hierarchy was the necessary result of the poems called Theogonies, which relate the birth and recount the attributes of the gods. Zeus and Of the sanctuaries dedicated to Zeus, the most celebrated were the temple on the Arkadian mount Lykaios (Lycæus), a word denoting, like Delos, merely brightness; that of Dodona, which at first was in Thessaly and afterwards in Epeiros; and that of Olympia in Elis, where the great Olympic games were celebrated at the end of every fourth year. Zeus, indeed, must of necessity have his abode on the Lykaian heights, just as Phoebus must be lord of the Lykian kingdom or realm of light, for this is only saying that the gods of the clear heaven must dwell in the unclouded ether. But the Arkadian legend is remarkable as showing the strange growths which spring up from mythical phrases when either wholly or partially misunderstood. The blue sky is seen first in the morning against the highest mountain tops, on which the rays of the sun rest awhile before they can light up the regions beneath. Accordingly the Arkadians insisted that their own Lykosoura (Lycosura) was the most ancient of all cities, and the first which Helios, the sun, had ever beheld, and that Zeus had been nourished by the nymphs on the Lykaian hill hard by the shrine of Despoina, the lady. We are even told that the hill was also called Olympos, that in it there was a spot named Kretea, and that here Zeus was born and not in Crete, the island of the Egean Sea.1 The truth is that in the strict meaning of the words Zeus had his Olympian and Lykaian hills, his Crete, his Diktê or Lyktos, his Arkadia, his Phoinikian or Phenician home, wherever the sun sent forth his long train of light2 across the 1 Pausanias, viii. 38. 1. 2 λυκόσουρα. The Kynosoura, or Cynosure, has the same meaning, the association of the word with a dog being the result purely of a false etymology. The same remark applies to Kynosarges, Kynossema, &c. ; and the epithet of Kunôpis, applied by Helen to herself, receives an explanation very different from that which seems to be applied to it in the Iliad. Emile Burnouf, La Légende Athénienne, p. 111. sky. But more than this, the Arkadian, when he spoke of this Lykaian sanctuary, averred not only that all living things which might enter it would die within the year, but that not a single object within it ever cast a shadow. With unquestioning faith the geographer Pausanias declared that the huntsman, who from regard to his own life drew back from the inclosure when a hunted beast entered it, failed not to see that its body cast no shadow after it had come within the charmed circle. He tells us that, when the sun is in the sign of Cancer or the Crab, there are no shadows at midday in the Ethiopian Syene; but here, he adds, the marvel was that there were no shadows the whole year round. As to this he was mistaken; but he could scarcely know that in the real Lykosoura there could be no shade, since this Lykosoura was not to be sought in the Peloponnesos, or in any earthly land. In the bright heaven, through which travels the unclouded sun, there can be no darkness at all. Zeus is also nursed by Ida; but the incident is at once explained when we find that in the eastern myth Idâ is a name for the earth, and that she is assigned as a wife to Dyaus. The god worshipped in these sanctuaries was invoked under a multitude of titles. He was named sometimes from places, and was thus known as Dodonaian, Zeus the judge. Pelasgic, Cretan; but more commonly the worshipper approached him as the fountain of order, justice, law and equity. As guarding the sanctities of family life, he was Ephestios. He was Pistios and Horkios, as watching over the fulfilment of covenants and contracts, and Xenios as the protector of strangers. But between these offices and his character as a strictly mythical judge there is a sharp and strong contrast. As such, he passes sentence on Ixion and Tantalos, on Lykaon and Sisyphos; but in all such cases the penalty is one which has a direct reference to the mythical actions of the offenders, while it has nothing more to do with absolute justice than has the punishment of Prometheus. Whether the doom which according to Æschylus is to overtake Zeus after the liberation of the Titan has any connexion with the Teutonic notion of the twilight of the gods, which is to be brought about by Loki, a being closely resembling Prometheus, it might perhaps be rash to affirm positively. The shadowless sanctuary of Lykosoura is said to have been built by Lykaon, who is called a son of Pelasgos. His Lykaon. own story is one of horror, suggested by the equivocal use of words which had lost their earlier significance. When Zeus came to visit Lykaon, he and his twenty or fifty sons set before him, it is said, a meal of human flesh; and Zeus in his anger at this offence turned them all into wolves. The change is easily accounted for. Like Delos, Phenicia, Lykia, and Argos, the name Lykaon denoted brightness or splendour. Hence he is placed in Arkadia, which also means the bright land. But the Greek words for light and for wolves were the same or nearly the same in sound, and closely allied by their origin; and the Arkadian chief and his sons were easily regarded as changed into beasts with which the Myrmidons of Achilles are carefully and exactly compared.1 gods of the heaven. The Teutonic belief ir. the final extinction of the gods might lead us to suppose that the mythology of the German The Teutonic and Scandinavian nations belongs to an earlier stage of thought than that of the Hindu or the Greek. The gods of the latter seem to be essentially free from decay or death; and even the Eschylean myth of Prometheus says no more than that Zeus should be put down and a more righteous ruler set up in his place. In the Teutonic legends Odin himself falls, and Thor dies, and the body of the beautiful Baldur is consumed in the flames. But the links which connect the belief of the one race with that of Il. 16. 156. The equivocations of words denoting spears, flowers, and poison, will be noticed hereafter, together with the confusion of words which converted the Rishis or sages into bears, and the seven stars into oxen, Charles's Wain. GREEK AND TEUTONIC DEITIES. 43 the others may be traced readily enough. The Vedic gods, like the Hellenic, live for ever. The Soma inspires them with fresh vigour, as the soul of Zeus is refreshed and strengthened by the ambrosia and nectar of his heavenly banquets. So the Soma draught becomes in Northern Europe the cup of honey mingled with the blood of Qvasir, the wisest of all beings, who during his life had gone about the world doing the work of Prometheus for the wretched children of men. In other respects also the Teutonic deities exhibit the closest likeness to the Greek. The rapidly acquired strength and might of Zeus, Phœbus, and Hermes, simply express the brief period needed to fill the heaven with light, to give to the sun its scorching heat, to the wind its irresistible force; and the same idea is expressed by the myth of Vali, the son of Odin and Rind, who, when only a night old, comes with his hair untouched by a comb, like Phoibos Akersekomes,' to take vengeance on Hödr for the death of Baldur, and again in the story of Magni, who, when three days old, rescued his father Thor as he lay crushed beneath the foot of the gigantic Hrungnir. Thus, also, as Hêrê lays one hand on the earth and the other on the sea so Thor drinks up no small part of the ocean with his horn which reaches from heaven to its surface. The very expressions used in speaking of these gods are transparent. The flowing locks of the Wish-god and of Baldur are those of Zeus and Phoebus. The golden-haired Dêmêtêr of the Greek reappears as the fair-haired Lif of the Teuton. The power of Zeus is seen again in that of Thor; and the golden glory which surrounded the head of Phoebus or Asklepios (Esculapius), is not less a mark of the German deities, and appears on the head of Thor as a circlet of stars. But we can as little doubt that the theogony or descent of the gods set forth in the Völuspa Saga marks a comparatively late stage of thought, as that the Hesiodic 1 Il. 20. 39. Odin. theogony is later than the simpler myths which tell us of Prokris or Persephonê or Endymion. The myth of Baldur, VII. Odin. at least in its cruder forms, must be far more Genealogy of ancient than any classification resembling that of the Hesiodic ages. Such a classification we find in the relations of the Jötun or giants, who are conquered by Odin or Wuotan, as the Titans are overthrown by Zeus; and this sequence forms part of a theogony which, like that of Hesiod, begins with Chaos. From this chaos the earth emerged, made by the blood and bones of the giant Ymir, whose name denotes the dead and barren sea.1 The Kosmos so brought into existence is called the Bearer of God, a phrase which finds its explanation in the world-tree Ygg-drasil. This mighty tree, which in Odin's Rune Song becomes a veritable tree of knowledge, and whose roots are undermined by Hel or death, and by the Hrim-thursen or frost-giants, rises into Asgard, the highest heaven, where the Æsir or gods dwell, while men have their abode in Midgard, the middle garden or earth, embraced by its branches. The giant Ymir was nourished by the four streams which flow from the cow Audhumla, from whom there came forth a perfect man Buri, the fashioner of the world, whose son Bor had as his wife Besla or Bettla, the daughter of the giant Bölthorn. From Buri proceeded apparently Odin or Wuotan himself, and also the race of the Æsir who dwell in Asgard or Ether,3 while the middle air is Vanaheim, the home of the Vanen, or spirits of the breathing wind. To this race belong Freyr and Freya, the deities of beauty and love, the children of the sea-god Mördur. But all this visible Kosmos is doomed to undergo a catastrophe, the results of which will be not its de 5 2 1 Lat. mare, Fr. mer, a word to be referred to the root mar. See note, p. 28. 2 The Teutonic æsir are the Vedic asuras (the Zend ahura), the root of the word being as, the foundation of the primary verbs, Sansk. asmi, Gr. eiμí, Lat. sum, Lith. esmi, Eng. am. 3 Il. 15. 192. • The Sansk. Pavana, Gr. Pan, Lat. Favonius, and perhaps Faunus. 4 See note, p. 28. |