Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/131

Rh CHAP. women are the daughters of a gardener or a milkwoman, in whom we see the image of Demeter, the bountiful earth, who lavishes on her children her treasures of fruits, milk, and flowers. In her hand she holds her mystic cup, into which falls the ripe mango, which is her child transformed, as the ripe fruit falls on the earth. This cup, again, is the horn of Amaltheia, the table of the Ethiopians, of which Herodotos speaks as laden continually with all good things, the cup into which Helios sinks each night when his course is run, the modios of Serapis,^ the ivory ewer containing the book of Solomon's occult knowledge, which Rehoboam placed in his father's tomb, the magic oil-bowl or lamp of Allah-ud-deen, and finally the San-Greal which furnishes to the knights of Arthur's round table as splendid a banquet as their hearts can desire.

ing, he is Apollon swathed by the water-maidens in golden bands, or the wounded and forsaken Oidipous ; as lingering again on the water's edge before he vanishes from sight, he is the frog squatting on the water, a homely image of Endymion and Narkissos. In this aspect the sun is himself an apsara, or water-maiden ; and thus the Sanskrit Bheki is a beautiful girl, whom a king wins to be his wife on the condition that he is not to let her see a drop of water. Of course the king one day forgets his promise, shows her water, and Bheki vanishes. This is the counterpart to the legend of Melusina, who also dies if seen in the water. The sun and moon must alike sink when they reach the western sea. " This story," says Professor Max Midler, " was known at the time when Kapila wrote his philosophical aphorisms in India, for it is there quoted as an illus- tration. But long before Kapila, the story of Bheki must have grown up gradually, beginning with a short saying about the sun — such as that Bheki, the sun, will die at the sight of water, as we should say that the sun will set when it approaches the water from which it rose in the morning." — Chips from a German Workshop, ii. 248. In the Teutonic version, the change of the sun into the form of a frog is the result of enchantment ; but the story of the Frog Prince has more than one point of interest. The frog is com- pelled to jump into the fountain, out of which only the youngest daughter of the king has the power of drawing him. These daughters again are the com- panions of Ursula ; the daughters of the raja who are jealous of their youngest sister ; the hours of the night, sombre in their beauty, and envious of the youngest and the fairest of all the hours, the hour of the dawn, which alone can bring the frog prince out of the pond. In the German story the enchantment can be ended only by the death of the frog ; but this answers to the burning of the enchanted raja's jackal skin in the Hindu tale. The sun leaping fully armed into the heaven as Chrysaor might well be another being from the infant whom the nymphs swathe with golden bands in his gleam- ing cradle. The warrior comes to life on the death of the child, and the frog on being dashed against the wall be- comes a beautiful prince. Of course he takes away his bride, " early in the morning as soon as the sun rose, in a carriage drawn by eight white horses with ostrich feathers on their heads, and golden bridles," the Harits who draw the car of Indra, the glistening steeds of Helios, the undying horses who are yoked to the chariot of Achil- leus. But with Achilleus comes Pa- troklos ; and as Luxman attends on Rama, so " Trusty Henry,' who comes with the carriage of the Frog Prince, represents the Faithful John of the Teutonic legend.

' Duncker, History of Antiquity, i. 139. " The living Apis was called the Hapi-anch, or Living Apis," as the in- carnation of the god Ptah. " At his death he was canonized, and became Osir-Hapi," or the dead Apis — a name which the Greeks converted into Se- ra]iis. — Brown, Great Dionysiak Myth, i. 19S ; ii. 122.