Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/172

144 with the Egypt of the sixteenth century B.C.?" The solitary historical example of kings who, at the end of twelve years, had to commit suicide, is that of Calicut, but there the king (a vassal or subject prince) adopted measures which secured his safety before 1683. Not a hint of any such measures occurs in Greek tradition. I have not read that this king of Calicut was looked on as an embodiment of such a deity as the Zeus of the Greeks.

Again, in the Attic fable, Theseus, after slaying the Minotaur, does not succeed to the rights of the Crown Prince in Knossos. He simply sails away.

Finally, the whole theory that the Minotaur has to do battle for his life and rights at stated periods, rests solely on one line of the Odyssey, in which, whatever Homer means to say, he certainly says not a word about any such contest. The line is Odyssey, xix. 179; it runs, being interpreted, "Cnossos, and there Minos reigned ἐννέωρος, he who spake face to face with (or was the comrade of) great Zeus."

The meaning of the word ἐννέωρος in this passage is unknown. If we translate it "Minos ruled in periods of nine years," or "Minos conversed with Zeus every nine years," we get a recurrent period. Mr. Cook holds that at these periods the son of Minos fought for his crown. Mr. Murray holds that Minos himself, wearing a bull's mask or protomê, was butchered in the Dictaean cave. If you consult Mr. Monro's edition of the Odyssey, you will find that he knows not how to interpret the passage. You will get no more satisfaction from another great scholar, A. Ludwig, in his essay on Minos (Prague, 1903). Ludwig equates Minos with the German Mannus, and thinks him a purely mythical being.

In short, as Professor Burrows, Dr. Hawes, and other scholars see, the possible historic fact in the Attic myth