Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/635

Rh The results obtained by comparing the Celtic and Teutonic myths relating to the contests of the gods with the giants and the monsters, encourage one to look for comparisons somewhat further afield: so I now turn to Greek mythology, and there we find Zeus and the other dwellers of Olympus engaged in a series of conflicts, first with the Titans, then with the Giants, and lastly with the monster Typho that was a host in himself. All these antagonists of the gods are described as the offspring of earth; but at first it would seem as though the war of the giants with the gods should be merely another and needless repetition of that of the Titans with them. That is, however, not so, since not only are the two battles of Moytura required in Irish mythology, but the Welsh story of Llûᵭ and the Norse myth have just three conflicts, as in Greek. For besides that between the Anses and the Wolf when Týr loses his hand, and the great struggle when the Anses are killed, we read of one called the first war ever engaged in by them: it was against the Wanes, who broke into the burgh of the Anses and tramped over the war-wasted field. It is curious here to notice that the Wanes occupy, as regards the Anses, the same sort of position as the Fir Bolg with regard to the Tuatha Dé Danann. The sequence of the conflicts between Zeus and the unwieldy children of earth is not altogether the same, it must be admitted, as that of the Teutonic ones; but their general nature is the same; and I venture to call attention in particular to the struggle