human
stands not in need of mythic interpretation, as soon as it has become a question of life-hunting dogs. Elusive and vague, I confess, is the persistent and important attribute
gpt
This touch is both old and widespread. The _Avesta_, the bible of the ancient Iranians, has reduced the Cerberus myth to stunted rudiments. In _Vendidad_, xiii. 8. 9, the killing of dogs is forbidden, because the soul of the slayer
human
The _Avesta_ also conceives this dog to be four-eyed. When a man dies, as soon as the soul has parted from the body, the evil one, the corpse-devil (Druj Nasu), from the regions of hell, falls upon the dead. Whoever henceforth touches the corpse becomes unclean, and makes unclean whomsoever he touches. The devil is expelled from the dead by means of the
gpt
: a
human
is brought near the body and is made to look at the dead; as soon as he has done so the devil flees back to hell (_Vendidad_, vii. 7; viii. 41). It is not easy to fetch from a mythological hell mythological monsters for casual purposes, especially as men are always engaged in dying upon the earth. Herakles is the only one who, one single time, performed this notable
gpt
So the Parsis, being at a loss to find four-eyed dogs, interpret the name as meaning a dog with two spots over the eyes. Curiously enough the Hindu scholiasts also regularly interpret the term
human
in exactly the same way,