BOOK The armed The Latin that he was compelled to spend them in Niflheim. Still the doom is upon him. He must beware of all noxious and biting beasts. The fair summer cannot longer survive the deadly bite of winter than Little Surya Bai the piercing of the Raksha's claw, or Baldur withstand the mistletoe of Loki. Like Atys the fair and brave, he is to meet his death. in a boar-hunt; and the bite, which only leaves a life-long mark on the body of Odysseus, brings to an end the dream of Aphroditê. In vain she hastens to stanch the wound. The flowers (the last lingering flowers of autumn) spring up from the nectar which she pours into it, but Adonis the beautiful must die. Once again she carries the tale of her sorrow to Zeus, who grants her some portion of her prayer. Adonis may not, like Memnôn or like Sarpêdôn (for in some versions he also is raised again), dwell always in the halls of Olympos, but for six months in the year he may return to cheer Aphroditê as, in the Eleusinian legend, Persephonê is restored to the arms of Dêmêtêr. Of the love of Aphroditê for Boutes it is enough to say that Boutes, the shepherd, is a priest of the dawn-goddess Athênê, who, as the Argonauts approach within hearing of the Seirens, throws himself into the sea, but is saved by Aphroditê and carried away to Lilybaion.' Lastly, Aphroditê may assume a form as stern and awful as that of Athênê herself. As Duhita Divah, the daughter of the sky, is invincible, so Aphroditê, as the child of Ouranos and Hemera, the heaven and the day, has a power which nothing can resist, and the Spartan worshipped her as a conquering goddess clad in armour and possessing the strength which the Athenian poet ascribes to Erôs the invincible in battle.2 The Latin Venus is, in strictness of speech, a mere name, to which any epithet might be attached according to the conveniences or the needs of the worshipper. The legends which the later poets applied to her are mere importations from Greek mythology, and seem to be wholly unnoticed in earlier Roman tradition. When the Roman began to trace his genealogy to the grandson of Priam, the introduction of 1 Apollod. i. 9, 25. Soph. Ant. 781. VENUS. II. the story of Anchises was followed naturally by other myths CHAP. from the same source; but they found no congenial soil in the genuine belief of the people, for whom a profusion of epithets supplied the place of mythical history. With them it was enough to have a Venus Myrtea (a name of doubtful origin), or Cloacina the purifier, barbata, the bearded, militaris, equestris, and a host of others, whose personality was too vague to call for any careful distinction. of the name. The name itself has been, it would seem with good reason, Meaning connected with the Sanskrit root van, to desire, love, or favour. Thus, in the Rig Veda, girvanas means loving invocations, and yajnavanas loving sacrifices, while the common Sanskrit preserves vanita in the sense of a beloved woman. To the same root belong the Anglo-Saxon wynn, pleasure, the German wonne, and the English winsome. The word Venus, therefore, denotes either love or favour. To the former signification belongs the Latin venustas; to the latter the verb veneror, to venerate, in other words, to seek the favour of any one, venia being strictly favour or permission. Venus was probably not the oldest, and certainly not the only name for the goddess of love in Italy, as the Oscan deity was named Herentas. 2 nysos. The myth of Adonis links the legends of Aphroditê with Adonis those of Dionysos. Like the Theban wine-god, Adonis is and Dioborn only on the death of his mother: and the two myths are in one version so far the same that Dionysos like Adonis is placed in a chest which being cast into the sea is carried to Brasiai, where the body of his mother is buried. But like Memnon and the Syrian Tammuz or Adonis, Semêlê is raised from the underworld and on her assumption receives the name of Dionê. SECTION VIII.-HÊRÊ. In the Hellenic mythology Hêrê, in spite of all the majesty with which she is sometimes invested and the power 1 From cluere = Kλúсew, to wash or cleanse. Most of these epithets lie beyond the region of mythology. They are mere official names, like Venus Calva, which seemingly has reference to the practice of devoting to her a lock of 2 I am indebted for this explanation Myths relating to the birth of Hêrê. 9 BOOK which is sometimes exercised by her, is little more than a 1 Welcker, Griechische Götterlehre, i. 3 Paus. ii. 13, 3. HÊRÊ AND ZEUS. II. of Zeus 11 and Hêrê. and Echidna, and afterwards by Aiglê, Erytheia, Hestia CHAP. and Arethousa, the glistening children of Hesperos, whether in Libya or in the Hyperborean gardens of Atlas.' Throughout the Iliad, which makes no mention of this Relations incident, the will of Hêrê, though compelled to submit, is by no means always in harmony with the will of Zeus. The Argives, the children of the bright evening land, are exclusively the objects of her love; and the story of the judgment of Paris was designed to furnish a reason for this exclusive favour. So the tale went that when the gods were assembled at the marriage board of Thetis and Peleus, Eris flung on the table a golden apple to be given to the fairest of the fair. The trial which follows before the shepherd of Ida (the sun still resting on the slopes of the earth which he loves) is strictly in accordance with the mythical characters of Hêrê and Athênê, as well as of Aphroditê, to whom, as the embodiment of the mere physical loveliness of the dawn (apart from the ideas of wisdom or power underlying the conceptions of Hêrê and Athênê), the golden prize is awarded. Henceforth Aphroditê threw in her weight on the side of the Trojans, while Athênê and Hêrê gave their aid to the kinsfolk or the avengers of Helen. But the way was not so clear to Zeus as it seemed to be to Hêrê. Hektor himself was the darling of Apollôn, and here alone was a reason why Zeus should not be eager to bring about the victory of the Achaians; but among the allies of Priam there were others in whose veins his own blood was running, the Aithiopian Memnôn, the child of the morning, Glaukos, the brave chieftain from the land of light, and, dearest of all, Sarpêdôn. Here at once there were causes of strife between Zeus and his queen, and in these quarrels Hêrê wins her ends partly by appealing to his policy or his fears, or by obtaining from Aphroditê her girdle of irresistible power. Only once do we hear of any attempt at force, and this instance is furnished by the conspiracy in which she plots with Poseidon and Athênê to make Zeus a prisoner. This scheme is defeated by Thetis and Briareos, and perhaps with this may be connected the story that Zeus once hung up 'Apollod. ii. 5, 11. BOOK II. Hêrê and Hêrê Here the Hêrê in the heaven with golden handcuffs on her wrists and two heavy anvils suspended from her feet. In the same way she is at enmity with Herakles, and is wounded by his barbed arrows. But where the will of Zeus is not directly thwarted, Hêrê is endowed with the attributes even of Phoibos himself. Thus she imparts to the horse Xanthos the gifts at once of human speech and of prophecy, and sends the unwilling Helios to his ocean bed when Patroklos falls beneath the spear of Hektor. But while Zeus asserts and enforces his own power over her, none other may venture to treat her with insult; and the proud Ixîôn himself is fastened to the four-spoked wheel of noon-day, for his presumption in seeking the love of the wife of Zeus. The sun as climbing the heights of heaven, and wooing the bright ether, is an arrogant being who must be bound to the fiery cross, or whose flaming orb must be made to descend to the west, like the stone of Sisyphos, just when it has reached the zenith, or summit of the hill. Among the many names under which she was known appears the epithet Akraia, which was supposed to describe her as the protectress of cities, but which was applied also to Athênê as denoting the bright sky of morning. Thus viewed she is the mother of Hêbê, the embodiment of everlasting youth, the cupbearer of Zeus himself. Hêrê, however, like Athênê, has her dark and terrible aspects. From Ouranos, the heaven, spring the gigantic monsters, Thunder and Lightning; and as the source of like convulsions, Hêrê is the mother of Arês (Mars), the crusher, and Hephaistos, the forger of the thunderbolts. But her relations to marriage are those which were most prominently brought out in her worship throughout Hellas. She is the wife of Zeus in a sense which could not be applied to any other of the Olympian deities; and, apart from the offspring which she produces by her own unaided powers, she has no children of which Zeus is not the father. Hence she was regarded both as instituting marriage, and punishing those who violate its duties. It is she who sends the Eileithyiai to aid women, when their hour is come; and 1 See Preller, Gr. Myth. i. 125. |