VRITRA AND THE SPHINX. 345 X. Egyptian Sphinx is never winged, and is never represented CHAP. except as prone and recumbent, or in any form except that of a lion with a human head and bust. The notion that the riddling Sphinx of Thebes was derived from the land of the Nile may have originated with Herodotos, or may have been taken for granted on the bare assertion of Egyptian priests by others before himself; but the name existed in Greek mythology long before the port of Naukratis was opened to Greek commerce. The conclusions which Herodotos drew from his Egyptian informants on the subjects of ethnology and mythology were in almost every case wrong; and the Sphinx is too closely connected with Echidna and Zohak, with Orthros, Vritra, Geryon and Cacus, to justify any classification which professes to account for one without explaining the rest.1 solved. In point of fact, few Greek myths are more transparent The Riddle than that of the monster which is slain by Oidipous. The story which made her the daughter of Orthros or Typhon, said simply that the cloud in which the thunder abode, and in which the rain was imprisoned, was the child of the darkness the version which made her a daughter of Laios2 spoke of her as sprung from the great enemy of Indra and Phoibos-the darkness under another name. The huge stormcloud moves slowly through the air and so the phrase went that Hêrê the goddess of the open heaven had sent the Sphinx, because the Thebans had not punished her enemy Laios, who had carried off Chrysippos from Pisa. Others related that she had been sent by Arês, the grinder, to avenge herself on Kadmos for slaying his child the dragon, or that she was come to do the bidding of Dionysos or of Hades. The effect of her coming is precisely that which follows the theft of the cows of Indra by the Panis. The blue heaven is veiled from sight, the light of the sun is blotted out, and over the city broods the mighty mass, beetling like a gigantic In the Vishnu Purana (H. H. Wilson, 514) the sphinx appears as the demon Dheanka, whom Rama seized by both hind legs, and whirling him round until he expired, tossed his carcase to the top of a palm-tree, from the branches of which it struck down abun- II. BOOK rock, which can never be moved until some one comes with strength enough to conquer and to slay her. The robbery and rescuing of the cows are the only incidents which have fallen out of the Theban legend, but in the discomfiture of the Sphinx, who dashes herself from the rock when her riddle is solved, we have the sudden downfall of the waters when the thundercloud has been pierced by the lance of Indra. The issue of the Boiotian story was determined by an explanation given of the name of Oidipous. According to some, the name denoted the swelling of the child's feet as he lay exposed on the slopes of Kithairon; by others who rejected the derivation from the verb oìdéw, to swell, it was referred to his wisdom in solving the enigma of the feet. That the unintelligible muttering of the thunder should suggest the introduction of some popular riddle into the old myth, was natural and perhaps inevitable; and the time at which it was engrafted into the legend is a matter of little or no importance. Wisdom is among the most prominent attributes of the beings who do battle with the powers of darkness. Whether it be Helios possessed of a knowledge which he cannot impart even to Hermes, or of a robe which makes Medeia the wonder of all for her sagacity and her power, or whether it be Tantalos, or Sisyphos, or Ixîôn, whose wisdom is no security against their downfall, whether it be Phoibos endowing his ministers at Delphoi with the gift of prophecy, or Kadmos instructing his people in all art and learning, we see in one and all the keenness of wit and strength of purpose which do their work while gods and men think little of the dwarfs Vishņu and Hari, the halting Hephaistos, or Apollôn wrapped in his swaddlingclothes at Delos. Their career begins in weakness to end in strength, in defeat to be crowned by victory. In three strides the child Vishnu traverses the heaven; and the despised Oidipous, who knows nothing,' solves the riddle of the Sphinx as surely as Indra and Herakles discover the hiding-places of their cattle. It is but another version of the story of Odysseus flouted as a beggar in his own hall, or Boots sitting among the ashes while his elders laugh him to scorn, but each winning a victory which is due rather to their wisdom than to their power. THE SNAKE OF WINTER. 1 347 CHAP. X. of the But if the riddle was introduced into the story at a comparatively late stage, the idea which suggested it is essential to the myth. It is that of the fatal voice of the thunder, The Voice the utterances of Typhâôn, which even the gods can only Thunder. sometimes understand,2 and which cease when the cloud has been pierced by the lightning and the rain has fallen upon the earth. Thus, in two or three mythical phrases, we have the framework of the whole myth. The first, Oidipous is talking with the Sphinx,' indicates the struggle of Indra with the Panis, of Zeus with Typhon, of Apollôn with the Delphian dragon; in the second, 'Oidipous has smitten the Sphinx,' we have the consummation which sets the land free from the plague of drought. thian Dragon. SECTION V.-THE DELPHIAN AND CRETAN MYTHS. In other myths the incidents of the imprisonment and The Pyliberation of the waters are marked with scarcely less clearness than in the history of Indra himself. The being with whom Apollon has to fight is the dragon of Pytho, who had chased and vexed his mother during her journeyings before she reached Delos, and at whose death the imprisoned waters started from the sources opened by the spear of Phoibos. In the Theban myth the snake who is slain by Kadmos guards the well of Arês, and slays all who come to fetch water until Kadmos himself deals it the death-blow.3 snakes or serpents are no other than the dragon of the glistening heath, which, in the myths of the frost-bound regions of the north, lies coiled round the sleeping Brynhild and all her treasures. The myth is changed only in the point of view which substitutes deliverance from the deadly cold of winter for deliverance from the not less dreadful plague of drought. The latter idea may be traced in the strange story related by Pausanias of the hero of Temessa. 4 The les rochers, à la place où il disparut 4 vi. 6. BOOK II. The Minotauros. The enemy here is not a snake but an evil spirit, or rather the demon of one of the companions of Odysseus who had been slain for wrong done to a maiden of that city. The ravages of this demon, not less terrible than those of the Sphinx, could be stayed, the Pythian priestess said, only by building a temple to this hero or demon, and offering to him once a year a beautiful maiden. From this point the story is but another version of the myth of Perseus. Like him, Euthymos (a wrestler who is said to have won several victories at Olympia between the 70th and 80th Olympiads, but whom his countrymen regarded as a son of the river Kaikinês) resolves to rescue the maiden, and wins her as his bride,' while the demon, like the Libyan dragon, sinks into the sea. Of the mode by which Euthymos mastered him nothing is said; but Pausanias adds that Euthymos was not subjected to death, and that the demon whom he overcame was a creature terribly dark and black, with the skin of a wolf for his garment. With this legend we may compare the story of the monsters slain by Beowulf, the wolf-tamer, the first of these being Grendel, who ravages the country of King Hrothgar, and whom he slays after a struggle as arduous as that of Indra with the Panis. The second is but another form of the first. It is a huge dragon which guards a treasure-hoard near the sea-shore, and which sinks into the waters when smitten by the hero, who, like Sigurd, becomes master of all his wealth. The same devouring enemy of the lord of light reappears in the Cretan Minotauros; and here also, as we resolve the myth into its component parts, we see the simple framework on which it has been built up. The story in its later form ran that at the prayer of Minos Poseidôn sent up from the sea a bull, by whom Pasiphaê became the mother of a composite being like Echidna, Orthros, Geryon, or Kerberos; that this monster was shut up in the labyrinth made by the cunning workman Daidalos, and there fed with the children whom the Athenians were obliged to send yearly, until at length the tribute-ship brought among the intended victims In a still more modern shape the story may be found in Southey's metrical tale of the Dragon of Antioch. THE TRIBUTE CHILDREN OF ATHENS. the hero Theseus, who by the aid of Ariadnê slew the human-headed bull, or the bull-headed man, for this being is exhibited under both forms. To search this myth for a residuum of fact, pointing to some early dependence of historical Athens on the maritime supremacy of some Cretan king, is, as we have seen, utterly useless. We know nothing of Minos, Athens, or Crete at the alleged time to which these myths relate except what we learn from the myths themselves, and these utter no uncertain sounds. The Minotauros is the offspring of the bull from the sea, which appears again in the myth of Eurôpê and is yoked to the chariot of Indra, and of Pasiphaê, who gives light to all. This incident is but a translation of the fact that the night follows or is born from the day. The same notion assigns Phoibos Chrysâôr, the lord of the golden sword, and the fair nymph Kallirhoê, as the parents of the frightful Geryon. The monster so born must share the nature of Ahi, Vritra, the Panis, Cacus, and the Sphinx. In other words, he must steal, kill, and devour, and his victims must belong to the bright beings from whom he is sprung. The Panis can steal only the cows of Indra, and the Minotauros can consume only the beautiful children of the dawn-goddess Athênê; in other words, the tribute can come only from Athens. But all these fearful monsters lurk in secret places; each has his cave or mountain fastness, where he gorges himself on his prey. The road to it is gloomy and bewildering; and in the expression put into the mouth of the Panis, who tell Sarama that the way is far and leads tortuously away,' we have something more than the germ of the twisting and hazy labyrinth-we have the labyrinth itself. This intricate abode is indeed the work of the magnificent Daidalos; but the walls of Ilion, to which Paris the seducer takes the beautiful Helen, are built by Phoibos and Herakles themselves. In this dark retreat lurks the monster who can be slain only by one invincible hero; but although Indra is the destined destroyer of Vritra, he cannot find out where his enemy is hidden away except by the aid of Saramâ. In this lovely being, who, peering about through the sky in search of the stolen cattle, guides Indra to the den of the 349 CHAP. X. |