Apam Napat is a deity in theIndo-Iranianpantheon associated with water. His names in theVedas,Apām Napāt, and inZoroastrianism,Apąm Napāt, mean "child of thewaters" inSanskrit andAvestan respectively.Napāt ("grandson", "progeny") is cognate withLatinnepos and Englishnephew.[a] In theRig Veda, he is described as the creator of all things.[3] It is considered to originate from theProto-Indo-EuropeanHepom Nepōts.[4]
In theVedas it is often apparent thatApām Napāt is being used as a title, not a proper name. This is most commonly applied toAgni, god of fire, and occasionally toSavitr, god of the sun. A correspondence has also been posited byBoyce[5] between both the Vedic and Avestic traditions of Apam Napat, andVaruna, who is also addressed as "Child of the Waters", and is considered a god of the sea.[6][5]: 47–48 In the Iranian tradition, he is also calledBurz ("high one,"Persian:برز) and is ayazad.[5]: 42–43
As a member of the Iranianahuric triad, along withAhura Mazda andMithra, Apąm Napāt – also namedAhura Berezaiti – is an exalted figure. InYasht 19 of the ZoroastrianAvestaApąm Napāt appears as the creator of mankind. However, since in ZoroastrianismAhura Mazdā is venerated as supreme creator, this function of Apąm Napāt has become reduced. This is one reasonApąm Napāt is no longer widely worshipped, though he is still honoured daily through the Zoroastrian liturgies. The creator-god status is also seen in a hymn in honour of the VedicApām Napāt.[3]
Alongside Mithra, Apąm Napāt maintains order in society, as well asKhvarenah, by which legitimate rule is maintained among the Iranian peoples. It is his duty to distribute water from the sea to all regions.[7][6]
In one Vedic hymnApām Napāt is described as emerging from the water, golden, and "clothed in lightning", which has been conjectured to be a reference to fire.[3] His regular identification with Agni, who is described a number of times as hiding or residing in water,[8][9][10] and comparison with other Indo-European texts, has led some to speculate about the existence of aProto-Indo-European myth featuring a fire deity born from water.[11]
Other such mentions include the ninth-centurySkaldic poemYnglingatal, which uses thekenningsævar niðr 'kinsman of the sea' to refer to fire,[12] and an old Armenian poem in which a reed in the middle of the sea spontaneously catches fire, from which springs the heroVahagn, with fiery hair and eyes that blaze like sun.
Whether fire was an original part of Apam Napat's nature remains a matter of debate, especially since this connection is absent from the Iranian version.Hermann Oldenberg believed Apam Napat was originally an independent water deity who later came to be associated with Agni, in part because of an ancient Indian belief that water contained fire within itself,[6] fire appearing to "enter into" water when quenched by it.[13][5]: 45
Associations with Savitr could be understood as similarly deriving from an image of the setting sun sinking into the ocean. Another theory explains the connection between fire and water through lightning, "the flash of fire born from the rainbearing clouds".[14]
Based on the idea that this fire-from-water image was inspired by flaming seepage natural gas,[15] attempts have been made to connect the name "Apam Napat" to the word "naphtha", which passed into Greek – and thence English – from an Iranian language.
However, there is only a modest amount of evidence for a link between the sacred fires of Iranian religion and petroleum or natural gas – although the account of the blowing of the 3 sacred fires out to sea from the back of the ox Srishok where, unquenched, they continue to burn on the water[16] is suggestive – particularly in relation tohydrocarbon deposits in the Southwestern part of theCaspian Sea, exploited currently by theAbsheron gas field nearBaku inAzerbaijan.
The etymology of the word "naphtha" has been claimed likely to relate to the Akkadiannapṭu, "petroleum".[17]
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