Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/23

 THE ORIGIN OF MYTHS 9 10. Run past the two dogs, offspring of Sarama, four-eyed, brinded, by a straight path. Then go unto the fathers, kindly noticing, who with Yama revel in common revel. 11. These dogs which are thine, the guardians, O Yama, four-eyed, guarding the path, men-beholding, to them give over this (man), O king, for well-being and to him extend weal. Vergil, Geor. iv. 483 : Tenuitque inhians tria Cerberus ora. Ovid, Her. ix. 93, Met. iv. 449, ix. 185 ; Milton, L' Allegro 1 : Hence loathed Melancholy Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born. Shak., King Henry IV. pt. ii. ii. 4, 182, Troilus and Cressida ii. 1, 37 ; Spenser, F. Q. i. v. 34. Elysium : Hesiod, Works and Days 170 ; Pindar, 01. ii. 67 sq. ; Vergil, Geor. i. 38, Aen. vi. 637 sq. ; Shak., Cymbeline v. 4, 117 : - More sweet than our blessed fields ; Two Gentlemen of Verona ii. 7, 38, Twelfth Night i. 2, 4. Tartarus : Horner, Od. xi. passim ; Ovid, Fast. iv. 605 ; Ver- gil, Aen. vi. 577. Minos : Homer, II. xiii. 450 ; Ovid, Met. viii. 6 sq., Her. xv. 347 ; Vergil, Aen. vi. 432 ; Hyginus, Fab. xl.-xliv. Aeacus: Homer, II. xxi. 189; Ovid, Met. vii. 471 sq.; Horace, Od. ii. 13, 22 ; Hyginus, Fab. Hi. Manes : The following is translated from the tenth book of the Rig Veda. Although the hymn is acknowledged to be much later than other portions of the Rig Veda, yet the stanzas given are un- doubtedly of very ancient date. They will be interesting to show the early ancestor-worship among the Indo-European peoples. Yama, father of mankind and king of departed souls, waits to receive the dead into his kingdom of light. Roth has made an in- teresting comparison between the Sanskrit Yama and the Avestan Yima. Yama is the son of Vivasvant ; so Yima. Yama is called " Gatherer of peoples" ; so Yima in Vendidad ii. 21 of the Avesta makes a "gathering of men." Yama is the first mortal to reach heaven and gathers the blessed to himself. Rig Veda x. 14 : 1. The one gone forth over the great heights, the one pointing out the path to many, | the son of Vivasvant, the gatherer of peoples, Yama the king, him worship with an oblation. 2. Yama was the first to find a refuge for us: this (heavenly) past- ure is not to be taken from us : | whither our fathers of old have gone, thither the children are going along their pathways.