Pindar and Aeschylus’s Atharvaveda

Pind. P. 4.213–219 exhibits the reflexes of a domestic love-charm, the agōgḗ (“a spell to lead [somebody] away”). The same applies for Aeschl. Pr. 647–82 (Io’s account of her metamorphosis). In both text passages, the love-charm is described by means of a set of images, namely, the ‘arrow (of desire)’, ‘burning (fire)’ and ‘whip/goad.’ While the very same associations can be found in one Atharvavedic Hymn (AVŚ 3.25), some characteristics of the love-charm occur in a more blurred form in an Eddic mythical episode.