Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/512

 480 ETSTORY OF GREECE. emotions, but also satisfied the undistinguishing historical curio- sity, of the ordinary public in the middle ages. The exploits of many of these romantic heroes resemble in several points those of the Grecian ; the adventures of Perseus, Achilles, Odysseus, Atalanta, Bellerophon, Jason, and the Trojan war, or Argonautic expedition generally, would have fitted in perfectly to the Car- lovingian or other epics of the period. 1 That of the middle ages, juster views as to the character of the primitive mythology, though he too advances some positions respecting a something " reinsymbolisches " in the background, which I find it difficult to follow (see p. 477, etc). There are very ancient epical ballads still sung by the people in the Faro Islands, many of them relating to Sigurd and his adventures (p. 412). Jacob Grimm, in his Deutsche Mythologie, maintains the purely mythical character, as opposed to the historical, of Siegfried and Dieterich (Art. Helden, pp. 344-346). So, too, in the great Persian epic of Ferdousi, the principal characters are religious and mythical. M. Mohl observes, " Lcs caracteres des person- nages principaux de 1'ancienne histoire de Perse se retrouvent dans le livre des Rois (de Ferdousi) tels quo les indiquent les parties des livres de Zoro- aster que nons posscdons encore. Kaioumors, Djemschid, Fcridoun, Gush- tasp, Isfendiar, etc. jouent dans le poeme dpique le memo role que dans les Livres sacre'es : a cela pres, que dans les derniers ils nous apparaissent a travers une atmosphere mythologique qui grandit tous leurs traits : mais cette difference est precisement celle qu'on devait s'attendre a trouver cntre la tradition religieuse et la tradition e'pique." (Mohl, Livre des Eois par Ferdousi, Preface, p. 1.) The Persian historians subsequent to Ferdousi have all taken his poem as the basis of their histories, and have even copied him faithfully and literally (Mohl, p. 53). Many of his heroes became the subjects of long epical biog- raphies, written and recited without any art or grace, often by writers whose names are unknown (ib. pp. 54-70). Mr. Morier tells us that "the Shah Nameh is still believed by the present Persians to contain their ancient his- tory" (Adventures of Hadgi Baba, c. 32). As the Christian romancers transformed Apollo into the patron of Mussulmans, so Ferdousi makes Alex- ander the Great a Christian : " La critique historique (observes M. Mohl) tait du temps de Ferdousi chose prcsqu' inconnue." (ib. p. xlviii.) About the absence not only of all historiography, but also of all idea of it, or taste for it among the early Indians, Persians, Arabians, etc., see the learned book of Nork, Die Gotter Syriens, Preface, p. viii. seqq, (Stuttgart, 1842.) 1 Several of the heroes of the ancient world were indeed themselves popu- lar subjects with the romancers of the middle ages, Theseus, Jason, etc.; Alexander the Great, more so than any of them. Dr. Warton observes, respecting the Argonautic expedition, " Few stories