Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/69

Rh of the sun are, to the primitive man, daily miracles. Hence the theory (Schirren and Gerland) that the deluge of the stories we are considering has been transferred from the sky to the earth, that it is in a word an ether-myth. This mode of explanation is not set aside by referring to quasi- historical details in the deluge-stories. For as soon as the mythic stage begins to be outgrown, rationalism appears. In this transitional period (commonly of long duration) the old nature-myths are modified. Some mythic elements remain, others are turned into prose. The attempt to explain the existence of the world on the. basis of an ether-myth was an early symptom of the denaturalization of which we have spoken. At a still more advanced stage of the process, the flood often ceased to be universal, and was restricted to the home of those who related the story, or to the region from which they supposed themselves to have migrated. At last the shrewder intellects (e.g., among the Tahitians and some of the American Indians) even clutched at phenomena like those of fossil-shells found on hills to prove the literal truth of their deluge.

The most plausible arguments for the celestial deluge-theory are derived from the Polynesian mythology. In the flood-story of Raiatea, given by Ellis (Polynesian Researches, ii. 58-9), the flood rose " as the sun approached the horizon;" and the island where the fisherman found refuge is called Toa-marama, i.e., moon-tree (tree reaching up into the moon), which reminds us of the Teutonic world-ash-tree, Yggdrasil, and the mythic mountain of the Babylonians (see below) and other nations. At Hawaii the flood was even called " flood of the moon," and at New Zealand " flood of day's eye " (i.e., the sun). Schirren explains all these myths as pictures of sunset, just as he derives the cosmogonies from myths of sunrise. But most of them are more easily explained, with Gerland, as ether-myths. The sun and moon were imagined as peaks emerging out of a flood sometimes as canoes, sometimes as a man and his wife the sole survivors (except perhaps the stars, their children) from the inundation. There was, however, no fixity of meaning. The stars were sometimes regarded as ships; but so too were the clouds, " Tangaloa's ships." The Babylonian story, as represented in the llth Izdubar lay, suggests a similar theory. The names of the hero and his father mean " the (morning) sun " and " the evening-glow." The flood is a rain-flood, and the " father of the rain " (cf. Job xxxviii. 28) is the celestial ocean, which in the original myth must have been itself the deluge; and the " ship " is like that in which the Egyptian sun-god voyages in the sea of ether. The mountain on which the survivors come to land was originally (as in Polynesia) the great mythic mountain (cf. the Accadian kharsak kurra, " mountain of the east "), which joins the sky to the earth, and serves as an axis to the celestial vault. Traces of an ether-myth have also been discovered in the Indian deluge-story, as indeed is only natural if it be based on the Babylonian. In the Mahabhdrata, the divine fish has a horn issuing from his head, which reminds us of other horned deities, whose solar origin is admitted, such as Baal and the Berosiau Cannes. (See also Schirren, Wanderungen der Neuseellinder, p. 193, who is, however, too fanciful to be&amp;gt; a safe guide).

Two points should be mentioned in conclusion. (1.) Though a moral significance is by no means always attributed to the deluge, it is more common than might have been expected. In the MaJidbhdrata (line 12,774) it takes the form not of retribution but of purification, which agrees with Plato's view (Timceus, p, 22). We find it in America among the Quiches, but this may perhaps be a later addition, as is certainly the case in one of the forms of the Tahitian myth (Waitz, vi. 271). And (2.) the deluge is not always the last of those periodical destructions alluded to at the beginning of this article. A few races suppose the last link in the series to be a great fire which swept every living thing from the earth, except (as some American Indians say) a few who took refuge in a deep cave. This last feature, however, has a slightly suspicious resemblance to Gen. xix. 29, and, to say the least, the conflagration is not a myth of such proved antiquity and spontaneity as the deluge. It is too sugges tive of artificial systems like that of the Stoics.

Authorities.—Babylonian story: Mr George Smith's papers in Transactions of Biblical Archaeological Soc., ii. 213-34, iii. 530-96; Lenormant, Lcs premieres Civilisations, torn. ii. 3-146; Delitzsch, George Smith's Chald. Genesis, 318-21. Biblical narrative: Com mentaries on Genesis, by Knobel and Dillmann, Delitzsch, Kalisch; Ewald, Billische Jahrbilclier, vii. 1-23. Indian: Muir Sanskrit Texts, i. 196-201; Burnouf, Bhdgavata furdna, ii. 191, Weber, Jndische Studien, i. 161-232; Tumour, Mahavanso, i. 131 (referring to a local flood in its present form). Greek: Preller, Aufsdtze, 165-7. Vogul (Altaic): Hunfalvy, summarized by L. Adam, Revue de pliilologie, i. 9-14. Lap: Friis, Laflrisk Mylhologie, reviewed in Lit. Ccntralblatt, March 1, 1873. America: Bancroft, Native Races, &c., v. 12-16; Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, p. 358. Polynesia: Schirren, Wanderungen der Neuseeldnder (Riga, 1856); Gerland, Waltz's Anthropologie, vi. 296-73. General works: Pictet, Origincs Indo-curopecnnes, ii. 620, &c.; Liiken, Die Traditional dcs Menschengeschlechts (Wiinster, 1869). (T.K.C.)

 DEMADES, an orator and demagogue who flourished in the 4th century He was originally of humble position, and was employed at one time as a common sailor, but he rose partly by his eloquence and partly by his unscrupulous character to a prominent position at Athens. He espoused the cause of Philip in the war against Olynthus, and was thus brought into bitter and life-long enmity with. Notwithstanding his sympathies he fought against the Macedonians in the battle of Chæronea, after which he was instrumental in procuring a treaty of peace between Macedon and through his influence with Philip. He continued to be a favourite of Alexander, and, prompted by a bribe, saved and the other obnoxious orators from his vengeance. His conduct in supporting the Macedonian cause, yet receiving any bribes that were offered by the opposite party, caused him to be heavily fined more than once; and his flagrant disregard of law and honour ultimately led the citizens of to pass upon him the sentence of atimia. This was recalled in on the approach of Antipater, to whom the citizens sent Demades and Phocion as ambassadors. Before setting out he persuaded the citizens to pass sentence of death upon and his followers who had fled from. Harpalus and Antipater both succeeded in bribing him to their cause; but the latter, discovering while Demades was with him on another embassy in a correspondence which showed him to have been at the same time in communication with Perdiccas, put him to death along with his son Demeas. A fragment of a speech bearing his name is to be found in the Oratores Attici, but its genuineness is exceedingly doubtful.  DEMERARA, or, a and of. See.  DEMETER. See ,  DEMETRIA, a festival in honour of, held at seed-time, and lasting ten days. It appears to be the same as that generally called.  DEMETRIUS I., king of Macedonia, a son of Antigonus and Stratonice, surnamed Poliorcetes, or the Besieger. Both father and son play an important part in the vicissitudes of the Macedonian empire after the death of Alexander the Great. Demetrius grew up to be a beautiful young man, reared in the fulness of the new Macedonian life, devoted to Greek science, and inspired with an eager ambition to rival the ancient heroes of his race. He united with these lofty aims a love of Oriental magnificence which formed at once the chief splendour and the principal 