Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/287

 Reviews. 263

plained. There are some sensible remarks on the aegis (98 fF.), but the author goes too far when he maintains that there is no ground for connecting it with rain; the plate in Bourke's Snake Dance of the Aioqicis (xix.) is sufficient to disprove this. The plate represents an altar with "storm clouds and lightning;" and the upper part consists of scales, the lower of snakes. The resem- blance of this figure to the aegis strikes one at a glance. As regards the " axe of Tenedos " as an emblem of Zeus, the author fails to notice Professor Ridgeway's brilliant book on the Origin of Curreticy and Weight Standards ; the axe may well be a trade emblem, and " axe money " is, or lately was, used in West Africa {op. cit., pp. 40, 50).

In the Hera section, the author makes no attempt to discover what Hera originally was ; that, says he, is " not our present con- cern ;" he shows us, however, what she was not, and does good service in sweeping away cobwebs. His explanation of the lepos yufios is realistic, and, in our opinion, most unlikely. He comes to the conclusion that Hera is simply the goddess of marriage, and the women's special goddess ; as spouse of Zeus, she shares some of his titles; but her separate functions are few, and she takes little interest in men. The question whether we ever have in Europe original female goddesses becoming male, and as a result a pair of divinities worshipped together, is not touched. This process is often seen in Semitic religion, and the late Professor Robertson Smith has often told the present writer that he believed a great deal more might be explained on the same principle.

The section Artemis is important. The author gives reason for thinking that she was originally a goddess connected with waters, wild vegetation, and wild beasts. Signs of totemism are noticed (427, 435), and other traces of savagery. A great many peculiar matters come into this section ; the chained image at Phigaleia, the Brauronian cult, her virginity as perhaps a relic of female kinship, human sacrifice for the crops (455), and others; but the treatment of these is not so satisfactory as the treatment of the more civilised parts of her history. The connection of Artemis with Upis, Nemesis, and Adrasteia is fully dealt with, and the reasoning carries conviction. Much the same may be said of Hekate. To explain her cult, a wide knowledge of savage rites and superstitions is necessary. Had the author been more fully