Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/646

630 moment when he was already formidably matched; but she, like Here, fails, and appears afterwards reconciled and friendly to him (p. 471). On the other hand, you will remember that the great friend and helper of Heracles was the grey-eyed goddess Athene, daughter of Zeus: she not only aided him when he was in dire distress, but provided for his ease and comfort when he felt tired and wearied after his great efforts: for example, she wove him a splendid peplos in which to lounge when he laid aside his armour, and she would on occasion make warm springs gush forth from the ground to provide her favourite hero with a refreshing bath. Now the complement of the reasoning which would identify Cúchulainn with Heracles, would make the Ultonian court a counterpart in Irish of Olympus in Greek mythology, as I have already tried to explain (pp. 136—144); so the Irish counterpart of Athene should be a daughter of the king rendering kindly service to Cúchulainn. As a matter of fact, it happens that this part of the myth has not been wholly blotted out by the blanching touch of time: at any rate, it is just possible to read it in the light of the Greek idyll. Conchobar had a passing fair daughter called Fedelm of the Nine Forms (p. 378), for she had so many fair aspects, each of which was more beautiful, as we are told, than the others; and when Cúchulainn had, at the news of the approach of the enemy from the west, advanced with his father to the frontier of the realm, he suddenly hastened away in the evening to a place of secret meeting, where he knew