Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/533

 9°‘S. v1. Dm. 8,1H)0.]’ NOTES AND QUERIES. 441 LUNDON, SATURDA Y, DECEMBER 8, 1900. CONTENTS. -No. 154. NOTBS =-Nature Myths, 441-Lamb and ‘ The Champion) 442-Pall-mall and Golf, 444-John Bright or ‘Cranford ' -Ben Jonson’s Signature, 445 -John Pearson-For names - Amold of Rugby - “ Fairy Rings " - “ Five o'olock tea ”-Max Muller and Westminster Abbey, 446- “8ound, sound the clarion "-Date of Pepys’s Marriage- United Empire Loydallsts-Bartolozzl, 447. QUBBIES :- ppo lqipl : Filippo Llppi-Pilleau Arms- Trevlllian-Tunstall amlly- ‘Go ga ters "-“ Mad as a batter”-“ Musha"-Poem on the Italian Wars-King James and George I-Ieriot, 448- Berkeley-Wlcklide Family- “ Alicomvlne ”-°‘ Vedi Napoli,” tc.-Arrand and Darrand-Wels Prosody-Regulating Price of Hay- John Jackson - “ Bye~gay,” 449-Sanderson Family- Commandments in Rlme- °‘ Panenthelsm " - " Paddle your own canoe "-Ellinor Shakespeare-Bullock Family -‘ The Union Jack/ Song-“ Dude," 450. BBPLIES :-“ Viva ”-Nat onal Flag-“ Lovlot," 451-Title of Esquire-Stanley of Paultons-Sedan Chairs-Gretnr Green Marria e “ Black i " Sl “G t g - very == aves - u ter- snlpe ”-Striking the Anvil-Friesic Proverb, 452-Berners Family-Marble Arch-Cockman-“To the bitter end ”- Monte Carlo and Roulette -Margaret of Bavaria, 453- M.P.s Pairing-°‘ WigS"=-Bun-Quotation from Carlyle- Stiklastad-A Friday uperstition-G. ORor's Library, 454 -Margery-Armour in Portraits-English Accent and BtymoloQ;Rel'erences Wanted - “ Criticize ” - Broken on the eel, 455 - “ Jinnet ": ‘° Jinted " - I.O.U. - Prices of Parchment and Vellum-Bill-Counting Buttons. 456-Col. Phaire, 457 - Rectora of Sutton Co diield-A “ Smithfield "-Barly Steam Navigation, 458. N OTBS ON BOOKS =-HueHer’s ° The Cinque Ports '- Reviews and Magazines. Notices to Correspondents. Erin. NATURE MYTHS. SCHOLARS have long souight for a rational ex- planation of the origin an meaningof the mys- terious Greek mythology. Often it has been announced that a key had been found which would fit all the wards. Solar heroes, dawn maidens, storm gods, tree spirits, ancestral ghosts, and savage analogies have, in turn, ound their advocates, but all have broken down as of universal application, and it is tardily recognized that an eclectic system alone remains to be tried. Greek mythology is, in fact, a residuum of many successive stages of thought, some native, some imported. Many mlyths are of Semitic origin, introduced by the hmnicians from Babylonia or else- where. Some are African, others pure Greek, but in one thing they agree: almost all seem to be nature myths, that is, anthropomorphic explanations of (physical phenomena, based ultimately on a eification of the powers of nature, personification being an inherent tendency of the human mind. One of the most inexplicable Greek m ths is the seem- ingly repulsive story of the mutilation of Uranus by his son Cronus. This, which has been insisted on bg' Mr. Lang as a proof of the savagery of t e Greeks and of their religious ideas, is now known to be merely a misunderstood translation from the Baby- lonian cosmoggny, which represents Bel Merodach, the mitic personiiication of light, cuttin asunder his parent Tiamaththe dark- ness o§ the primordial chaos w ich gave him birth. A faint monotheistic echo of this part of the Babylonian cosmogony is con- tained in the first chapter of Genesis, where we are told of the tirmament in the midst of the waters severing the waters into two parts. The twelve labours of Heracles, the Greek sun-god, are paralleled by the twelve labours of Isdhubar, the hero of the great Chaldean epic, which represent the painful toils of the sun as he passes through the twelve signs of the zodiac. When Zeus assumes the form of a bull in order to carry off Europa, the broad-faced damsel, this is the Babylonian legend of Istar, the full moon carried to the west by the constellation Tau rus. The Greek myth of Adonis and Aphrodite is a Western version of the myth of ammuz and Astarte, the story of the moon mourning over the death of her lost sguse, the setting sun, the name of Adonis ing merely the Semitic Adonai, the “lord ” of heaven. The myth of the rescue of the lovely damsel Andromed and the slaughter by Perseus of the black dragon who was about to devour her, is a lunar eclipse myth, ultimately Baby- loman, aGreek translation of the Phoenician version of the combat of Bel Merodach with the dragon Tiamat, the darkness, which threatens to devour the moon goddess Istar. The scimitar of Perseus is the scimitar of Bel Merodach, as represented in Babylonian art. The most lovely Greek myths are, as a rule, of purely Greek origin, and are there- fore free from the obscurities and ambi uities which must beset myths imperfectly asa ted from a foreign source. A good example is the charming story of the marriage of Eros and Psyche, which, unfortunately we possess only in the Latin version of Apuleius, where it apgears disguised as the marriage of Cupid and syche. We read that Psyche, a bright maiden, dwelt in a celestial palace whose walls were covered with figures of divers sorts of beasts, and whose floor glittered with precious stones, so that it gave a light like the sun. Here at night she was visited by an invisible bridegroom who departed in the morning before dawn. Though he remained unseen, the marriage was consummated, and night after night the visit was repeated, Psyche being pled ed to secrecy with the nalty if she once beheld him of not seeing ,him again. The result of these visits was