KALI AND KARALI. of hidden treasures, and all blessings proceed from him as the giver. He is Vasu, the lord of light.' During life he shields men from harm, and at death he becomes the Psychopompos, as conveying the unborn part of the dead to the unseen world. 193 CHAP. IV. Agni. But in every phase of his character the appellative force of The his name remains discernible; nor are there wanting plain tongues of assertions that Agni is but one of many titles for the One Great Cause of all things. They call (him) Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni; then he is the well-winged heavenly Garutmat: that which is One, the wise call it many ways: they call it Agni, Yama, Mâtariśvan."2 In India, however, as in the western world, there was a constant tendency to convert names into persons, and then to frame for them a mythical history in accordance with their meaning. Thus two of the ever-flickering tongues of the black-pathed Agni were called Kali, the black, and Karali, the terrific; and these became names of Durga, the wife of Siva, who was developed out of Agni; and a bloody sacrificial worship was the result.3 1 Of the existence of the root vas, to shine, there can be, of course, no doubt. It is sufficiently shown by its derivatives φάος, φαίνω, φημί, φήμη, for, fatum, &c. Hence Professor Max Müller naturally refers to this root the Sanskrit vasar, Lat. ver (for vesr), the Greek elap, ap, p, the spring-time, and other words denoting the year, which seem to be akin to it. It is thus the shining gleaming time when nature displays herself in her beauty: but in Mr. Peile's judgment the meaning is nevertheless very uncertain. There are three distinct roots,' he remarks, of the same form VAS. . . but none gives a satisfactory meaning; the best perhaps is that which means to clothe, so that spring should be the reclothing of nature; but this may be thought fanciful.'- Introd. to Gr. and Lat. Etymology, 89. Meanwhile we have the facts that other names for one season of the year have been used to denote the year itself. 'Man erinnere sich nur an sarad, herbst, Pers. sâl, jahr: varshah, regenzeit, oder prâvrish im Veda, dann varsha, jahr; hima, winter, im bimus, zwei wintrig, i. e. zweijährig.' Thus also, Professor Müller adds, we VOL. II. have the modified form vat in Skr. vaurds answering to samvat, may, he 2 R. V. i. 164, 46; Max Müller, Sanskr. Lit. 567. Muir, Skr. Texts, part iv. p. 365, 425. BOOK Agni and tos. The Wind and the Fire. Like Ushas and Eôs, Agni never grows old. He is emphatically the youngest of all the gods, not as being the latest born, but as never losing his strength and might; and in this name Yavishtha, which is never given to any other Vedic god, we may recognise the Hellenic Hephaistos.' But the name Agni is nowhere found in the west as the name of any deity. In the Greek dialects the word itself seems to have been lost, while the Latin ignis, with which it is identical, is merely a name for fire; nor are any myths associated with the Lithuanian Agni. SECTION II-PHORÔNEUS AND HESTIA. The myth of Hermes brings before us one of the many modes in which men were supposed to have become first possessed of the boon of fire. But although Hermes is there said to have been the first to bestow this gift upon mankind, it is simply as supplying or kindling the materials, not as being himself the fire. The hymn-writer is careful to distinguish between the two. He is the fire-giver because he rubs the branches of the forest trees together till they burst into a flame: but the wood thus kindled and the meat which is roasted are devoured not by himself but by the flames. Hermes remains hungry, although he is represented as longing for the food whose savour fills his nostrils. Nothing can show more clearly that we are dealing simply with the wind or with air in motion, in other words, with the bellows not with the fire. Hence with a keen sense of the meaning of the myth, Shelley, in his translation of the 1 Professor Max Müller thinks that this identification must be regarded as scarcely open to doubt. The name Hephaistos, he says, became the subject of myths in the West, precisely because it is not in strict analogy with the Sanskrit yavishtha, the superlative of yuvah, Lat. juvenis, young. The kindred form yavan, found also in Zend, yields yâvya, the name of the Greek Hêbê. The only difficulty is presented by the change of the Sanskrit v into the Greek 8; but this change is seen in the Greek oods for the Sanskrit svas. To the objection that the Sanskrit yavishtha ought to be represented by the Greek Hephistos, he replies that the Zend form stávaesta represents the Sanskrit sthavistha, and thus from the analogous yâvaesta we should reach Hephaistos. Thus, with the exception of Agni, all the names of the fire and the firegod were carried away by the Western Aryans and we have Prometheus answering to Pramantha, Phorôneus to Bhuranyu, and the Latin Vulcanus to the Skr. ulkah, a firebrand, a word used in connection with the flames or sparks of Agni. PHORÔNEUS AND NIOBÊ. 195 line, speaks of Hermes as supplying to men matches, tin- CHAP. derbox and steel' for the kindling of the flame. IV. rôneus. Another discoverer or bestower of fire is the Argive Pho- The Arrôneus, who represents the Vedic fire-god Bhuranyu, and give Phowhose name is thus seen to be another form of the Greek Pûr, the Teutonic feuer and fire. Phorôneus is thus the fire itself, and as such he dwelt on the Astu Phorônikon of Argos,-in other words he is the Argive Hestia with its holy flame of everlasting fire. In this aspect he was naturally represented as the first of men and the father of all who are subject to death; and as such, he is also described, in accordance with the myth of the Askingas, as springing from an ash-tree.2 To Phorôneus himself more than one wife is assigned. In one version he is the husband of Kerdo, the clever or winsome, a name pointing to the influence of fire on the comfort and the arts of life; in another of Telodikê, a word which indicates the judicial powers of the Greek Hestia and the Latin Vesta. For the same reason, he is also wedded to Peitho, persuasion. Among his children are Pelasgos, Iasos and Agenor, of whom a later tradition said. that after their father's death they divided the kingdom of Argos among themselves. He is thus described as the father of the Pelasgic race, in contrast with Deukalion, who is the progenitor of the Hellenic tribes. But it is unnecessary to enter the ethnological labyrinth from which it seems as impossible to gather fruit as from the barren sea. It is enough to say that Agenor, in this Argive myth, is a brother of Eurôpê, while in that of the Phoinikian land he is her father, and that Argos and Phoinikia are alike the glistening regions of the purple dawn. The phrase that Eurôpê, the broad-spreading morning light, is the daughter of Phorôneus, corresponds precisely with the myth which makes Hephaistos cleave the head of Zeus to allow the dawn to leap forth in its full splendour. But from fire comes smoke and vapour, and Phorôneus is thus the father of Niobê, the rain-cloud, who weeps herself to death on Mount Sipylos. 1 Preller, Gr. Myth. ii. 37. 2 lb. Melia, of course, becomes a nymph, and is said to be wedded to Ina chos, who thus becomes the father of BOOK II. Hestia. The sacred fire. name. As gathering to one centre the Argives, who had thus far dwelt scattered without a notion of social order and law, Phorôneus discharges the functions of Hestia. Nay, his Astu is Hestia, the inviolable fire on the sacred hearth which may not be moved but stands fast for ever. But no great accretion of myths was possible in the case either of Phorôneus or of Hestia. The legend, such as it is, belongs to that class of transparent stories among which the myths of Endymion, Narkissos, Daphnê, Sarpêdôn, and Memnon are among the most conspicuous; and the beneficial influence of her cultus is perhaps most strongly marked by the almost complete absence of folk-lore in connexion with her She is so clearly the fire on the hearth, the symbol and the pledge of kindliness and good faith, of law and order, of wealth and fair dealing, that it was impossible to lose sight of her attributes or to forget their origin; and except under these conditions there can be no full developement of mythology. Of no other deity perhaps was the worship so nearly an unmixed blessing. Falsehood and treachery, fickleness and insincerity, were to her things utterly hateful. Her purity could brook no uncleanness; her youth could know no decay, and thus her sacred dwelling became the centre of influences which breathed some life into a society prone to become more and more heartless and selfish. From the horrible devil-worship of Artemis Orthia, or Tauropola, we may turn to the redeeming cultus of Hestia and Asklepios, the shrines of the one being the stronghold of generosity and sympathy, the temples of the other being devoted to those works of mercy, which we are disposed to regard as the exclusive products of Christianity. Hestia in the common legend is the eldest daughter of The names Astu and Hestia are both referred by Preller to the Sanskrit vas, to dwell, the cognate Greek forms being and 7w, thus connecting together the Latin Vesta and sedes, a permanent habitation. But on the other hand it is urged that the name Hestia may more reasonably be referred to the root vas, to shine, which has yielded Vasu as a name for Agni, as well as many names for the year. (See note', p. 193). Hestia and Vesta would thus denote the glistening flame, and would be akin to the names for the hot wind, Euros and Auster, avotĦpós. Peile, Introduction to Greek and Latis Etymology, 77. 2 The temples of Asklepios were praetically large hospitals, where something like the aid of Christian charity was extended to the sick and afflicted by physicians whose knowledge raised them far above the empirics and spell-mutterers of the Middle Ages. HESTIA AND PHOIBOS. 197 IV. Kronos and Rheia, and is wooed both by Phoibos and CHAP. Poseidôn; but their suit is vain. Hestia makes a solemn vow that she will never be a bride, and as her reward she receives honour and glory both among gods and among men. As the pure maiden, she is to have her home in the inmost part of every dwelling, and at every sacrifice offered to Zeus and the other deities she is to preside and to receive the first invocation and the first share. As apart from her there can be no security for truth, peace, and justice, each town, city, and state must have its own Prytaneion, with its central hearth, uniting the citizens in a common faith and in common interests. Here the suppliant should obtain at the least the boon of a fair trial, here should all compacts, whether between states or private men, receive their most solemn sanction; and when it became necessary to lighten the pressure of population at home by sending forth some of the citizens into new countries, from this hearth should the sacred fire be taken as the link which was to bind together the new home with the old. This fire should never be extinguished; but if by chance such calamity should befall, it was to be lit again, not from common flame but as Hermes kindled fire, by friction, or drawn by burning-glasses from the sun itself. Hands impure might not touch her altar, and the guardians of her sacred fire should be pure and chaste as herself. All this is so transparent that we cannot be said to have entered here on the domain of mythology; and even the great hearth of the Universe is but an extension to the whole Kosmos of the idea which regarded Hestia as the very foundation of human society. SECTION III. HEPHAISTOS AND LOKI. In Hephaistos, the ever-young,' we see an image of fire, The not as the symbol and pledge of faith and honour, of law maimed Hephaisand equity, but like Agni, dark and stunted in its first tos. beginnings but able to do wonders in its power over earths and metals. He is the mighty workman who, at the prayer of Thetis, forges for Achilleus the irresistible armour in |