Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/594

578 an instance of the Celtic Apollo taking the place of the Celtic Zens, as in the case of the Irish Lug.

When we pass beyond the limits of Celtic, we may suppose a displacement of a somewhat similar kind to have happened with regard to the god whom one may briefly describe as the Zeus of the Aryan family generally: he was at first presumably the god of the sun, but he became that of light and the luminous heavens, while among the Celts he showed a tendency to become further modified into a divinity of the sea and even of the nether world. Lastly, the relative positions of this most ancient of sun-gods and of the younger divinities or heroes associated with the sun seem to afford data for fixing the order, so to say, of the mythological stratification. Thus by way of a precarious inference we penetrate to a primary stage, with the Aryan Zeus as the Sun-god of the system; then we ascend to a secondary one, characterized by the rise of such younger gods as Apollo, Lug and Balder, around whose names myths were developed in marvellous abundance; lastly we come to a tertiary stage, marked by the sun appearing variously as he, she and it, surrounded by no abundant accumulation of myth.