Zoological Mythology Volume I Part 30

"Son ben satolla e governata, Tutto il giorno m' ha pasturata."

(I am quite satiated, and have been well kept; He has given me to eat all day.)

And the boy, too, was well treated.

The devil's pupil always outwits his master; the she-goat beguiles the wolf to its destruction. We have seen this in the Russian story, and it is confirmed in the legend of _Ysengrin_. The peasants of Piedmont and of Sicily have, for this reason, so much respect for the goat, that they consider it brings a blessing to the house near which it is maintained; and if, by chance, they show a perverse nature, this perversity is attributed to the devil himself, who, they believe, has maliciously taken possession of them. A few years ago, a goatherd of the Val di Formazza, in the Ossola in Piedmont, had two goats which he believed to be possessed by some evil spirit, for which reason they always wandered about, in order, as he thought, that the demon might at last be able to throw them down some abyss. One day the two goats were lost; the goatherd searched for them for a short time, but finding his search bootless, he resolved to go and make a vow to the Madonna of Einsiedlen. Chance so arranged it, that at the very moment in which he was returning from his pious pilgrimage, his two goats also approached the door of his house; therefore, of course, this was declared to be a miracle in Formazza, and as such it is still believed in that district.[792]

In the preceding chapter we saw the a.s.s represented in two aspects, as regards its generative capabilities; that is, it is now represented as an ardent, insatiable, and competent f?cundator, and now as a ridiculous imbecile, and powerless to generate. We also saw the a.s.s closely connected with the satyrs with goat's or he-goat's feet. The he-goats and rams, too, have a double and self-contradictory reputation.

We know, for instance, that the G.o.d Thor, the G.o.d of the Scandinavians, who thunders in the cloud, is drawn by he-goats (the vessel of Thor and Hymir, the cloud, is called in the _Edda_ a navigating ram or he-goat, in the same way as the Vedic Indras is represented as a G.o.d-ram); he is, moreover, the protector of marriages. Scandinavian mythology, therefore, appears to regard the goat as essentially the one that makes fruitful, as a pluvial cloud. In the Hindoo mythology of the brahmanic period, the G.o.d Indras loses, on the contrary, his divine power, becomes stupid and obscure, and is lost in his form of a ram. In one of his _Pa.s.seggiate nel Canavese_, Signor A. Bertolotti recently observed, at Muraglio, a curious custom which is observed by the young men of the country when a projected wedding falls through; they run up to the bride's house and obstreperously demand her to give her sheep up to them, upon which they go to the bridegroom's house and cry out, "Vente a sarrar quist motogn" (come and shut up these rams). Here the ram represents the husband, and the sheep the wife. In Du Cange the name of goat (caper) is given to the "in pueris insuavis odor c.u.m ad virilitatem accedunt."[793] In _Apuleius_, unmeasured lasciviousness is called "cohircinatio." According to aelianos, the he-goat, at the age of seven days (of seven months according to Columella), already yearns for coition.

But in the same way as the a.s.s is the stupid patient animal, the ram is the stupid quiet one. The he-goat is said to be an indifferent husband, who allows his she-goats to be covered by other goats without showing a sign of jealousy; hence our expressions, "horned goat," and simply "horned," to indicate the husband of an unfaithful woman, that is, of a woman who makes him wear horns, like the goat, and the Italian proverb, "E meglio esser geloso che becco" (it is better to be jealous than a he-goat). This reputation, however, as a.s.signed to the he-goat, is contrary to all that has been said and written, and that is known concerning the l.u.s.t of the he-goat. On the contrary, Aristotle says explicitly that two he-goats, which have always lived together in concord at the pasturage, fall out and fight with violence in the time of coition. Moreover, the verse of Pindaros is well known, in which he makes he-goats unite even with women. It is also said that Hermes, or Zeus, a.s.suming the form of a he-goat, united himself with Penelope, whence was born the great goat-footed satyr, Pan; that Herakles (as an a.s.s, in his lion's skin) competed with a he-goat in phallical powers (in Athenaios he joins himself with fifty virgins in the s.p.a.ce of seven nights); that, in aelianos, a jealous he-goat punished with death the goatherd Crathis, who had incestuously joined himself with one of his she-goats. Nevertheless, the Greeks already called by the name of _aix_, as we Italians by that of _capra_, a woman of an immoral life, or an adulteress. Columella gives us the key of the enigma, observing that the he-goat, by abuse of the Venus, which he uses too soon (like the a.s.s), becomes powerless before the age of six years, so that it is not out of indifference that he is simply a spectator of his she-goat's infidelity, but only because he cannot do otherwise. Hence the application of _hircosus_, which Plautus gives to an old man.

It is the h.e.l.lenic tradition which, more than any other, developed to a greater extent the myth of the goat and the sheep, under all their aspects--demoniacal, divine, and hybrid.

The golden fleece, or the fleece of the sheep or ram which had been transported into Colchis by Phrixos, the son of Nephele (the cloud) and of h.e.l.le;[794] Jupiter Ammon (in the fifth book of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_), who, afraid of the giants (as, in the last book of the _Ramaya?am_, the G.o.ds, terrified by the monsters, transform themselves into different animals), hides himself in Lybia in the shape of a horned ram; the altar of Apollo in the isle of Delos, constructed with innumerable horns; the woolly skins in which, according to Strabo,[795] the Iberians gathered up gold, whence the Greek geographer believed the fable of the golden fleece to have arisen; the golden lamb kept by Atreus, which was to bring Thyestes to the throne, and the name of Aigusthos, born of the incestuous loves of Thyestes with his own daughter; Pan (with goat's feet, the son of the he-goat Zeus or Hermes), who, in the fifth book of the _Saturnalians_ of Macrobius, loves the moon and obtains its favours by means of sheep with white but rough and coa.r.s.e wool; Endymion, who, according to the commentator Servius, induces the moon to love him by means of exceedingly white sheep; Neptune, who, in the form of a ram, in the sixth book of the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, seduces the beautiful virgin Bisaltis; the satyrs, the fauns with goat's feet, into which the G.o.ds transform themselves in order to seduce nymphs or maidens of the earth, as, for instance, Jove again, in the same book of Ovid--

"Satyri celatus imagine pulchram Jupiter implevit gemino Nycteida f?tu;"

Hermes, called Krioforos, or carrier of a ram (that is, of a ram which delivers the land from the plague, a form of St James); the two predestined sheep which Epimenides sacrifices to make the Athenian plague cease, in the twenty-seventh Olympiad, in Diogenes Laertes; the bleating goats that King Priam (in the fragments of Ennius) sacrifices to dissipate the evil threatened by sinister dreams; the black sheep sacrificed to Pluto, Proserpine, the Furies, and all the infernal deities; the lamb, the ram, and the he-goat sacrificed to the genital Fates in the Sybilline verses translated by Angelo Poliziano--

"c.u.m nox atra premit terram, tectusque latet Sol;"

the white lamb sacrificed to Hercules, to Mars, to Jove, to Neptune, to Bacchus, to Pan (the goat being sacrificed to Diana), to Apollo (_i.e._, when the sun s.h.i.+nes), to Ceres (the G.o.ddess of the light-coloured ears of corn), to Venus, to the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses; to his divine forms (similia similibus); and several other mythical notions (not to speak of the very popular legend relating to the goat Amalthea, who nourished Zeus with her milk, and was by Zeus translated for this service to the stars, under the name of Aixourania, or heavenly goat, after he had taken off one of its horns, to give, in grat.i.tude to the two nymphs who had protected him, the faculty of pouring out everything that was wished for);[796] all these account, in an eloquent manner, for the wide-spread wors.h.i.+p that the goat and the sheep received, even in Graeco-Latin antiquity, enriching with many episodes the mythical and legendary traditions of these nations, now as the type of a G.o.d, now of a demon, and now of an intermediate being, such as the satyr, for instance.

In the same way as the mythical horse has, from evening to morning, three conspicuous moments of action--black, grey, and white or red--and as the mythical a.s.s throws gold from behind and has golden ears, so the mythical goat and sheep, which are dark-coloured in the night or in the cloud, throw gold from behind and have golden horns which pour out ambrosia, or else have even the cornucopia itself. It is always the same myth of the cloudy and aqueous, of the nocturnal and tenebrous sky, with its two glowing twilights or auroras, or else of the luminous heavenly hero who traverses the night or the cloud (or the wintry season), disguised in the shapes of various animals, now by his own will, now by a divine malediction or by diabolical witchcraft.

In the third book of Aristotle's _History of Animals_, we read of the river Psikros in Thrace, that white sheep, when they drink of its waters, bring forth black lambs; that in Antandria there are two rivers, of which one makes the sheep black, and the other white, and that the river Xanthos or Skamandros makes the sheep fair (or golden).

This belief involves in itself the three transformations of the celestial hero into the three he-goats or rams of different natures, of which we have spoken. The last transformation calls our attention to the sheep with golden wool, the golden lamb, and the _Agnus Dei_, the symbol of happiness, power and riches. Wealth in sheep, even more than wealth in cows, became the symbol of universal riches. The horn poured out every kind of treasure upon the earth, and upon the earth itself the _pecus_ became _pecunia_.

FOOTNOTES:

[747] The Petropolitan Dictionary sees in the he-goat a?as, the movable one (agilis). To ill.u.s.trate the same a.n.a.logies in the case of the Greek myth, it will be useful to repeat the words of Professor Breal: "Le verbe grec _a.s.so_, qui signifie s'elancer, a fait d'une part le substantif _aix_, chevre (a cause de la nature bondissante de l'animal), et de l'autre les mots _katax, kataigis, tempete_ (as it seems to me, that which shakes, which causes to move or tremble, inasmuch as I maintain that _a?as_ does not mean the movable, or him that rushes, so much as him that pushes, that b.u.t.ts, or causes to move). De la une nouvelle serie d'images et de fables ou la chevre joue le role princ.i.p.al. L'egide, avant d'etre un bouclier fait en peau de chevre, etait le ciel au moment de l'orage; Jupiter aigiochos etait le dieu qui envoie la tempete; plus tard, on traduisit le dieu qui porte l'egide.

Homere semble se souvenir de la premiere signification, quand il nous montre, au seul mouvement du bouclier le tonnerre qui eclate, l'Ida qui se couvre de nuages et les hommes frappes de terreur." Mr Ralston compares very well the Russian _ablakagragonniki_ (cloud-compellers) to the Zeus _nephelegeretes_. In the _?igv._ i. 10, 8, it is said similarly to Indras: ?esha? svarvatir apa? sa? ga asmabhya? dhunuhi.

[748] Let Finnish philologists observe whether it is not possible to refer to this their Aija, an equivalent of Ukko, their Indras, called hattarojen hallitsia, the master of the cloud-lambs.--Cfr. Castren's _Kleinere Schriften_, St Petersburg, 1862, p. 230.

[749] Mesham puruhutam; _?igv._ i. 51, 1.--Tad indro artha? cetati yuthena v?ish?ir e?ati; _?igv._ i. 10, 2.

[750] Tva? gotram anigirobhyo 'v?i?or; _?igv._ i. 51, 3.

[751] Tva? mayabhir apa mayino 'dhama?--tvam pipror n?ima?a? praru?a?

pura?; _?igv._ i. 51, 5.

[752] Mahanta? cid arbuda? ni krami? pada; _?igv._ i. 51, 6.--Arbudas is also in Sansk?it the proper name of a mountain and of a h.e.l.l; the cloud-mountain and the h.e.l.l in the cloudy and nocturnal sky have already been noticed in this volume.

[753] caphav iva ?arbhura?a tarobhi?; _?igv._ ii. 39, 3.

[754] Si?hya? cit petvena ?aghana; _?igv._ vii. 18, 17.--In Firdusi we find, in the adventures of Isfendiar, two horned wolves that catch lions; these seem to be demoniacal forms of the ram of Indras which kills the lion.

[755] x.x.x. 9.--Here the horns are the sun's rays or the thunderbolts, which come again in the Italian superst.i.tion on the _iettatura_; the horns of the goat, it is said, and the red coral horns excel the devil and his magic.

[756] iv. 21.

[757] iii. 18.--In the story, i. 20, we are told that the lamb fled away into the forest with the he-goat, because its master took the skin off one of its sides (that is, the wool). The lambs appear in the morning and in the evening with luminous wool; they are sheared during the night.

[758] _Afana.s.sieff_, ii. 4; iv. 17.

[759] The walnut-tree is also found in relation with the goat in a fable of _Afana.s.sieff_, ii. 1, that of the accused who exculpate themselves by inculpating others. The c.o.c.k and the hen gather nuts together; the c.o.c.k throws one which strikes the hen on the ear; the hen weeps; a boiard asks the reason; the hen accuses the c.o.c.k, the c.o.c.k accuses the walnut-tree, the walnut-tree accuses the goat, the goat accuses the shepherd, the shepherd accuses the housewife, the housewife accuses the hog, the hog accuses the wolf, the wolf accuses G.o.d, but beyond G.o.d it is impossible to go.--In another jest in verse, intended to exercise the memory and loosen the tongue, and given by _Afana.s.sieff_, iv. 16, we find the goat in connection with hazel-nuts. The he-goat begins to complain that the she-goat does not come back with the hazel-nuts (niet kaszi s ariehami); the song goes on to say, that the he-goat will send the wolf to find the she-goat, the bear after the wolf, the men after the bear, the oak-tree after the men, the axe after the oak-tree, the grindstone after the axe, the fire after the grindstone, the water after the fire, and the hurricane after the water; then the hurricane sends the water, the water the fire, the fire burns the grindstone, the stone grinds the axe, the axe cuts down the oak-tree, the oak-tree made into a stick (as we have already seen in Chapters I. and II.) beats the men, the men shoot against the bear, the bear fights with the wolves, the wolves hunt the she-goat, and here the she-goat comes back with the hazel-nuts (vot kasza s ariehami).

[760]

Ah vi, dietuski, Moi batiuski Ataprtessia Atamknitessia; Vasha mat prishla Malaka priniesla Polni baka malaka, Polni raga tvaraga Polni kopitzi vaditzi.

[761] _Afana.s.sieff_, vi. 17.

[762] In the story, ii. 32 of _Afana.s.sieff_, a similar voice has the same effect as that of the a.s.s; it terrifies all the other animals.

However, here, a goat that has been shorn is alone spoken of,--that is, the goat which has lost its hair or luminous wool, the thundering goat-cloud.--In the twenty-fifth story of the first book of the _Narodnija iusznoruskija Skazki_ (_Popular Stories of South Russia_), edited by Rudcenko, Kiev, 1869, the goat terrifies by its voice the first fox and then the wolf, until she herself is terrified by the voice of the c.o.c.k. (The morning sun, personified in the c.o.c.k, destroys the she-goat of night.)

[763] _Afana.s.sieff_, iii. 15.--She sends them to the pasturage; a young blacksmith, who is in her power, adopts the follow mode of deliverance: He puts his pelisse on outside-in, feigns himself a sheep, and pa.s.ses out with the other sheep, escaping thus from the witch: the young sun comes out at morn like a shepherd-hero among the sheep. Thus Odysseus delivers himself from the grotto of Polyphemos with his companions, by hiding himself among the flock which comes out of it.

[764] Cfr. the eleventh of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_, where we have the lamb instead of the kid.

[765] A very interesting variation of this is contained in another unpublished story which I heard from a certain Marianna Nesti of Fucecchio in Tuscany.

There was once a queen that had a son, who, at the age of seven years, was enchanted, so that he lay constantly in bed like one deprived of life. Only at midnight he went out of the house, returning at one o'clock, covered with blood, and throwing himself as if dead into the bed. A woman had to remain regularly on the watch for the purpose of opening the door for him at midnight and at one o'clock; but no girl had, from very fright, been able to continue in the service more than one night. Near the city lived an old woman with three daughters; the two eldest tried to discharge the prescribed duty, but were overcome with fear; the youngest, more courageous, remained. The first night, at twelve o'clock, the dead man lifts up one arm; she runs to him and lifts the other; he tries to raise himself; she helps him to get out of bed. At one o'clock he returns covered with blood, and the girl asks him who has reduced him to this condition, but he answers nothing, and throws himself on the bed as if a corpse. The second night she follows him, and sees him enter a subterranean cavern; he comes to the foot of a flight of stairs, puts down his mantle and remains as naked as when he was born, a handsome youth of eighteen years of age. At the summit of the stairs two great witches cry, "Here he is! come, pretty one!" He ascends and is beaten by the witches for an hour till blood flows, he crying out the while for mercy. At one o'clock he is allowed to go, comes back to the foot of the stairs, takes his mantle and returns home dead. The third night his attendant again follows him, and when he puts down his mantle at the foot of the stairs and goes up, she takes the mantle and presses it tightly; the witches scream. The young man comes to the summit; but when they try to beat him they cannot lift the stick. Perceiving this, the girl presses and bites the mantle; when she does so, the witches feel themselves bitten; then the girl runs to the palace, orders a great fire to be lighted, and throws the mantle into it; upon its being burnt, the two witches expire, their enchantment is destroyed, and the prince marries his deliverer.

[766] In the eighth story of the first book of the _Pentamerone_, the ungrateful young woman, Renzolla, is condemned by her own protecting fairy to have the face of a horned goat until she shows her repentance.

[767] v. 25.

[768] iii. 16.

[769] i. 50; vii. 38.

[770] catam meshan v?ikye cakshadanam ?i?racvam tam pitandha? cakara tasma aks.h.i.+ nasatya vicaksha adhattam dasra bhisha?av anarvan; _?igv._ i. 116, 16.--Cfr. 117, 18.

[771] Esha chaga? puro acvena va?ina; _?igv._ i. 162, 3.

[772] Cfr. _Afana.s.sieff_, v. 7, where the rogue pa.s.ses the she-goat off as his sister, and lets her be killed, in order to oblige the murderer, by threats of exposure, to give him a large sum of money in compensation; and v. 52, where the head of a goat is cut off to conceal the murder of a sacristan, committed by the foolish third brother.--Cfr. _Erlenwein_, 17.

[773] The she-goat is also sacrificed, in the eighth of the Sicilian stories collected by Laura Gonzenbach, to test the virtue of a truthful peasant. The wife of a minister who is jealous of the peasant Verita (Truth), who has the custody of a goat, a lamb, a ram, and a wether belonging to the king, persuades him to believe that her life is forfeit, and can be ransomed only by the sacrifice of the wether.

The peasant, overcome partly by love and partly by compa.s.sion, gives way and consents to the sacrifice. The minister hopes that the peasant will conceal his fault, but is disappointed in his expectation, inasmuch as, on the contrary, he ingenuously confesses everything; and he becomes, in consequence, yet dearer to the king.

[774] The devil also presents himself to do his evil deeds in the _Belier de Rochefort_, in Bonnafoux, _Legendes et Croyances Superst.i.tieuses Conservees dans le Department de la Creuse_, Gueret, 1867, p. 17.--In a legend of Baden, too, recorded by Simrock (work quoted before, p. 260; cfr., in the same work, p. 501), the devil appears with the feet of a he-goat.

[775] vii. 50, 1.--In the _Cla.s.sical Dictionary of Natural History of Audouin, Bourdon_, &c., first Italian translation, Venice, Ta.s.so, 1831, we read: "Goat, species of ophidian reptiles, indigenous in Congo, and also in Bengal; as yet uncla.s.sified by zoologists, and which, it is said, throw from afar a kind of saliva causing blindness."

[776] Cfr. the lacerta cornuta of the _Pentamerone_.

[777] vi. 42.