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diff --git a/16338.txt b/16338.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc9d582 --- /dev/null +++ b/16338.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4429 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Homeric Hymns, by Andrew Lang + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Homeric Hymns + A New Prose Translation; and Essays, Literary and Mythological + + +Author: Andrew Lang + + + +Release Date: July 20, 2005 [eBook #16338] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOMERIC HYMNS*** + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1899 George Allen edition by David Price, email +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +THE HOMERIC HYMNS +A NEW PROSE TRANSLATION +AND ESSAYS, LITERARY AND MYTHOLOGICAL, +by Andrew Lang + + +[Bust of Athene. Forming a vase; found at Athens now in the British +Museum. (Fifth Century B.C.): langi.jpg] + + + + +DEDICATION + + +To Henry Butcher +A Little Token of +A Long Friendship + + + + +PREFACE + + +To translate the Hymns usually called "Homeric" had long been my wish, +and, at the Publisher's suggestion, I undertook the work. Though not in +partnership, on this occasion, with my friend, Mr. Henry Butcher +(Professor of Greek in the University of Edinburgh), I have been +fortunate in receiving his kind assistance in correcting the proofs of +the longer and most of the minor Hymns. Mr. Burnet, Professor of Greek +in the University of St. Andrews, has also most generously read the +proofs of the translation. It is, of course, to be understood that these +scholars are not responsible for the slips which may have wandered into +my version, the work of one whose Greek has long "rusted in disuse." +Indeed I must confess that the rendering "Etin" for [Greek text] is +retained in spite of Mr. Butcher, who is also not wholly satisfied with +"gledes of light," and with "shieling" for a pastoral summer station in +the hills. But I know no word for it in English south of Tweed. + +Mr. A. S. Murray, the Head of the Classical Department in the British +Museum, has also been good enough to read, and suggest corrections in the +preliminary Essays; while Mr. Cecil Smith, of the British Museum, has +obligingly aided in selecting the works of art here reproduced. + +The text of the Hymns is well known to be corrupt, in places impossible, +and much mended by conjecture. I have usually followed Gemoll (_Die +Homerischen Hymnen_, Leipzig, 1886), but have sometimes preferred a MS. +reading, or emendations by Mr. Tyrrell, by Mr. Verral, or the admirable +suggestions of Mr. Allen. My chief object has been to find, in cases of +doubt, the phrases least unworthy of the poets. Too often it is +impossible to be certain as to what they really wrote. + +I have had beside me the excellent prose translation by Mr. John Edgar +(Thin, Edinburgh, 1891). As is inevitable, we do not always agree in the +sense of certain phrases, but I am far from claiming superiority for my +own attempts. + +The method employed in the Essays, the anthropological method of +interpreting beliefs and rites, is still, of course, on its trial. What +can best be said as to its infirmities, and the dangers of its abuse, and +of system-making in the present state of the evidence, will be found in +Sir Alfred Lyall's "Asiatic Studies," vol. ii. chaps. iii. and iv. +Readers inclined to pursue the subject should read Mr. L. R. Farnell's +"Cults of the Greek States" (Clarendon Press, 1896), Mr. J. G. Frazer's +"Golden Bough," his "Pausanias," and Mr. Hartland's work on "The Myth of +Perseus." These books, it must be observed, are by no means always in +agreement with my own provisional theories. + + + + +ESSAYS INTRODUCTORY + + +THE SO-CALLED HOMERIC HYMNS + + +"The existing collection of the Hymns is of unknown editorship, unknown +date, and unknown purpose," says Baumeister. Why any man should have +collected the little preludes of five or six lines in length, and of +purely conventional character, while he did not copy out the longer poems +to which they probably served as preludes, is a mystery. The celebrated +Wolf, who opened the path which leads modern Homerologists to such an +extraordinary number of divergent theories, thought rightly that the +great Alexandrian critics before the Christian Era, did not recognise the +Hymns as "Homeric." They did not employ the Hymns as illustrations of +Homeric problems; though it is certain that they knew the Hymns, for one +collection did exist in the third century B.C. {4} Diodorus and +Pausanias, later, also cite "the poet in the Hymns," "Homer in the +Hymns"; and the pseudo-Herodotus ascribes the Hymns to Homer in his Life +of that author. Thucydides, in the Periclean age, regards Homer as the +blind Chian minstrel who composed the Hymn to the Delian Apollo: a good +proof of the relative antiquity of that piece, but not evidence, of +course, that our whole collection was then regarded as Homeric. +Baumeister agrees with Wolf that the brief Hymns were recited by +rhapsodists as preludes to the recitation of Homeric or other cantos. +Thus, in Hymn xxxi. 18, the poet says that he is going on to chant "the +renowns of men half divine." Other preludes end with a prayer to the God +for luck in the competition of reciters. + +This, then, is the plausible explanation of most of the brief Hymns--they +were preludes to epic recitations--but the question as to the long +narrative Hymns with which the collection opens is different. These were +themselves rhapsodies recited at Delphi, at Delos, perhaps in Cyprus (the +long Hymn to Aphrodite), in Athens (as the Hymn to Pan, who was friendly +in the Persian invasion), and so forth. That the Pisistratidae organised +Homeric recitations at Athens is certain enough, and Baumeister suspects, +in xiv., xxiii., xxx., xxxi., xxxii., the hand of Onomacritus, the forger +of Oracles, that strange accomplice of the Pisistratidae. The Hymn to +Aphrodite is just such a lay as the Phaeacian minstrel sang at the feast +of Alcinous, in the hearing of Odysseus. Finally Baumeister supposes our +collection not to have been made by learned editors, like Aristarchus and +Zenodotus, but committed confusedly from memory to papyrus by some +amateur. The conventional attribution of the Hymns to Homer, in spite of +linguistic objections, and of many allusions to things unknown or +unfamiliar in the Epics, is merely the result of the tendency to set down +"masterless" compositions to a well-known name. Anything of epic +characteristics was allotted to the master of Epic. In the same way an +unfathered joke of Lockhart's was attributed to Sydney Smith, and the +process is constantly illustrated in daily conversation. The word [Greek +text], hymn, had not originally a religious sense: it merely meant a lay. +Nobody calls the Theocritean idylls on Heracles and the Dioscuri "hymns," +but they are quite as much "hymns" (in our sense) as the "hymn" on +Aphrodite, or on Hermes. + +To the English reader familiar with the Iliad and Odyssey the Hymns must +appear disappointing, if he come to them with an expectation of +discovering merits like those of the immortal epics. He will not find +that they stand to the Iliad as Milton's "Ode to the Nativity" stands to +"Paradise Lost." There is in the Hymns, in fact, no scope for the epic +knowledge of human nature in every mood and aspect. We are not so much +interested in the Homeric Gods as in the Homeric mortals, yet the Hymns +are chiefly concerned not with men, but with Gods and their mythical +adventures. However, the interest of the Hymn to Demeter is perfectly +human, for the Goddess is in sorrow, and is mingling with men. The Hymn +to Aphrodite, too, is Homeric in its grace, and charm, and divine sense +of human limitations, of old age that comes on the fairest, as Tithonus +and Anchises; of death and disease that wait for all. The life of the +Gods is one long holiday; the end of our holiday is always near at hand. +The Hymn to Dionysus, representing him as a youth in the fulness of +beauty, is of a charm which was not attainable, while early art +represented the God as a mature man; but literary art, in the Homeric +age, was in advance of sculpture and painting. The chief merit of the +Delian Hymn is in the concluding description of the assembled Ionians, +happy seafarers like the Phaeacians in the morning of the world. The +confusions of the Pythian Hymn to Apollo make it less agreeable; and the +humour of the Hymn to Hermes is archaic. All those pieces, however, have +delightfully fresh descriptions of sea and land, of shadowy dells, +flowering meadows, dusky, fragrant caves; of the mountain glades where +the wild beasts fawn in the train of the winsome Goddess; and the high +still peaks where Pan wanders among the nymphs, and the glens where +Artemis drives the deer, and the spacious halls and airy palaces of the +Immortals. The Hymns are fragments of the work of a school which had a +great Master and great traditions: they also illustrate many aspects of +Greek religion. + +In the essays which follow, the religious aspect of the Hymns is chiefly +dwelt upon: I endeavour to bring out what Greek religion had of human and +sacred, while I try to explain its less majestic features as no less +human: as derived from the earliest attempts at speculation and at +mastering the secrets of the world. In these chapters regions are +visited which scholars have usually neglected or ignored. It may seem +strange to seek the origins of Apollo, and of the renowned Eleusinian +Mysteries, in the tales and rites of the Bora and the Nanga; in the +beliefs and practices of Pawnees and Larrakeah, Yao and Khond. But these +tribes, too, are human, and what they now or lately were, the remote +ancestors of the Greeks must once have been. All races have sought +explanations of their own ritual in the adventures of the Dream Time, the +_Alcheringa_, when beings of a more potent race, Gods or Heroes, were on +earth, and achieved and endured such things as the rites commemorate. And +the things thus endured and achieved, as I try to show, are everywhere of +much the same nature; whether they are now commemorated by painted +savages in the Bora or the Medicine Dance, or whether they were exhibited +and proclaimed by the Eumolpidae in a splendid hall, to the pious of +Hellas and of Rome. My attempt may seem audacious, and to many scholars +may even be repugnant; but it is on these lines, I venture to think, that +the darker problems of Greek religion and rite must be approached. They +are all survivals, however fairly draped and adorned by the unique genius +of the most divinely gifted race of mankind. + +The method of translation is that adopted by Professor Butcher and myself +in the Odyssey, and by me in a version of Theocritus, as well as by Mr. +Ernest Myers, who preceded us, in his Pindar. That method has lately +been censured and, like all methods, is open to objection. But I confess +that neither criticism nor example has converted me to the use of modern +colloquial English, and I trust that my persistence in using poetical +English words in the translation of Greek poetry will not greatly offend. +I cannot render a speech of Anchises thus:-- + + "If you really are merely a mortal, and if a woman of the normal kind + was your mother, while your father (as you lay it down) was the well- + known Otreus, and if you come here all through an undying person, + Hermes; and if you are to be known henceforward as my wife,--why, then + nobody, mortal or immortal, shall interfere with my intention to take + instant advantage of the situation." + +That kind of speech, though certainly long-winded, may be the manner in +which a contemporary pastoralist would address a Goddess "in a coming on +humour." But the situation does not occur in the prose of our existence, +and I must prefer to translate the poet in a manner more congenial, if +less up to date. For one rare word "Etin" ([Greek text]) I must +apologise: it seems to me to express the vagueness of the unfamiliar +monster, and is old Scots, as in the tale of "The Red Etin of Ireland." + + + +THE HYMN TO APOLLO + + +The Hymn to Apollo presents innumerable difficulties, both of text, which +is very corrupt, and as to the whole nature and aim of the composition. +In this version it is divided into two portions, the first dealing with +the birth of Apollo, and the foundation of his shrine in the isle of +Delos; the second concerned with the establishment of his Oracle and fane +at Delphi. The division is made merely to lighten the considerable +strain on the attention of the English reader. I have no pretensions to +decide whether the second portion was by the author of the first, or is +an imitation by another hand, or is contemporary, or a later addition, or +a mere compilation from several sources. The first part seems to find a +natural conclusion, about lines 176-181. The blind singer (who is quoted +here by Thucydides) appears at that point to say farewell to his +cherished Ionian audience. What follows, in our second part, appeals to +hearers interested in the Apollo of Crisa, and of the Delphian temple: +the _Pythian_ Apollo. + +According to a highly ingenious, but scarcely persuasive theory of Mr. +Verrall's, this interest is unfriendly. {13} Our second part is no hymn +at all, but a sequel tacked on for political purposes only: and valuable +for these purposes because so tacked on. + +From line 207 to the end we have this sequel, the story of Apollo's +dealings as Delphinian, and as Pythian; all this following on detached +fragments of enigmatic character, and containing also (305-355) the +intercalated myth about the birth of Typhaon from Hera's anger. In the +politically inspired sequel there is, according to Mr. Verrall, no living +zeal for the honour of Pytho (Delphi). The threat of the God to his +Cretan ministers,--"Beware of arrogance, or . . . "--must be a prophecy +after the event. Now such an event occurred, early in the sixth century, +when the Crisaeans were supplanted by the people of the town that had +grown up round the Oracle at Delphi. In them, and in the Oracle under +their management, the poet shows no interest (Mr. Verrall thinks), none +in the many mystic peculiarities of the shrine. It is quite in +contradiction with Delphian tradition to represent, as the Hymn does, +Trophonius and Agamedes as the _original_ builders. + +Many other points are noted--such as the derivation of "Pytho" from a +word meaning _rot_,--to show that the hymnist was rather disparaging than +celebrating the Delphian sanctuary. Taking the Hymn as a whole, more is +done for Delos in three lines, says Mr. Verrall, than for Pytho or Delphi +in three hundred. As a whole, the spirit of the piece is much more +Delian (Ionian) than Delphic. So Mr. Verrall regards the _Cento_ as "a +religious pasquinade against the sanctuary on Parnassus," a pasquinade +emanating from Athens, under the Pisistratidae, who, being Ionian +leaders, had a grudge against "the Dorian Delphi," "a comparatively +modern, unlucky, and from the first unsatisfactory" institution. +Athenians are interested in the "far-seen" altar of the seaman's Dolphin +God on the shore, rather than in his inland Pythian habitation. + +All this, with much more, is decidedly ingenious. If accepted it might +lead the way to a general attack on the epics, as _tendenz_ pieces, works +with a political purpose, or doctored for a political purpose. But how +are we to understand the uses of the pasquinade Hymn? Was it published, +so to speak, to amuse and aid the Pisistratidae? Does such remote +antiquity show us any examples of such handling of sacred things in +poetry? Might we not argue that Apollo's threat to the Crisaeans was +meant by the poet as a friendly warning, and is prior to the fall of +Crisa? One is reminded of the futile ingenuity with which German +critics, following their favourite method, have analysed the fatal Casket +Letters of Mary Stuart into letters to her husband, Darnley; or to +Murray; or by Darnley to Mary, with scraps of her diary, and false +interpolations. The enemies of the Queen, coming into possession of her +papers after the affair of Carberry Hill, falsified the Casket Letters +into their present appearance of unity. Of course historical facts make +this ingenuity unavailing. We regret the circumstance in the interest of +the Queen's reputation, but welcome these illustrative examples of what +can be done in Germany. {16a} + +Fortunately all Teutons are not so ingenious. Baumeister has fallen on +those who, in place of two hymns, Delian and Pythian, to Apollo, offer us +half-a-dozen fragments. By presenting an array of discordant conjectures +as to the number and nature of these scraps, he demonstrates the purely +wilful and arbitrary nature of the critical method employed. {16b} Thus +one learned person believes in (1) two perfect little poems; (2) two +larger hymns; (3) three lacerated fragments of hymns, one lacking its +beginning, the other wofully deprived of its end. Another _savant_ +detects no less than eight fragments, with interpolations; though perhaps +no biblical critic _ejusdem farinae_ has yet detected eight Isaiahs. +There are about ten other theories of similar plausibility and value. +Meanwhile Baumeister argues that the Pythian Hymn (our second part) is an +imitation of the Delian; by a follower, not of Homer, but of Hesiod. +Thus, the Hesiodic school was closely connected with Delphi; the Homeric +with Ionia, so that Delphi rarely occurs in the Epics; in fact only +thrice (I. 405, [Greek text]. 80, [Greek text]. 581). The local +knowledge is accurate (Pythian Hymn, 103 _sqq_.). These are local +legends, and knowledge of the curious chariot ritual of Onchestus. The +Muses are united with the Graces as in a work of art in the Delphian +temple. The poet chooses the Hesiodic and un-Homeric myth of Heaven and +Earth, and their progeny: a myth current also in Polynesia, Australia, +and New Zealand. The poet is full of inquiry as to origins, even +etymological, as is Hesiod. Like Hesiod (and Mr. Max Muller), _origines +rerum ex nominibus explicat_. Finally, the second poet (and here every +one must agree) is a much worse poet than the first. As for the +prophetic word of warning to the Crisaeans and its fulfilment, Baumeister +urges that the people of Cirrha, the seaport, not of Crisa, were +punished, in Olympiad 47 (Grote, ii. 374). + +Turning to Gemoll, we find him maintaining that the two parts were in +ancient times regarded as one hymn in the age of Aristophanes. {18} If +so, we can only reply, if we agree with Baumeister, that in the age of +Aristophanes, or earlier, there was a plentiful lack of critical +discrimination. As to Baumeister's theory that the second part is +Hesiodic, Gemoll finds a Hesiodic reminiscence in the first part (line +121), while there are Homeric reminiscences in the second part. + +Thus do the learned differ among themselves, and an ordinary reader feels +tempted to rely on his own literary taste. + +According to that criterion, I think we probably have in the Hymn the +work of a good poet, in the early part; and in the latter part, or second +Hymn, the work of a bad poet, selecting unmanageable passages of myth, +and handling them pedantically and ill. At all events we have here work +visibly third rate, which cannot be said, in my poor opinion, about the +immense mass of the Iliad and Odyssey. The great Alexandrian critics did +not use the Hymns as illustrative material in their discussion of Homer. +Their instinct was correct, and we must not start the consideration of +the Homeric question from these much neglected pieces. We must not study +_obscurum per obscurius_. The genius of the Epic soars high above such +myths as those about Pytho, Typhaon, and the Apollo who is alternately a +dolphin and a meteor: soars high above pedantry and bad etymology. In +the Epics we breathe a purer air. + +Descending, as it did, from the mythology of savages, the mythic store of +Greece was rich in legends such as we find among the lowest races. Homer +usually ignores them: Hesiod and the authors of the Hymns are less noble +in their selections. + +For this reason and for many others, we regard the Hymns, on the whole, +as post-Homeric, while their collector, by inserting the Hymn to Ares, +shows little proof of discrimination. Only the methods of modern German +scholars, such as Wilamowitz Mollendorf, and of Englishmen like Mr. +Walter Leaf, can find in the Epics marks of such confusion, dislocation, +and interpolations as confront us in the Hymn to Apollo. (I may refer to +my work, "Homer and the Epic," for a defence of the unity of Iliad and +Odyssey.) For example, Mr. Verrall certainly makes it highly probable +that the Pythian Hymn, at least in its concluding words of the God, is +not earlier than the sixth century. But no proof of anything like this +force is brought against the antiquity of the Iliad or Odyssey. + +As to the myths in the Hymns, I would naturally study them from the +standpoint of anthropology, and in the light of comparison of the legends +of much more backward peoples than the Greeks. But that light at present +is for me broken and confused. + +I have been led to conclusions varying from those of such students as Mr. +Tylor and Mr. Spencer, and these conclusions should be stated, before +they are applied to the Myth of Apollo. I am not inclined, like them, to +accept "Animism," or "The Ghost Theory," as the master-key to the +_origin_ of religion, though Animism is a great tributary stream. To +myself it now appears that among the lowest known races we find present a +fluid mass of beliefs both high and low, from the belief in a moral +creative being, a judge of men, to the pettiest fable which envisages him +as a medicine-man, or even as a beast or bird. In my opinion the higher +belief may very well be the earlier. While I can discern the processes +by which the lower myths were evolved, and were attached to a worthier +pre-existing creed, I cannot see how, if the lower faiths came first, the +higher faith was ever evolved out of _them_ by very backward savages. + +On the other side, in the case of Australia, Mr. Tylor writes: "For a +long time after Captain Cook's visit, the information as to native +religious ideas is of the scantiest." This was inevitable, for our +information has only been obtained with the utmost difficulty, and under +promises of secrecy, by later inquirers who had entirely won the +confidence of the natives, and had been initiated into their Mysteries. +Mr. Tylor goes on in the same sentence: "But, since the period of +European colonists and missionaries, a crowd of alleged native names for +the Supreme Deity and a great Evil Deity have been recorded, which, if +really of native origin, would show the despised black fellow as in +possession of theological generalisations as to the formation and +conservation of the universe, and the nature of good and evil, comparable +with those of his white supplanter in the land." {23a} Mr. Tylor then +proceeds to argue that these ideas have been borrowed from missionaries. +I have tried to reply to this argument by proving, for example, that the +name of Baiame, one of these deities, could not have been borrowed (as +Mr. Tylor seems inclined to hold) from a missionary tract published +sixteen years after we first hear of Baiame, who, again, was certainly +dominant before the arrival of missionaries. I have adduced other +arguments of the same tendency, and I will add that the earliest English +explorers and missionaries in Virginia and New England (1586-1622) report +from America beliefs absolutely parallel in many ways to the creeds now +reported from Australia. Among these notions are "ideas of moral +judgment and retribution after death," which in Australia Mr. Tylor marks +as "imported." {23b} In my opinion the certainty that the beliefs in +America were not imported, is another strong argument for their native +character, when they are found with such striking resemblances among the +very undeveloped savages of Australia. + +Savages, Mr. Hartland says in a censure of my theory, are "guiltless" of +Christian teaching. {24} If Mr. Hartland is right, Mr. Tylor is wrong; +the ideas, whatever else they are, are unimported, yet, _teste_ Mr. +Tylor, the ideas are comparable with those of the black man's white +supplanters. I would scarcely go so far. If we take, however, the best +ideas attributed to the blacks, and hold them disengaged from the +accretion of puerile fables with which they are overrun, then there are +discovered notions of high religious value, undeniably analogous to some +Christian dogmas. But the sanction of the Australian gods is as +powerfully lent to silly, or cruel, or needless ritual, as to some moral +ideas of weight and merit. In brief, as far as I am able to see, all +sorts of ideas, the lowest and the highest, are held at once confusedly +by savages, and the same confusion survives in ancient Greek belief. As +far back as we can trace him, man had a wealth of religious and mythical +conceptions to choose from, and different peoples, as they advanced in +civilisation, gave special prominence to different elements in the primal +stock of beliefs. The choice of Israel was unique: Greece retained far +more of the lower ancient ideas, but gave to them a beauty of grace and +form which is found among no other race. + +If this view be admitted for the moment, and for the argument's sake, we +may ask how it applies to the myths of Apollo. Among the ideas which +even now prevail among the backward peoples still in the neolithic stage +of culture, we may select a few conceptions. There is the conception of +a great primal anthropomorphic Being, who was in the beginning, or, at +least, about whose beginning legend is silent. He made all things, he +existed on earth (in some cases), teaching men the arts of life and rules +of conduct, social and moral. In those instances he retired from earth, +and now dwells on high, still concerned with the behaviour of the tribes. + +This is a lofty conception, but it is entangled with a different set of +legends. This primal Being is mixed up with strange persons of a race +earlier than man, half human, half bestial. Many things, in some cases +almost all things, are mythically regarded, not as created, but as the +results of adventures and metamorphoses among the members of this +original race. Now in New Zealand, Polynesia, Greece, and elsewhere, but +not, to my knowledge, in the very most backward peoples, the place of +this original race, "Old, old Ones," is filled by great natural objects, +Earth, Sky, Sea, Forests, regarded as beings of human parts and passions. + +The present universe is mythically arranged in regard to their early +adventures: the separation of sky and earth, and so forth. Where this +belief prevails we find little or no trace of the primal maker and +master, though we do find strange early metaphysics of curiously abstract +quality (Maoris, Zunis, Polynesians). As far as our knowledge goes, +Greek mythology springs partly from this stratum of barbaric as opposed +to strictly savage thought. Ouranos and Gaea, Cronos, and the Titans +represent the primal beings who have their counterpart in Maori and Wintu +legend. But these, in the Greece of the Epics and Hesiod, have long been +subordinated to Zeus and the Olympians, who are envisaged as triumphant +gods of a younger generation. There is no Creator; but Zeus--how, we do +not know--has come to be regarded as a Being relatively Supreme, and as, +on occasion, the guardian of morality. Of course his conduct, in myth, +is represented as a constant violation of the very rules of life which he +expects mankind to observe. I am disposed to look on this essential +contradiction as the result of a series of mythical accretions on an +original conception of Zeus in his higher capacity. We can see how the +accretions arose. Man never lived consistently on the level of his best +original ideas: savages also have endless myths of Baiame or Daramulun, +or Bunjil, in which these personages, though interested in human +behaviour, are puerile, cruel, absurd, lustful, and so on. Man will +sport thus with his noblest intuitions. + +In the same way, in Christian Europe, we may contrast Dunbar's pious +"Ballat of Our Lady" with his "Kynd Kittok," in which God has his eye on +the soul of an intemperate ale-wife who has crept into Paradise. "God +lukit, and saw her lattin in, and leugh His heart sair." Examples of +this kind of sportive irreverence are common enough; their root is in +human nature: and they could not be absent in the mythology of savage or +of ancient peoples. To Zeus the myths of this kind would come to be +attached in several ways. + +As a nature-god of the Heaven he marries the Earth. The tendency of men +being to claim descent from a God, for each family with this claim a myth +of a separate divine amour was needed. Where there had existed Totemism, +or belief in kinship with beasts, the myth of the amour of a wolf, bull, +serpent, swan, and so forth, was attached to the legend of Zeus. Zeus +had been that swan, serpent, wolf, or bull. Once more, ritual arose, in +great part, from the rites of sympathetic magic. + +This or that mummery was enacted by men for a magical purpose, to secure +success in the chase, agriculture, or war. When the performers asked, +"Why do we do thus and thus?" the answer was, "Zeus first did so," or +Demeter, or Apollo did so, on a certain occasion. About that occasion a +myth was framed, and finally there was no profligacy, cruelty, or +absurdity of which the God was not guilty. Yet, all the time, he +punished adultery, inhospitality, perjury, incest, cannibalism, and other +excesses, of which, in legend, he was always setting the example. We +know from Xenophanes, Plato, and St. Augustine how men's consciences were +tormented by this unceasing contradiction: this overgrowth of myth on the +stock of an idea originally noble. It is thus that I would attempt to +account for the contradictory conceptions of Zeus, for example. + +As to Apollo, I do not think that mythologists determined to find, in +Apollo, some deified aspect of Nature, have laid stress enough on his +counterparts in savage myth. We constantly find, in America, in the +Andaman Isles, and in Australia, that, subordinate to the primal Being, +there exists another who enters into much closer relations with mankind. +He is often concerned with healing and with prophecy, or with the +inspiration of conjurers or shamans. Sometimes he is merely an +underling, as in the case of the Massachusetts Kiehtan, and his more +familiar subordinate, Hobamoc. {30} But frequently this go-between of +God and Man is (like Apollo) the _Son_ of the primal Being (often an +unbegotten Son) or his Messenger (Andaman, Noongaburrah, Kurnai, +Kamilaroi, and other Australian tribes). He reports to the somewhat +otiose primal Being about men's conduct, and he sometimes superintends +the Mysteries. I am disposed to regard the prophetic and oracular Apollo +(who, as the Hymn to Hermes tells us, alone knows the will of Father +Zeus) as the Greek modification of this personage in savage theology. +Where this Son is found in Australia, I by no means regard him as a +savage refraction from Christian teaching about a mediator, for Christian +teaching, in fact, has not been accepted, least of all by the highly +conservative sorcerers, or shamans, or wirreenuns of the tribes. European +observers, of course, have been struck by (and have probably exaggerated +in some instances) the Christian analogy. But if they had been as well +acquainted with ancient Greek as with Christian theology they would have +remarked that the Andaman, American, and Australian "mediators" are +infinitely more akin to Apollo, in his relations with Zeus and with men, +than to any Person about whom missionaries can preach. But the most +devoted believer in borrowing will not say that, when the Australian +mediator, Tundun, son of Mungun-gnaur, turns into a porpoise, the Kurnai +have borrowed from our Hymn of the Dolphin Apollo. It is absurd to +maintain that the Son of the God, the go-between of God and men, in +savage theology, is borrowed from missionaries, while this being has so +much more in common with Apollo (from whom he cannot conceivably be +borrowed) than with Christ. The Tundun-porpoise story seems to have +arisen in gratitude to the porpoise, which drives fishes inshore, for the +natives to catch. Neither Tharamulun nor Hobamoc (Australian and +American Gods of healing and soothsaying), who appear to men as serpents, +are borrowed from Asclepius, or from the Python of Apollo. The processes +have been quite different, and in Apollo, the oracular son of Zeus, who +declares his counsel to men, I am apt to see a beautiful Greek +modification of the type of the mediating Son of the primal Being of +savage belief, adorned with many of the attributes of the Sun God, from +whom, however, he is fundamentally distinct. Apollo, I think, is an +adorned survival of the Son of the God of savage theology. He was not, +at first, a Nature God, solar or not. This opinion, if it seems valid, +helps to account, in part, for the animal metamorphoses of Apollo, a +survival from the mental confusion of savagery. Such a confusion, in +Greece, makes it necessary for the wise son of Zeus to seek information, +as in the Hymn to Hermes, from an old clown. This medley of ideas, in +the mind of a civilised poet, who believes that Apollo is all-knowing in +the counsels of eternity, is as truly mythological as Dunbar's God who +laughs his heart sore at an ale-house jest. Dunbar, and the author of +the Hymn, and the savage with his tale of Tundun or Daramulun, have all +quite contradictory sets of ideas alternately present to their minds; the +mediaeval poet, of course, being conscious of the contradiction, which +makes the essence of his humour, such as it is. To Greece, in its +loftier moods, Apollo was, despite his myth, a noble source of +inspiration, of art, and of conduct. But the contradiction in the low +myth and high doctrine of Apollo, could never be eradicated under any +influence less potent than that of Christianity. {34} If this theory of +Apollo's origin be correct, many pages of learned works on Mythology need +to be rewritten. + + + + +THE HYMN TO HERMES + + +[Hermes with the boy Dionysos. Statue by Praxiteles, found at Olympia: +lang35.jpg] + +The Hymn to Hermes is remarkable for the corruption of the text, which +appears even to present _lacunae_. The English reader will naturally +prefer the lively and charming version of Shelley to any other. The poet +can tell and adorn the story without visibly floundering in the pitfalls +of a dislocated text. If we may judge by line 51, and if Greek musical +tradition be correct, the date of the Hymn cannot be earlier than the +fortieth Olympiad. About that period Terpander is said to have given the +lyre seven strings (as Mercury does in the poem), in place of the +previous four strings. The date of Terpander is dubious, but probably +the seven-stringed lyre had long been in common use before the poet +attributed the invention to Hermes. The same argument applies to the +antiquity of writing, assigned by poets as the invention of various +mythical and prehistoric heroes. But the poets were not careful +archaeologists, and regarded anachronisms as genially as did Shakespeare +or Scott. Moreover, the fact that Terpander did invent the seven chords +is not beyond dispute historically, while, mythically, Apollo and Amphion +are credited with the idea. That Hermes invented fire-sticks seems a +fable which robs Prometheus of the honour. We must not look for any kind +of consistency in myth. + +The learned differ as to the precise purpose of the Hymn, and some even +exclude the invention of the _cithara_. To myself it seems that the poet +chiefly revels in a very familiar subject of savage humour (notably among +the Zulus), the extraordinary feats and tricks of a tiny and apparently +feeble and helpless person or animal, such as Brer Rabbit. The triumph +of astuteness over strength (a triumph here assigned to the infancy of a +God) is the theme. Hermes is here a rustic _doublure_ of Apollo, as he +was, in fact, mainly a rural deity, though he became the Messenger of the +Gods, and the Guide of Souls outworn. In these respects he answers to +the Australian Grogoragally, in his double relation to the Father, Boyma, +and to men living and dead. {37a} + +As a go-between of Gods and men, Hermes may be a _doublure_ of Apollo, +but, as the Hymn shows, he aspired in vain to Apollo's oracular function. +In one respect his behaviour has a singular savage parallel. His shoes +woven of twigs, so as not to show the direction in which he is +proceeding, answer to the equally shapeless feather sandals of the blacks +who "go _Kurdaitcha_," that is, as avengers of blood. I have nowhere +else found this practice as to the shoes, which, after all, cannot +conceal the direction of the spoor from a native tracker. {37b} The +trick of driving the cattle backwards answers to the old legend that +Bruce reversed the shoes of his horse when he fled from the court of +Edward I. + +The humour of the Hymn is rather rustic: cattle theft is the chief joke, +cattle theft by a baby. The God, divine as he is, feels his mouth water +for roast beef, a primitive conception. In fact, throughout this Hymn we +are far from the solemn regard paid to Apollo, from the wistful beauty of +the Hymn to Demeter, and from the gladness and melancholy of the Hymn to +Aphrodite. Sportive myths are treated sportively, as in the story of +Ares and Aphrodite in the Odyssey. Myths contained all conceivable +elements, among others that of humour, to which the poet here abandons +himself. The statues and symbols of Hermes were inviolably sacred; as +Guide of Souls he played the part of comforter and friend: he brought men +all things lucky and fortunate: he made the cattle bring forth +abundantly: he had the golden wand of wealth. But he was also tricksy as +a Brownie or as Puck; and that fairy aspect of his character and legend, +he being the midnight thief whose maraudings account for the unexplained +disappearances of things, is the chief topic of the gay and reckless +hymn. Even the Gods, even angry Apollo, are moved to laughter, for over +sport and playfulness, too, Greek religion throws her sanction. At the +dishonesties of commerce (clearly regarded as a form of theft) Hermes +winks his laughing eyes (line 516). This is not an early Socialistic +protest against "Commercialism." The early traders, like the Vikings, +were alternately pirates and hucksters, as opportunity served. Every +occupation must have its heavenly patron, its departmental deity, and +Hermes protects thieves and raiders, "minions of the moon," "clerks of +St. Nicholas." His very birth is a stolen thing, the darkling fruit of a +divine amour in a dusky cavern. _Il chasse de race_. {39} + + + + +THE HYMN TO APHRODITE + + +The Hymn to Aphrodite is, in a literary sense, one of the most beautiful +and quite the most Homeric in the collection. By "Homeric" I mean that +if we found the adventure of Anchises occurring at length in the Iliad, +by way of an episode, perhaps in a speech of AEneas, it would not strike +us as inconsistent in tone, though occasionally in phrase. Indeed the +germ of the Hymn occurs in Iliad, B. 820: "AEneas, whom holy Aphrodite +bore to the embraces of Anchises on the knowes of Ida, a Goddess couching +with a mortal." Again, in E. 313, AEneas is spoken of as the son of +Aphrodite and the neat-herd, Anchises. The celebrated prophecy of the +future rule of the children of AEneas over the Trojans (Y. 307), probably +made, like many prophecies, after the event, appears to indicate the +claim of a Royal House at Ilios, and is regarded as of later date than +the general context of the epic. The AEneid is constructed on this hint; +the Romans claiming to be of Trojan descent through AEneas. The date of +the composition cannot be fixed from considerations of the Homeric tone; +thus lines 238-239 may be a reminiscence of Odyssey, [Greek text]. 394, +and other like suggestions are offered. {41} The conjectures as to date +vary from the time of Homer to that of the _Cypria_, of Mimnermus (the +references to the bitterness of loveless old age are in his vein) of +Anacreon, or even of Herodotus and the Tragedians. The words [Greek +text], [Greek text], and other indications are relied on for a late date: +and there are obvious coincidences with the Hymn to Demeter, as in line +174, _Demeter_ 109, f. Gemoll, however, takes this hymn to be the +earlier. + +About the place of composition, Cyprus or Asia Minor, the learned are no +less divided than about the date. Many of the grounds on which their +opinions rest appear unstable. The relations of Aphrodite to the wild +beasts under her wondrous spell, for instance, need not be borrowed from +Circe with her attendant beasts. If not of Homer's age, the Hymn is +markedly successful as a continuation of the Homeric tone and manner. + +Modern Puritanism naturally "condemns" Aphrodite, as it "condemns" Helen. +But Homer is lenient; Helen is under the spell of the Gods, an unwilling +and repentant tool of Destiny; and Aphrodite, too, is driven by Zeus into +the arms of a mortal. She is [Greek text], shamefast; and her adventure +is to her a bitter sorrow (199, 200). The dread of Anchises--a man is +not long of life who lies with a Goddess--refers to a belief found from +Glenfinlas to Samoa and New Caledonia, that the embraces of the spiritual +ladies of the woodlands are fatal to men. The legend has been told to me +in the Highlands, and to Mr. Stevenson in Samoa, while my cousin, Mr. J. +J. Atkinson, actually knew a Kaneka who died in three days after an amour +like that of Anchises. The Breton ballad, _Le Sieur Nan_, turns on the +same opinion. The amour of Thomas the Rhymer is a mediaeval analogue of +the Idaean legend. + +Aphrodite has better claims than most Greek Gods to Oriental elements. +Herodotus and Pausanias (i. xiv. 6, iii. 23, I) look on her as a being +first worshipped by the Assyrians, then by the Paphians of Cyprus, and +Phoenicians at Askelon, who communicated the cult to the Cythereans. +Cyprus is one of her most ancient sites, and Ishtar and Ashtoreth are +among her Oriental analogues. She springs from the sea-- + + "The wandering waters knew her, the winds and the viewless ways, + And the roses grew rosier, and bluer the sea-blue streams of the + bays." + +But the charm of Aphrodite is Greek. Even without foreign influence, +Greek polytheism would have developed a Goddess of Love, as did the +polytheism of the North (Frigga) and of the Aztecs. The rites of Adonis, +the vernal year, are, even in the name of the hero, Oriental. "The name +Adonis is the Phoenician _Adon_, 'Lord.'" {44} "The decay and revival of +vegetation" inspires the Adonis rite, which is un-Homeric; and was +superfluous, where the descent and return of Persephone typified the same +class of ideas. To whatever extent contaminated by Phoenician influence, +Aphrodite in Homer is purely Greek, in grace and happy humanity. + +The origins of Aphrodite, unlike the origins of Apollo, cannot be found +in a state of low savagery. She is a departmental Goddess, and as such, +as ruling a province of human passion, she belongs to a late development +of religion. To Christianity she was a scandal, one of the scandals +which are absent from the most primitive of surviving creeds. Polytheism, +as if of set purpose, puts every conceivable aspect of life, good or bad, +under divine sanction. This is much less the case in the religion of the +very backward races. We do not know historically, what the germs of +religion were; if we look at the most archaic examples, for instance in +Australia or the Andaman Islands, we find neither sacrifice nor +departmental deities. + +Religion there is mainly a belief in a primal Being, not necessarily +conceived as spiritual, but rather as an undying magnified Man, of +indefinitely extensive powers. He dwells above "the vaulted sky beyond +which lies the mysterious home of that great and powerful Being, who is +Bunjil, Baiame, or Daramulun in different tribal languages, but who in +all is known by a name the equivalent of the only one used by the Kurnai, +which is Mungan-ngaur, or 'Our Father.'" {45} This Father is conceived +of in some places as "a very great old man with a long beard," enthroned +on, or growing into, a crystal throne. Often he is served by a son or +sons (Apollo, Hermes), frequently regarded as spiritually begotten; +elsewhere, looked on as the son of the wife of the deity, and as father +of the tribe. {46a} Scandals connected with fatherhood, amorous +intrigues so abundant in Greek mythology, are usually not reported among +the lowest races. In one known case, the deity, Pundjel or Bunjil, takes +the wives of Karween, who is changed into a crane. {46b} This is one of +the many savage aetiological myths which account for the peculiarities of +animals as a result of metamorphosis, in the manner of Ovid. It has been +connected with the legend of Bunjil, who is thus envisaged, not as "Our +Father" beyond the vault of heaven, who still inspires poets, {46c} but +as a wandering, shape-shifting medicine-man. Zeus, the Heavenly Father, +of course appears times without number in the same contradictory aspect. + +But such anecdotes are either not common, or are not frequently reported, +in the faiths of the most archaic of known races. Much more frequently +we find the totemistic conception. All the kindreds with animal names +(why adopted we do not know) are apt to explain these designations by +descent from the animals selected, or by metamorphosis of the primal +beasts into men. This collides with the other notions of descent from, +or creation or manufacture out of clay, by the primal Being, "Father +Ours." Such contradictions are nothing to the savage theologian, who is +no reconciler or apologist. But when reconciliation and apology are +later found to be desirable, as in Greece, it is easy to explain that we +are descended _both_ from Our Father, and from a swan, cow, ant, serpent, +dog, wolf, or what you will. That beast was Our Father, say Father Zeus, +in animal disguise. Thus Greek legends of bestial amours of a God are +probably, in origin, not primitive, but scandals produced in the effort +to reconcile contradictory myths. The result is a worse scandal, an +accretion of more low myths about a conception of the primal Being which +was, relatively, lofty and pure. + +Again, as aristocracies arose, the chief families desired to be sons of +the Father in a special sense: not as common men are. Her Majesty's +lineage may thus be traced to Woden! Now each such descent required a +separate divine amour, and a new scandalous story of Zeus or Apollo, +though Zeus may originally have been as celibate as the Australian Baiame +or Noorele are, in some legends. Once more, syncretism came in as a +mythopoeic influence. Say that several Australian nations, becoming more +polite, amalgamated into a settled people. Then we should have several +Gods, the chief Beings of various tribes, say Noorele, Bunjil, Mungan- +ngaur, Baiame, Daramulun, Mangarrah, Mulkari, Pinmeheal. The most +imposing God of the dominant tribe might be elevated to the sovereignty +of Zeus. But, in the new administration, places must be found for the +other old tribal Gods. They are, therefore, set over various +departments: Love, War, Agriculture, Medicine, Poetry, Commerce, while +one or more of the sons take the places of Apollo and Hermes. There +appears to be a very early example of syncretism in Australia. Daramulun +(Papang, Our Father) is "Master of All," on the coast, near Shoalhaven +River. Baiame is "Master of All," far north, on the Barwan. But the +locally intermediate tribe of the Wiraijuri, or Wiradthuri, have adopted +Baiame, and reduced Daramulun to an exploded bugbear, a merely nominal +superintendent of the Mysteries; and the southern Coast Murring have +rejected Baiame altogether, or never knew him, while making Daramulun +supreme. + +One obvious method of reconciling various tribal Gods in a syncretic +Olympus, is the genealogical. All are children of Zeus, for example, or +grandchildren, or brothers and sisters. Fancy then provides an amour to +account for each relationship. Zeus loved Leto, Leda, Europa, and so +forth. Thus a God, originally innocent and even moral, becomes a perfect +pattern of vice; and the eternal contradiction vexes the souls of +Xenophanes, Plato, and St. Augustine. Sacrifices, even human sacrifices, +wholly unknown to the most archaic faiths, were made to ghosts of men: +and especially of kings, in the case of human sacrifice. Thence they +were transferred to Gods, and behold a new scandal, when men began to +reflect under more civilised conditions. Thus all these legends of +divine amours and sins, or most of them, including the wanton legend of +Aphrodite, and all the human sacrifices which survived to the disgrace of +Greek religion, are really degrading accessories to the most archaic +beliefs. They are products, not of the most rudimentary savage +existence, but of the evolution through the lower and higher barbarism. +The worst features of savage ritual are different--taking the lines of +sorcery, of cruel initiations, and, perhaps, of revival of the licence of +promiscuity, or of Group Marriage. Of these things the traces are not +absent from Greek faith, but they are comparatively inconspicuous. + +Buffoonery, as we have seen, exists in all grades of civilised or savage +rites, and was not absent from the popular festivals of the mediaeval +Church: religion throwing her mantle over every human field of action, as +over Folk Medicine. On these lines I venture to explain what seem to me +the strange and repugnant elements of the religion of a people so +refined, and so capable of high moral ideas, as the Greeks. Aphrodite is +personified desire, but religion did not throw her mantle over desire +alone; the cloistered life, the frank charm of maidenhood, were as dear +to the Greek genius, and were consecrated by the examples of Athene, +Artemis, and Hestia. She presides over the pure element of the fire of +the hearth, just as in the household did the daughter of the king or +chief. Hers are the first libations at feasts (xxviii. 5), though in +Homer they are poured forth to Hermes. + +We may explain the Gods of the minor hymns in the same way. Pan, for +instance, as the son of Hermes, inherits the wild, frolicsome, rural +aspect of his character. The Dioscuri answer to the Vedic Asvins, twin +rescuers of men in danger on land or sea: perhaps the Evening and Morning +Star. Dionysus is another aspect of the joy of life and of the world and +the vintaging. Moon and Sun, Selene and Helios, appear as quite distinct +from Artemis and Apollo; Gaea, the Earth, is equally distinct from +Demeter. The Hymn to Ares is quite un-Homeric in character, and is oddly +conceived in the spirit of the Scottish poltroon, who cries to his +friend, "Haud me, haud me, or I'll fecht!" The war-god is implored to +moderate the martial eagerness of the poet. The original collector here +showed lack of discrimination. At no time, however, was Ares a popular +God in Greece; in Homer he is a braggart and coward. + + + + +THE HYMN TO DEMETER + + +The beautiful Hymn to Demeter, an example of Greek religious faith in its +most pensive and most romantic aspects, was found in the last century +(1780), in Moscow. _Inter pullos et porcos latitabat_: the song of the +rural deity had found its way into the haunts of the humble creatures +whom she protected. A discovery even more fortunate, in 1857, led Sir +Charles Newton to a little _sacellum_, or family chapel, near Cnidos. On +a platform of rock, beneath a cliff, and looking to the Mediterranean, +were the ruins of the ancient shrine: the votive offerings; the lamps +long without oil or flame; the Curses, or Dirae, inscribed on thin sheets +of lead, and directed against thieves or rivals. The head of the statue, +itself already known, was also discovered. Votive offerings, cheap +curses, objects of folk-lore rite and of sympathetic magic,--these are +connected with the popular, the peasant aspect of the religion of +Demeter. She it is to whom pigs are sacrificed: who makes the fields +fertile with scattered fragments of their flesh; and her rustic effigy, +at Theocritus's feast of the harvest home, stands smiling, with corn and +poppies in her hands. + +[Mourning Demeter. Marble statue from Knidos. In the British Museum: +lang54.jpg] + +But the Cnidian shrine had once another treasure, the beautiful +melancholy statue of the seated Demeter of the uplifted eyes; the +mourning mother: the weary seeker for the lost maiden: her child +Persephone. Far from the ruins above the sea, beneath the scorched +seaward wall of rock: far from the aromatic fragrance of the +rock-nourished flowers, from the bees, and the playful lizards, Demeter +now occupies her place in the great halls of the British Museum. Like +the Hymn, this melancholy and tender work of art is imperfect, but the +sentiment is thereby rather increased than impaired. The ancients buried +things broken with the dead, that the shadows of tool, or weapon, or vase +might be set free, to serve the shadows of their masters in the land of +the souls. Broken as they, too, are, the Hymn and the statue are "free +among the dead," and eloquent of the higher religion that, in Greece, +attached itself to the lost Maiden and the sorrowing Mother. Demeter, in +religion, was more than a fertiliser of the fields: Kore, the Maiden, was +more than the buried pig, or the seed sown to await its resurrection; or +the harvest idol, fashioned of corn-stalks: more even than a symbol of +the winter sleep and vernal awakening of the year and the life of nature. +She became the "dread Persephone" of the Odyssey, + + "A Queen over death and the dead." + +In her winter retreat below the earth she was the bride of the Lord of +Many Guests, and the ruler "of the souls of men outworn." In this office +Odysseus in Homer knows her, though neither Iliad nor Odyssey recognises +_Kore_ as the maiden Spring, the daughter and companion of Demeter as +Goddess of Grain. Christianity, even, did not quite dethrone Persephone. +She lives in two forms: first, as the harvest effigy made of corn-stalks +bound together, the last gleanings; secondly, as "the Fairy Queen +Proserpina," who carried Thomas the Rhymer from beneath the Eildon Tree +to that land which lies beyond the stream of slain men's blood. + + "For a' the bluid that's shed on earth + Flows through the streams of that countrie." + +[Silver denarius of C. Vibius Pansa (about 90 B.C.). Obv. Head of +Apollo. Rev. Demeter searching for Persephone: lang56.jpg] + +Thus tenacious of life has been the myth of Mother and Maiden, a natural +flower of the human heart, found, unborrowed, by the Spaniards in the +maize-fields of Peru. Clearly the myth is a thing composed of many +elements, glad and sad as the waving fields of yellow grain, or as the +Chthonian darkness under earth where the seed awaits new life in the new +year. The creed is practical as the folk-lore of sympathetic magic, +which half expects to bring good harvest luck by various mummeries; and +the creed is mystical as the hidden things and words unknown which +assured Pindar and Sophocles of secure felicity in this and in the future +life. + +The creed is beautiful as the exquisite profile of the corn-tressed head +of Persephone on Syracusan coins: and it is grotesque as the custom which +bade the pilgrims to Eleusis bathe in the sea, each with the pig which he +was about to sacrifice. The highest religious hopes, the meanest magical +mummeries are blended in this religion. That one element is earlier than +the other we cannot say with much certainty. The ritual aspect, as +concerned with the happy future of the soul, does not appear in Iliad or +Odyssey, where the Mysteries are not named. But the silence of Homer is +never a safe argument in favour of his ignorance, any more than the +absence of allusion to tobacco in Shakspeare is a proof that tobacco was, +in his age, unknown. + +We shall find that a barbaric people, the Pawnees, hold a mystery +precisely parallel to the Demeter legend: a Mystery necessarily +unborrowed from Greece. The Greeks, therefore, may have evolved the +legend long before Homer's day, and he may have known the story which he +does not find occasion to tell. As to what was said, shown, and done in +the Eleusinia, we only gather that there was a kind of Mystery Play on +the sacred legend; that there were fastings, vigils, sacrifices, secret +objects displayed, sacred words uttered; and that thence such men as +Pindar and Sophocles received the impression that for them, in this and +the future life, all was well, was well for those of pure hearts and +hands. The "purity" may partly have been ritual, but was certainly +understood, also, as relating to excellence of life. Than such a faith +(for faith it is) religion has nothing better to give. But the extreme +diligence of scholars and archaeologists can tell us nothing more +definite. The impressions on the souls of the initiated may have been +caused merely by that dim or splendid religious light of the vigils, and +by association with sacred things usually kept in solemn sanctuaries. +Again, mere buffoonery (as is common in savage Mysteries) brought the +pilgrims back to common life when they crossed the bridge on their return +to Athens; just as the buffooneries of Baubo brought a smile to the sad +lips of Demeter. Beyond this all is conjecture, and the secret may have +been so well kept just because, in fact, there was no secret to keep. +{59} + +Till the end of the present century, mythologists did not usually employ +the method of comparing Greek rites and legends with, first, the +sympathetic magic and the fables of peasant folk-lore; second, with the +Mysteries and myths of contemporary savage races, of which European folk- +lore is mainly a survival. For a study of Demeter from these sides (a +study still too much neglected in Germany) readers may consult +Mannhardt's works, Mr. Frazer's "Golden Bough," and the present +translator's "Custom and Myth," and "Myth, Ritual, and Religion." Mr. +Frazer, especially, has enabled the English reader to understand the +savage and rural element of sympathetic magic as a factor in the Demeter +myth. Meanwhile Mr. Pater has dealt with the higher sentiment, the more +religious aspect, of the myth and the rites. I am not inclined to go all +lengths with Mr. Frazer's ingenious and learned system, as will be seen, +while regretting that the new edition of his "Golden Bough" is not yet +accessible. + +If we accept (which I do not entirely) Mr. Frazer's theory of the origin +of the Demeter myth, there is no finer example of the Greek power of +transforming into beauty the superstitions of Barbarism. The explanation +to which I refer is contained in Mr. J. G. Frazer's learned and ingenious +work, "The Golden Bough." While mythologists of the schools of Mr. Max +Muller and Kuhn have usually resolved most Gods and heroes into Sun, Sky, +Dawn, Twilight; or, again, into elemental powers of Thunder, Tempest, +Lightning, and Night, Mr. Frazer is apt to see in them the Spirit of +Vegetation. Osiris is a Tree Spirit or a Corn Spirit (Mannhardt, the +founder of the system, however, took Osiris to be the Sun). Balder is +the Spirit of the Oak. The oak, "we may certainly conclude, was one of +the chief, if not the very chief divinity of the Aryans before the +dispersion." {61} If so, the Aryans before the dispersion were on an +infinitely lower religious level than those Australian tribes, whose +chief divinity is not a gum-tree, but a being named "Our Father," +dwelling beyond the visible heavens. When we remember the vast numbers +of gods of sky or heaven among many scattered races, and the obvious +connection of Zeus with the sky (_sub Jove frigido_), and the usually +assigned sense of the name of Zeus, it is not easy to suppose that he was +originally an oak. But Mr. Frazer considers the etymological connection +of Zeus with the Sanscrit word for sky, an insufficient reason for +regarding Zeus as, in origin, a sky-god. He prefers, it seems, to +believe that, as being the wood out of which fire was kindled by some +Aryan-speaking peoples, the oak may have come to be called "The Bright or +Shining One" (Zeus, Jove), by the ancient Greeks and Italians. {62} The +Greeks, in fact, used the laurel (_daphne_) for making fire, not, as far +as I am aware, the oak. Though the oak was the tree of Zeus, the heavens +were certainly his province, and, despite the oak of Dodona, and the oak +on the Capitol, he is much more generally connected with the sky than +with the tree. In fact this reduction of Zeus, in origin, to an oak, +rather suggests that the spirit of system is too powerful with Mr. +Frazer. + +He makes, perhaps, a more plausible case for his reduction of dread +Persephone to a Pig. The process is curious. Early agricultural man +believed in a Corn Spirit, a spiritual essence animating the grain (in +itself no very unworthy conception). But because, as the field is mown, +animals in the corn are driven into the last unshorn nook, and then into +the open, the beast which rushed out of the last patch was identified +with the Corn Spirit in some animal shape, perhaps that of a pig; many +other animals occur. The pig has a great part in the ritual of Demeter. +Pigs of pottery were found by Sir Charles Newton on her sacred ground. +The initiate in the Mysteries brought pigs to Eleusis, and bathed with +them in the sea. The pig was sacrificed to her; in fact (though not in +our Hymn) she was closely associated with pigs. "We may now ask . . . +may not the pig be nothing but the Goddess herself in animal form?" {64a} +She would later become anthropomorphic: a lovely Goddess, whose hair, as +in the Hymn, is "yellow as ripe corn." But the prior pig could not be +shaken off. At the Attic Thesmophoria the women celebrated the Descent +and Ascent of Persephone,--a "double" of Demeter. In this rite pigs and +other things were thrown into certain caverns. Later, the cold remains +of pig were recovered and placed on the altar. Fragments were scattered +for luck on the fields with the seed-corn. A myth explained that a flock +of pigs were swallowed by Earth when Persephone was ravished by Hades to +the lower world, of which matter the Hymn says nothing. "In short, the +pigs were Proserpine." {64b} The eating of pigs at the Thesmophoria was +"a partaking of the body of the God," though the partakers, one thinks, +must have been totally unconscious of the circumstance. We must presume +that (if this theory be correct) a very considerable time was needed for +the evolution of a pig into the Demeter of the Hymn, and the change is +quite successfully complete; a testimony to the transfiguring power of +the Greek genius. + +We may be inclined to doubt, however, whether the task before the genius +of Greece, the task of making Proserpine out of a porker, was really so +colossal. The primitive mind is notoriously capable of entertaining, +simultaneously, the most contradictory notions. Thus, in the Australian +"Legend of Eerin," the mourners implore Byamee to accept the soul of the +faithful Eerin into his Paradise, Bullimah. No doubt Byamee heard, yet +Eerin is now a little owl of plaintive voice, which ratters warning cries +in time of peril. {65} No incongruity of this kind is felt to be a +difficulty by the childlike narrators. Now I conceive that, starting +with the relatively high idea of a Spirit of the Grain, early man was +quite capable of envisaging it both spiritually and in zoomorphic form +(accidentally conditioned here into horse, there into goat, pig, or what +not). But these views of his need not exclude his simultaneous belief in +the Corn Spirit as a being anthropomorphic, "Mother Earth," or "Mother +Grain," as we follow the common etymology; or that of Mannhardt ([Greek +text]) [Greek text]="barley-mother"). If I am right, poetry and the +higher religion moved from the first on the line of the anthropomorphic +Lady of the Harvest and the Corn, Mother Barley: while the popular folk- +lore of the Corn Spirit (which found utterance in the mirth of +harvesting, and in the magic ritual for ensuring fertility), followed on +the line of the pig. At some seasons, and in some ceremonies, the pig +represented the genius of the corn: in general, the Lady of the Corn +was--Demeter. We really need not believe that the two forms of the +genius of the corn were ever _consciously_ identified. Demeter never was +a Pig! {66} + +"The Peruvians, we are told, believed all useful plants to be animated by +a divine being who causes their growth," says Mr. Frazer. {67} The +genealogical table, then, in my opinion, is:-- + +Divine Being of the Grain. + | + +---------+--------------------------+ + | | +(_Anthropomorphized_). (_Zoomorphised_). +Mother of Corn. Pig, Horse, + Demeter. and so on. + +Thus the Greek genius had other and better materials to work on, in +evolving Demeter, than the rather lowly animal which is associated with +her rites. If any one objects that animal gods always precede +anthropomorphic gods in evolution, we reply that, in the most archaic of +known races, the deities are represented in human guise at the Mysteries, +though there are animal Totems, and though, in myth, the deity may, and +often does, assume shapes of bird or beast. {68} + +Among rites of the backward races, none, perhaps, so closely resembles +the Eleusinian Mysteries as the tradition of the Pawnees. In Attica, +Hades, Lord of the Dead, ravishes away Persephone, the vernal daughter of +Demeter. Demeter then wanders among men, and is hospitably received by +Celeus, King of Eleusis. Baffled in her endeavour to make his son +immortal, she demands a temple, where she sits in wrath, blighting the +grain. She is reconciled by the restoration of her daughter, at the +command of Zeus. But for a third of the year Persephone, having tasted a +pomegranate seed in Hades, has to reign as Queen of the Dead, beneath the +earth. Scenes from this tale were, no doubt, enacted at the Mysteries, +with interludes of buffoonery, such as relieved most ancient and all +savage Mysteries. The allegory of the year's death and renewal probably +afforded a text for some discourse, or spectacle, concerned with the +future life. + +Among the Pawnees, not a mother and daughter, but two primal beings, +brothers, named Manabozho and Chibiabos, are the chief characters. The +Manitos (spirits or gods) drown Chibiabos. Manabozho mourns and smears +his face with black, as Demeter wears black raiment. He laments +Chibiabos ceaselessly till the Manitos propitiate him with gifts and +ceremonies. They offer to him a cup, like the beverage prepared for +Demeter, in the Hymn, by Iambe. He drinks it, is glad, washes off the +black stain of mourning, and is himself again, while Earth again is +joyous. The Manitos restore Chibiabos to life; but, having once died, he +may not enter the temple, or "Medicine Lodge." He is sent to reign over +the souls of the departed as does Persephone. Manabozho makes offerings +to Mesukkumikokwi, the "Earth Mother" of the Pawnees. The story is +enacted in the sacred dances of the Pawnees. {69} + +The Pawnee ideas have fallen, with singularly accurate coincidence, into +the same lines as those of early Greece. Some moderns, such as M. +Foucart, have revived the opinion of Herodotus, that the Mysteries were +brought from Greece to Egypt. But, as the Pawnee example shows, similar +natural phenomena may anywhere beget similar myths and rites. In Greece +the _donnee_ was a nature myth, and a ritual in which it was enacted. +That ritual was a form of sympathetic magic, and the myth explained the +performances. The refinement and charm of the legend (on which Homer, as +we saw, does not touch) is due to the unique genius of Greece. Demeter +became the deity most familiar to the people, nearest to their hearts and +endowed with most temples; every farm possessing her rural shrine. But +the Chthonian, or funereal, aspect of Chibiabos, or of Persephone, is due +to a mood very distinct from that which sacrifices pigs as embodiments of +the Corn Spirit, if that be the real origin of the practice. + +We should much misconceive the religious spirit of the Greek rite if we +undertook to develop it all out an origin in sympathetic magic: which, of +course, I do not understand Mr. Frazer to do. Greek scholars, again, are +apt to view these researches into savage or barbaric origins with great +distaste and disfavour. This is not a scientific frame of mind. In the +absence of such researches other purely fanciful origins have been +invented by scholars, ancient or modern. It is necessary to return to +the pedestrian facts, if merely in order to demonstrate the futility of +the fancies. The result is in no way discreditable to Greece. Beginning, +like other peoples, with the vague unrealised conception of the Corn +Mother (an idea which could not occur before the agricultural stage of +civilisation), the Greeks refined and elevated the idea into the Demeter +of the Hymn, and of the Cnidian statue. To do this was the result of +their unique gifts as a race. Meanwhile the other notion of a Ruler of +Souls, in Greece attached to Persephone, is found among peoples not yet +agricultural: nomads living on grubs, roots, seeds of wild grasses, and +the products of the chase. Almost all men's ideas are as old as mankind, +so far as we know mankind. + +Conceptions originally "half-conscious," and purely popular, as of a +Spirit of Vegetation, incarnate, as it were, in each year's growth, were +next handled by conscious poets, like the author of our Hymn, and then +are "realised as abstract symbols, because intensely characteristic +examples of moral, or spiritual conditions." {72} Thus Demeter and +Persephone, no longer pigs or Grain-Mothers, "lend themselves to the +elevation and the correction of the sentiments of sorrow and awe, by the +presentment to the senses and imagination of an ideal expression of them. +Demeter cannot but seem the type of divine grief. Persephone is the +Goddess of Death, yet with a promise of life to come." + +That the Eleusinia included an ethical element seems undeniable. This +one would think probable, _a priori_, on the ground that Greek Mysteries +are an embellished survival of the initiatory rites of savages, which do +contain elements of morality. This I have argued at some length in +"Myth, Ritual, and Religion." Many strange customs in some Greek +Mysteries, such as the daubing of the initiate with clay, the use of the +[Greek text] (the Australian _Tundun_, a small piece of wood whirled +noisily by a string), the general suggestion of _a new life_, the +flogging of boys at Sparta, their retreat, each with his instructor +(Australian _kabbo_, Greek [Greek text]) to the forests, are precisely +analogous to things found in Australia, America, and Africa. Now savage +rites are often associated with what we think gross cruelty, and, as in +Fiji, with abandoned license, of which the Fathers also accuse the +Greeks. But, among the Yao of Central Africa, the initiator, observes +Mr. Macdonald, "is said to give much good advice. His lectures condemn +selfishness, and a selfish person is called _mwisichana_, that is, +'uninitiated.'" {74a} + +Among the Australians, Dampier, in 1688, observed the singular unselfish +generosity of distribution of food to the old, the weak, and the sick. +According to Mr. Howitt, the boys of the Coast Murring tribe are taught +in the Mysteries "to speak the straightforward truth while being +initiated, and are warned to avoid various offences against propriety and +morality." The method of instruction is bad, a pantomimic representation +of the sin to be avoided, but the intention is excellent. {74b} Among +the Kurnai respect for the old, for unprotected women, the duty of +unselfishness, and other ethical ideas are inculcated, {74c} while +certain food taboos prevail during the rite, as was also the case in the +Eleusinia. That this moral idea of "sharing what they have with their +friends" is not confined merely to the tribe, is proved by the experience +of John Finnegan, a white man lost near Moreton Bay early in this +century. "At all times, whether they had much or little, fish or +kangaroo, they always gave me as much as I could eat." Even when the +whites stole the fish of the natives, and were detected, "instead of +attempting to repossess themselves of the fish, they instantly set at +work to procure more for us, and one or two fetched us as much _dingowa_ +as they could carry." {75} The first English settlers in Virginia, on +the other hand, when some native stole a cup, burned down the whole town. + +Thus the morality of the savage is not merely tribal (as is often +alleged), and is carried into practice, as well as inculcated, in some +regions, not in all, during the Mysteries. + +For these reasons, if the Greek Mysteries be survivals of savage +ceremonies (as there is no reason to doubt that they are), the savage +association of moral instruction with mummeries might survive as easily +as anything else. That it did survive is plain from numerous passages in +classical authors. {76a} The initiate "live a pious life in regard to +strangers and citizens." They are to be "conscious of no evil": they are +to "protect such as have wrought no unrighteousness." Such precepts +"have their root in the ethico-religious consciousness." {76b} It is not +mere ritual purity that the Mysteries demand, either among naked +Australians, or Yao, or in Greece. Lobeck did his best to minimise the +testimony to the higher element in the Eleusinia, but without avail. The +study of early, barbaric, savage, classical, Egyptian, or Indian +religions should not be one-sided. Men have always been men, for good as +well as for evil; and religion, almost everywhere, is allied with ethics +no less than it is overrun by the parasite of myth, and the survival of +magic in ritual. The Mother and the Maid were "Saviours" ([Greek text]), +"holy" and "pure," despite contradictory legends. {77} The tales of +incest, as between Zeus and Persephone, are the result of the +genealogical mania. The Gods were grouped in family-relationships, to +account for their companionship in ritual, and each birth postulated an +amour. None the less the same deities offered "salvation," of a sort, +and were patrons of conduct. + +Greek religion was thus not destitute of certain chief elements in our +own. But these were held in solution, with a host of other warring +elements, lustful, cruel, or buffooning. These elements Greece was +powerless to shake off; philosophers, by various expedients, might +explain away the contradictory myths which overgrew the religion, but +ritual, the luck of the State, and popular credulity, were tenacious of +the whole strange mingling of beliefs and practices. + +* * * * * + +The view taken of the Eleusinia in this note is hardly so exalted as that +of Dr. Hatch. "The main underlying conception of initiation was that +there were elements in human life from which the candidate must purify +himself before he could be fit to approach God." The need of +purification, ritual and moral, is certain, but one is not aware of +anything in the purely popular or priestly religion of Greece which +exactly answers to our word "God" as used in the passage cited. +Individuals, by dint of piety or of speculation, might approach the +conception, and probably many did, both in and out of the philosophic +schools. But traditional ritual and myth could scarcely rise to this +ideal; and it seems exaggerated to say of the crowded Eleusinian throng +of pilgrims that "the race of mankind was lifted on to a higher plane +when it came to be taught that only the pure in heart can see God." {78} +The black native boys in Australia pass through a purgative ceremony to +cure them of selfishness, and afterwards the initiator points to the blue +vault of sky, bidding them behold "Our Father, Mungan-ngaur." This is +very well meant, and very creditable to untutored savages: and creditable +ideas were not absent from the Eleusinia. But when we use the quotation, +"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," our meaning, +though not very definite, is a meaning which it would be hazardous to +attribute to a black boy,--or to Sophocles. The idea of the New Life +appears to occur in Australian Mysteries: a tribesman is buried, and +rises at a given signal. But here the New Life is rather that of the lad +admitted to full tribal privileges (including moral precepts) than that +of a converted character. Confirmation, rather than conversion, is the +analogy. The number of those analogies of ancient and savage with +Christian religion is remarkable. But even in Greek Mysteries the +conceptions are necessarily not so purely spiritual as in the Christian +creed, of which they seem half-conscious and fragmentary anticipations. +Or we may regard them as suggestions, which Christianity selected, +accepted, and purified. + + + + +HYMN TO DEMETER + + +THE ALLEGED EGYPTIAN ORIGINS + + +In what has been said as to the Greek Mysteries, I have regarded them as +of native origin. I have exhibited rites of analogous kinds in the germ, +as it were, among savage and barbaric communities. In Peru, under the +Incas, we actually find Mama and Cora (Demeter and Kore) as Goddesses of +the maize (Acosta), and for rites of sympathetic magic connected with the +production of fertile harvests (as in the Thesmophoria at Athens) it is +enough to refer to the vast collection in Mr. Frazer's "Golden Bough." I +have also indicated the closest of all known parallels to the Eleusinian +in a medicine-dance and legend of the Pawnees. For other savage +Mysteries in which a moral element occurs, I have quoted Australian and +African examples. Thence I have inferred that the early Greeks might, +and probably did, evolve their multiform mystic rites out of germs of +such things inherited from their own prehistoric ancestors. No process, +on the other hand, of borrowing from Greece can conceivably account for +the Pawnee and Peruvian rites, so closely analogous to those of Hellas. +Therefore I see no reason why, if Egypt, for instance, presents parallels +to the Eleusinia, we should suppose that the prehistoric Greeks borrowed +the Eleusinia from Egypt. These things can grow up, autochthonous and +underived, out of the soil of human nature anywhere, granting certain +social conditions. Monsieur Foucart, however, has lately argued in +favour of an Egyptian origin of the Eleusinia. {82} + +The Greeks naturally identified Demeter and Dionysus with Isis and +Osiris. There were analogies in the figures and the legends, and that +was enough. So, had the Greeks visited America, they would have +recognised Demeter in the Pawnee Earth Mother, and Persephone or +Eubouleus in Chibiabos. To account for the similarities they would +probably have invented a fable of Pawnee visitors to Greece, or of Greek +missionaries among the Pawnees. So they were apt to form a theory of an +Egyptian origin of Dionysus and Demeter. + +M. Foucart, however, argues that agriculture, corn-growing at least, came +into Greece at one stride, barley and wheat not being indigenous in a +wild state. The Greeks, however, may have brought grain in their +original national migration (the Greek words for grain and ploughing are +common to other families of Aryan speech) or obtained it from Phoenician +settlements. Demeter, however, in M. Foucart's theory, would be the +Goddess of the foreigners who carried the grain first to Hellas. Now +both the Homeric epics and the Egyptian monuments show us Egypt and +Greece in contact in the Greek prehistoric period. But it does not +exactly follow that the prehistoric Greeks would adopt Egyptian gods; or +that the Thesmophoria, an Athenian harvest-rite of Demeter, was founded +by colonists from Egypt, answering to the daughters of Danaus. {84} +Egyptians certainly did not introduce the similar rite among the Khonds, +or the Incas. The rites _could_ grow up without importation, as the +result of the similarities of primitive fancy everywhere. If Isis is +Lady of the Grain in Egypt, so is Mama in Peru, and Demeter need no more +have been imported from Egypt than Mama. If Osiris taught the arts of +life and the laws of society in Egypt, so did Daramulun in Australia, and +Yehl in British Columbia. All the gods and culture heroes everywhere +play this _role_--in regions where importation of the idea from Egypt is +utterly out of the question. Even in minute details, legends recur +everywhere; the _phallus_ of a mutilated Australian being of the fabulous +"Alcheringa time," is hunted for by his wives; exactly as Isis wanders in +search of the _phallus_ of the mutilated Osiris. {85a} Is anything in +the Demeter legend so like the Isis legend as this Australian +coincidence? Yet the Arunta did not borrow it from Egypt. {85b} The +mere fact, again, that there were Mysteries both in Egypt and Greece +proves nothing. There is a river in Monmouth, and a river in Macedon; +there are Mysteries in almost all religions. + +Again, it is argued, the Gods of the Mysteries in Egypt and Greece had +secret names, only revealed to the initiated. So, too, in Australia, +women (never initiated) and boys before initiation, know Daramulun only +as Papang (Father). {85c} The uninitiated among the Kurnai do not know +the sacred name, Mungan-ngaur. {85d} The Australian did not borrow this +secrecy from Egypt. Everywhere a mystery is kept up about proper names. +M. Foucart seems to think that what is practically universal, a taboo on +names, can only have reached Greece by transplantation from Egypt. {86a} +To the anthropologist it seems that scholars, in ignoring the universal +ideas of the lower races, run the risk of venturing on theories at once +superficial and untenable. + +M. Foucart has another argument, which does not seem more convincing, +though it probably lights up the humorous or indecent side of the +Eleusinia. Isocrates speaks of "good offices" rendered to Demeter by +"our ancestors," which "can only be told to the initiate." {86b} Now +these cannot be the kindly deeds reported in the Hymn, for these were +publicly proclaimed. What, then, were the _secret_ good offices? In one +version of the legend the hosts of Demeter were not Celeus and Metaneira, +but Dusaules and Baubo. The part of Baubo was to relieve the gloom of +the Goddess, not by the harmless pleasantries of Iambe, in the Hymn, but +by obscene gestures. The Christian Fathers, Clemens of Alexandria at +least, make this a part of their attack on the Mysteries; but it may be +said that they were prejudiced or misinformed. {87a} But, says M. +Foucart, an inscription has been found in Paros, wherein there is a +dedication to Hera, Demeter Thesmophoros, Kore, and _Babo_, or Baubo. +Again, two authors of the fourth century, Palaephatus and Asclepiades, +cite the Dusaules and Baubo legend. {87b} + +Now the indecent gesture of Baubo was part of the comic or obscene folk- +lore of contempt in Egypt, and so M. Foucart thinks that it was borrowed +from Egypt with the Demeter legend. {87c} Can Isocrates have referred to +_this_ good office?--the amusing of Demeter by an obscene gesture? If he +did, such gestures as Baubo's are as widely diffused as any other piece +of folk-lore. In the centre of the Australian desert Mr. Carnegie saw a +native make a derisive gesture which he thought had only been known to +English schoolboys. {88a} Again, indecent pantomimic dances, said to be +intended to act as "object lessons" in things _not_ to be done, are +common in Australian Mysteries. Further, we do not know Baubo, or a +counterpart of her, in the ritual of Isis, and the clay figurines of such +a figure, in Egypt, are of the Greek, the Ptolemaic period. Thus the +evidence comes to this: an indecent gesture of contempt, known in Egypt, +is, at Eleusis, attributed to Baubo. This does not prove that Baubo was +originally Egyptian. {88b} Certain traditions make Demeter the mistress +of Celeus. {88c} Traces of a "mystic marriage," which also occur, are +not necessarily Egyptian: the idea and rite are common. + +There remains the question of the sacred objects displayed (possibly +statues, probably very ancient "medicine" things, as among the Pawnees) +and sacred words spoken. These are said by many authors to confirm the +initiate in their security of hope as to a future life. Now similar +instruction, as to the details of the soul's voyage, the dangers to +avoid, the precautions to be taken, notoriously occur in the Egyptian +"Book of the Dead." But very similar fancies are reported from the +Ojibbeways (Kohl), the Polynesians and Maoris (Taylor, Turner, Gill, +Thomson), the early peoples of Virginia, {89a} the modern Arapaho and +Sioux of the Ghost Dance rite, the Aztecs, and so forth. In all +countries these details are said to have been revealed by men or women +who died, but did not (like Persephone) taste the food of the dead; and +so were enabled to return to earth. The initiate, at Eleusis, were +guided along a theatrically arranged pathway of the dead, into a +theatrical Elysium. {89b} Now as such ideas as these occur among races +utterly removed from contact with Egypt, as they are part of the European +folk-lore of the visits of mortals to fairyland (in which it is fatal to +taste fairy food), I do not see that Eleusis need have borrowed such +common elements of early belief from the Egyptians in the seventh century +B.C. {90} One might as well attribute to Egypt the Finnish legend of the +descent of Wainamoinen into Tuonela; or the experience of the aunt of +Montezuma just before the arrival of Cortes; or the expedition to +fairyland of Thomas the Rhymer. It is not pretended by M. Foucart that +the _details_ of the "Book of the Dead" were copied in Greek ritual; and +the general idea of a river to cross, of dangerous monsters to avoid, of +perils to encounter, of precautions to be taken by the wandering soul, is +nearly universal, where it must be unborrowed from Egypt, in Polynesian +and Red Indian belief. As at Eleusis, in these remote tribes formulas of +a preservative character are inculcated. + +The "Book of the Dead" was a guidebook of the itinerary of Egyptian +souls. Very probably similar instruction was given to the initiate at +Eleusis. But the Fijians also have a regular theory of what is to be +done and avoided on "The Path of the Shades." The shade is ferried by +Ceba (Charon) over Wainiyalo (Lethe); he reaches the mystic pandanus tree +(here occurs a rite); he meets, and dodges, Drodroyalo and the two +devouring Goddesses; he comes to a spring, and drinks, and forgets sorrow +at Wai-na-dula, the "Water of Solace." After half-a-dozen other +probations and terrors, he reaches the Gods, "the dancing-ground and the +white quicksand; and then the young Gods dance before them and sing. . . . " +{91a} + +Now turn to Plutarch. {91b} Plutarch compares the soul's mortal +experience with that of the initiate in the Mysteries. "There are +wanderings, darkness, fear, trembling, shuddering, horror, then a +marvellous light: pure places and meadows, dances, songs, and holy +apparitions." Plutarch might be summarising the Fijian belief. Again, +take the mystic golden scroll, found in a Greek grave at Petilia. It +describes in hexameters the Path of the Shade: the spring and the white +cypress on the left: "Do not approach it. Go to the other stream from +the Lake of Memory; tell the Guardians that you are the child of Earth +and of the starry sky, but that yours is a heavenly lineage; and they +will give you to drink of that water, and you shall reign with the other +heroes." + +Tree, and spring, and peaceful place with dance, song, and divine +apparitions, all are Fijian, all are Greek, yet nothing is borrowed by +Fiji from Greece. Many other Greek inscriptions cited by M. Foucart +attest similar beliefs. Very probably such precepts as those of the +Petilia scroll were among the secret instructions of Eleusis. But they +are not so much Egyptian as human. Chibiabos is assuredly not borrowed +from Osiris, nor the Fijian faith from the "Book of the Dead." "Sacred +things," not to be shown to man, still less to woman, date from the +"medicine bag" of the Red Indian, the mystic tribal bundles of the +Pawnees, and the _churinga_, and bark "native portmanteaux," of which Mr. +Carnegie brought several from the Australian desert. + +[Demeter and Persephone sending Triptolemos on his mission. Marble +relief found at Eleusis--now in Athens: lang92.jpg] + +For all Greek Mysteries a satisfactory savage analogy can be found. These +spring straight from human nature: from the desire to place customs, and +duties, and taboos under divine protection; from the need of +strengthening them, and the influence of the elders, by mystic sanctions; +from the need of fortifying and trying the young by probations of +strength, secrecy, and fortitude; from the magical expulsion of hostile +influences; from the sympathetic magic of early agriculture; from study +of the processes of nature regarded as personal; and from guesses, +surmises, visions, and dreams as to the fortunes of the wandering soul on +its way to its final home. I have shown all these things to be human, +universal, not sprung from one race in one region. Greek Mysteries are +based on all these natural early conceptions of life and death. The +early Greeks, like other races, entertained these primitive, or very +archaic ideas. Greece had no need to borrow from Egypt; and, though +Egypt was within reach, Greece probably developed freely her original +stock of ideas in her own fashion, just as did the Incas, Aztecs, +Australians, Ojibbeways, and the other remote peoples whom I have +selected. The argument of M. Foucart, I think, is only good as long as +we are ignorant of the universally diffused forms of religious belief +which correspond to the creeds of Eleusis or of Egypt. In the Greek +Mysteries we have the Greek guise,--solemn, wistful, hopeful, holy, and +pure, yet not uncontaminated with archaic buffoonery,--of notions and +rites, hopes and fears, common to all mankind. There is no other secret. + +The same arguments as I have advanced against Greek borrowing from Egypt, +apply to Greek borrowing from Asia. Mr. Ramsay, following Mr. Robertson +Smith, suggests that Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, may be "the +old Semitic Al-lat." {95a} Then we have Leto and Artemis, as the Mother +and the Maid (Kore) with their mystery play. "Clement describes them" +(the details) as "Eleusinian, for they had spread to Eleusis as the rites +of Demeter and Kore _crossing from Asia to Crete, and from Crete to the +European_ peninsula." The ritual "remained everywhere fundamentally the +same." Obviously if the Eleusinian Mysteries are of Phrygian origin +(Ramsay), they cannot also be of Egyptian origin (Foucart). In truth +they are no more specially of Phrygian or Egyptian than of Pawnee or +Peruvian origin. Mankind can and does evolve such ideas and rites in any +region of the world. {95b} + + + + +CONCLUSION + + +"What has all this farrago about savages to do with Dionysus?" I conceive +some scholar, or literary critic asking, if such an one looks into this +book. Certainly it would have been easier for me to abound in aesthetic +criticism of the Hymns, and on the aspect of Greek literary art which +they illustrate. But the Hymns, if read even through the pale medium of +a translation, speak for themselves. Their beauties and defects as +poetry are patent: patent, too, are the charm and geniality of the +national character which they express. The glad Ionian gatherings; the +archaic humour; the delight in life, and love, and nature; the pious +domesticities of the sacred Hearth; the peopling of woods, hills, and +streams with exquisite fairy forms; all these make the poetic delight of +the Hymns. But all these need no pointing out to any reader. The poets +can speak for themselves. + +On the other hand the confusions of sacred and profane; the origins of +the Mysteries; the beginnings of the Gods in a mental condition long left +behind by Greece when the Hymns were composed; all these matters need +elucidation. I have tried to elucidate them as results of evolution from +the remote prehistoric past of Greece, which, as it seems, must in many +points have been identical with the historic present of the lowest +contemporary races. In the same way, if dealing with ornament, I would +derive the spirals, volutes, and concentric circles of Mycenaean gold +work, from the identical motives, on the oldest incised rocks and kists +of our Islands, of North and South America, and of the tribes of Central +Australia, recently described by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, and Mr. +Carnegie. The material of the Mycenaean artist may be gold, his work may +be elegant and firm, but he traces the selfsame ornament as the naked +Arunta, with feebler hand, paints on sacred rocks or on the bodies of his +tribesmen. What is true of ornament is true of myth, rite, and belief. +Greece only offers a gracious modification of the beliefs, rites, and +myths of the races who now are "nearest the beginning," however remote +from that unknown beginning they may be. To understand this is to come +closer to a true conception of the evolution of Greek faith and art than +we can reach by any other path. Yet to insist on this is not to ignore +the unmeasured advance of the Greeks in development of society and art. +On that head the Hymns, like all Greek poetry, bear their own free +testimony. But, none the less, Greek religion and myth present features +repellent to us, which derive their origin, not from savagery, but from +the more crude horrors of the lower and higher barbarisms. + +Greek religion, Greek myth, are vast conglomerates. We find a savage +origin for Apollo, and savage origins for many of the Mysteries. But the +cruelty of savage initiations has been purified away. On the other hand, +we find a barbaric origin for departmental gods, such as Aphrodite, and +for Greek human sacrifices, unknown to the lowest savagery. From +savagery Zeus is probably derived; from savagery come the germs of the +legends of divine amours in animal forms. But from barbarism arises the +sympathetic magic of agriculture, which the lowest races do not practise. +From the barbaric condition, not from savagery, comes Greek hero-worship, +for the lowest races do not worship ancestral spirits. Such is the +medley of prehistoric ideas in Greece, while the charm and poetry of the +Hymns are due mainly to the unique genius of the fully developed Hellenic +race. The combination of good and bad, of ancestral rites and ideas, of +native taste, of philosophical refinement on inherited theology, could +not last; the elements were too discordant. And yet it could not pass +naturally away. The Greece of A.D. 300 + + "Wandered between two worlds, one dead, + The other powerless to be born," + +without external assistance. That help was brought by the Christian +creed, and, officially, Gods, rites, and myths vanished, while, +unofficially, they partially endure, even to this day, in Romaic folk- +lore. + + + + +HOMERIC HYMNS + + +HYMN TO APOLLO + + +[Silver stater of Croton (about 400 B.C.). Obv. Hercules, the Founder. +Rev. Apollo shooting the Python by the Delphic Tripod: lang103.jpg] + +Mindful, ever mindful, will I be of Apollo the Far-darter. Before him, +as he fares through the hall of Zeus, the Gods tremble, yea, rise up all +from their thrones as he draws near with his shining bended bow. But +Leto alone abides by Zeus, the Lord of Lightning, till Apollo hath +slackened his bow and closed his quiver. Then, taking with her hands +from his mighty shoulders the bow and quiver, she hangs them against the +pillar beside his father's seat from a pin of gold, and leads him to his +place and seats him there, while the father welcomes his dear son, giving +him nectar in a golden cup; then do the other Gods welcome him; then they +make him sit, and Lady Leto rejoices, in that she bore the Lord of the +Bow, her mighty son. + +[Hail! O blessed Leto; mother of glorious children, Prince Apollo and +Artemis the Archer; her in Ortygia, him in rocky Delos didst thou bear, +couching against the long sweep of the Cynthian Hill, beside a palm tree, +by the streams of Inopus.] + +[Leto. With her infants, Apollo and Artemis. From a Vase in the British +Museum. (Sixth Century B.C.): lang104.jpg] + +How shall I hymn thee aright, howbeit thou art, in sooth, not hard to +hymn? {104} for to thee, Phoebus, everywhere have fallen all the ranges +of song, both on the mainland, nurse of young kine, and among the isles; +to thee all the cliffs are dear, and the steep mountain crests and rivers +running onward to the salt sea, and beaches sloping to the foam, and +havens of the deep? Shall I tell how Leto bore thee first, a delight of +men, couched by the Cynthian Hill in the rocky island, in sea-girt +Delos--on either hand the black wave drives landward at the word of the +shrill winds--whence arising thou art Lord over all mortals? + +Among them that dwell in Crete, and the people of Athens, and isle AEgina, +and Euboea famed for fleets, and AEgae and Peiresiae, and Peparethus by +the sea-strand, and Thracian Athos, and the tall crests of Pelion, and +Thracian Samos, and the shadowy mountains of Ida, Scyros, and Phocaea, +and the mountain wall of Aigocane, and stablished Imbros, and +inhospitable Lemnos, and goodly Lesbos, the seat of Makar son of AEolus, +and Chios, brightest of all islands of the deep, and craggy Mimas, and +the steep crests of Mykale, and gleaming Claros, and the high hills of +AEsagee, and watery Samos, and tall ridges of Mycale, and Miletus, and +Cos, a city of Meropian men, and steep Cnidos, and windy Carpathus, Naxos +and Paros, and rocky Rheneia--so far in travail with the Archer God went +Leto, seeking if perchance any land would build a house for her son. + +But the lands trembled sore, and were adread, and none, nay not the +richest, dared to welcome Phoebus, not till Lady Leto set foot on Delos, +and speaking winged words besought her: + +"Delos, would that thou wert minded to be the seat of my Son, Phoebus +Apollo, and to let build him therein a rich temple! No other God will +touch thee, nor none will honour thee, for methinks thou art not to be +well seen in cattle or in sheep, in fruit or grain, nor wilt thou grow +plants unnumbered. But wert thou to possess a temple of Apollo the Far- +darter; then would all men bring thee hecatombs, gathering to thee, and +ever wilt thou have savour of sacrifice . . . from others' hands, albeit +thy soil is poor." + +Thus spoke she, and Delos was glad and answered her saying: + +"Leto, daughter most renowned of mighty Coeus, right gladly would I +welcome the birth of the Archer Prince, for verily of me there goes an +evil report among men, and thus would I wax mightiest of renown. But at +this Word, Leto, I tremble, nor will I hide it from thee, for the saying +is that Apollo will be mighty of mood, and mightily will lord it over +mortals and immortals far and wide over the earth, the grain-giver. +Therefore, I deeply dread in heart and soul lest, when first he looks +upon the sunlight, he disdain my island, for rocky of soil am I, and +spurn me with his feet and drive me down in the gulfs of the salt sea. +Then should a great sea-wave wash mightily above my head for ever, but he +will fare to another land, which so pleases him, to fashion him a temple +and groves of trees. But in me would many-footed sea-beasts and black +seals make their chambers securely, no men dwelling by me. Nay, still, +if thou hast the heart, Goddess, to swear a great oath that here first he +will build a beautiful temple, to be the shrine oracular of +men--thereafter among all men let him raise him shrines, since his renown +shall be the widest." + +So spake she, but Leto swore the great oath of the Gods: + +"Bear witness, Earth, and the wide heaven above, and dropping water of +Styx--the greatest oath and the most dread among the blessed Gods--that +verily here shall ever be the fragrant altar and the portion of Apollo, +and thee will he honour above all." + +When she had sworn and done that oath, then Delos was glad in the birth +of the Archer Prince. But Leto, for nine days and nine nights +continually was pierced with pangs of child-birth beyond all hope. With +her were all the Goddesses, the goodliest, Dione and Rheia, and Ichnaean +Themis, and Amphitrite of the moaning sea, and the other deathless +ones--save white-armed Hera. Alone she wotted not of it, Eilithyia, the +helper in difficult travail. For she sat on the crest of Olympus beneath +the golden clouds, by the wile of white-armed Hera, who held her afar in +jealous grudge, because even then fair-tressed Leto was about bearing her +strong and noble son. + +But the Goddesses sent forth Iris from the fair-stablished isle, to bring +Eilithyia, promising her a great necklet, golden with amber studs, nine +cubits long. Iris they bade to call Eilithyia apart from white-armed +Hera, lest even then the words of Hera might turn her from her going. But +wind-footed swift Iris heard, and fleeted forth, and swiftly she devoured +the space between. So soon as she came to steep Olympus, the dwelling of +the Gods, she called forth Eilithyia from hall to door, and spake winged +words, even all that the Goddesses of Olympian mansions had bidden her. +Thereby she won the heart in Eilithyia's breast, and forth they fared, +like timid wild doves in their going. + +Even when Eilithyia, the helper in sore travailing, set foot in Delos, +then labour took hold on Leto, and a passion to bring to the birth. +Around a palm tree she cast her arms, and set her knees on the soft +meadow, while earth beneath smiled, and forth leaped the babe to light, +and all the Goddesses raised a cry. Then, great Phoebus, the Goddesses +washed thee in fair water, holy and purely, and wound thee in white +swaddling bands, delicate, new woven, with a golden girdle round thee. +Nor did his mother suckle Apollo the golden-sworded, but Themis with +immortal hands first touched his lips with nectar and sweet ambrosia, +while Leto rejoiced, in that she had borne her strong son, the bearer of +the bow. + +Then Phoebus, as soon as thou hadst tasted the food of Paradise, the +golden bands were not proof against thy pantings, nor bonds could bind +thee, but all their ends were loosened. Straightway among the Goddesses +spoke Phoebus Apollo: "Mine be the dear lyre and bended bow, and I will +utter to men the unerring counsel of Zeus." + +So speaking, he began to fare over the wide ways of earth, Phoebus of the +locks unshorn, Phoebus the Far-darter. Thereon all the Goddesses were in +amaze, and all Delos blossomed with gold, as when a hilltop is heavy with +woodland flowers, beholding the child of Zeus and Leto, and glad because +the God had chosen her wherein to set his home, beyond mainland and +isles, and loved her most at heart. + +But thyself, O Prince of the Silver Bow, far-darting Apollo, didst now +pass over rocky Cynthus, now wander among temples and men. Many are thy +fanes and groves, and dear are all the headlands, and high peaks of lofty +hills, and rivers flowing onward to the sea; but with Delos, Phoebus, art +thou most delighted at heart, where the long-robed Ionians gather in +thine honour, with children and shame-fast wives. Mindful of thee they +delight thee with boxing, and dances, and minstrelsy in their games. Who +so then encountered them at the gathering of the Ionians, would say that +they are exempt from eld and death, beholding them so gracious, and would +be glad at heart, looking on the men and fair-girdled women, and their +much wealth, and their swift galleys. Moreover, there is this great +marvel of renown imperishable, the Delian damsels, hand-maidens of the +Far-darter. They, when first they have hymned Apollo, and next Leto and +Artemis the Archer, then sing in memory of the men and women of old time, +enchanting the tribes of mortals. And they are skilled to mimic the +notes and dance music of all men, so that each would say himself were +singing, so well woven is their fair chant. + +But now come, be gracious, Apollo, be gracious, Artemis; and ye maidens +all, farewell, but remember me even in time to come, when any of earthly +men, yea, any stranger that much hath seen and much endured, comes hither +and asks: + +"Maidens, who is the sweetest to you of singers here conversant, and in +whose song are ye most glad?" + +Then do you all with one voice make answer: + +"A blind man is he, and he dwells in rocky Chios; his songs will ever +have the mastery, ay, in all time to come." + +But I shall bear my renown of you as far as I wander over earth to the +fairest cities of men, and they will believe my report, for my word is +true. But, for me, never shall I cease singing of Apollo of the Silver +Bow, the Far-darter, whom fair-tressed Leto bore. + +O Prince, Lycia is thine, and pleasant Maeonia, and Miletus, a winsome +city by the sea, and thou, too, art the mighty lord of sea-washed Delos. + + + +THE FOUNDING OF DELPHI + + +The son of glorious Leto fares harping on his hollow harp to rocky Pytho, +clad in his fragrant raiment that waxes not old, and beneath the golden +plectrum winsomely sounds his lyre. Thence from earth to Olympus, fleet +as thought, he goes to the House of Zeus, into the Consistory of the +other Gods, and anon the Immortals bethink them of harp and minstrelsy. +And all the Muses together with sweet voice in antiphonal chant replying, +sing of the imperishable gifts of the Gods, and the sufferings of men, +all that they endure from the hands of the undying Gods, lives witless +and helpless, men unavailing to find remede for death or buckler against +old age. Then the fair-tressed Graces and boon Hours, and Harmonia, and +Hebe, and Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus, dance, holding each by the wrist +the other's hand, while among them sings one neither unlovely, nor of +body contemptible, but divinely tall and fair, Artemis the Archer, +nurtured with Apollo. Among them sport Ares, and the keen-eyed Bane of +Argos, while Phoebus Apollo steps high and disposedly, playing the lyre, +and the light issues round him from twinkling feet and fair-woven +raiment. But all they are glad, seeing him so high of heart, Leto of the +golden tresses, and Zeus the Counsellor, beholding their dear son as he +takes his pastime among the deathless Gods. + +How shall I hymn thee aright, howbeit thou art, in sooth, not hard to +hymn? Shall I sing of thee in love and dalliance; how thou wentest forth +to woo the maiden Azanian, with Ischys, peer of Gods, and Elation's son +of the goodly steeds, or with Phorbas, son of Triopes, or Amarynthus, or +how with Leucippus and Leucippus' wife, thyself on foot, he in the +chariot . . .? {115} Or how first, seeking a place of oracle for men, +thou camest down to earth, far-darting Apollo? + +On Pieria first didst thou descend from Olympus, and pass by Lacmus, and +Emathia, and Enienae, and through Perrhaebia, and speedily camest to +Iolcus, and alight on Cenaeum in Euboea, renowned for galleys. On the +Lelantian plain thou stoodest, but it pleased thee not there to stablish +a temple and a grove. Thence thou didst cross Euripus, far-darting +Apollo, and fare up the green hill divine, and thence camest speedily to +Mycalessus and Teumesos of the bedded meadow grass, and thence to the +place of woodclad Thebe, for as yet no mortals dwelt in Holy Thebe, nor +yet were paths nor ways along Thebe's wheat-bearing plain, but all was +wild wood. + +Thence forward journeying, Apollo, thou camest to Onchestus, the bright +grove of Poseidon. There the new-broken colt takes breath again, weary +though he be with dragging the goodly chariot; and to earth, skilled +though he be, leaps down the charioteer, and fares on foot, while the +horses for a while rattle along the empty car, with the reins on their +necks, and if the car be broken in the grove of trees, their masters tend +them there, and tilt the car and let it lie. Such is the rite from of +old, and they pray to the King Poseidon, while the chariot is the God's +portion to keep. + +Thence faring forward, far-darting Apollo, thou didst win to Cephisus of +the fair streams, that from Lilaea pours down his beautiful waters, which +crossing, Far-darter, and passing Ocalea of the towers, thou camest +thereafter to grassy Haliartus. Then didst thou set foot on Telphusa, +and to thee the land seemed exceeding good wherein to stablish a temple +and a grove. + +Beside Telphusa didst thou stand, and spake to her: "Telphusa, here +methinketh to stablish a fair temple, an oracle for men, who, ever +seeking for the word of sooth, will bring me hither perfect hecatombs, +even they that dwell in the rich isle of Pelops, and all they of the +mainland and sea-girt islands. To them all shall I speak the decree +unerring, rendering oracles within my rich temple." + +So spake Phoebus, and thoroughly marked out the foundations, right long +and wide. But at the sight the heart of Telphusa waxed wroth, and she +spake her word: + +"Phoebus, far-darting Prince, a word shall I set in thy heart. Here +thinkest thou to stablish a goodly temple, to be a place of oracle for +men, that ever will bring thee hither perfect hecatombs--nay, but this +will I tell thee, and do thou lay it up in thine heart. The never-ending +din of swift steeds will be a weariness to thee, and the watering of +mules from my sacred springs. There men will choose rather to regard the +well-wrought chariots, and the stamping of the swift-footed steeds, than +thy great temple and much wealth therein. But an if thou--that art +greater and better than I, O Prince, and thy strength is most of might--if +thou wilt listen to me, in Crisa build thy fane beneath a glade of +Parnassus. There neither will goodly chariots ring, nor wilt thou be +vexed with stamping of swift steeds about thy well-builded altar, but +none the less shall the renowned tribes of men bring their gifts to +Iepaeon, and delighted shalt thou gather the sacrifices of them who dwell +around." + +Therewith she won over the heart of the Far-darter, even that to Telphusa +herself should be honour in that land, and not to the Far-darter. + +Thenceforward didst thou fare, far-darting Apollo, and camest to the city +of the overweening Phlegyae, that reckless of Zeus dwelt there in a +goodly glade by the Cephisian mere. Thence fleetly didst thou speed to +the ridge of the hills, and camest to Crisa beneath snowy Parnassus, to a +knoll that faced westward, but above it hangs a cliff, and a hollow dell +runs under, rough with wood, and even there Prince Phoebus Apollo deemed +well to build a goodly temple, and spake, saying: "Here methinketh to +stablish a right fair temple, to be a place oracular to men, that shall +ever bring me hither goodly hecatombs, both they that dwell in rich +Peloponnesus, and they of the mainland and sea-girt isles, seeking here +the word of sooth; to them all shall I speak the decree unerring, +rendering oracles within my wealthy shrine." + +So speaking, Phoebus Apollo marked out the foundations, right long and +wide, and thereon Trophonius and Agamedes laid the threshold of stone, +the sons of Erginus, dear to the deathless Gods. But round all the +countless tribes of men built a temple with wrought stones to be famous +for ever in song. + +Hard by is a fair-flowing stream, and there, with an arrow from his +strong bow, did the Prince, the son of Zeus, slay the Dragoness, mighty +and huge, a wild Etin, that was wont to wreak many woes on earthly men, +on themselves, and their straight-stepping flocks, so dread a bane was +she. + +[This Dragoness it was that took from golden-throned Hera and reared the +dread Typhaon, not to be dealt with, a bane to mortals. Him did Hera +bear, upon a time, in wrath with father Zeus, whenas Cronides brought +forth from his head renowned Athene. Straightway lady Hera was angered, +and spake among the assembled Gods: + +"Listen to me, ye Gods, and Goddesses all, how cloud-collecting Zeus is +first to begin the dishonouring of me, though he made me his wife in +honour. And now, apart from me, he has brought forth grey-eyed Athene +who excels among all the blessed Immortals. But he was feeble from the +birth, among all the Gods, my son Hephaestos, lame and withered of foot, +whom I myself lifted in my hands, and cast into the wide sea. But the +daughter of Nereus, Thetis of the silver feet, received him and nurtured +him among her sisters. Would that she had done other grace to the +blessed Immortals! + +"Thou evil one of many wiles, what other wile devisest thou? How hadst +thou the heart now alone to bear grey-eyed Athene? Could I not have +borne her? But none the less would she have been called thine among the +Immortals, who hold the wide heaven. Take heed now, that I devise not +for thee some evil to come. Yea, now shall I use arts whereby a child of +mine shall be born, excelling among the immortal Gods, without +dishonouring thy sacred bed or mine, for verily to thy bed I will not +come, but far from thee will nurse my grudge against the Immortal Gods." + +So spake she, and withdrew from among the Gods with angered heart. Right +so she made her prayer, the ox-eyed lady Hera, striking the earth with +her hand flatlings, {121} and spake her word: + +"Listen to me now, Earth, and wide Heavens above, and ye Gods called +Titans, dwelling beneath earth in great Tartarus, ye from whom spring +Gods and men! List to me now, all of you, and give me a child apart from +Zeus, yet nothing inferior to him in might, nay, stronger than he, as +much as far-seeing Zeus is mightier than Cronus!" + +So spake she, and smote the ground with her firm hand. Then Earth, the +nurse of life, was stirred, and Hera, beholding it, was glad at heart, +for she deemed that her prayer would be accomplished. From that hour for +a full year she never came to the bed of wise Zeus, nor to her throne +adorned, whereon she was wont to sit, planning deep counsel, but dwelling +in her temples, the homes of Prayers, she took joy in her sacrifices, the +ox-eyed lady Hera. + +Now when her months and days were fulfilled, the year revolving, and the +seasons in their course coming round, she bare a birth like neither Gods +nor mortals, the dread Typhaon, not to be dealt with, a bane of men. Him +now she took, the ox-eyed lady Hera, and carried and gave to the +Dragoness, to bitter nurse a bitter fosterling, who received him, that +ever wrought many wrongs among the renowned tribes of men.] + +Whosoever met the Dragoness, on him would she bring the day of destiny, +before the Prince, far-darting Apollo, loosed at her the destroying +shaft; then writhing in strong anguish, and mightily panting she lay, +rolling about the land. Dread and dire was the din, as she writhed +hither and thither through the wood, and gave up the ghost, and Phoebus +spoke his malison: + +"There do thou rot upon the fruitful earth; no longer shalt thou, at +least, live to be the evil bane of mortals that eat the fruit of the +fertile soil, and hither shall bring perfect hecatombs. Surely from thee +neither shall Typhoeus, nay, nor Chimaera of the evil name, shield death +that layeth low, but here shall black earth and bright Hyperion make thee +waste away." + +So he spake in malison, and darkness veiled her eyes, and there the +sacred strength of the sun did waste her quite away. Whence now the +place is named Pytho, and men call the Prince "Pythian" for that deed, +for even there the might of the swift sun made corrupt the monster. {124} + +Then Phoebus Apollo was ware in his heart that the fair-flowing spring, +Telphusa, had beguiled him, and in wrath he went to her, and swiftly +came, and standing close by her, spoke his word: + +"Telphusa, thou wert not destined to beguile my mind, nor keep the +winsome lands and pour forth thy fair waters. Nay, here shall my honour +also dwell, not thine alone." So he spoke, and overset a rock, with a +shower of stones, and hid her streams, the Prince, far-darting Apollo. +And he made an altar in a grove of trees, hard by the fair-flowing +stream, where all men name him in prayer, "the Prince Telphusian," for +that he shamed the streams of sacred Telphusa. Then Phoebus Apollo +considered in his heart what men he should bring in to be his ministers, +and to serve him in rocky Pytho. While he was pondering on this, he +beheld a swift ship on the wine-dark sea, and aboard her many men and +good, Cretans from Minoan Cnossus, such as do sacrifice to the God, and +speak the doom of Phoebus Apollo of the Golden Sword, what word soever he +utters of sooth from the daphne in the dells of Parnassus. For barter +and wealth they were sailing in the black ship to sandy Pylos, and the +Pylian men. Anon Phoebus Apollo set forth to meet them, leaping into the +sea upon the swift ship in the guise of a dolphin, and there he lay, a +portent great and terrible. + +[Of the crew, whosoever sought in heart to comprehend what he was . . . +On all sides he kept swaying to and fro, and shaking the timbers of the +galley.] But all they sat silent and in fear aboard the ship, nor loosed +the sheets, nor the sail of the black-prowed galley; nay, even as they +had first set the sails so they voyaged onward, the strong south-wind +speeding on the vessel from behind. First they rounded Malea, and passed +the Laconian land and came to Helos, a citadel by the sea, and Taenarus, +the land of Helios, that is the joy of mortals, where ever feed the deep- +fleeced flocks of Prince Helios, and there hath he his glad demesne. +There the crew thought to stay the galley, and land and consider of the +marvel, and see whether that strange thing will abide on the deck of the +hollow ship or leap again into the swell of the fishes' home. But the +well-wrought ship did not obey the rudder, but kept ever on her way +beyond rich Peloponnesus, Prince Apollo lightly guiding it by the gale. +So accomplishing her course she came to Arene, and pleasant Arguphea, and +Thryon, the ford of Alpheius, and well-builded Aepu, and sandy Pylos, and +the Pylian men, and ran by Crounoi, and Chalcis, and Dyme, and holy Elis, +where the Epeians bear sway. Then rejoicing in the breeze of Zeus, she +was making for Pherae, when to them out of the clouds showed forth the +steep ridge of Ithaca, and Dulichium, and Same, and wooded Zacynthus. +Anon when she had passed beyond all Peloponnesus, there straightway, off +Crisa, appeared the wide sound, that bounds rich Peloponnesus. Then came +on the west wind, clear and strong, by the counsel of Zeus, blowing hard +out of heaven, that the running ship might swiftest accomplish her course +over the salt water of the sea. + +Backward then they sailed towards the Dawn and the sun, and the Prince +was their guide, Apollo, son of Zeus. Then came they to far-seen Crisa, +the land of vines, into the haven, while the sea-faring ship beached +herself on the shingle. Then from the ship leaped the Prince, +far-darting Apollo, like a star at high noon, while the gledes of fire +flew from him, and the splendour flashed to the heavens. Into his inmost +Holy Place he went through the precious tripods, and in the midst he +kindled a flame showering forth his shafts, and the splendour filled all +Crisa, {127} and the wives of the Crisaeans, and their fair-girdled +daughters raised a wail at the rushing flight of Phoebus, for great fear +fell upon all. Thence again to the galley he set forth and flew, fleet +as a thought, in shape a man lusty and strong, in his first youth, his +locks swathing his wide shoulders. Anon he spake to the seamen winged +words: + +"Strangers, who are ye, whence sail ye the wet ways? Is it after +merchandise, or do ye wander at adventure, over the salt sea, as +sea-robbers use, that roam staking their own lives, and bearing bane to +men of strange speech? Why sit ye thus adread, not faring forth on the +land, nor slackening the gear of your black ship? Sure this is the wont +of toilsome mariners, when they come from the deep to the land in their +black ship, foredone with labour, and anon a longing for sweet food +seizes their hearts." + +So spake he, and put courage in their breasts, and the leader of the +Cretans answered him, saying: + +"Stranger, behold thou art no whit like unto mortal men in shape or +growth, but art a peer of the Immortals, wherefore all hail, and grace be +thine, and all good things at the hands of the Gods. Tell me then truly +that I may know indeed, what people is this, what land, what mortals +dwell here? Surely with our thoughts set on another goal we sailed the +great sea to Pylos from Crete, whence we boast our lineage; but now it is +hither that we have come, maugre our wills, with our galley--another path +and other ways--we longing to return, but some God has led us all +unwilling to this place." + +Then the far-darting Apollo answered them: + +"Strangers, who dwelt aforetime round wooded Cnossus, never again shall +ye return each to his pleasant city and his own house, and his wife, but +here shall ye hold my rich temple, honoured by multitudes of men. Lo! I +am the son of Zeus, and name myself Apollo, and hither have I brought you +over the great gulf of the sea, with no evil intent. Nay, here shall ye +possess my rich temple, held highest in honour among all men, and ye +shall know the counsels of the Immortals, by whose will ye shall ever be +held in renown. But now come, and instantly obey my word. First lower +the sails, and loose the sheets, and then beach the black ship on the +land, taking forth the wares and gear of the trim galley, and build ye an +altar on the strand of the sea. Thereon kindle fire, and sprinkle above +in sacrifice the white barley-flour, and thereafter pray, standing around +the altar. And whereas I first, in the misty sea, sprang aboard the +swift ship in the guise of a dolphin, therefore pray to me as Apollo +Delphinius, while mine shall ever be the Delphian altar seen from afar. +Then take ye supper beside the swift black ship, and pour libations to +the blessed Gods who hold Olympus. But when ye have dismissed the desire +of sweet food then with me do ye come, singing the Paean, till ye win +that place where ye shall possess the rich temple." + +So spake he, while they heard and obeyed eagerly. First they lowered the +sails, loosing the sheets, and lowering the mast by the forestays, they +laid it in the mast-stead, and themselves went forth on the strand of the +sea. Then forth from the salt sea to the mainland they dragged the fleet +ship high up on the sands, laying long sleepers thereunder, and they +builded an altar on the sea-strand, and lit fire thereon, scattering +above white barley-flour in sacrifice, and, standing around the altar, +they prayed as the God commanded. Anon they took supper beside the fleet +black ship, and poured forth libations to the blessed Gods who hold +Olympus. But when they had dismissed the desire of meat and drink they +set forth on their way, and the Prince Apollo guided them, harp in hand, +and sweetly he harped, faring with high and goodly strides. Dancing in +his train the Cretans followed to Pytho, and the Paean they were +chanting, the paeans of the Cretans in whose breasts the Muse hath put +honey-sweet song. All unwearied they strode to the hill, and swiftly +were got to Parnassus and a winsome land, where they were to dwell, +honoured of many among men. + +Apollo guided them, and showed his holy shrine and rich temple, and the +spirit was moved in their breasts, and the captain of the Cretans spake, +and asked the God, saying: + +"Prince, since thou hast led us far from friends and our own country, for +so it pleases thee, how now shall we live, we pray thee tell us. This +fair land bears not vines, nor is rich in meadows, wherefrom we might +live well, and minister to men." + +Then, smiling, Apollo, the son of Zeus, spoke to them: + +"Foolish ones, enduring hearts, who desire cares, and sore toil, and all +straits! A light word will I speak to you, do ye consider it. Let each +one of you, knife in right hand, be ever slaughtering sheep that in +abundance shall ever be yours, all the flocks that the renowned tribes of +men bring hither to me. Yours it is to guard my temple, and receive the +tribes of men that gather hither, doing, above all, as my will enjoins. +But if any vain word be spoken, or vain deed wrought, or violence after +the manner of mortal men, then shall others be your masters, and hold you +in thraldom for ever. {133} I have spoken all, do thou keep it in thy +heart." + +Even so, fare thou well, son of Zeus and Leto, but I shall remember both +thee and another song. + + + +II. HERMES + + +Of Hermes sing, O Muse, the son of Zeus and Maia, Lord of Cyllene, and +Arcadia rich in sheep, the fortune-bearing Herald of the Gods, him whom +Maia bore, the fair-tressed nymph, that lay in the arms of Zeus; a +shamefaced nymph was she, shunning the assembly of the blessed Gods, +dwelling within a shadowy cave. Therein was Cronion wont to embrace the +fair-tressed nymph in the deep of night, when sweet sleep held +white-armed Hera, the immortal Gods knowing it not, nor mortal men. + +But when the mind of great Zeus was fulfilled, and over _her_ the tenth +moon stood in the sky, the babe was born to light, and all was made +manifest; yea, then she bore a child of many a wile and cunning counsel, +a robber, a driver of the kine, a captain of raiders, a watcher of the +night, a thief of the gates, who soon should show forth deeds renowned +among the deathless Gods. Born in the dawn, by midday well he harped, +and in the evening stole the cattle of Apollo the Far-darter, on that +fourth day of the month wherein lady Maia bore him. Who, when he leaped +from the immortal knees of his mother, lay not long in the sacred cradle, +but sped forth to seek the cattle of Apollo, crossing the threshold of +the high-roofed cave. There found he a tortoise, and won endless +delight, for lo, it was Hermes that first made of the tortoise a +minstrel. The creature met him at the outer door, as she fed on the rich +grass in front of the dwelling, waddling along, at sight whereof the luck- +bringing son of Zeus laughed, and straightway spoke, saying: + +"Lo, a lucky omen for me, not by me to be mocked! Hail, darling and +dancer, friend of the feast, welcome art thou! whence gatst thou the gay +garment, a speckled shell, thou, a mountain-dwelling tortoise? Nay, I +will carry thee within, and a boon shalt thou be to me, not by me to be +scorned, nay, thou shalt first serve my turn. Best it is to bide at +home, since danger is abroad. Living shalt thou be a spell against ill +witchery, and dead, then a right sweet music-maker." + +[Hermes making the lyre. Bronze relief in the British Museum (Fourth +Century B.C.): lang136.jpg] + +So spake he, and raising in both hands the tortoise, went back within the +dwelling, bearing the glad treasure. Then he choked the creature, and +with a gouge of grey iron he scooped out the marrow of the hill tortoise. +And as a swift thought wings through the breast of one that crowding +cares are haunting, or as bright glances fleet from the eyes, so swiftly +devised renowned Hermes both deed and word. He cut to measure stalks of +reed, and fixed them in through holes bored in the stony shell of the +tortoise, and cunningly stretched round it the hide of an ox, and put in +the horns of the lyre, and to both he fitted the bridge, and stretched +seven harmonious chords of sheep-gut. {136} + +Then took he his treasure, when he had fashioned it, and touched the +strings in turn with the _plectrum_, and wondrously it sounded under his +hand, and fair sang the God to the notes, improvising his chant as he +played, like lads exchanging taunts at festivals. Of Zeus Cronides and +fair-sandalled Maia he sang how they had lived in loving dalliance, and +he told out the tale of his begetting, and sang the handmaids and the +goodly halls of the Nymph, and the tripods in the house, and the store of +cauldrons. So then he sang, but dreamed of other deeds; then bore he the +hollow lyre and laid it in the sacred cradle, then, in longing for flesh +of kine he sped from the fragrant hall to a place of outlook, with such a +design in his heart as reiving men pursue in the dark of night. + +The sun had sunk down beneath earth into ocean, with horses and chariot, +when Hermes came running to the shadowy hills of Pieria, where the +deathless kine of the blessed Gods had ever their haunt; there fed they +on the fair unshorn meadows. From their number did the keen-sighted +Argeiphontes, son of Maia, cut off fifty loud-lowing kine, and drove them +hither and thither over the sandy land, reversing their tracks, and, +mindful of his cunning, confused the hoof-marks, the front behind, the +hind in front, and himself fared down again. Straightway he wove sandals +on the sea-sand (things undreamed he wrought, works wonderful, +unspeakable) mingling myrtle twigs and tamarisk, then binding together a +bundle of the fresh young wood, he shrewdly fastened it for light sandals +beneath his feet, leaves and all, {138}--brushwood that the renowned +slayer of Argos had plucked on his way from Pieria [being, as he was, in +haste, down the long way]. + +Then an old man that was labouring a fruitful vineyard, marked the God +faring down to the plain through grassy Onchestus, and to him spoke first +the son of renowned Maia: + +"Old man that bowest thy shoulders over thy hoeing, verily thou shalt +have wine enough when all these vines are bearing. . . . See thou, and +see not; hear thou, and hear not; be silent, so long as naught of thine +is harmed." + +Therewith he drave on together the sturdy heads of cattle. And over many +a shadowy hill, and through echoing corries and flowering plains drave +renowned Hermes. Then stayed for the more part his darkling ally, the +sacred Night, and swiftly came morning when men can work, and sacred +Selene, daughter of Pallas, mighty prince, clomb to a new place of +outlook, and then the strong son of Zeus drave the broad-browed kine of +Phoebus Apollo to the river Alpheius. Unwearied they came to the high- +roofed stall and the watering-places in front of the fair meadow. There, +when he had foddered the deep-voiced kine, he herded them huddled +together into the byre, munching lotus and dewy marsh marigold; next +brought he much wood, and set himself to the craft of fire-kindling. +Taking a goodly shoot of the daphne, he peeled it with the knife, fitting +it to his hand, {140} and the hot vapour of smoke arose. [Lo, it was +Hermes first who gave fire, and the fire-sticks.] Then took he many dry +faggots, great plenty, and piled them in the trench, and flame began to +break, sending far the breath of burning fire. And when the force of +renowned Hephaestus kept the fire aflame, then downward dragged he, so +mighty his strength, two bellowing kine of twisted horn: close up to the +fire he dragged them, and cast them both panting upon their backs to the +ground. [Then bending over them he turned them upwards and cut their +throats] . . . task upon task, and sliced off the fat meat, pierced it +with spits of wood, and broiled it,--flesh, and chine, the joint of +honour, and blood in the bowels, all together;--then laid all there in +its place. The hides he stretched out on a broken rock, as even now they +are used, such as are to be enduring: long, and long after that ancient +day. {141a} Anon glad Hermes dragged the fat portions on to a smooth +ledge, and cut twelve messes sorted out by lot, to each its due meed he +gave. Then a longing for the rite of the sacrifice of flesh came on +renowned Hermes: for the sweet savour irked him, immortal as he was, but +not even so did his strong heart yield. {141b} . . . The fat and flesh +he placed in the high-roofed stall, the rest he swiftly raised aloft, a +trophy of his reiving, and, gathering dry faggots, he burned heads and +feet entire with the vapour of flame. Anon when the God had duly +finished all, he cast his sandals into the deep swirling pool of +Alpheius, quenched the embers, and all night long spread smooth the black +dust: Selene lighting him with her lovely light. Back to the crests of +Cyllene came the God at dawn, nor blessed God, on that long way, nor +mortal man encountered him; nay, and no dog barked. Then Hermes, son of +Zeus, bearer of boon, bowed his head, and entered the hall through the +hole of the bolt, like mist on the breath of autumn. Then, standing +erect, he sped to the rich inmost chamber of the cave, lightly treading +noiseless on the floor. Quickly to his cradle came glorious Hermes and +wrapped the swaddling bands about his shoulders, like a witless babe, +playing with the wrapper about his knees. So lay he, guarding his dear +lyre at his left hand. But his Goddess mother the God did not deceive; +she spake, saying: + +"Wherefore, thou cunning one, and whence comest thou in the night, thou +clad in shamelessness? Anon, methinks, thou wilt go forth at Apollo's +hands with bonds about thy sides that may not be broken, sooner than be a +robber in the glens. Go to, wretch, thy Father begat thee for a trouble +to deathless Gods and mortal men." + +But Hermes answered her with words of guile: "Mother mine, why wouldst +thou scare me so, as though I were a redeless child, with little craft in +his heart, a trembling babe that dreads his mother's chidings? Nay, but +I will essay the wiliest craft to feed thee and me for ever. We twain +are not to endure to abide here, of all the deathless Gods alone +unapproached with sacrifice and prayer, as thou commandest. Better it is +eternally to be conversant with Immortals, richly, nobly, well seen in +wealth of grain, than to be homekeepers in a darkling cave. And for +honour, I too will have my dues of sacrifice, even as Apollo. Even if my +Father give it me not I will endeavour, for I am of avail, to be a +captain of reivers. And if the son of renowned Leto make inquest for me, +methinks some worse thing will befall him. For to Pytho I will go, to +break into his great house, whence I shall sack goodly tripods and +cauldrons enough, and gold, and gleaming iron, and much raiment. Thyself, +if thou hast a mind, shalt see it." + +So held they converse one with another, the son of Zeus of the AEgis, and +Lady Maia. Then Morning the Daughter of Dawn was arising from the deep +stream of Oceanus, bearing light to mortals, what time Apollo came to +Onchestus in his journeying, the gracious grove, a holy place of the loud +Girdler of the Earth: there he found an old man grazing his ox, the stay +of his vineyard, on the roadside. {144} Him first bespoke the son of +renowned Leto. + +"Old man, hedger of grassy Onchestus; hither am I come seeking cattle +from Pieria, all the crook-horned kine out of my herd: my black bull was +wont to graze apart from the rest, and my four bright-eyed hounds +followed, four of them, wise as men and all of one mind. These were +left, the hounds and the bull, a marvel; but the kine wandered away from +their soft meadow and sweet pasture, at the going down of the sun. Tell +me, thou old man of ancient days, if thou hast seen any man faring after +these cattle?" + +Then to him the old man spake and answered: + +"My friend, hard it were to tell all that a man may see: for many +wayfarers go by, some full of ill intent, and some of good: and it is +difficult to be certain regarding each. Nevertheless, the whole day long +till sunset I was digging about my vineyard plot, and methought I +marked--but I know not surely--a child that went after the horned kine; +right young he was, and held a staff, and kept going from side to side, +and backwards he drove the kine, their faces fronting him." + +So spake the old man, but Apollo heard, and went fleeter on his path. +Then marked he a bird long of wing, and anon he knew that the thief had +been the son of Zeus Cronion. Swiftly sped the Prince, Apollo, son of +Zeus, to goodly Pylos, seeking the shambling kine, while his broad +shoulders were swathed in purple cloud. Then the Far-darter marked the +tracks, and spake: + +"Verily, a great marvel mine eyes behold! These be the tracks of high- +horned kine, but all are turned back to the meadow of asphodel. But +these are not the footsteps of a man, nay, nor of a woman, nor of grey +wolves, nor bears, nor lions, nor, methinks, of a shaggy-maned Centaur, +whosoever with fleet feet makes such mighty strides! Dread to see they +are that backwards go, more dread they that go forwards." + +So speaking, the Prince sped on, Apollo, son of Zeus. To the Cyllenian +hill he came, that is clad in forests, to the deep shadow of the hollow +rock, where the deathless nymph brought forth the child of Zeus Cronion. +A fragrance sweet was spread about the goodly hill, and many tall sheep +were grazing the grass. Thence he went fleetly over the stone threshold +into the dusky cave, even Apollo, the Far-darter. + +Now when the son of Zeus and Maia beheld Apollo thus in wrath for his +kine, he sank down within his fragrant swaddling bands, being covered as +piled embers of burnt tree-roots are covered by thick ashes, so Hermes +coiled himself up, when he saw the Far-darter; and curled himself, feet, +head, and hands, into small space [summoning sweet sleep], though of a +verity wide awake, and his tortoise-shell he kept beneath his armpit. But +the son of Zeus and Leto marked them well, the lovely mountain nymph and +her dear son, a little babe, all wrapped in cunning wiles. Gazing round +all the chamber of the vasty dwelling, Apollo opened three aumbries with +the shining key; full were they of nectar and glad ambrosia, and much +gold and silver lay within, and much raiment of the Nymph, purple and +glistering, such as are within the dwellings of the mighty Gods. Anon, +when he had searched out the chambers of the great hall, the son of Leto +spake to renowned Hermes: + +"Child, in the cradle lying, tell me straightway of my kine: or speedily +between us twain will be unseemly strife. For I will seize thee and cast +thee into murky Tartarus, into the darkness of doom where none is of +avail. Nor shall thy father or mother redeem thee to the light: nay, +under earth shalt thou roam, a reiver among folk fordone." + +Then Hermes answered with words of craft: "Apollo, what ungentle word +hast thou spoken? And is it thy cattle of the homestead thou comest here +to seek? I saw them not, heard not of them, gave ear to no word of them: +of them I can tell no tidings, nor win the fee of him who tells. Not +like a lifter of cattle, a stalwart man, am I: no task is this of mine: +hitherto I have other cares; sleep, and mother's milk, and about my +shoulders swaddling bands, and warmed baths. Let none know whence this +feud arose! And verily great marvel among the Immortals it would be, +that a new-born child should cross the threshold after kine of the +homestead; a silly rede of thine. Yesterday was I born, my feet are +tender, and rough is the earth below. But if thou wilt I shall swear the +great oath by my father's head, that neither I myself am to blame, nor +have I seen any other thief of thy kine: be kine what they may, for I +know but by hearsay." + +So spake he with twinkling eyes, and twisted brows, glancing hither and +thither, with long-drawn whistling breath, hearing Apollo's word as a +vain thing. Then lightly laughing spake Apollo the Far-darter: + +"Oh, thou rogue, thou crafty one; verily methinks that many a time thou +wilt break into stablished homes, and by night leave many a man bare, +silently pilling through his house, such is thy speech to-day! And many +herdsmen of the steadings wilt thou vex in the mountain glens, when in +lust for flesh thou comest on the herds and sheep thick of fleece. Nay +come, lest thou sleep the last and longest slumber, come forth from thy +cradle, thou companion of black night! For surely this honour hereafter +thou shalt have among the Immortals, to be called for ever the captain of +reivers." + +So spake Phoebus Apollo, and lifted the child, but even then strong Argus- +bane had his device, and, in the hands of the God, let forth an Omen, an +evil belly-tenant, with tidings of worse, and a speedy sneeze thereafter. +Apollo heard, and dropped renowned Hermes on the ground, then sat down +before him, eager as he was to be gone, chiding Hermes, and thus he +spoke: + +"Take heart, swaddling one, child of Zeus and Maia. By these thine Omens +shall I find anon the sturdy kine, and thou shalt lead the way." + +So spake he, but swiftly arose Cyllenian Hermes, and swiftly fared, +pulling about his ears his swaddling bands that were his shoulder +wrapping. Then spake he: + +"Whither bearest thou me, Far-darter, of Gods most vehement? Is it for +wrath about thy kine that thou thus provokest me? Would that the race of +kine might perish, for thy cattle have I not stolen, nor seen another +steal, whatsoever kine may be; I know but by hearsay, I! But let our +suit be judged before Zeus Cronion." + +Now were lone Hermes and the splendid son of Leto point by point +disputing their pleas, Apollo with sure knowledge was righteously seeking +to convict renowned Hermes for the sake of his kine, but he with craft +and cunning words sought to beguile,--the Cyllenian to beguile the God of +the Silver Bow. But when the wily one found one as wily, then speedily +he strode forward through the sand in front, while behind came the son of +Zeus and Leto. Swiftly they came to the crests of fragrant Olympus, to +father Cronion they came, these goodly sons of Zeus, for there were set +for them the balances of doom. Quiet was snowy Olympus, but they who +know not decay or death were gathering after gold-throned Dawn. Then +stood Hermes and Apollo of the Silver Bow before the knees of Zeus, the +Thunderer, who inquired of his glorious Son, saying: + +"Phoebus, whence drivest thou such mighty spoil, a new-born babe like a +Herald? A mighty matter this, to come before the gathering of the Gods!" + +Then answered him the Prince, Apollo the Far-darter: + +"Father, anon shalt thou hear no empty tale; tauntest thou me, as though +I were the only lover of booty? This boy have I found, a finished +reiver, in the hills of Cyllene, a long way to wander; so fine a knave as +I know not among Gods or men, of all robbers on earth. My kine he stole +from the meadows, and went driving them at eventide along the loud sea +shores, straight to Pylos. Wondrous were the tracks, a thing to marvel +on, work of a glorious god. For the black dust showed the tracks of the +kine making backward to the mead of asphodel; but this child intractable +fared neither on hands nor feet, through the sandy land, but this other +strange craft had he, to tread the paths as if shod on with oaken shoots. +{153} While he drove the kine through a land of sand, right plain to +discern were all the tracks in the dust, but when he had crossed the +great tract of sand, straightway on hard ground his traces and those of +the kine were ill to discern. But a mortal man beheld him, driving +straight to Pylos the cattle broad of brow. Now when he had stalled the +kine in quiet, and confused his tracks on either side the way, he lay +dark as night in his cradle, in the dusk of a shadowy cave. The keenest +eagle could not have spied him, and much he rubbed his eyes, with crafty +purpose, and bluntly spake his word: + +"I saw not, I heard not aught, nor learned another's tale; nor tidings +could I give, nor win reward of tidings." + +Therewith Phoebus Apollo sat him down, but another tale did Hermes tell, +among the Immortals, addressing Cronion, the master of all Gods: + +"Father Zeus, verily the truth will I tell thee: for true am I, nor know +the way of falsehood. To-day at sunrise came Apollo to our house, +seeking his shambling kine. No witnesses of the Gods brought he, nor no +Gods who had seen the fact. But he bade me declare the thing under +duress, threatening oft to cast me into wide Tartarus, for he wears the +tender flower of glorious youth, but I was born but yesterday, as well +himself doth know, and in naught am I like a stalwart lifter of kine. +Believe, for thou givest thyself out to be my father, that may I never be +well if I drove home the kine, nay, or crossed the threshold. This I say +for sooth! The Sun I greatly revere, and other gods, and Thee I love, +and _him_ I dread. Nay, thyself knowest that I am not to blame; and +thereto I will add a great oath: by these fair-wrought porches of the +Gods I am guiltless, and one day yet I shall avenge me on him for this +pitiless accusation, mighty as he is; but do thou aid the younger!" + +So spake Cyllenian Argus-bane, and winked, with his wrapping on his arm: +he did not cast it down. But Zeus laughed aloud at the sight of his evil- +witted child, so well and wittily he pled denial about the kine. Then +bade he them both be of one mind, and so seek the cattle, with Hermes as +guide to lead the way, and show without guile where he had hidden the +sturdy kine. The Son of Cronos nodded, and glorious Hermes obeyed, for +lightly persuadeth the counsel of Zeus of the AEgis. + +Then sped both of them, the fair children of Zeus, to sandy Pylos, at the +ford of Alpheius, and to the fields they came, and the stall of lofty +roof, where the booty was tended in the season of darkness. There anon +Hermes went to the side of the rocky cave, and began driving the sturdy +cattle into the light. But the son of Leto, glancing aside, saw the +flayed skins on the high rock, and quickly asked renowned Hermes: + +"How wert thou of avail, oh crafty one, to flay two kine; new-born and +childish as thou art? For time to come I dread thy might: no need for +thee to be growing long, thou son of Maia!" {156} + +[So spake he, and round his hands twisted strong bands of withes, but +they at his feet were soon intertwined, each with other, and lightly were +they woven over all the kine of the field, by the counsel of thievish +Hermes, but Apollo marvelled at that he saw.] + +Then the strong Argus-bane with twinkling glances looked down at the +ground, wishful to hide his purpose. But that harsh son of renowned +Leto, the Far-darter, did he lightly soothe to his will; taking his lyre +in his left hand he tuned it with the _plectrum_: and wondrously it rang +beneath his hand. Thereat Phoebus Apollo laughed and was glad, and the +winsome note passed through to his very soul as he heard. Then Maia's +son took courage, and sweetly harping with his harp he stood at Apollo's +left side, playing his prelude, and thereon followed his winsome voice. +He sang the renowns of the deathless Gods, and the dark Earth, how all +things were at the first, and how each God gat his portion. + +To Mnemosyne first of Gods he gave the meed of minstrelsy, to the Mother +of the Muses, for the Muse came upon the Son of Maia. + +Then all the rest of the Immortals, in order of rank and birth, did he +honour, the splendid son of Zeus, telling duly all the tale, as he struck +the lyre on his arm. But on Apollo's heart in his breast came the stress +of desire, who spake to him winged words: + +"Thou crafty slayer of kine, thou comrade of the feast; thy song is worth +the price of fifty oxen! Henceforth, methinks, shall we be peacefully +made at one. But, come now, tell me this, thou wily Son of Maia, have +these marvels been with thee even since thy birth, or is it that some +immortal, or some mortal man, has given thee the glorious gift and shown +thee song divine? For marvellous is this new song in mine ears, such as, +methinks, none hath known, either of men, or of Immortals who have +mansions in Olympus, save thyself, thou reiver, thou Son of Zeus and +Maia! What art is this, what charm against the stress of cares? What a +path of song! for verily here is choice of all three things, joy, and +love, and sweet sleep. For truly though I be conversant with the +Olympian Muses, to whom dances are a charge, and the bright minstrel +hymn, and rich song, and the lovesome sound of flutes, yet never yet hath +aught else been so dear to my heart, dear as the skill in the festivals +of the Gods. I marvel, Son of Zeus, at this, the music of thy +minstrelsy. But now since, despite thy youth, thou hast such glorious +skill, to thee and to thy Mother I speak this word of sooth: verily, by +this shaft of cornel wood, I shall lead thee renowned and fortunate among +the Immortals, and give thee glorious gifts, nor in the end deceive +thee." + +Then Hermes answered him with cunning words: + +"Shrewdly thou questionest me, Far-darter, nor do I grudge thee to enter +upon mine art. This day shalt thou know it: and to thee would I fain be +kind in word and will: but within thyself thou well knowest all things, +for first among the Immortals, Son of Zeus, is thy place. Mighty art +thou and strong, and Zeus of wise counsels loves thee well with reverence +due, and hath given thee honour and goodly gifts. Nay, they tell that +thou knowest soothsaying, Far-darter, by the voice of Zeus: for from Zeus +are all oracles, wherein I myself now know thee to be all-wise. Thy +province it is to know what so thou wilt. Since, then, thy heart bids +thee play the lyre, harp thou and sing, and let joys be thy care, taking +this gift from me; and to me, friend, gain glory. Sweetly sing with my +shrill comrade in thy hands, that knoweth speech good and fair and in +order due. Freely do thou bear it hereafter into the glad feast, and the +winsome dance, and the glorious revel, a joy by night and day. Whatsoever +skilled hand shall inquire of it artfully and wisely, surely its voice +shall teach him all things joyous, being easily played by gentle +practice, fleeing dull toil. But if an unskilled hand first impetuously +inquires of it, vain and discordant shall the false notes sound. But +thine it is of nature to know what things thou wilt: so to thee will I +give this lyre, thou glorious son of Zeus. But we for our part will let +graze thy cattle of the field on the pastures of hill and plain, thou Far- +darter. So shall the kine, consorting with the bulls, bring forth calves +male and female, great store, and no need there is that thou, wise as +thou art, should be vehement in anger." + +So spake he, and held forth the lyre that Phoebus Apollo took, and +pledged his shining whip in the hands of Hermes, and set him over the +herds. Gladly the son of Maia received it; while the glorious son of +Leto, Apollo, the Prince, the Far-darter, held the lyre in his left hand, +and tuned it orderly with the _plectrum_. Sweetly it sounded to his +hand, and fair thereto was the song of the God. Thence anon the twain +turned the kine to the rich meadow, but themselves, the glorious children +of Zeus, hastened back to snow-clad Olympus, rejoicing in the lyre: ay, +and Zeus, the counsellor, was glad of it. [Both did he make one in love, +and Hermes loved Leto's son constantly, even as now, since when in +knowledge of his love he pledged to the Far-darter the winsome lyre, who +held it on his arm and played thereon.] But Hermes withal invented the +skill of a new art, the far-heard music of the reed pipes. + +Then spake the son of Leto to Hermes thus: + +"I fear me, Son of Maia, thou leader, thou crafty one, lest thou steal +from me both my lyre and my bent bow. For this meed thou hast from Zeus, +to establish the ways of barter among men on the fruitful earth. +Wherefore would that thou shouldst endure to swear me the great oath of +the Gods, with a nod of the head or by the showering waters of Styx, that +thy doings shall ever to my heart be kind and dear." + +Then, with a nod of his head, did Maia's son vow that never would he +steal the possessions of the Far-darter, nor draw nigh his strong +dwelling. And Leto's son made vow and band of love and alliance, that +none other among the Gods should be dearer of Gods or men the seed of +Zeus. [And I shall make, with thee, a perfect token of a Covenant of all +Gods and all men, loyal to my heart and honoured.] {162a} "Thereafter +shall I give thee a fair wand of wealth and fortune, a golden wand, three- +pointed, which shall guard thee harmless, accomplishing all things good +of word and deed that it is mine to learn from the voice of Zeus. {162b} +But as touching the art prophetic, oh best of fosterlings of Zeus, +concerning which thou inquirest, for thee it is not fit to learn that +art, nay, nor for any other Immortal. That lies in the mind of Zeus +alone. Myself did make pledge, and promise, and strong oath, that, save +me, none other of the eternal Gods should know the secret counsel of +Zeus. And thou, my brother of the Golden Wand, bid me not tell thee what +awful purposes is planning the far-seeing Zeus. + +"One mortal shall I harm, and another shall I bless, with many a turn of +fortune among hapless men. Of mine oracle shall he have profit whosoever +comes in the wake of wings and voice of birds of omen: he shall have +profit of mine oracle: him I will not deceive. But whoso, trusting birds +not ominous, approaches mine oracle, to inquire beyond my will, and know +more than the eternal Gods, shall come, I say, on a bootless journey, yet +his gifts shall I receive. Yet another thing will I tell thee, thou Son +of renowned Maia and of Zeus of the AEgis, thou bringer of boon; there be +certain Thriae, sisters born, three maidens rejoicing in swift wings. +Their heads are sprinkled with white barley flour, and they dwell beneath +a glade of Parnassus, apart they dwell, teachers of soothsaying. This +art I learned while yet a boy I tended the kine, and my Father heeded +not. Thence they flit continually hither and thither, feeding on +honeycombs and bringing all things to fulfilment. They, when they are +full of the spirit of soothsaying, having eaten of the wan honey, delight +to speak forth the truth. But if they be bereft of the sweet food +divine, then lie they all confusedly. These I bestow on thee, and do +thou, inquiring clearly, delight thine own heart, and if thou instruct +any man, he will often hearken to thine oracle, if he have the good +fortune. {164} These be thine, O Son of Maia, and the cattle of the +field with twisted horn do thou tend, and horses, and toilsome mules. . . . +And be lord over the burning eyes of lions, and white-toothed swine, +and dogs, and sheep that wide earth nourishes, and over all flocks be +glorious Hermes lord. And let him alone be herald appointed to Hades, +who, though he be giftless, will give him highest gift of honour." + +With such love, in all kindness, did Apollo pledge the Son of Maia, and +thereto Cronion added grace. With all mortals and immortals he consorts. +Somewhat doth he bless, but ever through the dark night he beguiles the +tribes of mortal men. + +Hail to thee thus, Son of Zeus and Maia, of thee shall I be mindful and +of another lay. + + + +III. APHRODITE + + +Tell me, Muse, of the deeds of golden Aphrodite, the Cyprian, who rouses +sweet desire among the Immortals, and vanquishes the tribes of deathly +men, and birds that wanton in the air, and all beasts, even all the clans +that earth nurtures, and all in the sea. To all are dear the deeds of +the garlanded Cyprian. + +[Aphrodite. Marble statue in the Louvre: lang166.jpg] + +Yet three hearts there be that she cannot persuade or beguile: the +daughter of Zeus of the AEgis, grey-eyed Athene: not to her are dear the +deeds of golden Aphrodite, but war and the work of Ares, battle and +broil, and the mastery of noble arts. First was she to teach earthly men +the fashioning of war chariots and cars fair-wrought with bronze. And +she teaches to tender maidens in the halls all goodly arts, breathing +skill into their minds. Nor ever doth laughter-loving Aphrodite conquer +in desire Artemis of the Golden Distaff, rejoicing in the sound of the +chase, for the bow and arrow are her delight, and slaughter of the wild +beasts on the hills: the lyre, the dance, the clear hunting halloo, and +shadowy glens, and cities of righteous men. + +Nor to the revered maiden Hestia are the feats of Aphrodite a joy, eldest +daughter of crooked-counselled Cronos [youngest, too, by the design of +Zeus of the AEgis], that lady whom both Poseidon and Apollo sought to +win. But she would not, nay stubbornly she refused; and she swore a +great oath fulfilled, with her hand on the head of Father Zeus of the +AEgis, to be a maiden for ever, that lady Goddess. And to her Father +Zeus gave a goodly meed of honour, in lieu of wedlock; and in mid-hall +she sat her down choosing the best portion: and in all temples of the +Gods is she honoured, and among all mortals is chief of Gods. {168} + +Of these she cannot win or beguile the hearts. But of all others there +is none, of blessed Gods or mortal men, that hath escaped Aphrodite. Yea, +even the heart of Zeus the Thunderer she led astray; of him that is +greatest of all, and hath the highest lot of honour. Even his wise wit +she hath beguiled at her will, and lightly laid him in the arms of mortal +women; Hera not wotting of it, his sister and his wife, the fairest in +goodliness of beauty among the deathless Goddesses. To highest honour +did they beget her, crooked-counselled Cronos and Mother Rheia; and Zeus +of imperishable counsel made her his chaste and duteous wife. + +But into Aphrodite herself Zeus sent sweet desire, to lie in the arms of +a mortal man. This wrought he so that anon not even she might be +unconversant with a mortal bed, and might not some day with sweet +laughter make her boast among all the Gods, the smiling Aphrodite, that +she had given the Gods to mortal paramours, and they for deathless Gods +bare deathly sons, and that she mingled Goddesses in love with mortal +men. Therefore Zeus sent into her heart sweet desire of Anchises, who as +then was pasturing his kine on the steep hills of many-fountained Ida, a +man in semblance like the Immortals. Him thereafter did smiling +Aphrodite see and love, and measureless desire took hold on her heart. To +Cyprus wended she, within her fragrant shrine: even to Paphos, where is +her sacred garth and odorous altar. Thither went she in, and shut the +shining doors, and there the Graces laved and anointed her with oil +ambrosial, such as is on the bodies of the eternal Gods, sweet fragrant +oil that she had by her. Then clad she her body in goodly raiment, and +prinked herself with gold, the smiling Aphrodite; then sped to Troy, +leaving fragrant Cyprus, and high among the clouds she swiftly +accomplished her way. + +To many-fountained Ida she came, mother of wild beasts, and made straight +for the steading through the mountain, while behind her came fawning the +beasts, grey wolves, and lions fiery-eyed, and bears, and swift pards, +insatiate pursuers of the roe-deer. Glad was she at the sight of them, +and sent desire into their breasts, and they went coupling two by two in +the shadowy dells. But she came to the well-builded shielings, {170} and +him she found left alone in the shielings with no company, the hero +Anchises, graced with beauty from the Gods. All the rest were faring +after the kine through the grassy pastures, but he, left lonely at the +shielings, walked up and down, harping sweet and shrill. In front of him +stood the daughter of Zeus, Aphrodite, in semblance and stature like an +unwedded maid, lest he should be adread when he beheld the Goddess. And +Anchises marvelled when he beheld her, her height, and beauty, and +glistering raiment. For she was clad in vesture more shining than the +flame of fire, and with twisted armlets and glistering earrings of flower- +fashion. About her delicate neck were lovely jewels, fair and golden: +and like the moon's was the light on her fair breasts, and love came upon +Anchises, and he spake unto her: + +"Hail, Queen, whosoever of the Immortals thou art that comest to this +house; whether Artemis, or Leto, or golden Aphrodite, or high-born +Themis, or grey-eyed Athene. Or perchance thou art one of the Graces +come hither, who dwell friendly with the Gods, and have a name to be +immortal; or of the nymphs that dwell in this fair glade, or in this fair +mountain, and in the well-heads of rivers, and in grassy dells. But to +thee on some point of outlook, in a place far seen, will I make an altar, +and offer to thee goodly victims in every season. But for thy part be +kindly, and grant me to be a man pre-eminent among the Trojans, and give +goodly seed of children to follow me; but for me, let me live long, and +see the sunlight, and come to the limit of old age, being ever in all +things fortunate among men." + +Then Aphrodite the daughter of Zeus answered him: + +"Anchises, most renowned of men on earth, behold no Goddess am I,--why +likenest thou me to the Immortals?--Nay, mortal am I, and a mortal mother +bare me, and my father is famous Otreus, if thou perchance hast heard of +him, who reigns over strong-warded Phrygia. Now I well know both your +tongue and our own, for a Trojan nurse reared me in the hall, and +nurtured me ever, from the day when she took me at my mother's hands, and +while I was but a little child. Thus it is, thou seest, that I well know +thy tongue as well as my own. But even now the Argus-slayer of the +Golden Wand hath ravished me away from the choir of Artemis, the Goddess +of the Golden Distaff, who loves the noise of the chase. Many nymphs, +and maids beloved of many wooers, were we there at play, and a great +circle of people was about us withal. But thence did he bear me away, +the Argus-slayer, he of the Golden Wand, and bore me over much tilled +land of mortal men, and many wastes unfilled and uninhabited, where wild +beasts roam through the shadowy dells. So fleet we passed that I seemed +not to touch the fertile earth with my feet. Now Hermes said that I was +bidden to be the bride of Anchises, and mother of thy goodly children. +But when he had spoken and shown the thing, lo, instantly he went back +among the immortal Gods,--the renowned Slayer of Argus. But I come to +thee, strong necessity being laid upon me, and by Zeus I beseech thee and +thy good parents,--for none ill folk may get such a son as thee,--by them +I implore thee to take me, a maiden as I am and untried in love, and show +me to thy father and thy discreet mother, and to thy brothers of one +lineage with thee. No unseemly daughter to these, and sister to those +will I be, but well worthy; and do thou send a messenger swiftly to the +Phrygians of the dappled steeds, to tell my father of my fortunes, and my +sorrowing mother; gold enough and woven raiment will they send, and many +and goodly gifts shall be thy meed. Do thou all this, and then busk the +winsome wedding-feast, that is honourable among both men and immortal +Gods." + +So speaking, the Goddess brought sweet desire into his heart, and love +came upon Anchises, and he spake, and said: + +"If indeed thou art mortal and a mortal mother bore thee, and if renowned +Otreus is thy father, and if thou art come hither by the will of Hermes, +the immortal Guide, and art to be called my wife for ever, then neither +mortal man nor immortal God shall hold me from my desire before I lie +with thee in love, now and anon; nay, not even if Apollo the Far-darter +himself were to send the shafts of sorrow from the silver bow! Nay, thou +lady like the Goddesses, willing were I to go down within the house of +Hades, if but first I had climbed into thy bed." + +So spake he and took her hand; while laughter-loving Aphrodite turned, +and crept with fair downcast eyes towards the bed. It was strewn for the +Prince, as was of wont, with soft garments: and above it lay skins of +bears and deep-voiced lions that he had slain in the lofty hills. When +then they twain had gone up into the well-wrought bed, first Anchises +took from her body her shining jewels, brooches, and twisted armlets, +earrings and chains: and he loosed her girdle, and unclad her of her +glistering raiment, that he laid on a silver-studded chair. Then through +the Gods' will and design, by the immortal Goddess lay the mortal man, +not wotting what he did. + +Now in the hour when herdsmen drive back the kine and sturdy sheep to the +steading from the flowery pastures, even then the Goddess poured sweet +sleep into Anchises, and clad herself in her goodly raiment. Now when +she was wholly clad, the lady Goddess, her head touched the beam of the +lofty roof: and from her cheeks shone forth immortal beauty,--even the +beauty of fair-garlanded Cytherea. Then she aroused him from sleep, and +spake, and said: + +"Rise, son of Dardanus, why now slumberest thou so deeply? Consider, am +I even in aspect such as I was when first thine eyes beheld me?" + +So spake she, and straightway he started up out of slumber and was +adread, and turned his eyes away when he beheld the neck and the fair +eyes of Aphrodite. His goodly face he veiled again in a cloak, and +imploring her, he spake winged words: + +"Even so soon as mine eyes first beheld thee, Goddess, I knew thee for +divine: but not sooth didst thou speak to me. But by Zeus of the AEgis I +implore thee, suffer me not to live a strengthless shadow among men, but +pity me: for no man lives in strength that has couched with immortal +Goddesses." + +Then answered him Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus: + +"Anchises, most renowned of mortal men, take courage, nor fear overmuch. +For no fear is there that thou shalt suffer scathe from me, nor from +others of the blessed Gods, for dear to the Gods art thou. And to thee +shall a dear son be born, and bear sway among the Trojans, and children's +children shall arise after him continually. Lo, AENEAS shall his name be +called, since dread sorrow held me when I came into the bed of a mortal +man. And of all mortal men these who spring from thy race are always +nearest to the immortal Gods in beauty and stature; witness how +wise-counselling Zeus carried away golden-haired Ganymedes, for his +beauty's sake, that he might abide with the Immortals and be the +cup-bearer of the Gods in the house of Zeus, a marvellous thing to +behold, a mortal honoured among all the Immortals, as he draws the red +nectar from the golden mixing-bowl. But grief incurable possessed the +heart of Tros, nor knew he whither the wild wind had blown his dear son +away, therefore day by day he lamented him continually till Zeus took +pity upon him, and gave him as a ransom of his son high-stepping horses +that bear the immortal Gods. These he gave him for a gift, and the +Guide, the Slayer of Argus, told all these things by the command of Zeus, +even how Ganymedes should be for ever exempt from old age and death, even +as are the Gods. Now when his father heard this message of Zeus he +rejoiced in his heart and lamented no longer, but was gladly charioted by +the wind-fleet horses. + +"So too did Dawn of the Golden Throne carry off Tithonus, a man of your +lineage, one like unto the Immortals. Then went she to pray to Cronion, +who hath dark clouds for his tabernacle, that her lover might be immortal +and exempt from death for ever. Thereto Zeus consented and granted her +desire, but foolish of heart was the Lady Dawn, nor did she deem it good +to ask for eternal youth for her lover, and to keep him unwrinkled by +grievous old age. Now so long as winsome youth was his, in joy did he +dwell with the Golden-throned Dawn, the daughter of Morning, at the +world's end beside the streams of Oceanus, but so soon as grey hairs +began to flow from his fair head and goodly chin, the Lady Dawn held +aloof from his bed, but kept and cherished him in her halls, giving him +food and ambrosia and beautiful raiment. But when hateful old age had +utterly overcome him, and he could not move or lift his limbs, to her +this seemed the wisest counsel; she laid him in a chamber, and shut the +shining doors, and his voice flows on endlessly, and no strength now is +his such as once there was in his limbs. Therefore I would not have thee +to be immortal and live for ever in such fashion among the deathless +Gods, but if, being such as thou art in beauty and form, thou couldst +live on, and be called my lord, then this grief would not overshadow my +heart. + +"But it may not be, for swiftly will pitiless old age come upon thee, old +age that standeth close by mortal men; wretched and weary, and detested +by the Gods: but among the immortal Gods shall great blame be mine for +ever, and all for love of thee. For the Gods were wont to dread my words +and wiles wherewith I had subdued all the Immortals to mortal women in +love, my purpose overcoming them all; for now, lo you, my mouth will no +longer suffice to speak forth this boast among the Immortals, {180} for +deep and sore hath been my folly, wretched and not to be named; and +distraught have I been who carry a child beneath my girdle, the child of +a mortal. Now so soon as he sees the light of the sun the deep-bosomed +mountain nymphs will rear him for me; the nymphs who haunt this great and +holy mountain, being of the clan neither of mortals nor of immortal Gods. +Long is their life, and immortal food do they eat, and they join in the +goodly dance with the immortal Gods. With them the Sileni and the keen- +sighted Slayer of Argus live in dalliance in the recesses of the darkling +caves. At their birth there sprang up pine trees or tall-crested oaks on +the fruitful earth, nourishing and fair, and on the lofty mountain they +stand, and are called the groves of the immortal Gods, which in no wise +doth man cut down with the steel. But when the fate of death approaches, +first do the fair trees wither on the ground, and the bark about them +moulders, and the twigs fall down, and even as the tree perishes so the +soul of the nymph leaves the light of the sun. + +"These nymphs will keep my child with them and rear him; and him when +first he enters on lovely youth shall these Goddesses bring hither to +thee, and show thee. But to thee, that I may tell thee all my mind, will +I come in the fifth year bringing my son. At the sight of him thou wilt +be glad when thou beholdest him with thine eyes, for he will be divinely +fair, and thou wilt lead him straightway to windy Ilios. But if any +mortal man asketh of thee what mother bare this thy dear son, be mindful +to answer him as I command: say that he is thy son by one of the flower- +faced nymphs who dwell in this forest-clad mountain, but if in thy folly +thou speakest out, and boastest to have been the lover of fair-garlanded +Cytherea, then Zeus in his wrath will smite thee with the smouldering +thunderbolt. Now all is told to thee: do thou be wise, and keep thy +counsel, and speak not my name, but revere the wrath of the Gods." + +So spake she, and soared up into the windy heaven. + +Goddess, Queen of well-stablished Cyprus, having given thee honour due, I +shall pass on to another hymn. + + + +IV. HYMN TO DEMETER + + +[Syracusan medallion by Euainetos. Obv. Head of Persephone. Rev. +Victorious Chariot: lang183.jpg] + +Of fair-tressed Demeter, Demeter holy Goddess, I begin to sing: of her +and her slim-ankled daughter whom Hades snatched away, the gift of wide- +beholding Zeus, but Demeter knew it not, she that bears the Seasons, the +giver of goodly crops. For her daughter was playing with the +deep-bosomed maidens of Oceanus, and was gathering flowers--roses, and +crocuses, and fair violets in the soft meadow, and lilies, and hyacinths, +and the narcissus which the earth brought forth as a snare to the fair- +faced maiden, by the counsel of Zeus and to pleasure the Lord with many +guests. Wondrously bloomed the flower, a marvel for all to see, whether +deathless gods or deathly men. From its root grew forth a hundred +blossoms, and with its fragrant odour the wide heaven above and the whole +earth laughed, and the salt wave of the sea. Then the maiden marvelled, +and stretched forth both her hands to seize the fair plaything, but the +wide-wayed earth gaped in the Nysian plain, and up rushed the Prince, the +host of many guests, the many-named son of Cronos, with his immortal +horses. Maugre her will he seized her, and drave her off weeping in his +golden chariot, but she shrilled aloud, calling on Father Cronides, the +highest of gods and the best. + +But no immortal god or deathly man heard the voice of her, . . . save the +daughter of Persaeus, Hecate of the shining head-tire, as she was +thinking delicate thoughts, who heard the cry from her cave [and Prince +Helios, the glorious son of Hyperion], the maiden calling on Father +Cronides. But he far off sat apart from the gods in his temple haunted +by prayers, receiving goodly victims from mortal men. By the design of +Zeus did the brother of Zeus lead the maiden away, the lord of many, the +host of many guests, with his deathless horses; right sore against her +will, even he of many names the son of Cronos. Now, so long as the +Goddess beheld the earth, and the starry heaven, and the tide of the +teeming sea, and the rays of the sun, and still hoped to behold her +mother dear, and the tribes of the eternal gods; even so long, despite +her sorrow, hope warmed her high heart; then rang the mountain peaks, and +the depths of the sea to her immortal voice, and her lady mother heard +her. Then sharp pain caught at her heart, and with her hands she tore +the wimple about her ambrosial hair, and cast a dark veil about her +shoulders, and then sped she like a bird over land and sea in her great +yearning; but to her there was none that would tell the truth, none, +either of Gods, or deathly men, nor even a bird came nigh her, a +soothsaying messenger. Thereafter for nine days did Lady Deo roam the +earth, with torches burning in her hands, nor ever in her sorrow tasted +she of ambrosia and sweet nectar, nor laved her body in the baths. But +when at last the tenth morn came to her with the light, Hecate met her, a +torch in her hands, and spake a word of tidings, and said: + +"Lady Demeter, thou that bringest the Seasons, thou giver of glad gifts, +which of the heavenly gods or deathly men hath ravished away Persephone, +and brought thee sorrow: for I heard a voice but I saw not who the +ravisher might be? All this I say to thee for sooth." + +So spake Hecate, and the daughter of fair-tressed Rheie answered her not, +but swiftly rushed on with her, bearing torches burning in her hands. So +came they to Helios that watches both for gods and men, and stood before +his car, and the lady Goddess questioned him: + +"Helios, be pitiful on me that am a goddess, if ever by word or deed I +gladdened thy heart. My daughter, whom I bore, a sweet plant and fair to +see; it was her shrill voice I heard through the air unharvested, even as +of one violently entreated, but I saw her not with my eyes. But do thou +that lookest down with thy rays from the holy air upon all the land and +sea, do thou tell me truly concerning my dear child, if thou didst behold +her; who it is that hath gone off and ravished her away from me against +her will, who is it of gods or mortal men?" + +So spake she, and Hyperionides answered her: + +"Daughter of fair-tressed Rheia, Queen Demeter, thou shalt know it; for +greatly do I pity and revere thee in thy sorrow for thy slim-ankled +child. There is none other guilty of the Immortals but Zeus himself that +gathereth the clouds, who gave thy daughter to Hades, his own brother, to +be called his lovely wife; and Hades has ravished her away in his +chariot, loudly shrilling, beneath the dusky gloom. But, Goddess, do +thou cease from thy long lamenting. It behoves not thee thus vainly to +cherish anger unassuaged. No unseemly lord for thy daughter among the +Immortals is Aidoneus, the lord of many, thine own brother and of one +seed with thee, and for his honour he won, since when was made the +threefold division, to be lord among those with whom he dwells." + +So spake he, and called upon his horses, and at his call they swiftly +bore the fleet chariot on like long-winged birds. But grief more dread +and bitter fell upon her, and wroth thereafter was she with Cronion that +hath dark clouds for his dwelling. She held apart from the gathering of +the Gods and from tall Olympus, and disfiguring her form for many days +she went among the cities and rich fields of men. Now no man knew her +that looked on her, nor no deep-bosomed woman, till she came to the +dwelling of Celeus, who then was Prince of fragrant Eleusis. There sat +she at the wayside in sorrow of heart, by the Maiden Well whence the +townsfolk were wont to draw water. In the shade she sat; above her grew +a thick olive-tree; and in fashion she was like an ancient crone who +knows no more of child-bearing and the gifts of Aphrodite, the lover of +garlands. Such she was as are the nurses of the children of +doom-pronouncing kings. Such are the housekeepers in their echoing +halls. + +Now the daughters of Celeus beheld her as they came to fetch the fair- +flowing water, to carry thereof in bronze vessels to their father's home. +Four were they, like unto goddesses, all in the bloom of youth, +Callidice, and Cleisidice, and winsome Demo, and Callithoe the eldest of +them all, nor did they know her, for the Gods are hard to be known by +mortals, but they stood near her and spake winged words: + +"Who art thou and whence, old woman, of ancient folk, and why wert thou +wandering apart from the town, nor dost draw nigh to the houses where are +women of thine own age, in the shadowy halls, even such as thou, and +younger women, too, who may kindly entreat thee in word and deed?" + +So spake they, and the lady Goddess answered: + +"Dear children, whoever ye be, of womankind I bid you hail, and I will +tell you my story. Seemly it is to answer your questions truly. Deo is +my name that my lady mother gave me; but now, look you, from Crete am I +come hither over the wide ridges of the sea, by no will of my own, nay, +by violence have sea-rovers brought me hither under duress, who +thereafter touched with their swift ship at Thoricos where the women and +they themselves embarked on land. Then were they busy about supper +beside the hawsers of the ship, but my heart heeded not delight of +supper; no, stealthily setting forth through the dark land I fled from +these overweening masters, that they might not sell me whom they had +never bought and gain my price. Thus hither have I come in my wandering, +nor know I at all what land is this, nor who they be that dwell therein. +But to you may all they that hold mansions in Olympus give husbands and +lords, and such children to bear as parents desire; but me do ye maidens +pity in your kindness, till I come to the house of woman or of man, that +there I may work zealously for them in such tasks as fit a woman of my +years. I could carry in mine arms a new-born babe, and nurse it well, +and keep the house, and strew my master's bed within the well-builded +chambers, and teach the maids their tasks." + +So spake the Goddess, and straightway answered her the maid unwed, +Callidice, the fairest of the daughters of Celeus: + +"Mother, what things soever the Gods do give must men, though sorrowing, +endure, for the Gods are far stronger than we; but this will I tell thee +clearly and soothly, namely, what men they are who here have most honour, +and who lead the people, and by their counsels and just dooms do +safeguard the bulwarks of the city. Such are wise Triptolemus, Diocles, +Polyxenus, and noble Eumolpus, and Dolichus, and our lordly father. All +their wives keep their houses, and not one of them would at first sight +contemn thee and thrust thee from their halls, but gladly they will +receive thee: for thine aspect is divine. So, if thou wilt, abide here, +that we may go to the house of my father, and tell out all this tale to +my mother, the deep-bosomed Metaneira, if perchance she will bid thee +come to our house and not seek the homes of others. A dear son born in +her later years is nurtured in the well-builded hall, a child of many +prayers and a welcome. If thou wouldst nurse him till he comes to the +measure of youth, then whatsoever woman saw thee should envy thee; such +gifts of fosterage would my mother give thee." + +So spake she and the Goddess nodded assent. So rejoicing they filled +their shining pitchers with water and bore them away. Swiftly they came +to the high hall of their father, and quickly they told their mother what +they had heard and seen, and speedily she bade them run and call the +strange woman, offering goodly hire. Then as deer or calves in the +season of Spring leap along the meadow, when they have had their fill of +pasture, so lightly they kilted up the folds of their lovely kirtles, and +ran along the hollow chariot-way, while their hair danced on their +shoulders, in colour like the crocus flower. They found the glorious +Goddess at the wayside, even where they had left her, and anon they led +her to their father's house. But she paced behind in heaviness of heart, +her head veiled, and the dark robe floating about her slender feet +divine. Speedily they came to the house of Celeus, the fosterling of +Zeus, and they went through the corridor where their lady mother was +sitting by the doorpost of the well-wrought hall, with her child in her +lap, a young blossom, and the girls ran up to her, but the Goddess stood +on the threshold, her head touching the roof-beam, and she filled the +doorway with the light divine. Then wonder, and awe, and pale fear +seized the mother, and she gave place from her high seat, and bade the +Goddess be seated. But Demeter the bearer of the Seasons, the Giver of +goodly gifts, would not sit down upon the shining high seat. Nay, in +silence she waited, casting down her lovely eyes, till the wise Iambe set +for her a well-made stool, and cast over it a glistering fleece. {194} +Then sat she down and held the veil before her face; long in sorrow and +silence sat she so, and spake to no man nor made any sign, but smileless +she sat, nor tasted meat nor drink, wasting with long desire for her deep- +bosomed daughter. + +So abode she till wise Iambe with jests and many mockeries beguiled the +lady, the holy one, to smile and laugh and hold a happier heart, and +pleased her moods even thereafter. Then Metaneira filled a cup of sweet +wine and offered it to her, but she refused it, saying, that it was not +permitted for her to drink red wine; but she bade them mix meal and water +with the tender herb of mint, and give it to her to drink. Then +Metaneira made a potion and gave it to the Goddess as she bade, and Lady +Deo took it and made libation, and to them fair-girdled Metaneira said: + +"Hail, lady, for methinks thou art not of mean parentage, but goodly +born, for grace and honour shine in thine eyes as in the eyes of doom- +dealing kings. But the gifts of the Gods, even in sorrow, we men of +necessity endure, for the yoke is laid upon our necks; yet now that thou +art come hither, such things as I have shall be thine. Rear me this +child that the Gods have given in my later years and beyond my hope; and +he is to me a child of many prayers. If thou rear him, and he come to +the measure of youth, verily each woman that sees thee will envy thee, +such shall be my gifts of fosterage." + +Then answered her again Demeter of the fair garland: + +"And mayst thou too, lady, fare well, and the Gods give thee all things +good. Gladly will I receive thy child that thou biddest me nurse. Never, +methinks, by the folly of his nurse shall charm or sorcery harm him; for +I know an antidote stronger than the wild wood herb, and a goodly salve I +know for the venomed spells." + +So spake she, and with her immortal hands she placed the child on her +fragrant breast, and the mother was glad at heart. So in the halls she +nursed the goodly son of wise Celeus, even Demophoon, whom deep-breasted +Metaneira bare, and he grew like a god, upon no mortal food, nor on no +mother's milk. For Demeter anointed him with ambrosia as though he had +been a son of a God, breathing sweetness over him, and keeping him in her +bosom. So wrought she by day, but at night she was wont to hide him in +the force of fire like a brand, his dear parents knowing it not. {196} +Nay, to them it was great marvel how flourished he and grew like the Gods +to look upon. And, verily, she would have made him exempt from eld and +death for ever, had not fair-girdled Metaneira, in her witlessness, spied +on her in the night from her fragrant chamber. Then wailed she, and +smote both her thighs, in terror for her child, and in anguish of heart, +and lamenting she spake winged words: "My child Demophoon, the stranger +is concealing thee in the heart of the fire; bitter sorrow for me and +lamentation." + +So spake she, wailing, and the lady Goddess heard her. Then in wrath did +the fair-garlanded Demeter snatch out of the fire with her immortal hands +and cast upon the ground that woman's dear son, whom beyond all hope she +had borne in the halls. Dread was the wrath of Demeter, and anon she +spake to fair-girdled Metaneira. "Oh redeless and uncounselled race of +men, that know not beforehand the fate of coming good or coming evil. +For, lo, thou hast wrought upon thyself a bane incurable, by thine own +witlessness; for by the oath of the Gods, the relentless water of Styx, I +would have made thy dear child deathless and exempt from age for ever, +and would have given him glory imperishable. But now in nowise may he +escape the Fates and death, yet glory imperishable will ever be his, +since he has lain on my knees and slept within my arms; [but as the years +go round, and in his day, the sons of the Eleusinians will ever wage war +and dreadful strife one upon the other.] Now I am the honoured Demeter, +the greatest good and gain of the Immortals to deathly men. But, come +now, let all the people build me a great temple and an altar thereby, +below the town, and the steep wall, above Callichorus on the jutting +rock. But the rites I myself will prescribe, that in time to come ye may +pay them duly and appease my power." + +Therewith the Goddess changed her shape and height, and cast off old age, +and beauty breathed about her, and the sweet scent was breathed from her +fragrant robes, and afar shone the light from the deathless body of the +Goddess, the yellow hair flowing about her shoulders, so that the goodly +house was filled with the splendour as of levin fire, and forth from the +halls went she. + +But anon the knees of the woman were loosened, and for long time she was +speechless, nay, nor did she even mind of the child, her best beloved, to +lift him from the floor. But the sisters of the child heard his pitiful +cry, and leapt from their fair-strewn beds; one of them, lifting the +child in her hands, laid it in her bosom; and another lit fire, and the +third ran with smooth feet to take her mother forth from the fragrant +chamber. Then gathered they about the child, and bathed and clad him +lovingly, yet his mood was not softened, for meaner nurses now and +handmaids held him. + +They the long night through were adoring the renowned Goddess, trembling +with fear, but at the dawning they told truly to mighty Celeus all that +the Goddess had commanded; even Demeter of the goodly garland. Thereon +he called into the market-place the many people, and bade them make a +rich temple, and an altar to fair-tressed Demeter, upon the jutting rock. +Then anon they heard and obeyed his voice, and as he bade they builded. +And the child increased in strength by the Goddess's will. + +Now when they had done their work, and rested from their labours, each +man started for his home, but yellow-haired Demeter, sitting there apart +from all the blessed Gods, abode, wasting away with desire for her deep- +bosomed daughter. Then the most dread and terrible of years did the +Goddess bring for mortals upon the fruitful earth, nor did the earth send +up the seed, for Demeter of the goodly garland concealed it. Many +crooked ploughs did the oxen drag through the furrows in vain, and much +white barley fell fruitless upon the land. Now would the whole race of +mortal men have perished utterly from the stress of famine, and the Gods +that hold mansions in Olympus would have lost the share and renown of +gift and sacrifice, if Zeus had not conceived a counsel within his heart. + +First he roused Iris of the golden wings to speed forth and call the fair- +tressed Demeter, the lovesome in beauty. So spake Zeus, and Iris obeyed +Zeus, the son of Cronos, who hath dark clouds for his tabernacle, and +swiftly she sped adown the space between heaven and earth. Then came she +to the citadel of fragrant Eleusis, and in the temple she found Demeter +clothed in dark raiment, and speaking winged words addressed her: +"Demeter, Father Zeus, whose counsels are imperishable, bids thee back +unto the tribes of the eternal Gods. Come thou, then, lest the word of +Zeus be of no avail." So spake she in her prayer, but the Goddess +yielded not. Thereafter the Father sent forth all the blessed Gods, all +of the Immortals, and coming one by one they bade Demeter return, and +gave her many splendid gifts, and all honours that she might choose among +the immortal Gods. But none availed to persuade by turning her mind and +her angry heart, so stubbornly she refused their sayings. For she deemed +no more for ever to enter fragrant Olympus, and no more to allow the +earth to bear her fruit, until her eyes should behold her fair-faced +daughter. + +But when far-seeing Zeus, the lord of the thunder-peal, had heard the +thing, he sent to Erebus the slayer of Argos, the God of the golden wand, +to win over Hades with soft words, and persuade him to bring up holy +Persephone into the light, and among the Gods, from forth the murky +gloom, that so her mother might behold her, and that her anger might +relent. And Hermes disobeyed not, but straightway and speedily went +forth beneath the hollow places of the earth, leaving the home of +Olympus. That King he found within his dwelling, sitting on a couch with +his chaste bedfellow, who sorely grieved for desire of her mother, that +still was cherishing a fell design against the ill deeds of the Gods. +Then the strong slayer of Argos drew near and spoke: "Hades of the dark +locks, thou Prince of men out-worn, Father Zeus bade me bring the dread +Persephone forth from Erebus among the Gods, that her mother may behold +her, and relent from her anger and terrible wrath against the Immortals, +for now she contrives a mighty deed, to destroy the feeble tribes of +earth-born men by withholding the seed under the earth. Thereby the +honours of the Gods are minished, and fierce is her wrath, nor mingles +she with the Gods, but sits apart within the fragrant temple in the steep +citadel of Eleusis." + +So spake he, and smiling were the brows of Aidoneus, Prince of the dead, +nor did he disobey the commands of King Zeus, as speedily he bade the +wise Persephone: "Go, Persephone, to thy dark-mantled mother, go with a +gentle spirit in thy breast, nor be thou beyond all other folk +disconsolate. Verily I shall be no unseemly lord of thine among the +Immortals, I that am the brother of Father Zeus, and whilst thou art here +shalt thou be mistress over all that lives and moves, but among the +Immortals shalt thou have the greatest renown. Upon them that wrong thee +shall vengeance be unceasing, upon them that solicit not thy power with +sacrifice, and pious deeds, and every acceptable gift." + +So spake he, and wise Persephone was glad; and joyously and swiftly she +arose, but the God himself, stealthily looking around her, gave her sweet +pomegranate seed to eat, and this he did that she might not abide for +ever beside revered Demeter of the dark mantle. {204} Then openly did +Aidoneus, the Prince of all, get ready the steeds beneath the golden +chariot, and she climbed up into the golden chariot, and beside her the +strong Slayer of Argos took reins and whip in hand, and drove forth from +the halls, and gladly sped the horses twain. Speedily they devoured the +long way; nor sea, nor rivers, nor grassy glades, nor cliffs, could stay +the rush of the deathless horses; nay, far above them they cleft the deep +air in their course. Before the fragrant temple he drove them, and +checked them where dwelt Demeter of the goodly garland, who, when she +beheld them, rushed forth like a Maenad down a dark mountain woodland. +{205} + +[But Persephone on the other side rejoiced to see her mother dear, and +leaped to meet her; but the mother said, "Child, in Hades hast thou eaten +any food? for if thou hast not] then with me and thy father the son of +Cronos, who has dark clouds for his tabernacle, shalt thou ever dwell +honoured among all the Immortals. But if thou hast tasted food, thou +must return again, and beneath the hollows of the earth must dwell in +Hades a third portion of the year; yet two parts of the year thou shalt +abide with me and the other Immortals. When the earth blossoms with all +manner of fragrant flowers, then from beneath the murky gloom shalt thou +come again, a mighty marvel to Gods and to mortal men. Now tell me by +what wile the strong host of many guests deceived thee? . . . " + +Then fair Persephone answered her august mother: "Behold, I shall tell +thee all the truth without fail. I leaped up for joy when boon Hermes, +the swift messenger, came from my father Cronides and the other heavenly +Gods, with the message that I was to return out of Erebus, that so thou +mightest behold me, and cease thine anger and dread wrath against the +Immortals. Thereon Hades himself compelled me to taste of a sweet +pomegranate seed against my will. And now I will tell thee how, through +the crafty device of Cronides my father, he ravished me, and bore me away +beneath the hollows of the earth. All that thou askest I will tell thee. +We were all playing in the lovely meadows, Leucippe and Phaino, and +Electra, and Ianthe, and Melite, and Iache, and Rhodeia, and Callirhoe, +and Melobosis, and Tuche, and flower-faced Ocyroe, and Chraesis, and +Ianeira, and Acaste, and Admete, and Rhodope, and Plouto, and winsome +Calypso, and Styx, and Urania, and beautiful Galaxaure. We were playing +there, and plucking beautiful blossoms with our hands; crocuses mingled, +and iris, and hyacinth, and roses, and lilies, a marvel to behold, and +narcissus, that the wide earth bare, a wile for my undoing. Gladly was I +gathering them when the earth gaped beneath, and therefrom leaped the +mighty Prince, the host of many guests, and he bare me against my will +despite my grief beneath the earth, in his golden chariot; and shrilly +did I cry. This all is true that I tell thee." + +So the livelong day in oneness of heart did they cheer each other with +love, and their minds ceased from sorrow, and great gladness did either +win from other. Then came to them Hekate of the fair wimple, and often +did she kiss the holy daughter of Demeter, and from that day was her +queenly comrade and handmaiden; but to them for a messenger did +far-seeing Zeus of the loud thunder-peal send fair-tressed Rhea to bring +dark-mantled Demeter among the Gods, with pledge of what honour she might +choose among the Immortals. He vowed that her daughter, for the third +part of the revolving year, should dwell beneath the murky gloom, but for +the other two parts she should abide with her mother and the other gods. + +Thus he spake, and the Goddess disobeyed not the commands of Zeus. +Swiftly she sped down from the peaks of Olympus, and came to fertile +Rarion; fertile of old, but now no longer fruitful; for fallow and +leafless it lay, and hidden was the white barley grain by the device of +fair-ankled Demeter. None the less with the growing of the Spring the +land was to teem with tall ears of corn, and the rich furrows were to be +heavy with corn, and the corn to be bound in sheaves. There first did +she land from the unharvested ether, and gladly the Goddesses looked on +each other, and rejoiced in heart, and thus first did Rhea of the fair +wimple speak to Demeter: + +"Hither, child; for he calleth thee, far-seeing Zeus, the lord of the +deep thunder, to come among the Gods, and has promised thee such honours +as thou wilt, and hath decreed that thy child, for the third of the +rolling year, shall dwell beneath the murky gloom, but the other two +parts with her mother and the rest of the Immortals. So doth he promise +that it shall be and thereto nods his head; but come, my child, obey, and +be not too unrelenting against the Son of Cronos, the lord of the dark +cloud. And anon do thou increase the grain that bringeth life to men." + +So spake she, and Demeter of the fair garland obeyed. Speedily she sent +up the grain from the rich glebe, and the wide earth was heavy with +leaves and flowers: and she hastened, and showed the thing to the kings, +the dealers of doom; to Triptolemus and Diocles the charioteer, and +mighty Eumolpus, and Celeus the leader of the people; she showed them the +manner of her rites, and taught them her goodly mysteries, holy mysteries +which none may violate, or search into, or noise abroad, for the great +curse from the Gods restrains the voice. Happy is he among deathly men +who hath beheld these things! and he that is uninitiate, and hath no lot +in them, hath never equal lot in death beneath the murky gloom. + +Now when the Goddess had given instruction in all her rites, they went to +Olympus, to the gathering of the other Gods. There the Goddesses dwell +beside Zeus the lord of the thunder, holy and revered are they. Right +happy is he among mortal men whom they dearly love; speedily do they send +as a guest to his lofty hall Plutus, who giveth wealth to mortal men. But +come thou that holdest the land of fragrant Eleusis, and sea-girt Paros, +and rocky Antron, come, Lady Deo! Queen and giver of goodly gifts, and +bringer of the Seasons; come thou and thy daughter, beautiful Persephone, +and of your grace grant me goodly substance in requital of my song; but I +will mind me of thee, and of other minstrelsy. + + + +V. TO APHRODITE + + +I shall sing of the revered Aphrodite, the golden-crowned, the beautiful, +who hath for her portion the mountain crests of sea-girt Cyprus. Thither +the strength of the west wind moistly blowing carried her amid soft foam +over the wave of the resounding sea. Her did the golden-snooded Hours +gladly welcome, and clad her about in immortal raiment, and on her +deathless head set a well-wrought crown, fair and golden, and in her ears +put earrings of orichalcum and of precious gold. Her delicate neck and +white bosom they adorned with chains of gold, wherewith are bedecked the +golden-snooded Hours themselves, when they come to the glad dance of the +Gods in the dwelling of the Father. Anon when they had thus adorned her +in all goodliness they led her to the Immortals, who gave her greeting +when they beheld her, and welcomed her with their hands; and each God +prayed that he might lead her home to be his wedded wife, so much they +marvelled at the beauty of the fair-garlanded Cytherean. Hail, thou of +the glancing eyes, thou sweet winsome Goddess, and grant that I bear off +the victory in this contest, and lend thou grace to my song, while I +shall both remember thee and another singing. + + + +VI. TO DIONYSUS + + +[Dionysus sailing in his sacred ship. (Interior Design on a Kylix by +Exekias in Munich.): lang213.jpg] + +Concerning Dionysus the son of renowned Semele shall I sing; how once he +appeared upon the shore of the sea unharvested, on a jutting headland, in +form like a man in the bloom of youth, with his beautiful dark hair +waving around him, and on his strong shoulders a purple robe. Anon came +in sight certain men that were pirates; in a well-wrought ship sailing +swiftly on the dark seas: Tyrsenians were they, and Ill Fate was their +leader, for they beholding him nodded each to other, and swiftly leaped +forth, and hastily seized him, and set him aboard their ship rejoicing in +heart, for they deemed that he was the son of kings, the fosterlings of +Zeus, and they were minded to bind him with grievous bonds. But him the +fetters held not, and the withes fell far from his hands and feet. {214} +There sat he smiling with his dark eyes, but the steersman saw it, and +spake aloud to his companions: "Fools, what God have ye taken and bound? +a strong God is he, our trim ship may not contain him. Surely this is +Zeus, or Apollo of the Silver Bow, or Poseidon; for he is nowise like +mortal man, but like the Gods who have mansions in Olympus. Nay, come +let us instantly release him upon the dark mainland, nor lay ye your +hands upon him, lest, being wroth, he rouse against us masterful winds +and rushing storm." + +So spake he, but their captain rebuked him with a hateful word: "Fool, +look thou to the wind, and haul up the sail, and grip to all the gear, +but this fellow will be for men to meddle with. Methinks he will come to +Egypt, or to Cyprus, or to the Hyperboreans, or further far; and at the +last he will tell us who his friends are, and concerning his wealth, and +his brethren, for the God has delivered him into our hands." + +So spake he, and let raise the mast and hoist the mainsail, and the wind +filled the sail, and they made taut the ropes all round. But anon +strange matters appeared to them: first there flowed through all the +swift black ship a sweet and fragrant wine, and the ambrosial fragrance +arose, and fear fell upon all the mariners that beheld it. And +straightway a vine stretched hither and thither along the sail, hanging +with many a cluster, and dark ivy twined round the mast blossoming with +flowers, and gracious fruit and garlands grew on all the thole-pins; and +they that saw it bade the steersman drive straight to land. Meanwhile +within the ship the God changed into the shape of a lion at the bow; and +loudly he roared, and in midship he made a shaggy bear: such marvels he +showed forth: there stood it raging, and on the deck glared the lion +terribly. Then the men fled in terror to the stern, and there stood in +fear round the honest pilot. But suddenly sprang forth the lion and +seized the captain, and the men all at once leaped overboard into the +strong sea, shunning dread doom, and there were changed into dolphins. +But the God took pity upon the steersman, and kept him, and gave him all +good fortune, and spake, saying, "Be of good courage, Sir, dear art thou +to me, and I am Dionysus of the noisy rites whom Cadmeian Semele bare to +the love of Zeus." Hail, thou child of beautiful Semele, none that is +mindless of thee can fashion sweet minstrelsy. + + + +VII. TO ARES + + +Ares, thou that excellest in might, thou lord of the chariot of war, God +of the golden helm, thou mighty of heart, thou shield-bearer, thou safety +of cities, thou that smitest in mail; strong of hand and unwearied +valiant spearman, bulwark of Olympus, father of victory, champion of +Themis; thou tyrannous to them that oppose thee with force; thou leader +of just men, thou master of manlihood, thou that whirlest thy flaming +sphere among the courses of the seven stars of the sky, where thy fiery +steeds ever bear thee above the third orbit of heaven; do thou listen to +me, helper of mortals, Giver of the bright bloom of youth. Shed thou +down a mild light from above upon this life of mine, and my martial +strength, so that I may be of avail to drive away bitter cowardice from +my head, and to curb the deceitful rush of my soul, and to restrain the +sharp stress of anger which spurs me on to take part in the dread din of +battle. But give me heart, O blessed one, to abide in the painless +measures of peace, avoiding the battle-cry of foes and the compelling +fates of death. + + + +VIII. TO ARTEMIS + + +Sing thou of Artemis, Muse, the sister of the Far-darter; the archer +Maid, fellow-nursling with Apollo, who waters her steeds in the reedy +wells of Meles, then swiftly drives her golden chariot through Smyrna to +Claros of the many-clustered vines, where sits Apollo of the Silver Bow +awaiting the far-darting archer maid. And hail thou thus, and hail to +all Goddesses in my song, but to thee first, and beginning from thee, +will I sing, and so shall pass on to another lay. + + + +IX. TO APHRODITE + + +I shall sing of Cytherea, the Cyprus-born, who gives sweet gifts to +mortals, and ever on her face is a winsome smile, and ever in her hand a +winsome blossom. Hail to thee, Goddess, Queen of fair-set Salamis, and +of all Cyprus, and give to me song desirable, while I shall be mindful of +thee and of another song. + + + +X. TO ATHENE + + +Of Pallas Athene, the saviour of cities, I begin to sing; dread Goddess, +who with Ares takes keep of the works of war, and of falling cities, and +battles, and the battle din. She it is that saveth the hosts as they go +and return from the fight. Hail Goddess, and give to us happiness and +good fortune. + + + +XI. TO HERA + + +I sing of golden-throned Hera, whom Rhea bore, an immortal queen in +beauty pre-eminent, the sister and the bride of loud-thundering Zeus, the +lady renowned, whom all the Blessed throughout high Olympus honour and +revere no less than Zeus whose delight is the thunder. + + + +XII. TO DEMETER + + +Of fair-tressed Demeter the holy Goddess I begin to sing; of her and the +Maiden, the lovely Persephone. Hail Goddess, and save this city and +inspire my song. + + + +XIII. TO THE MOTHER OF THE GODS + + +Sing for me, clear-voiced Muse, daughter of great Zeus, the mother of all +Gods and all mortals, who is glad in the sound of rattles and drums, and +in the noise of flutes, and in the cry of wolves and fiery-eyed lions, +and in the echoing hills, and the woodland haunts; even so hail to thee +and to Goddesses all in my song. + + + +XIV. TO HERACLES THE LION-HEART + + +Of Heracles the son of Zeus will I sing, mightiest of mortals, whom +Alcmena bore in Thebes of the fair dancing places, for she had lain in +the arms of Cronion, the lord of the dark clouds. Of old the hero +wandered endlessly over land and sea, at the bidding of Eurystheus the +prince, and himself wrought many deeds of fateful might, and many he +endured; but now in the fair haunts of snowy Olympus he dwells in joy, +and hath white-ankled Hebe for his wife. Hail prince, son of Zeus, and +give to us valour and good fortune. + + + +XV. TO ASCLEPIUS + + +Of the healer of diseases, Asclepius, I begin to sing, the son of Apollo, +whom fair Coronis bore in the Dotian plain, the daughter of King +Phlegyas; a great joy to men was her son, and the soother of evil pains. +Even so do thou hail, O Prince, I pray to thee in my song. + + + +XVI. TO THE DIOSCOURI + + +Of Castor and Polydeuces do thou sing,--shrill Muse, the Tyndaridae, sons +of Olympian Zeus, whom Lady Leda bore beneath the crests of Taygetus, +having been secretly conquered by the desire of Cronion of the dark +clouds. Hail, ye sons of Tyndarus, ye cavaliers of swift steeds. + + + +XVII. TO HERMES + + +I sing of Cyllenian Hermes, slayer of Argus, prince of Cyllene and of +Arcadia rich in sheep, the boon messenger of the Immortals. Him did Maia +bear, the modest daughter of Atlas, to the love of Zeus. The company of +the blessed Gods she shunned, and dwelt in a shadowy cave where Cronion +was wont to lie with the fair-tressed nymph in the dark of night, while +sweet sleep possessed white-armed Hera, and no Immortals knew it, and no +deathly men. Hail to thee, thou son of Zeus and Maia, with thee shall I +begin and pass on to another song. Hail, Hermes, Giver of grace, thou +Guide, thou Giver of good things. + + + +XVIII. TO PAN + + +[Pan. With Goat and Shepherd's Crook. Terra cotta Statuette from +Tanagra, in the British Museum: lang230.jpg] + +Tell me, Muse, concerning the dear son of Hermes, the goat-footed, the +twy-horned, the lover of the din of revel, who haunts the wooded dells +with dancing nymphs that tread the crests of the steep cliffs, calling +upon Pan the pastoral God of the long wild hair. Lord is he of every +snowy crest and mountain peak and rocky path. Hither and thither he goes +through the thick copses, sometimes being drawn to the still waters, and +sometimes faring through the lofty crags he climbs the highest peak +whence the flocks are seen below; ever he ranges over the high white +hills, and ever among the knolls he chases and slays the wild beasts, the +God, with keen eye, and at evening returns piping from the chase, +breathing sweet strains on the reeds. In song that bird cannot excel him +which, among the leaves of the blossoming springtide, pours forth her +plaint and her honey-sweet song. With him then the mountain nymphs, the +shrill singers, go wandering with light feet, and sing at the side of the +dark water of the well, while the echo moans along the mountain crest, +and the God leaps hither and thither, and goes into the midst, with many +a step of the dance. On his back he wears the tawny hide of a lynx, and +his heart rejoices with shrill songs in the soft meadow where crocus and +fragrant hyacinth bloom all mingled amidst the grass. They sing of the +blessed Gods and of high Olympus, and above all do they sing of boon +Hermes, how he is the fleet herald of all the Gods, and how he came to +many-fountained Arcadia, the mother of sheep, where is his Cyllenian +demesne, and there he, God as he was, shepherded the fleecy sheep, the +thrall of a mortal man; for soft desire had come upon him to wed the fair- +haired daughter of Dryops, and the glad nuptials he accomplished, and to +Hermes in the hall she bare a dear son. From his birth he was a marvel +to behold, goat-footed, twy-horned, a loud speaker, a sweet laugher. Then +the nurse leaped up and fled when she saw his wild face and bearded chin. +But him did boon Hermes straightway take in his hands and bear, and +gladly did he rejoice at heart. Swiftly to the dwellings of the Gods +went he, bearing the babe hidden in the thick skins of mountain hares; +there sat he down by Zeus and the other Immortals, and showed his child, +and all the Immortals were glad at heart, and chiefly the Bacchic +Dionysus. Pan they called the babe to name: because he had made glad the +hearts of all of them. Hail then to thee, O Prince, I am thy suppliant +in song, and I shall be mindful of thee and of another lay. + + + +XIX. TO HEPHAESTUS + + +Sing, shrill Muse, of Hephaestus renowned in craft, who with grey-eyed +Athene taught goodly works to men on earth, even to men that before were +wont to dwell in mountain caves like beasts; but now, being instructed in +craft by the renowned craftsman Hephaestus, lightly the whole year +through they dwell happily in their own homes. Be gracious, Hephaestus, +and grant me valour and fortune. + + + +XX. TO APOLLO + + +Phoebus, to thee the swan sings shrill to the beating of his wings, as he +lights on the bank of the whirling pools of the river Peneus; and to thee +with his shrill lyre does the sweet-voiced minstrel sing ever, both first +and last. Even so hail thou, Prince, I beseech thee in my song. + + + +XXI. TO POSEIDON + + +Concerning Poseidon, a great God, I begin to sing: the shaker of the land +and of the sea unharvested; God of the deep who holdeth Helicon and wide +AEgae. A double meed of honour have the Gods given thee, O Shaker of the +Earth, to be tamer of horses and saviour of ships. Hail Prince, thou +Girdler of the Earth, thou dark-haired God, and with kindly heart, O +blessed one, do thou befriend the mariners. + + + +XXII. TO HIGHEST ZEUS + + +To Zeus the best of Gods will I sing; the best and the greatest, the far- +beholding lord who bringeth all to an end, who holdeth constant counsel +with Themis as she reclines on her couch. Be gracious, far-beholding son +of Cronos, thou most glorious and greatest. + + + +XXIII. TO HESTIA + + +Hestia, that guardest the sacred house of the Prince, Apollo the +Far-darter, in goodly Pytho, ever doth the oil drop dank from thy locks. +Come thou to this house with a gracious heart, come with counselling +Zeus, and lend grace to my song. + + + +XXIV. TO THE MUSES AND APOLLO + + +From the Muse I shall begin and from Apollo and Zeus. For it is from the +Muses and far-darting Apollo that minstrels and harpers are upon the +earth, but from Zeus come kings. Fortunate is he whomsoever the Muses +love, and sweet flows his voice from his lips. Hail, ye children of +Zeus, honour ye my lay, and anon I shall be mindful of you and of another +hymn. + + + +XXV. TO DIONYSUS + + +Of ivy-tressed uproarious Dionysus I begin to sing, the splendid son of +Zeus and renowned Semele. Him did the fair-tressed nymphs foster, +receiving him from the king and father in their bosoms, and needfully +they nurtured him in the glens of Nyse. By his father's will he waxed +strong in the fragrant cavern, being numbered among the Immortals. Anon +when the Goddesses had bred him up to be the god of many a hymn, then +went he wandering in the woodland glades, draped with ivy and laurel, and +the nymphs followed with him where he led, and loud rang the wild +woodland. Hail to thee, then, Dionysus of the clustered vine, and grant +to us to come gladly again to the season of vintaging, yea, and +afterwards for many a year to come. + + + +XXVI. TO ARTEMIS + + +I sing of Artemis of the Golden Distaff, Goddess of the loud chase, a +maiden revered, the slayer of stags, the archer, very sister of Apollo of +the golden blade. She through the shadowy hills and the windy headlands +rejoicing in the chase draws her golden bow, sending forth shafts of +sorrow. Then tremble the crests of the lofty mountains, and terribly the +dark woodland rings with din of beasts, and the earth shudders, and the +teeming sea. Meanwhile she of the stout heart turns about on every side +slaying the race of wild beasts. Anon when the Archer Huntress hath +taken her delight, and hath gladdened her heart, she slackens her bended +bow, and goes to the great hall of her dear Phoebus Apollo, to the rich +Delphian land; and arrays the lovely dance of Muses and Graces. There +hangs she up her bended bow and her arrows, and all graciously clad about +she leads the dances, first in place, while the others utter their +immortal voice in hymns to fair-ankled Leto, how she bore such children +pre-eminent among the Immortals in counsel and in deed. Hail, ye +children of Zeus and fair-tressed Leto, anon will I be mindful of you and +of another hymn. + +[Apollo, Artemis and Leto in procession. Marble relief in the Louvre: +lang241.jpg] + + + +XXVII. TO ATHENE + + +Of fairest Athene, renowned Goddess, I begin to sing, of the Grey-eyed, +the wise; her of the relentless heart, the maiden revered, the succour of +cities, the strong Tritogeneia. Her did Zeus the counsellor himself +beget from his holy head, all armed for war in shining golden mail, while +in awe did the other Gods behold it. Quickly did the Goddess leap from +the immortal head, and stood before Zeus, shaking her sharp spear, and +high Olympus trembled in dread beneath the strength of the grey-eyed +Maiden, while earth rang terribly around, and the sea was boiling with +dark waves, and suddenly brake forth the foam. Yea, and the glorious son +of Hyperion checked for long his swift steeds, till the maiden took from +her immortal shoulders her divine armour, even Pallas Athene: and Zeus +the counsellor rejoiced. Hail to thee, thou child of aegis-bearing Zeus, +anon shall I be mindful of thee and of another lay. + + + +XXVIII. TO HESTIA + + +Hestia, thou that in the lofty halls of all immortal Gods, and of all men +that go on earth, hast obtained an eternal place and the foremost honour, +splendid is thy glory and thy gift, for there is no banquet of mortals +without thee, none where, Hestia, they be not wont first and last to make +to thee oblation of sweet wine. And do thou, O slayer of Argus, son of +Zeus and Maia, messenger of the blessed Gods, God of the golden wand, +Giver of all things good, do thou with Hestia dwell in the fair mansions, +dear each to other; with kindly heart befriend us in company with dear +and honoured Hestia. [For both the twain, well skilled in all fair works +of earthly men, consort with wisdom and youth.] Hail daughter of Cronos, +thou and Hermes of the golden wand, anon will I be mindful of you and of +another lay. + + + +XXIX. TO EARTH, THE MOTHER OF ALL + + +Concerning Earth, the mother of all, shall I sing, firm Earth, eldest of +Gods, that nourishes all things in the world; all things that fare on the +sacred land, all things in the sea, all flying things, all are fed out of +her store. Through thee, revered Goddess, are men happy in their +children and fortunate in their harvest. Thine it is to give or to take +life from mortal men. Happy is he whom thou honourest with favouring +heart; to him all good things are present innumerable: his fertile field +is laden, his meadows are rich in cattle, his house filled with all good +things. Such men rule righteously in cities of fair women, great wealth +and riches are theirs, their children grow glorious in fresh delights: +their maidens joyfully dance and sport through the soft meadow flowers in +floral revelry. Such are those that thou honourest, holy Goddess, kindly +spirit. Hail, Mother of the Gods, thou wife of starry Ouranos, and +freely in return for my ode give me sufficient livelihood. Anon will I +be mindful of thee and of another lay. + + + +XXX. TO HELIOS + + +Begin, O Muse Calliope, to sing of Helios the child of Zeus, the splendid +Helios whom dark-eyed Euryphaessa bore to the son of Earth and starry +Heaven. For Hyperion wedded Euryphaessa, his own sister, who bore him +goodly children, the rosy-armed Dawn, and fair-tressed Selene, and the +tireless Helios, like unto the Immortals, who from his chariot shines on +mortals and on deathless Gods, and dread is the glance of his eyes from +his golden helm, and bright rays shine forth from him splendidly, and +round his temples the shining locks flowing down from his head frame +round his far-seen face, and a goodly garment wrought delicately shines +about his body in the breath of the winds, and stallions speed beneath +him when he, charioting his horses and golden-yoked car, drives down +through heaven to ocean. Hail, Prince, and of thy grace grant me +livelihood enough; beginning from thee I shall sing the race of heroes +half divine, whose deeds the Goddesses have revealed to mortals. + + + +XXXI. TO THE MOON + + +Ye Muses, sing of the fair-faced, wide-winged Moon; ye sweet-voiced +daughters of Zeus son of Cronos, accomplished in song! The heavenly +gleam from her immortal head circles the earth, and all beauty arises +under her glowing light, and the lampless air beams from her golden +crown, and the rays dwell lingering when she has bathed her fair body in +the ocean stream, and clad her in shining raiment, divine Selene, yoking +her strong-necked glittering steeds. Then forward with speed she drives +her deep-maned horses in the evening of the mid-month when her mighty orb +is full; then her beams are brightest in the sky as she waxes, a token +and a signal to mortal men. With her once was Cronion wedded in love, +and she conceived, and brought forth Pandia the maiden, pre-eminent in +beauty among the immortal Gods. Hail, Queen, white-armed Goddess, divine +Selene, gentle of heart and fair of tress. Beginning from thee shall I +sing the renown of heroes half divine whose deeds do minstrels chant from +their charmed lips; these ministers of the Muses. + + + +XXXII. TO THE DIOSCOURI + + +Sing, fair-glancing Muses, of the sons of Zeus, the Tyndaridae, glorious +children of fair-ankled Leda, Castor the tamer of steeds and faultless +Polydeuces. These, after wedlock with Cronion of the dark clouds, she +bore beneath the crests of Taygetus, that mighty hill, to be the saviours +of earthly men, and of swift ships when the wintry breezes rush along the +pitiless sea. Then men from their ships call in prayer with sacrifice of +white lambs when they mount the vessel's deck. But the strong wind and +the wave of the sea drive down their ship beneath the water; when +suddenly appear the sons of Zeus rushing through the air with tawny +wings, and straightway have they stilled the tempests of evil winds, and +have lulled the waves in the gulfs of the white salt sea: glad signs are +they to mariners, an ending of their labour: and men see it and are glad, +and cease from weary toil. Hail ye, Tyndaridae, ye knights of swift +steeds, anon will I be mindful of you and of another lay. + +[The Dioscuri coming to the feast of the Theoxenia. From a Vase in the +British Museum (Sixth Century B.C.): lang252.jpg] + + + +XXXIII. TO DIONYSUS + + +Some say that Semele bare thee to Zeus the lord of thunder in Dracanon, +and some in windy Icarus, and some in Naxos, thou seed of Zeus, +Eiraphiotes; and others by the deep-swelling river Alpheius, and others, +O Prince, say that thou wert born in Thebes. Falsely speak they all: for +the Father of Gods and men begat thee far away from men, while +white-armed Hera knew it not. There is a hill called Nyse, a lofty hill, +flowering into woodland, far away from Phoenicia, near the streams of +AEgyptus. . . . + +"And to thee will they raise many statues in the temples: as these thy +deeds are three, so men will sacrifice to thee hecatombs every three +years." {254} + +So spake Zeus the counsellor, and nodded with his head. Be gracious, +Eiraphiotes, thou wild lover, from thee, beginning and ending with thee, +we minstrels sing: in nowise is it possible for him who forgets thee to +be mindful of sacred song. Hail to thee, Dionysus Eiraphiotes, with thy +mother Semele, whom men call Thyone. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +{4} Baumeister, p. 94, and note on Hymn to Hermes, 51, citing Antigonus +Carystius. See, too, Gemoll, _Die Homerischen Hymnen_, p. 105. + +{13} _Journal of Hellenic Society_, vol. xiv. pp. 1-29. Mr. Verrall's +whole paper ought to be read, as a summary cannot be adequate. + +{16a} Henderson, "The Casket Letters," p. 67. + +{16b} Baumeister, "Hymni Homerici," 1860, p. 108 _et seq_. + +{18} _Die Homerischen Hymnen_, p. 116 (1886). + +{23a} _Journal Anthrop. Inst_., Feb. 1892, p. 290. + +{23b} (_Op. cit_., p. 296.) See "Are Savage Gods Borrowed from +Missionaries?" (_Nineteenth Century_, January 1899). + +{24} Hartland, "Folk-Lore," ix. 4, 312; x. I, p. 51. + +{30} Winslow, 1622. + +{34} For authorities, see Mr Howitt in the _Journal of the +Anthropological Institute_, and my "Making of Religion." Also _Folk +Lore_, December-March, 1898-99. + +{37a} Manning, "Notes on the Aborigines of New Holland." Read before +Royal Society of New South Wales, 1882. Notes taken down in 1845. +Compare Mrs. Langloh Parker, _More Australian Legendary Tales_, "The +Legend of the Flowers." + +{37b} Spencer and Gillen, "Natives of Central Australia," p. 651, _s.v_. + +{39} For the use of Hermes's tortoise-shell as a musical instrument +_without strings_, in early Anahuac, see Prof. Morse, in Appleton's +_Popular Science Monthly_, March 1899. + +{41} Gemoll. + +{44} "Golden Bough," i. 279. Mannhardt, _Antike-Wald-und Feldkulte_, p. +274. + +{45} Howitt, _Journal Anthtop. Inst_., xvi. p. 54. + +{46a} The Kurnai hold this belief. + +{46b} Brough Smyth, vol. i. p. 426 + +{46c} _Journal Anthrop. Inst_., xvi. pp. 330-331. + +{59} The most minute study of Lobeck's _Aglaophamus_ can tell us no more +than this; the curious may consult a useful short manual, _Eleusis, Ses +Mysteres, Ses Ruines, et son Musee_, by M. Demetrios Philios. Athens, +1896. M. Philios is the Director of the Eleusinian Excavations. + +{61} "Golden Bough," ii. 292. + +{62} "Golden Bough," ii. 369. + +{64a} "Golden Bough," ii. 44. + +{64b} Ibid., 46. + +{65} Mrs. Langloh Parker, "More Australian Legends," pp. 93-99. + +{66} The anthropomorphic view of the Genius of the grain as a woman +existed in Peru, as I have remarked in "Myth, Ritual, and Religion," i. +213. See, too, "Golden Bough," i. p. 351; Mr. Frazer also notes the Corn +Mother of Germany, and the Harvest Maiden of Balquhidder. + +{67} "Golden Bough," p. 351, citing from Mannhardt a Spanish tract of +1649. + +{68} Howitt, on Mysteries of the Coast Murring (_Journal Anthrop. +Instit_., vol. xiv.). + +{69} De Smet, "Oregon Mission," p. 359. Tanner's "Narrative" (1830), +pp. 192-193. + +{72} Pater, "Greek Studies," p. 90. + +{74a} "Africana," i. 130. + +{74b} _Journal Anthrop. Instit_. (1884), xiii. pp. 444, 450. + +{74c} _Op. cit_., xiv. pp. 310, 316. + +{75} "New South Wales," by Barren Field, pp. 69, 122 (1825). + +{76a} Aristophanes, _Ranae_, 445 _et seq_.; Origen. _c. Cels_., iii. 59; +Andocides, _Myst_., 31; Euripides, _Bacch_, 72 _et seq_. See Wobbermin, +_Religionsgeschitliche Studien_, pp. 36-44. + +{76b} Wobbermin, _op. cit_., p. 38. + +{77} Wobbermin, _op. cit_., p. 34. + +{78} Hatch, "Hibbert Lectures," pp. 284, 285. + +{82} _Recherches sur l'Origine et la Nature des Mysteres d'Eleusis_. +Klinikseck. Paris, 1895. + +{84} Herodotus, ii. 171. + +{85a} Spencer and Gillen, "Natives of Central Australia," p. 399. The +myth is not very quotable. + +{85b} Foucart, p. 19, quoting _Philosophoumena_, v. 7. M. Foucart, of +course, did not know the Arunta parallel. + +{85c} _Journal Anthrop. Inst_. (1884), pp. 194, 195, "Ngarego and Wolgal +Tribes of New South Wales." + +{85d} Ibid. (1885), p. 313. + +{86a} For ample information on this head see Mr. Clodd's "Tom-Tit-Tot," +and my "Custom and Myth" ("Cupid, Psyche, and the Sun Frog"). + +{86b} _Panegyr_., 28. + +{87a} Clem. Alex. _Protrept_., ii. 77 _et seq_. + +{87b} Harpocration, _s. v_. [Greek text]. + +{87c} _Cf_. [Greek text]. Hippon, 90, and Theophrastus, Charact. 6, and +Synesius, 213, c. Liddell and Scott, _s.v_. [Greek text]. + +{88a} "Sand and Spinifex," 1899. + +{88b} Foucart, pp. 45, 46 + +{88c} Hymn, Orph., 41, 5-9. + +{89a} Heriot, 1586. + +{89b} Foucart, pp. 56-59. + +{90} Foucart, p. 64. + +{91a} Basil Thomson, "The Kalou-Vu" (_Journal Anthrop. Inst_., May 1895, +pp. 349-356). Mr. Thomson was struck by the Greek analogies, but he did +not know, or does not allude to, Plutarch and the Golden Scroll. + +{91b} Fragments, V. p. 9, Didot; Foucart, p. 56, note. + +{95a} Herodotus, Alilat, i. 131, iii. 8. + +{95b} "Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia," 1895, vol. i. pp. 91, 92. + +{104} Callim., H. Apoll. 30. + + [Greek verse] + +{115} The Greek is corrupt, especially in line 213. + +{121} This action was practised by the Zulus in divination, and, +curiously, by a Highlander of the last century, appealing to the dead +Lovat not to see him wronged. + +{124} A folk-etymology from [Greek text] = to rot. + +{127} A similar portent is of recent belief in Maori tradition. + +{133} See Essay on this Hymn. + +{136} In our illustration both the lyre with a tortoise shell for +sounding-board, and the cithara, with no such sounding-board, are +represented. Is it possible that "the tuneful shell" was primarily used +_without_ chords, as an instrument for drumming upon? The drum, +variously made, is the primitive musical instrument, and it is doubted +whether any stringed instrument existed among native American races. But +drawings in ancient Aztec MSS. (as Mr. Morse has recently observed) show +the musician using a kind of drum made of a tortoise-shell, and some +students have (probably with too much fancy) recognised a figure with a +tortoise-shell fitted with chords, in Aztec MSS. It is possible enough +that the early Greeks used the shell as a sort of drum, before some +inventor (Hermes, in the Hymn) added chords and developed a stringed +instrument. _Cf_. p. 39. + +{138} Such sandals are used to hide their tracks by Avengers of Blood +among the tribes of Central Australia. + +{140} This piece of wood is that in which the other is twirled to make +fire by friction. + +{141a} Otherwise written and interpreted, "as even now the skins are +there," that is, are exhibited as relics. + +{141b} "Der Zweite Halbvers is mir absolut unverstandlich!"--_Gemoll_. + +{144} This is not likely to be the sense, but sense the text gives none. +Allen, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xvii. II. + +{153} "As if one walked with trees instead of feet."--_Allen_. + +{156} The passage which follows (409-414) is too corrupt to admit of any +but conjectural rendering. Probably Apollo twisted bands, which fell off +Hermes, turned to growing willows, and made a bower over the kine. See +Mr. Allen, _op. cit_. + +{162a} This passage is a playing field of conjecture; some taking [Greek +text] = Mediator, or Go-between: some as = pactum, "covenant." + +{162b} There seems to be a reference to the _caduceus_ of Hermes, which +some have compared to the forked Divining Rod. The whole is corrupt and +obscure. To myself it seems that, when he gave the lyre (463-495), +Hermes was hinting at his wish to receive in exchange the gift of +prophecy. If so, these passages are all disjointed, and 521, with what +follows, should come after 495, where Hermes makes the gift of the lyre. + +{164} It appears from Philochorus that the prophetic lots were called +_thriae_. They are then personified, as the prophetic Sisters, the +Thriae. The white flour on their locks may be the grey hair of old age: +we know, however, a practice of divining with grain among an early +agricultural people, the Hurons. + +{168} Hestia, deity of the sacred hearth, is, in a sense, the Cinderella +of the Gods, the youngest daughter, tending the holy fire. The legend of +her being youngest yet eldest daughter of Cronos may have some reference +to this position. "The hearth-place shall belong to the youngest son or +daughter," in Kent. See "Costumal of the Thirteenth Century," with much +learning on the subject, in Mr. Elton's "Origins of English History," +especially p. 190. + +{170} Shielings are places of summer abode in pastoral regions. + +{180} Reading [Greek text], Mr. Edgar renders "no longer will my mouth +ope to tell," &c. + +{194} [Greek text] seems to answer to _fauteuil_, [Greek text] to [Greek +text]. + +{196} M. Lefebure suggests to me that this is a trace of Phoenician +influence: compare Moloch's sacrifices of children, and "passing through +the fire." Such rites, however, are frequent in Japan, Bulgaria, India, +Polynesia, and so on. See "The Fire Walk" in my "Modern Mythology." + +{204} An universally diffused belief declares that whosoever tastes the +food of the dead may never return to earth. + +{205} The lines in brackets merely state the probable meaning of a +dilapidated passage. + +{214} This appears to answer to the difficult passage about the bonds of +Apollo falling from the limbs of Hermes (_Hermes_, 404, 405). Loosing +spells were known to the Vikings, and the miracle occurs among those of +Jesuits persecuted under Queen Elizabeth. + +{254} There is a gap in the text. 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