II. either case the bright morning land, and her purity is that CHAP of Athênê and Hestia. Over these three deities alone Aphroditê has no power. Love cannot touch the maiden whose delight is in the violet tints of dawn or in the arrows which she sends forth with never failing precision,1 and which seal the doom, while they are given to avenge the wrongs of Prokris. Like Phoibos, she has the power of life and death; she can lessen or take away the miseries and plagues which she brings upon men, and those who honour her are rich in flocks and herds and reach a happy old age. From those who neglect her she exacts a fearful penalty; and the Kalydonian boar ravages the fields of Oineus only because he had forgotten to include her among the deities to whom he offered sacrifice. In a word the colours may be paler, but her features and form generally are those of her glorious brother. With him she takes delight in song,3 and as Phoibos overcomes the Pythôn, so is she the slayer of Tityos.1 This broad kadian and It seems unnecessary to draw any sharp distinction be- The Artween the Arkadian and the Delian Artemis. If she is no Delian longer the mere reflection of Phoibos, she still calls herself a Artemis. child of Lêtô,” and appears as the glorious morning roving through the heaven before the birth of the sun. spreading light is represented by her wanderings among the glens and along the mountain summits of Arkadia. Like Athênê and Aphroditê, she belongs to or springs from the running waters, and she demands from Zeus an attendant troop of fifty Okeanid and twenty Amnisiad, or river, nymphs. With these she chases her prey on the heights 1 παρθένος ιοχέαιρα. 2 Mr. Grote remarks that in the hunt which follows for the destruction of the boar, Artemis, who is sometimes confounded even with her attendant nymphs, reappears in the form of Atalante. Hist. Gr. i. 76. The name of Camilla, the counterpart of Atalantê in the Eneid, is, according to M. Maury, that of a Gallic divinity, being the feminine form of Camulus (Camillus). Croyances et Légendes de l'Antiquité, 229, et. seq. Hymn to Aphrodite, 19. Preller, Gr. Myth. i, 228, adopts the explanation which connects her name with the word aрTEμhs, and regards the epithet as de- Kallim. Hymn to Artemis, 110. 5 Ib. καὶ γὰρ ἐγὼ Λητωίας εἰμί. She BOOK Artemis and Tauro- of Erymanthos, Mainalos, and Taygetos. Her chariot is fashioned by the fiery Hephaistos, and Pan, the breeze whispering among the reeds, provides her with dogs, the clouds which speed across the sky driven by the summer winds. Here, like Arethousa, she is loved and pursued by Alpheios, who fails to seize her. But the cultus of the Spartan Artemis, whose epithet Orthia would seem to denote a phallic deity, is marked by features so repulsive, and so little involved in the myth of the Delian sister of Phoibos, that the inference of an earlier religion, into which Aryan mythical names were imported, becomes not unwarrantable. Whether or not this Artemis be the same as the Artemis known by the epithets Taurica or Tauropola, she is a mere demon, glutted with the human sacrifices which seem to have formed a stage in the religious developement of every nation on the earth. We have here manifestly the belief that the gods are all malignant powers, hungering for the blood of human victims, and soothed by the smoke of the fat as it curls up heavenwards.' But the prevalence of this earlier form of faith or practice would tend to prove only that the mythology of the Greeks was not necessarily their religion, and was certainly not commen The extent to which these horrible superstitions prevailed among the historical Greeks as well as among other races and tribes has been excellently traced by Mr. Paley in a paper on Chthonian Worship' (Journal of Philology, No. I. June, 1868). His conclusion is that, as 'the propitiation of malignant powers rather than the adoration of a supreme good seems to have formed the basis of the early religions of the world,' so a large part of the early religious systems of the Greeks exhibits this character of devil-worship, in which streams of human blood were the only effectual offerings. The unsatisfied shades or ghosts of heroes became hateful demons, going about with wide-stretched mouths for anything which might serve as a prey. These are the Latin Manduci and Lemures, the Greek Lamyroi, and Charôn, the gaper, words all pointing to swallowing and devouring, as our goblin is supposed to do,' p. 7. The general proposition is indisputable, but the English goblin seems to represent etymologically the Teutonic Kobold and the Greek Kobâlos, beings doubtless of closely kindred character. If this be so, the idea of sacrifice is traced back to an to utterly revolting source in the thoughts of the still savage man. To the question which asks how this conclusion can be reconciled with the Jewish doctrine of sacrifice and all its momentous consequences,' he answers, I think we may fairly reply, we are not called upon reconcile them. We are not building up questionable theories, but expounding unquestionable matters of fact; and it is a perfectly open subject of discussion whether the pagan idea of sacrifice is a corruption of a revealed obligation of man to his Creator, or whether it was (as many will think more probable) independently derived and developed from the materialistic and sensuous notions of the untutored races of antiquity about the nature, condition, and wants of beings, infernal and supernal,' p. 13. ARTEMIS AND IPHIGENEIA. surate with it. Still, although there is not much in the phenomena of morning, or in the myth of the Delian Artemis, to suggest the practice of slaying youths and maidens, or scourging them until the blood ran in streams to glut the angry demon, there are not wanting mythical phrases which, if translated into the conditions of human life, would point to such revolting systems. Adonis cannot rise to the life of the blessed gods until he has been slain. The morning cannot come until the Eôs who closed the previous day has faded away and died in the black abyss of night. So it is also with Memnôn and Sarpêdôn, with Endymion and Narkissos. But all these are the children of Zeus or Phoibos, or some other deity of the heaven or the sun; and thus the parents may be said to sacrifice their children, as Tantalos placed the mangled Pelops on the banquet-table of Zeus. It is thus seemingly that Iphigeneia must die before Helen can be brought again from Ilion: but Helen is herself Iphigeneia, and thus the return of Helen is the resurrection of the victim doomed by the words of Kalchas and the consent of Agamemnon, and Iphigeneia becomes the priestess of Artemis, whose wrath she had been slain to expiate. With an unconscious fidelity to the old mythical phrases, which is still more remarkable, Iphigeneia is herself Artemis, and thus the story resolves itself into the saying that the evening and the morning are the same, but that she must die at night before she can spring into life again at dawn. Nor must it be forgotten that Helen stolen away from the Argive or gleaming land of the West is the golden light stolen away in the evening. The weary voyage from the Achaian shores is the long journey of the sun-children for the stolen treasure, beginning just when the twilight is deepening into night, and when the lagging hours seem likely never to pass away. Iphigeneia is slain at the beginning of this dismal journey-in other words, she dies in the evening that Helen may come back in the morning, when, after ten long hours of mortal strife, the walls of Ilion have fallen. But when Artemis, Helen, and Iphigeneia, had received each her own distinct personality, it was easy to say that the anger of Artemis, offended for some supposed neglect 145 CHAP. II. BOOK II. Iphigeneia and Brito martis. or affront of Agamemnon, was the cause of the death of Iphigeneia.1 The distinction between Artemis and Britomartis is as slight as that which separates her from Iphigeneia. Whatever be the origin of the name, Britomartis is spoken of as a daughter of Lêtô, or of Zeus and Karmê, and as flying from the pursuit of Minos as Artemis flies from that of Alpheios." From this pursuit she escapes, like Arethousa and Daphnê, only by throwing herself into the sea-as some said, because she leaped from the heights of Diktynnaion, or, as others would have it, because she fell into the nets (díxtua) of the fishermen. Rescued from the water she goes to Aigina, and is reverenced there under the name of Aphaia. The wanderings of Britomartis are simply the journey of the day across the heaven, and the story of the nets must clearly be compared with that of Danaê and the kindly treatment of Diktys of Seriphos, who is contrasted with his gloomy brother Polydektês-a mere reflection of Hades Polydegmon. When the name of Diktys is further compared with the myth of the Diktaian cave, we can no longer doubt that Artemis Diktynna is simply Artemis the light-giving, and that the nets were brought into the myths by an equivocation similar to that which converted Arkas and Kallisto into bears and Lykâôn into a wolf.3 For the Ephesian or Asiatic Artemis, see p. 66. Kallim. Hymn. Art. 192, &c. As the dawn springs fully armed from the forehead of the cloven sky, so the eye first discerns the blue of heaven as the first faint arch of light is seen in the East. This arch is the Diktaian cave in which the infant Zeus is nourished until he reaches his full strength -in other words, until the day is fully come. CHAPTER III. THE LOST TREASURE. SECTION I.-THE GOLDEN FLEECE. THE idea of wealth is one of the most prominent characteristics in the legends of Helios, Ixîôn, Sisyphos and Tantalos. The golden palace of Helios, blazing with intolerable splendour, is reflected in the magnificent home of the Phrygian and Corinthian kings. So dazzling indeed is the brilliance of this treasure-house that none may look closely upon it and live. Hence Dia the beautiful wife of Ixion has never seen her husband's wealth, as the Dawn may never see the sun when high in the heavens: and her father Hesioneus who insists on being put into possession of all the glorious things which Ixîôn said should follow his union with Dia, the radiant morning, finds himself plunged into a gulf of fire. These treasures, in the myth of Prokris, Eôs herself bestows on Kephalos that he may beguile the gentle daughter of the dew. They are the beautiful flowers which bloom in the Hyperborean gardens, the wonderful web wrought and unwrought by Penelopê, the riches which the suitors waste in the absence of Odysseus, the herds of cattle which are fed by the glistening nymphs who rise from the ocean stream. They are the light of day in all its varied aspects and with all its wonderful powers. With them is bound up the idea of life, health, and joy: and hence when these treasures are taken away, the very blackness of desolation must follow. What can the sons of men do, when the bright being who has gladdened their eyes is taken from their sight? Must they not either sit still in utter despair or wait with feverish impatience until they see his kindly face again? What again must be the drama of those dark and CHAP. III. The myt of stolen found treasure amon the Aryan nations. |