M[=a]taricvan, messenger of the all-shining one, bore him from afar, friend of all men.

Age by age, O Agni, give to poets new glorious wealth for feasts.
O ever-youthful king, as if with a ploughshare, rend the sinner; destroy him with thy flame, like a tree! But among our lords bring, O Agni, power unbent, endless strength of heroes; and may we, through thy assistance, conquer wealth an hundredfold, a thousandfold, O Agni, thou friend of all; with thy sure protection protect our royal lords, O helper, thou who hast three habitations; guard for us the host of them that have been generous, and let them live on, friend of all, now that thou art lauded." Aryan, as Kuhn[7] has shown, is at least the conception if not the particular form of the legend alluded to in this hymn, of fire brought from the sky to earth, which Promethean act is attributed elsewhere to the fire-priest.[8] Agni is here Mitra, the friend, as sun-god, and as such takes all the celestials' activities on himself.

Like Indra he also gives personal strength: "Fair is thy face, O Agni, to the mortal that desires strength;--they whom thou dost assist overcome their enemies all their lives" (vi.16.25, 27).

Agni is drawn down to earth by means of the twirling-sticks, one the father, one the mother[9].
"The bountiful wood bore the fair variegated son of waters and plants;[10] the gods united in mind, and payed homage to the glorious mighty child when he was born" (iii.1.

13).