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Rh is transparent throughout. The mother of Asklepios is a daughter CHAP. of Phlegyas (the flaming), and ApoUon woos her on shores of the lake Boibeis ;^ or, if we take another version given by Apollodoros, she is Arsinoe, a daughter of Leukippos (a name in which we see the flashing steeds which draw the car of Indra or Achilleus), and a sister of Hilaeira and Phoibe, the radiant maidens whom the Dioskouroi bore away.^ When the myth goes on to say that when Apollon had left her Koronis yielded herself to the Arkadian Ischys, we have a story which simply repeats that of Prokris, for as Kephalos returns disguised and wins the love of the child of Herse (the dew), so is Ischys simply the strength or power of the lord of light (Arkas). In each case, the penalty of faithlessness is death ; and the mode in which it is exacted in the myth of Koronis precisely corresponds with the legend of Semele. Like Dionysos, Asklepios is born amidst and rescued from the flames ; in other words, the light and heat of the sun which ripen the fruits of the earth, scorch and consume the clouds and the dew, or banish away the lovely tints of early morning.® Throughout the myth we have to deal with different versions which, however they may differ from each other, still point to the same fountain-head of mythical speech- In one form the story ran that Koronis herself exposed her child on the slopes of mount Myrtion, as Oidipous was left to die on Kithairon. There he is nourished by a goat and a dog, incidents which are reproduced in the myths of CyTUS and Romulus. When at length the shepherd Aristhanas traced the dog and goat to the spot where the infant lay, he was terrified by the splendour which surrounded the child, like the flame round the head of the infant Servius in the Roman tale, and that of Havelok in the English legend. The wonder, Pausanias adds, was soon noised abroad, and throughout land and sea the tidings were carried that Asklepios healed the sick and raised the dead.* The wisdom by which he obtained this power he received from the teach ing of the wise centaur Cheiron ; but we have to mark that Cheiron is the teacher not only of Asklepios but of lason and Achilleus, who


 * Pind. Pyth. iii. 14. with the myths of the glass of Agrippa
 * ApoUod. iii. 10, 3. and of the well of ApoHun Thyrxis as
 * The Dawn cannot long survive the related by Pausanias.

birth of the sun. Hence the mother of '* ii. 26, 4. To this marvel of the Volsung dies as soon as her child has flame was referred his title Aiglaer, the kissed her. So in Grimm's story of the gleaming, which simply reproduces the Almond Tiee, the mother of the sun- Lykian epithet of his father Phoibos. child, who is as white as snow and as The healing powers of Asklepios are red as blood, is so delighted at seeing seen ia the German stories of Grand- her babe that she dies, The same lot father Death, Brother Lustig, and the is the portion of the mother in the story Spirit in the Bottle, in which we have of Little Snow-white, the Dawn-maiden also in another form the compact — a story which suggests a comparison between Phoibos and Hermes. II.