CHAPTER VIII

THE ORIGIN OF MYTHOLOGY

Mythology not the invention of priests—Confusion in myths—The causes of the rise of myth: 1. Forgetfulness of the signification of words; 2. Confusion arising from words having several meanings; 3. Accumulation of similitudes; 4. Philological attempts to explain the significance of words that are antiquated; 5. Allegories misunderstood; 6. Attempts to account for natural curiosities-Brotomorphosis or Euhemerism.

WE are greatly mistaken if we suppose that religion

was the invention of priests, as was taught by the philosophers of the last century. These men supposed that the religious systems, the theogonies and mythologies of antiquity, were designedly constructed to deceive mankind, and bring it fettered to the foot of the priest. But this doctrine is wholly devoid of substantial proof. Religion is the spontaneous outgrowth of human nature; and as far back as one can trace the history of theodoxy, one finds the sacerdotal classes sharing with the laity those fundamental notions which form the essence of popular religion. The priest believed what was believed by the mass of the nation; he believed with greater exaltation, enthusiasm, and fanaticism, and in that lay his power.

In the formation of the primitive myths there was no premeditation; those who created them were guided by

impulses acting upon all alike, and were, in fact, but the mouthpiece of popular opinion. Mythology rests, not on individual conception, but on a conception common to a nation or to a religious community. Each adds his trifle, and the myth, embellished now by one narrator, now by another, rolls down centuries, gathering accretions insensibly, like a snowball. Consequently, myths are very varied. There is scarcely a Greek myth, for instance, which is not found in numerous variations; and this want of uniformity is not due to poets, but to the popular belief which the poets followed.

For instance, the same goddess is given to a god, now as a wife, and now a sister, and in another version she appears as his mother. This happened through the retention of the same name for a changing goddess; but if she has several names, she becomes several different persons. So the predicates of gods appear as divine personages, and unite with them again: thus, Nike appears beside Athene, and Themis beside the Earth.

If we classify the forces at work in the mythopoeic age, we shall find them to be as follow:

1

1. Language, at an early period of the history of mankind, was full of sap. Its superabundant vigour exhibited itself in prodigality of terminology in the designation of a single object, and in a surprising profusion of synonyms. Instances have been given in the preceding chapter. These names, when their signification was clouded, became each a distinct deity. Nevertheless, since all these figures had among them an appearance of relationship, they were reduced to theogony, and were grouped into a family. All

1 The arrangement of M. Bréal has been followed, with, however, some important additions: (Hercule et Cacus, pp. 7-20).

the epithets which had, through misconception of their meaning, consolidated into proper names, and which were floating purposeless in the popular mythology, were gathered, and artificially arranged into a system which overlapped history and disturbed chronology.

But this was not all. A reason had to be given why the supreme god was called first by one name and then by another. As it was supposed that these names must belong to distinct beings, celestial dynasties were invented, and revolutions in heaven; Ouranos yielded his throne to Kronos, and Kronos was displaced by Zeus. The past was filled with imaginary cataclysms, by placing in it the old worn-out titles of the actual divinities, as personal gods who had abdicated, or had been driven out of power by newer and more vigorous deities.

In the time of Homer, the work of classification and coordination was tolerably complete in Greece. Hesiod gives the gods and all fabulous beings their genealogies. The Titans are distinguished from the Giants, the Gorgon from Medusa. Typhoeus by Echidna engenders Cerberus, Hydra, the Chimera, and Orthos, and by his own mother begets Sphinx. Thus, the same monster generates by himself. Many a myth arose out of this forgetfulness of the original identity of two or more divinities. Zeus is actually the same as Dionysus; the later being the Atos worshipped at Nysos. Zeus was at one time named Tyndareus, the Thunderer, and it was said that the morning and evening twilights were the offspring of the sky and darkness. Leda is darkness, and may well be called the consort of the thundercloud. But afterwards it was fabled that Zeus had committed adultery with Leda, when the identity of Zeus and Tyndareus was forgotten.

The same deity entered mythology at different periods.

In a

Aidoneus and Adonis are really one and the same. remote antiquity the Greeks adopted Adon, the Lord, of the Phoenicians, and made him master of the nether world. Afterwards they imported him again, with a story sufficiently varied to make the identity not immediately perceivable. Aidoneus and Adonis had the same wife, Persephone. When Osiris was shut into the coffer and cast into the river, he floated to Phoenicia, and was there received under the name of Adonis. Isis wandered in quest of him, came to Byblos, and seated herself by a fountain in silence and tears. She was then taken by the servants of the royal palace and made to attend on the young prince of the land. In like manner Demeter, after that Aidoneus had ravished her daughter, went in pursuit, reached Eleusis, seated herself by a well, conversed with the daughters of the queen, and became nurse to her son.1 There are sufficient resemblances in the stories to make it probable that they are different versions of the same myth. Again, Persephone spends half the year with Aidoneus in the lower world, and half in the upper world: so Adonis divides his time between Persephone and Aphrodite.

2. A second cause of the formation of myths is the confusion arising from the different senses in which the same word was used. The sun with his golden rays was described as the golden-rayed. But the word 'hand' in Sanskrit is the same as the word 'ray.' When the same epithet was applied to Apollo or Indra, a myth would spring up, as we find it in German and Sanskrit mythology, telling us that Indra lost his hand, and that it was replaced by one made of gold. The story of the stables of Augias rests on a misprison. Augias is a surname of the sun. In Vaidic ter1 Hom: Hymn in Cer. 97-120, 160 et seq.

minology the word go has two significations, cloud and cow; and gotra is both the sky and a stable. When this double sense was forgotten, and other words were used to designate cloud and sky, Augias was no longer regarded as the master of the cloud-strewn heaven, but as the proprietor of a cattle-stall. Apollo was said to be the son of Aúκn, that is, of Light; but afterwards it was related that his mother was transformed into a wolf. Leto was represented at Tentyra as a cow, and a cow in Egyptian hieroglyph is the symbol for time. This rests on a phonetic resemblance, the words for cow and day being so slightly different that the distinction in their pronunciation is i scarcely perceptible. Kadmus was the ancient Infinite God. and was symbolized by a dragon. The Phoenician word for teeth and years is the same, '; it is easy to see that from a misunderstanding, the fable of his sowing dragon's teeth, and of their springing up armed men, is nothing but a confused and burlesque rendering of the Oriental teaching that the Infinite God made articulate time, and that in process of time man was created.

Mλov has two significations, goat and apple. The tales of the quest of the golden fleece, and of the garden of the Hesperides, are possibly due to this fact. In Sanskrit, bhî, to fear, is the root of bheka, which is a cloud, so called because it causes fear, and also a frog, so called because of its timidity. An Indian story tells of a beautiful lady changed into a frog who sat by a well, and was found by a prince, who married her. She became his on condition that he should not show her water. He forgot the condition, and she disappeared. This tale is based on the truth that the cloud vanishes after the shower.

3. A third cause of the formation of myths is to be found