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280 son of Saying, with which his name, Geir son of Geiryoeᵭ, (p. 250) is palpably identical, as it means Word son of Words; but if a name relating to his power of utterance and eloquence, and amounting to calling him vates or prophet, became Gwydion, it could surprise nobody if the same kind of name were found given to one of them who were reckoned pre-eminent in this respect, namely, the mythic beings of the nether world. Such a name we seem to have, in fact, in that of the king of the Fomori, called Elathan, which, according to the surmises already made, conveyed probably some such an idea as that of speaking, vaticinating or soothsaying, and might be compared to a certain extent with that of the much-saying connoted by the Greek name. In fact, the Cyclops, so-called, may be regarded as a being here in point, since Gwydion and Woden bear a striking resemblance to Odysseus; and though the view here suggested of the character of Polyphemus had probably ceased to be familiar to the Greek mind before the Odyssey was composed, still that most charming of epics says enough about him and his country to leave one in no doubt that in Polyphemus we have, at least in point of origin, one of the potentates of the nether world. All about his wisdom and knowledge had been forgotten, and the only reminiscence of that aspect of his character is to be found in the retention of the name Polyphemus or the Much-saying. It is hardly necessary to remark that to a people in a low stage of culture such a name would mean very much more than it would to us; they would not be inclined quite so much to contrast words with things as to regard them as being themselves things; and the antithesis, so trite and sterile in such authors of