Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/120

88 BOOK

There is something more quiet and touching in the silent record of Luxman which stands in the place of Faithful John's confession imaU'ry scaffold, as well as in the doom which is made to depend on of these tj^g reproaches of his friend rather than on the mere mechanical act stories. of giving Utterance to certain words. But the Hindu legend and the German story alike possess a higher interest in the links which connect them, like most of the popular stories already noticed, with the magnificent epic to which we give the name of Homer, with the songs of the Volsungs and Nibelungs, with the mythical cycle of Arthur and Charlemagne, and the Persian Rustem. The bridal shirt of sulphur and pitch, which outwardly seemed a tissue of gold and silver, carries us at once from the story of Faithful John to the myth of Deianeira and the poisoned coat which put an end to the career of Herakles. We enter again the charmed circle, where one and the same idea assumes a thousand different forms, where we can trace clearly the process by which one change led to another, but where any one disregarding the points of connexion must fail to discern their sequence, origin, and meaning. In the legend of Deianeira, as in that of lason and Glauke, the coat or shirt is laden with destruc- tion even for Herakles. It represents, in fact, " the clouds which rise from the waters and surround the sun like a dark raiment." This robe Herakles tries to tear off, but the " fiery mists embrace him, and are mingled with the parting rays of the sun, and the dying hero is seen through the scattered clouds of the sky, tearing his own body to pieces, till at last his bright form is consumed in a general conflagration." ^ In the story of Medeia this robe is the gift of Helios, which imparts a marvellous wisdom to the daughter of the Kolchian king. It is the gleaming dress which reappears in story after story of Hindu folk-lore. "That young raja's wife," people said, "has the most beautiful saree we ever saw : it shines like the sun, and dazzles our eyes. We have no saree half so beautiful." It is the golden fleece of the ram which bears away the children of the Mist (Nephele) to the Eastern land. In other words, it is the light of Phoibos, the splendour of Helios, the rays or spears of the gleaming Sun. As such. It is identified with the sword of Apollon the Chrysaor, with the sword which Aigeus leaves to be discovered by Theseus under the broad stone, with the good sword Gram which Odin left in the

binds three iron bands round his heart man, brought on by grief, and broken for fear it should break with grief and only by the light touch of early morning, sorrow. When the Frog Prince sets out there represented by the innocent child with his bride in the morning, the iron of Rama. bands break and Trusty Henry is set ' Max 'M'Mcr, C/iiJ>s/rom a German free. This is the stony sleep of Lux- IVorkshop, ii. 89.