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RUDRA.

destroyer and reproducer, for these functions were blended by the same association of ideas which gave birth to the long series of correlative deities in Aryan mythology.

'Adorned with armlets, the Maruts have shone like the skies with their stars; they have glittered like showers from the clouds, at the time when the prolific Rudra generated you, Maruts, with jewels on your breasts, from the shining udder of Prisni.'1

223

CHAP.

V.

The several phases which the character of this god as- Rudra. sumes in the later Hindu literature are minutely traced by Dr. Muir; but among the monstrous overgrowths of wild fancies we find some of the more prominent attributes of the cognate Greek deity ascribed to Rudra in his character as Father of the Winds. Like the Asvins and Agni, like Proteus, Phoibos, and the other fish-gods, Rudra can change his form at will.

Father of the Maruts, may thy felicity extend to us: exclude us not from the light of the sun.

'Thou, Rudra, art the chiefest of beings in glory. Thou, wielder of the thunderbolt, art the mightiest of the mighty.

‹ Where, Rudra, is thy joy-dispensing hand? Firm with strong limbs, assuming many forms, he shines with golden ornaments.' 3

Like Hermes, Rudra is worshipped as the robber, the cheat, the deceiver, the Master Thief. The mocking laughter of the wind as it passes on after wreaking its fury could not fail to suggest the same ideas in the most distant lands. As we might expect, Rudra, like Siva, whose gracious name was a mere euphemism to deprecate his deadly wrath, at length eclipses Indra, as Indra had put Dyaus and Varuṇa into the background, and he becomes associated most closely with that phallic worship which seemingly found but little favour in the true Vedic age.5

1 R. V. ii. 34, 2; Muir, Skr. Texts. part iv. p. 260.

Muir, ib. part iv. ch. iv. sect. 3. * H. H. Wilson, R. V. S. ii. 289.

Muir, Skr. Texts, part iv. p. 341.

See also vol. i.

Dr. Muir fully admits the scantiness of the evidence on which the negative conclusion rests. Skr. Texts, iv. p. 348.

BOOK

II.

Greek

myths of

SECTION II.-HERMES.

The character of the more gentle Vayu, who comes with the blush of early morning, carries us to the strange legend Hindu and of Hermes; and we have to see how the phrases which yielded but a slight harvest of myth in the East grew up in the wind. the West into stories enriched by an exquisite fancy, while they remained free from the cumbrous and repulsive extravagances of later Hindu mythology, and how true to the spirit of the old mythical speech and thought is the legend of that son of Zeus, who was born early in the morning in a cave of the Kyllenian hill, who at noon played softly and sweetly on his harp, and who at eventide stole away the cattle of Phoibos.1

The story

Rising from his cradle (so the story runs), the babe stepped of Hermes. forth from the cave, and found a tortoise feeding on the grass. Joyously seizing his prize, he pierced out its life with a borer, and drilling holes in the shell, framed a lyre with reed canes, a bull's hide, and seven sheep-gut cords. Then striking the strings he called forth sounds of wonderful sweetness, as he sang of the loves of Zeus in the beautiful home of his mother Maia, the daughter of Atlas. But soon he laid down his harp in his cradle, for the craving of hunger was upon him, and as the sun went down with his chariot and horses to the stream of Ocean,2 the child hastened to the shadowy mountains of Pieria, where the cattle of the gods feed in their large pastures. Taking fifty of the herd, he drove them away, sending them hither and thither, so that none could tell by what path they had really gone, and on his own feet he bound branches of tamarisk and myrtle. Passing along the plains of Onchestos, he charged

Hymn to Hermes, 17, 18. The sudden growth of Hermes, followed by an equally rapid return to his infantile shape and strength, explains the story of the Fisherman and the Jin in the Arabian Nights. This tale is substantially the same as Grimm's story of the Spirit in the Bottle. The bottle in the one case, the jar in the other, represents the cradle to which Hermes comes back

after striding like a giant over heaths and hills, as well as the care of Aiolos and the bag of winds which he places in the hands of Odysseus.

2 Hymn to Hermes, 67. I have striven to adhere with scrupulous care to the imagery of the hymn, avoiding the introduction of any notions not warranted by actual expressions in the

poem.

THE CRADLE OF HERMES.

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CHAP.
V.

of the

cattle.

an old man who was at work in his vineyard to forget the things which it might not be convenient to remember. Hastening onwards with the cattle, he reached the banks The theft of Alpheios, as the moon rose up in the sky. There he brought together a heap of wood, and, kindling the first flame that shone upon the earth, he slew two of the cows, and stretching their hides on the rock, cut up the flesh into twelve portions.' But sorely though his hunger pressed him, he touched not the savoury food, and hurling his sandals into the river, he broke up the blazing pile, and scattered the ashes all night long beneath the bright light of the moon. Early in the morning he reached Kyllênê, neither god nor man having spied him on the road; and passing through the bolt-hole of the cave like a mist or a soft autumn breeze,22 he lay down in his cradle, playing among the clothes with one hand, while he held his lyre in the other. To the warning of his mother, who told him that Phoibos would take a fearful vengeance, and bade him begone as born to be the plague of gods and men,3 Hermes simply answered that he meant to be the equal of Phoibos, and that if this right were refused to him, he would go and sack his wealthy house at Pytho.

Meanwhile, Phoibos, hastening to Onchestos in search of his cattle, had asked the old vinedresser to say who had taken them. But the words of Hermes still rang in the old man's ears, and he could remember only that he had seen cows and a babe following them with a staff in his hand. Knowing now who had stolen them, Phoibos hastened on to

'Hermes is thus especially connected with the ordering of burnt sacrifices. But this we have seen to be the especial attribute or function of Agni.

2 In other words the great giant has reduced himself almost to nothing. This is the story of the Fisherman and the Jin in the Arabian Nights, of the Spirit in the Bottle in Grimm's German stories, of the devil in the purse of the Master Smith, and again in the story of the Lad and the Devil (Dasent), and the Gaelic tale of The Soldier. Campbell, ii. 279.

With this we may compare the prognostications of the mother of the VOL. II.

4

Shifty Lad, in the Scottish version of
the myth.

Hymn to Hermes, 214-5. Nothing
could show more clearly than these
words that the myth pointed to a
physical phenomenon
with which
Phoibos was already familiar. Had
the story been told by one who meant
to speak of any human child, he would
never have represented Apollon as
knowing who the thief was before his
name was mentioned or the clue to his
hiding-place furnished. The poet might
indeed have said that the child had
stolen the cows many times already:
but the statement would not have agreed
Q

The cove

ant of

Hermes

and Phoi

bos.

II.

BOOK Pylos, and there stood amazed at the confused tracks which the beasts had left behind them. Hurrying onwards to Kyllênê, Apollôn caught the child in his cradle, and taxed him with the theft. How can it be that I have stolen the cows?' said the babe, I who can but sleep and suck and play with the clothes of my cradle. I was born but yesterday, and my feet are tender, and the ground is hard. I have not taken your cattle, and I know nothing of cows but their name.' But as he spoke he winked slily with his eyes, and a long low whistle came from his lips. Smiling in spite of his anger, Phoibos saw that the craft of Hermes would set many a herdsman grieving, and that he had won the right to be called the prince of robbers and the Master Thief for ever. Then seizing the child he was bearing him away when a loud noise made him let go his hold; but at length both appeared before the judgment-seat of Zeus, and the babe, who spoke of himself as a most truthful person, said that he must be guiltless, as he knew not even what sort of things cows were. The plea was not admitted, and the nod of Zeus warned Hermes that his command to restore the oxen was not to be disobeyed. So on the banks of Alpheios he showed the lost cattle to Phoibos, who, dismayed at the signs of recent slaughter, again seized the babe in his anger. In great fear Hermes bethought him of his lyre, and striking its chords wakened sounds most soft and soothing as he sang of the old time when the gods were born and the world was young. As he listened to the beautiful harmony, Phoibos, angry no more, longed only to learn whence the child had this wondrous power, and to gain for himself this marvellous gift of song. At once Hermes granted his prayer, ‘Take my lyre,' he said, 'which to those who can use it deftly will discourse of all sweet things, but will babble nonsense and moan strangely to all who know not how to draw forth its speech.' So the strife between them was ended, and Phoibos placed in the hand of Hermes his three-leafed rod of wealth and happiness, and gave him

well with his special object in relating
the myth-viz. to account for the alliance
between Phoibos and Hermes.

charge over all his cattle.'

German story the Little Farmer who cheats the greedy townsmen with the sight of his flocks in the water. There Thus Hermes becomes in the happened to be a fine blue sky with

THE COMPACT BETWEEN HERMES AND PHOIBOS.

Then touching the tortoise-lyre, Apollôn called forth its sweet music, and Hermes, taking courage, prayed that to him also might be granted the secret wisdom of Phoibos; but Apollôn said, 'This alone may not be. None but myself may know the hidden counsels of Zeus; but other things there are which mortal men may never learn, and these things the Thriai shall teach thee, who dwell far down in the clifts of Parnassos. Other honours too are in store for thee. Thou shalt be the guardian of all flocks and herds, the messenger of the gods, and the guide of the dead to the dark land of Hades.' Thus was the compact between them made, and Phoibos became the lord of the sweet-voiced lyre, and Hermes for his part sware that no harm should come to the holy home of Apollôn at Delphoi. But to men Hermes. brings no great help, for he has a way of cheating them through the dusky hours of night.

It is obvious that the legend, as thus related in the hymn, cannot be understood until we have traced to their source the mythical facts that Hermes was born in the morning, that from him come the gifts of music and song, that he reached his full strength at midday, that although he could kindle flame he could not eat the food which the fire devoured, and that he could at will lie like a child in his cradle or terrify gods and men with his sudden blasts. The mystery is certainly not solved if with Mr. Grote we hold that the general types of Hermes and Apollôn, coupled with the present fact that no thief ever approached the rich and seemingly accessible treasures of Delphi, engender a string of expository incidents, cast into a quasi-historical form, and detailing how it happened that Hermes had bound himself by especial convention to respect the Delphian temple.' Mr. Grote cannot mean that the immunity of the Pythian shrine from theft and plunder originated the general types of the two gods, and it is precisely with

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227

CHAP.
V.

The mean

ing of the

covenant.

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