Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/134

102 BOOK The results obtained from an examination of Greek epic poetry, so far as it has come down to us, have a direct and important bearing hkenLss°^ on the mythology of northern Europe, and on the estimate which we between must take of it. Of the general character of the Hellenic tribes the Greek and Teu- we can form a notion more or less exact from the evidence of tonic epics, contemporary documents, as soon as we reach the historical age ; but, whatever may be its defects or its vices, we are fully justified in saying that it is not the character of the great Achaian chieftains as exhibited either in the Iliad or the Odyssey. We have absolutely no warrant for the belief that the ancestors of Perikles or Themistokles, within ten or even more generations, were men who would approve the stabbing of enemies behind their backs, the use of poisoned arrows, and the butchery of captives deliberately set apart to grace the funeral sacrifices of a slain chief Nay, more, we shall look in vain in any historical record for any portrait which will justify the belief that the picture of Achilleus in the Iliad is the likeness of an actual Achaian chieftain, while on any psychological analysis we seem to be driven to the conclusion that the character is one removed altogether from the bounds of humanity. If the analysis^ of the character of Odysseus and Achilleus shows that almost every feature is traditional, and that the portraits, as a whole, are not of the poet's making, that the wisdom and the falsehood, the truth- fulness and the sullenness, whether of the one hero or the other, were impressed upon each by a necessity which no poet could resist, and that these conclusions are proved by the evidence, overwhelming in its amount, which shows that Achilleus and Odysseus are reflexions of Perseus, Theseus, Herakles, and these, again, of Phoibos and Helios, or of other deities who share their attributes — if the whole story which has gathered round the names of these great national

' For this analysis I must refer Scii-nce of Comparative Mylhology, ch. ix. the reader to my Introdtution to the section 2.