Myths of Greece and Rome Part 24

SUN AND DAWN MYTHS.

[Sidenote: Europa.]

The myths of the sun, from which it is almost impossible to separate those of the dawn, are probably more numerous than any others, and have some main features of resemblance in all cases. The first sun myth mentioned in the course of this work is the story of Europa, in which Europa is "the broad spreading light," born in Phoenicia (the "purple land of morn"), the child of Telepha.s.sa ("she who s.h.i.+nes from afar"), carried away from her eastern birthplace by the sky (Jupiter), closely pursued by the sun (her brother Cadmus), who, after pa.s.sing through many lands, slays a dragon (the usual demon of drought or darkness), and sets (dies) at last without having ever overtaken the light of dawn (Europa).

[Sidenote: Apollo.]

Apollo, whose name of Helios is pure Greek for "the sun," had therefore not lost all physical significance for the h.e.l.lenic race, who wors.h.i.+ped in him the radiant personification of the orb of day. Another of his appellations, Phoebus ("the lord of life and light"), still further emphasizes his character; and we are informed that he was born of the sky (Jupiter) and of the dark night (Leto), in the "bright land" (Delos), whence he daily starts on his westward journey.

Like all other solar heroes, Apollo is beautiful and golden-haired, radiant and genial, armed with unerring weapons, which he wields for good or evil, as the mood sways him. He is forced to labor, against his will at times, for the benefit of man, as, for instance, when he serves Admetus and Laomedon; and the cattle, by which he evidently sets such store, are the fleecy clouds, pasturing "in the infinite meadows of heaven," whose full udders drop down rain and fatness upon the land, which are stolen away either by the wind (Mercury), or the storm demon (Cacus), or the impious companions of Ulysses, who pay for their sacrilegious temerity with their lives.

[Sidenote: Coronis.]

The sun's affinity for the dawn is depicted by his love for Coronis, who, however beloved, falls beneath his bright darts; and, as "the sun was regarded naturally as the restorer of life" after the blighting influence of winter and disease, so their offspring (AEsculapius) was naturally supposed to have been endowed with marvelous curative powers.

The sun, for the same reason, was supposed to wage continual warfare against cold, sickness, and disease, and to use his bright beams or arrows against the demon of drought, darkness, or illness (Python), which in some form or other inevitably appears in every solar myth.

[Sidenote: Daphne.]

In the story of Daphne, a name derived from Dahana, the Sanskrit dawn, we find another version of the same story, where the sun, although enamored with the dawn, causes her death. As some mythologists have interpreted it, Daphne is a personification of the morning dew, which vanishes beneath the sun's hot breath, and leaves no trace of its pa.s.sage except in the luxuriant verdure.

[Sidenote: Cephalus and Procris.]

In Cephalus and Procris the sun again appears, and his unerring spear unwittingly causes the death of his beloved Procris "while she lingers in a thicket (a place where the dew lingers longest)." This interpretation has been further confirmed by philological researches, which prove that the name "Procris" originated from a Sanskrit word meaning "to sprinkle;" and the stories evidently arose from three simple phrases,--"'the sun loves the dew,' 'the morning loves the sun,' and 'the sun kills the dew.'"

[Sidenote: Orpheus and Eurydice.]

In the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, while some mythologists see in him a personification of the winds, which "tear up trees as they course along, chanting their wild music," others see an emblem of "the morning, with its short-lived beauty." Eurydice, whose name, like that of Europa, comes from a Sanskrit word denoting "the broad spreading flush of the dawn across the sky," is, of course, a personification of that light, slain by "the serpent of darkness at twilight."

Orpheus is also sometimes considered as the sun, plunging into an abyss of darkness, in hopes of overtaking the vanis.h.i.+ng dawn, Eurydice; and as the light (Eurydice) reappears opposite the place where he disappeared, but is no more seen after the sun himself has fairly risen, "they say that Orpheus has turned around too soon to look at her, and so was parted from the wife he loved so dearly."

His death in the forest, when his strength had all forsaken him, and his severed head floated down the stream murmuring "Eurydice," may also, perchance, have been intended to represent either the last faint breath of the expiring wind, or the setting of the sun in blood-tinged clouds.

[Sidenote: Phaeton.]

In the story of Phaeton, whose name means "the bright and s.h.i.+ning one," a description of the golden palace and car of the sun is given us. We are told that the venturesome young charioteer, by usurping his father's place, causes incalculable mischief, and, in punishment for his mismanagement of the solar steeds (the fleecy white clouds), is hurled from his exalted seat by a thunderbolt launched by the hand of Jupiter.

"This story arose from phrases which spoke of drought as caused by the chariot of Helios, when driven by some one who knew not how to guide his horses; and the smiting of Phaeton by the bolt of Zeus is the ending of the time of drought by a sudden storm of thunder."

[Sidenote: Endymion.]

The story of Diana and Endymion has also been interpreted as a sun myth, in which the name "Endymion" refers specially to the dying or setting sun, who sinks to rest on Mount Latmus ("the land of forgetfulness," derived from the same root as "Leto"). Muller, the great authority in philology, tells us, that, in the ancient poetical and proverbial language of Elis, people said, "Selene loves and watches Endymion," instead of saying, "It is getting late;" "Selene embraces Endymion," instead of, "The sun is setting and the moon is rising;" "Selene kisses Endymion into sleep," instead of, "It is night."

These expressions remained long after their real meaning had ceased to be understood; and, as the human mind is generally as anxious for a reason as ready to invent one, a story arose without any conscious effort, that Endymion must have been a young lad loved by a young maiden, Selene.

[Sidenote: Adonis.]

In the story of Adonis some mythologists find another sun myth, in which Adonis, the short-lived sun, is slain by the boar, the demon of darkness, and pa.s.sionately mourned by the dawn or twilight (Venus), who utterly refuses to exist without him.

[Sidenote: Tantalus.]

In the story of Tantalus (the sun), who in time of drought offers to Jupiter the flesh of his own offspring, Pelops (the withered fruits), and in punishment for his impiety is doomed to hunger and torturing thirst, we have again merely a story founded upon an expression used in time of drought, when the sun's heat, becoming too intense, burns up the fruit his fostering rays had produced, and men exclaimed, "Tantalus is slaying and roasting his own child!"

[Sidenote: Sisyphus.]

In the same way the stone which Sisyphus painfully forced up a steep ascent, only to see it go rolling down and plunge into a dark abyss enveloped in a great cloud of dust, has been interpreted to represent the sun, which is no "sooner pushed up to the zenith, than it rolls down to the horizon."

[Sidenote: Ixion.]

The name of Ixion has been identified with the Sanskrit word Akshanah, denoting one who is bound to a wheel, and has been proved akin "to the Greek axon, the Latin axis, and the English axle." This whirling wheel of fire is the bright orb of day, to which he was bound by order of Jupiter (the sky) because he dared insult Juno (the queen of the blue air); while Dia, his wife, is the dawn, the counterpart of Europa, Coronis, Daphne, Procris, Eurydice, and Venus, in the foregoing ill.u.s.trations.

[Sidenote: Hercules.]

One of the greatest of all the solar heroes is doubtless the demiG.o.d Hercules, born at Argos (a word signifying "brightness") from the sky (Jupiter) and the dawn (Alcmene), who, in early infancy, throttles the serpents of darkness, and who, with untiring strength and patience, plods through life, never resting, and always on his journey performing twelve great tasks, interpreted to represent either the twelve signs of the Zodiac, or the twelve months of the solar year, or the twelve hours of daylight.

[Sidenote: Iole.]

Like Apollo and Cadmus, Hercules is forced to labor for mankind against his will. We see him early in life united to Megara, and, like Tantalus, slaying his own offspring in a sudden fit of madness. He loves and is soon forced to leave Iole, the violet-colored clouds. He performs great deeds, slays innumerable demons of drought and darkness on his way, and visits the enchanted land of the Hesperides,--a symbol of the western sky and clouds at sunset.

[Sidenote: Deianeira.]

The main part of his life is spent with Deianeira ("the destroying spouse"), a personification of the daylight; but toward the end of his career he again encounters Iole, now the beautiful twilight. It is then that Deianeira (the daylight), jealous of her rival's charms, sends him the b.l.o.o.d.y Nessus robe, which he has no sooner donned, than he tears it from his bleeding limbs, ascends the burning pile, and ends his career in one grand blaze,--the emblem of the sun setting in a framework of flaming crimson clouds.

Like all solar heroes, he too has unerring poisoned weapons ("the word ios, 'a spear,' is the same in sound as the word ios, 'poison'"), of which he is shorn only at death.

[Sidenote: Perseus.]

Perseus also belongs to this category of myths. Danae, his mother, either the earth (dano means "burnt earth") or the dawn, a daughter of Acrisius (darkness), is born in Argos (brightness). Loved by Jupiter, the all-embracing sky, she gives birth to the golden-haired Perseus, a personification of the radiant orb of day; and he, like many another solar hero, is cast adrift immediately after his birth, owing to an ominous prophecy that he will slay the darkness from which he originally sprang.

As soon as Perseus attains manhood, he is forced to journey against his will into the distant land of the mists (the Graeae), and conquer the terrible Medusa, "the starlit night, solemn in its beauty, but doomed to die when the sun rises." He accomplishes this by means of his irresistible sword, the piercing rays of the sun, and then pa.s.ses on to encounter the monster of drought, and to marry Andromeda, another personification of the dawn, the offspring of Celeus and Ca.s.siopeia, who also represent night and darkness.

In company with Andromeda, Perseus, whose name also signifies "the destroyer," revisits his native land, and fulfills the prophecy by slaying Acrisius (the darkness), whence he originally sprang.

[Sidenote: Theseus.]

In the Athenian solar myth, Theseus is the sun, born of AEgeus (the sea, derived from aisso, "to move quickly like the waves") and AEthra (the pure air). He lingers in his birthplace, Troezene, until he has acquired strength enough to wield his invincible sword, then journeys onward in search of his father, performing countless great deeds for the benefit of mankind. He slays the Minotaur, the terrible monster of darkness, and carries off the dawn (Ariadne); whom he is, however, forced to abandon shortly after on the Island of Naxos.

In his subsequent career we find him the involuntary cause of his father's death, then warring against the Centaurs (personifications of the clouds, through which the victorious sun is sometimes forced to fight his way), then again plunging for a short s.p.a.ce of time into the depths of Tartarus, whence he emerges once more; and finally we see him uniting his fate to Phaedra (the twilight), a sister of the beautiful dawn he loved in his youth. He ends his eventful career by being hurled headlong from a cliff into the sea,--an emblem of the sun, which often seems to plunge into the waves at eventide.

[Sidenote: Argonauts.]

In the story of the Argonautic expedition we have Athamas, who marries Nephele (the mist). Their children are Phryxus and h.e.l.le (the cold and warm air, or personifications of the clouds), carried off to the far east by the ram--whose golden fleece was but an emblem of the rays of the sun--to enable them to escape from the baleful influence of their stepmother Ino (the broad daylight), who would fain encompa.s.s their destruction.

[Sidenote: Medea.]

h.e.l.le, an emblem of the condensation of vapor, falls from her exalted seat into the sea, where she is lost. The s.h.i.+p Argo "is a symbol of the earth as a parent, which contains in itself the germs of all living things." Its crew is composed mainly of solar heroes, all in quest of the golden fleece (the rays of the sun), which Jason recovers by the aid of Medea (the dawn), after slaying the dragon (the demon of drought). AEetes, Medea's father, is a personification of the darkness, which vainly attempts to recover his children, the dawn and light (?), after they have been borne away by the all-conquering sun.

[Sidenote: Glauce.]

Glauce (the broad daylight) next charms Jason; and the poisoned robe which causes her death is woven by Medea, now the evening twilight, who mounts her dragon car and flies to the far east, forsaking her husband (the sun) in his old age, when he is about to sink into the sleep of death.

[Sidenote: Meleager.]

Meleager is also a solar hero. After joining the Argonautic expedition, and wandering far and wide, he returns home, slays the boar (or drought fiend), loves, but parts from, Atalanta (the dawn maiden), and is finally slain by his own mother, who casts into the flames the brand upon which his existence depends.

[Sidenote: Oedipus.]

In the Theban solar myth, Laius (derived from the same root as "Leto" and "Latmus") is the emblem of darkness, who, after marrying Jocasta (like Iole, a personification of the violet-tinted clouds of dawn), becomes the father of Oedipus, doomed by fate to be the murderer of his father. Early in life Oedipus is exposed on the barren hillside to perish,--an emblem of the horizontal rays of the rising sun, which seem to lie for a while upon the mountain slopes, ere they rise to begin their journey.

He too, like Cadmus, Apollo, Hercules, Perseus, Theseus, and Jason, is forced to wander far from home, and, after a prolonged journey, encounters and slays Laius (the darkness), from whom he derived his existence, and kills the dread monster of drought, the Sphinx, whose very name means "one who binds fast,"--a creature who had imprisoned the rain in the clouds, and thus caused great distress.

Urged on by unrelenting fate, he marries his own mother, Jocasta, now the violet-tinted twilight, and ends his life amid lightning flashes and rolls of thunder, after being accompanied to the end of his course by Antigone ("the pale light which springs up opposite the sun at his setting"). This story--which at first was merely intended to signify that the sun (Oedipus) must slay the darkness (Laius) and linger for a while beside the violet-colored clouds (Jocasta)--having lost its physical meaning, the Thebans added the tragic sequel, for it seemed but poetic justice that the author of such crimes should receive signal punishment.

[Sidenote: Eumenides.]

As the Eumenides, or Erinnyes, were at first merely the searching light of day, from which nothing can be hidden, they came gradually to be considered the detectives and avengers of crime, and were therefore said to take possession of a criminal at the end of his course, and hurry him down into darkness to inflict horrible torments upon him.

[Sidenote: Bellerophon.]

In the story of Bellerophon, although the name originally came from Bellero (some "power of darkness, drought, winter, or moral evil") and from phon or phontes (a word derived from the Sanskrit han-ta, "the killer"), the Greeks, having forgotten the signification of the first part of the word, declared this hero was the murderer of Bellero, his brother, for which involuntary crime he was driven from home, and forced to wander about in search of shelter.

We find this hero, although enticed by Anteia (the dawn), virtuously hastening away, then sent against his will to fight the Chimaera (the monster of drought), whom he overcomes, thanks to his weapon and to Pegasus (the clouds), born from the mist of the sea, beneath whose hoofs fresh fountains were wont to spring.

Bellerophon, after many journeys, is finally united to Philonoe, a personification of the twilight, and ends his career by being hurled from the zenith into utter darkness by one of Jupiter's deadly thunderbolts.

"The fall of Bellerophon is the rapid descent of the sun toward evening, and the Alein plain is that broad expanse of somber light through which the sun sometimes seems to travel sullenly and alone to his setting."

[Sidenote: Trojan war.]

In the story of the Trojan war there are several sun myths; for Paris, Menelaus, Agamemnon, and Achilles have equal claims to be considered personifications of the sun. They love Oenone, Helen, Clytaemnestra, Briseis, various impersonations of the dawn, and forsake, or are forsaken by, their ladyloves, whom they meet again at the end of their career: for Paris sees Oenone, and expires with her on the burning pile; Menelaus recovers Helen, with whom he vanishes in the far west; Agamemnon rejoins Clytaemnestra, and dies by her hand in a b.l.o.o.d.y bath; while Achilles, after a period of sullen gloom, meets with an untimely death shortly after recovering the beautiful Briseis.

Like Perseus and Oedipus, Paris is exposed in early infancy, and lives to fulfill his destiny, and cause, though indirectly, the death of his parents.

In this myth, Helen (the beautiful dawn or twilight), whose name corresponds phonetically with the Sanskrit Sarama, born of the sky (Jupiter) and of the night (Leda, derived from the same root as "Leto," "Latmus," and "Laius"), is carried away by Paris, whom some mythologists identify with the Hindoo Panis (or "night demons") instead of the sun. In this character he entices away the fickle twilight (Helen) during her husband's temporary absence, and bears her off to the far east, where, after struggling for a while to retain possession of her and her treasures, he is finally forced to relinquish her, and she returns to her husband and her allegiance.

The siege of Troy has thus been interpreted to signify "a repet.i.tion of the daily siege of the east by the solar powers, that every evening are robbed of their brightest treasures in the west."

Achilles, like several of his brother heroes, "fights in no quarrel of his own; his wrath is the sun hiding his face behind the clouds; the Myrmidons are his attendant beams, who no longer appear when the sun is hidden; Patroclus is the feeble reflection of the sun's splendor, and stands to him in precisely the same relation as Phaeton to Helios," and, like him, meets with an early death.

[Sidenote: Ulysses.]

In the story of Ulysses we find a reproduction of the story of Hercules and Perseus: for Ulysses, early in life, after wedding Penelope, is forced to leave her to fight for another; and on his return, although longing to rejoin his morning bride, he cannot turn aside from the course marked out for him. He is detained by Circe (the moon), who weaves airy tissues, and by Calypso (the nymph of darkness); but neither can keep him forever, and he returns home enveloped in an impenetrable disguise, after having visited the Phaeacian land (the land of clouds or mists). It is only after he has slain the suitors of Penelope (the weaver of bright evening clouds) that he casts aside his beggar's garb to linger for a short time beside her ere he vanishes in the west.

[Sidenote: Minerva.]

The greater part of the dawn myths have been explained simultaneously with the sun myths, with which they are inextricably interwoven. One personification of the dawn, however, stands apart. It is Minerva, whose Greek name, Athene, is derived, like Daphne, from the Sanskrit Dahana, or ahana (meaning "the light of daybreak"), and we are thus enabled to understand why the Greeks described her as sprung from the forehead of Zeus (the heavens). She gradually became the impersonation of the illuminating and knowledge-giving light of the sky; for in Sanskrit the same word also means "to wake" and "to know," while the Latins connected her name of Minerva with mens, the same as the Greek menos and the English mind.

MOON MYTHS.

[Sidenote: Diana, Io, and Circe.]

In the moon myths the most important personification is first Diana, the horned huntress, "for to the ancients the moon was not a lifeless ball of stones and clods." Diana, like Apollo, her twin brother, was also a child of the sky (Jupiter) and of night (Latona), and, like him, was born in the "bright land" (Delos). She also possessed bright and unerring arrows, and in the course of her nightly journey she looked lovingly down upon the sleeping face of the setting sun (Endymion).

Io and Circe, already mentioned, are also personifications of the moon, and Io's wanderings represent its journeys across the sky.

EARTH MYTHS.

[Sidenote: Gaea and Rhea.]

In the earth myths, beside those already mentioned in connection with the sun myths, we have Gaea and Rhea, the mothers and consorts of the Sky and of Time, who swallows his own children, "the Days, as they come each in order."

[Sidenote: Ceres and Proserpina.]

We have also Ceres or Demeter, "the mother of all things," and more particularly of "the maiden" Cora (or Proserpina), whose loss she grievously mourned; for she had been carried away by Pluto to the underworld, whence she could only emerge at the command of Jupiter. During the time of Ceres' mourning, the earth remained barren, and it seemed as though all mortal things must die. But when Proserpina (the spring or vegetation) returned from her sojourn under the ground, people said "that the daughter of the earth was returning in all her beauty; and when summer faded into winter, they said that the beautiful child had been stolen away from her mother by dark beings, who kept her imprisoned beneath the earth." The sorrow of Ceres was therefore merely a poetical way of expressing "the gloom which falls on the earth during the cheerless months of winter."

[Sidenote: Danae and Semele.]

Danae, as a personification of the earth, was quickened by the golden shower, the light of the morning, which streamed in upon the darkness of the night. Semele has also been interpreted as the earth, the chosen bride of the sky, who brings forth her offspring in the midst of the thunder and lightning of a summer storm.

SEA MYTHS.

[Sidenote: Ocea.n.u.s and Neptune.]

The myths of the sea comprise, of course, Ocea.n.u.s and Neptune (the earth-shaker), whose name is connected with such words as "potent" and "despot," and whose "green hair circles all the earth." We are further informed that he loves the earth (Ceres), whom he embraces, and that he marries the graceful undulating Amphitrite, whose gliding charms appeal to him. Neptune's palace is beneath the deep waters near Greece, and he is said to ride about his realm in a swift chariot drawn by golden or white maned steeds.

[Sidenote: Nereus.]

Nereus, another personification of the sea, whose name is derived from nao ("to flow"), is quite inseparable from his native element, even in the Greeks' conception of him, as are also the Tritons, Oceanides, Nereides, and the alluring Sirens; who, however, have also been viewed as personifications of the winds.

CLOUD MYTHS.

[Sidenote: Charon.]

The cloud myths, to which frequent allusion has already been made, comprise not only the cattle of the sun, the Centaurs, Nephele, Phryxus, h.e.l.le, and Pegasus, but as, "in primitive Aryan lore, the sky itself was a blue sea, and the clouds were s.h.i.+ps sailing over it," so Charon's boat was supposed to be one of these vessels, and the gilded shallop in which the sun daily made his pilgrimage back to the far east, another.

[Sidenote: Niobe.]

As the ancient Aryan had the same word to denote cloud and mountain ("for the piles of vapor on the horizon were so like Alpine ranges"), the cloud and mountain myths are often the same. In the story of Niobe we have one of the cloud myths. According to some mythologists, Niobe herself is a personification of the clouds. Her many children, the mists, are fully as beautiful as Apollo and Diana, by whose bright darts they are ruthlessly slain. Niobe grieves so sorely at their untimely death, that she dissolves in a rain of tears, which turns into hard ice on the mountain summit. According to other authorities, she was a personification of winter, and her tears represented the thaw occasioned by the sunbeams (Apollo's arrows).

FIRE MYTHS.

[Sidenote: Cyclopes.]

The fire myths also form quite a large cla.s.s, and comprise the Cyclopes (the thunder and lightning), children of Heaven and Earth, whose single blazing eye has been considered an emblem of the sun. They forge the terrible thunderbolts, the weapons of the sky (Jupiter), by means of which he is enabled to triumph over all his enemies, and rule supreme.

[Sidenote: t.i.tans.]

The t.i.tans are emblems of the subterranean fires and the volcanic forces of nature, which, hidden deep underground, occasionally emerge, heave up great ma.s.ses of rock, and hurl them about with an accompaniment of deafening roars, while their ponderous tread causes the very earth beneath them to tremble.