Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/486

 42 2 Four-footed Man :

1904), Greek Thinkers (Gomperz, Engl. Transl. vol. i.), and recently in a very interesting article by Prof. Myres (^Anthropology and the Classics, 1908, pp. 1 21- 168). As I shall only refer to this article when unable to agree with Prof. Myres' conclusions, I am the more anxious to express my appreciation of this admirable study of Herodotus as the Father of Anthropology.

An enquiry into the Greek ideas on the origin and primitive condition of man must take into account the evidence of folklore, philosophy, and poetry. Practically, however, we may consider the evidence as only two-fold ; for the classical poets, when they do not follow or adopt popular traditions, are influenced by philosophic specula- tion. Euripides is the mouthpiece of Anaxagoras, and reflects much of sophistic teaching ; Lucretius represents the standpoint of the Epicureans ; Aratus and Manilius, that of the Stoics.

If the Aeschylean passage really implies a belief that original man walked on all fours, we may therefore look for parallels either in popular thought or in more advanced speculation ; for it might be contended, with equal show of probability, that Aeschylus is here, as often, drawing on the resources of folklore, or that he is putting into poetical form a theory of some Ionian philosopher such as Anaximander.

It will be unnecessary to examine at length the popular accounts of the creation of man, as this subject is discussed in the ordinary textbooks of Greek mythology {e.g. Preller-Robert, vol. i., pp. 78 et seq. : Gruppe, Griech. Myth., pp. 438 et seq.). To account for the existence of man, various explanations were off"ered, which may be summarised as follows : —

(i) Creation of men by the gods. This is the idea in the Homeric description of Zeus as Trarrjp ampcov re Oewi' re and in the Hesiodean Ages {Op. 109 et seq.). The common belief, that certain races or individuals