Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/310

278 BOOK names in other Greek myths meant originally that which they appear to mean. Thus, when we find that Prokris is a daughter of Herse, we know that whatever Prokris may be, she is the child of the dew, and hence we have solid grounds for connecting her name with the Sanskrit /r/V//, to sprinkle. The myth of Endymion was localised in Elis (where his tomb was shown in the days of Pausanias), doubtless because it was the westernmost region of the Peloponnesos, just as the Leukadian rocks, the most westerly point of northern Hellas, were associated with the name of Kephalos ; and when it was once localised, fresh names and incidents, mostly of little value or signifi- cance, were readily imported into the tale. Thus one version gave him fifty daughters by Selene, to match the fifty sons and daughters of Danaos and Aigyptos; others gave him Neis, Iphianassa, and others as his wives, or made him, under the unconscious influence of the old mythical phrases, the father of Eurydike, the broad flashmg dawn, who is the bride of Orpheus, In fact, the myth of Endymion has produced rather an idea than a tale. It has little incident, and scarcely anything which might entitle it to be regarded as epical history, for the few adventures ascribed to him by Pausanias^ have manifestly no connexion with the original legend. The visit of Selene, followed by an endless sleep, is in substance all that poets or antiquarians tell us of; and even this is related by Pausanias with so many variations as to show that the myth, from its obvious solar character, was too stubborn to be more than thinly disguised. If Endymion heads an army, or dethrones a king, this is the mere arbitrary and pointless fiction of a later age. The real scene of the myth is the land of Latmos, not the Karian hill or cave to which Pausanias made him migrate from Elis, but that western region of the heavens where the wearied sun finds a resting-place "^ The word itself belongs to the root which has produced the word Lethe, forget- fulness, as well as the names of Leto and Leda, the mothers of Phoibos and the Dioskouroi. The simplest form of the story is perhaps that of Apollodoros, who merely says that Selene loved him and that Zeus left him free to choose anything that he might desire.

' viii. I. The billows came slowly around, Setting Sun, which Mr. Cam])bell Timidly raising their heads (iv. 150) pronounces to be a close trans- To gaze on thee beauteous asleep, lation of Gaelic, assumed to be older They witless have lied from thy side, than 1730, vividly expresses the idea of Take thy sleep within thy cave, this myth : O Sun, and come back from sleep re- Hast left the blue distance of heaven ? joicing. Sorrowless son of the gold -yellow hair I Here we have not only the Latmian Night's doorways are ready for thee, cave, but the idea which grew into the Thy pavilion of peace in the West. myths of MemnCn, Adonis, and Baldur.
 * An address of " Ossian " to the To behold him of briLjluest hair,