Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/305

Rh CHAP. the two poems woven together in the Homeric Hymn is as trans- parent in meaning as the earher. In both Phoibos journeys gradually westward ; in both riches and glory are promised to those who will receive him. But the bribe is held out in vain to the beautiful fountain Telphoussa, near whose waters Phoibos had begun to lay the foundations of a shrine. By warnings of the din of horses and of cattle brought thither to watering she drove him away, and Phoibos following her counsel betook himself to Parnassos, where Trophonios and Agamedes raised his world-renowned home. It is at this point that the author of the hymn introduces the slaughter of the worm or dragon to account for the name Pytho, as given to the sanctuary from the rotting of its carcase in the sun ; ^ and thence he takes ApoUon back to Telphoussa, to wTcak his vengeance on the beautiful fountain which had cheated him of a bright home beside her glancing waters. The stream was choked by a large crag, the crag beetling over Tantalos, which he toppled down upon it, and the glory departed from Telphoussa for ever.

It now remained to find a body of priests and servants for his Phoibos Delphian sanctuary, and these were furnished by the crew of a Cretan j^j^ ^ ^'' ship sailing with merchandise to Pylos. In the guise of a dolphin Phoibos urged the vessel through the waters, while the mariners sat still on the deck in terror as the ship moved on without either sail or oar along the whole coast of the island of Pelops. As they entered the Krisaian gulf a strong zephyr carried them eastward, till the ship was lifted on the sands of Krisa. Then Apollon leaped from the vessel like a star, while from him flew sparks of light till their radiance reached the heaven, and hastening to his sanctuary he showed forth his weapons in the flames which he kindled. This done, he hastened with the swiftness of thought back to the ship, now in the form of a beautiful youth, with his golden locks flowing over his shoulders, and asked the seamen who they were and whence they came. In their answer, which says that they had been brought to Krisa against their will, they address him at once as a god, and

no more water, and spat no more fire. ' form, connecting it in meaning with the I think it impossible not to see in this epithets dAe|i/fOKos, airorpoTraios, aKifftos,

description a spring-tide thunderstorm." and others. This, however, is probably — Gould, lVere7vo/f, ). 172. as doubtful as the derivation which con- phokles not with the rotting of the snake fessor Max Muller the latter name is but with the questions put to the oracle. identified with the Sanskrit Bhava, a The latter is the more plausible conjee- word belonging to the same family with ture ; but the origin of the word is un- the Greek s, light. By Pro-

certain, as is also that of Aj^ollAn, of English be. Phoibos is thus the living hcQckcr (Griechische Goitcrle/ii-e, God. i. 460) regards ApellOn as the genuine