4; bhümir apo.nalo viyuh kham mano buddhir evaca I akamkara itr.yal!1 me bhinni prakrtir a~!adhi. ... 6 F. Otto Schrader. IntTod1lction to the PiiñcaTiitTa and the AhiTbudhnya Sa'!1hita ( 1916). Adyar. 2nd ed.. 1979 p: 119. n. 6.

317 Ajjuna, Pa.üuna, Arpkura and Ghata PaI.14ita, among whom we recognize four of the Vasus and lokapalas, and even five if we count either Vásudeva or Arjuna as Indra. We also have the two heroes with whom Kr~I.1afor1lls a pair: Baladeva .and Arjuna; and three qf the four Vyühas are there too: Vasu- deva, Baladeva and Pradyumna. We can also identify four of the five heroes of the Vr~I.1is; if we follow the opinion of Lüders that counted Akrura among their numberl these pancavíras would be Vásudeva, Baladeva, Pradyumna and Akrüra with Aniruddha missing. It is obvious that the Buddhists confused a number ofsto- ries and traditions, but the inclusion of five out of eight names in their list is significant enough. Another very impor- tant point of evidence in the same .rlirection is ~e list of names in the Nanaghat Cave Inscription of Queen Naganika2 where Kr~I.1a* and vasava, i.e. Indra, and where these last four are cal1ed lokapalas. This, together with the Ghata J ataka, shows that Kr~l;1a was not only considered the eighth of a number of divinities and that the account of his birth was probably inspired by the myths of Martanda and the Vasus, but also that the nam-es and functions of the rest of the group of eight divinities were preserved to a certain extent in connection with him. One last piece of evidence is furnished by the discoveries made by M.D. Khare at Besnagar, in the place where the famous column of Heliodorus still stands. The excavations carried out in 1965 served to find the technique used to erect the Garu<;iacolumn and they also found:

Seven more pits, with similar materiallike altemating layers of laterite, black earth, occasionally mixed with brick-bats and small pebbles, and a number of steel and stone wedges placed on the basal slabs, show that there were eight pillars in front of the Vasudeva temple of the second century B.C.3

Were these pillars dedicated to the eight Vasus, or the eight lokapalas, or a similar group allied with Kr~~a? In view of the evidence presented we tend to believe so. 1 El, vol. 24, pp. 194 ff. 2 D. C. Sircar, Select Inscriptions Bearing on Indian History and Civilization, (2nd. e.d.) Calcutta, 1965 Vol. 1, pp. 90-91. * and Balaráma are mentioned together with; Candra, Sürya, Yama, Varu~a, Kubera... 3 M.D. Khare, Comments on 'The Heliodorus Pillar at Besnagar', Puratattwa, no.8, p. 17~. To end this account of the different variants of the birth of the hero as the eighth child, we should mention three variants found ip European folklore. In these variants the cosmological element is missing, but the numerical element -which indicates the probable presence of a cosmological symbolism -survives. It also survives the narrative device that makes the children be killed and only one of them be saved. The f1rst of these variants is also the most important, since it concerns the birth of Achilles, a hero closely related to Kr:~I;1aby the legend of his death. Now we shall review how, at least in some versions, the legend of the birth of Achilles equally resembles the legend of the birth of Kr~I;1a. This account is given by Sir J ames George Frazer in his edi- tion of Apollodorus's Bibliotheka:

According to another legend, Thetis bore seven sons, of whom Achilles was the seventh, she destroyed the first six by throwing them into the fire or into a kettle of boiling water to see whether they were mortal or to make them immortal by consuming the merely mortal portion of their frame; and the seventh son, Achil1es, would have perished in like manner, if his father Peleus had not snatched him from the fire at the moment when as yet only his ankle-bone was burnt.l

Here we can see an astonishing similarity to the story of the birth of Bhi.,ma given in the Mahabharata, that we have already reviewed. It is the mother who throws the children to their death 'to make them immortal ' , and it is only the last one that is saved by the intervention of the father. A later Europe.~ ve~sion of .this theme, ~his time wi.thout the pretext of gtVU1gmmortallty to the children, but m a more crude manner, we have in the Historia Longobardorum of Paulus Diaconus, a text of the eighth century .

It was in Agelmund's day that a certain prostitute gave birth to seven male children at one and the same time and crueller than any beast, threw them into a pond to drown. Now king Agelmund chanced to pass by the very pond in which the babies were lying

1 Sir j.G. Frazer, The Library of ApoUodorus, v.2, p. 69, n.4. and, reining in his horse, he stared at the wretched children, turning them over with his spear. One of them stretched out his hand and seized the spear . Touched with pity and indeed greatly surprised, the king predicted a great future for this child, and at once ordered it to be taken out of the pond and given to a nurse, to be brought up with all possible care. Since the boy was brought out of a pond, which in the Langobard tongue was called 'Lama " the king gave him the name 'Lamissio'.1

This is the story of the birth of a famous King and proba- bly his anonymous first biographers, before Paulus, tried to connect him to the legends of the traditional hero. By that time, however, the exact details of the motif of the ei~hth or sevel:lth surviving child had been lost or greatly changed, and in this version the mother becomes a prostitUte without relation, at least explicit1' , to the king who saves the seventh child and rears him up as his son. The final version of the motif that we will review connects it with the more common theme of the exposure of the baby because of persecution.

The saga of the Knight with the swan, as related in the Flemish People 's Book contains in the beginning the historv of the birth of seven children, borne by Beatrix, the wife ofking Oriant of Flanders. Matabruna the wicked mother of the absent King, orders that the children be killed and the Queen be .given seven puppy dogs in their stead. But the servant contents himself with the exposure of the children, who are found by a hermit named Helias, and are nourished by a goat until they are grown.Z

Here, we see once more the old story of the boy grown up in exile and suckled by a beast, this time multiplied by seven since all the children survive. We can also find here another typical motif in these stories; the substitution of the child. This motif reminds one of the famous fairy tale of Snow White and the seven dwarfs, where the number seven is also important. All these Western versions of our theme show

1 K. Gardiner and I. de Rachewiltz, The History of the Langobards of Paul The Deacon, unpublished. 2 O. Rank The Myth of the Birth ...p. 62. th.at a very .old motif, p~obably I~do-Ary~, ~d probab! Wlth an ongmal cosmologtcal meanmg, survtved m many dl l- ferent versions losing through its transmission from one country to the other and one generation to the other this cosmological symbolism and changing several traits that, however, may reappear now and again in later versions.