Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/353

Rh renown in war and fame in peace ; but Paris is unable to resist the laughter-loving goddess, who tells him that if his verdict is for her he shall have the fairest bride that ever the world has seen. Hence- forth Paris becomes the darling of Aphrodite, but the wrath of Here and Athene lies heavy on the doomed city of Ilion. Fresh fuel was soon to be supplied for the fire. A famine was slaying the people of Sparta, and IMenelaos the king learnt at Delphoi that the plague could not cease until an offering should be made to appease the sons of Prometheus, who were buried in Trojan soil. Thus Menelaos came to Ilion, whence Paris went with him first to Delphoi, then to Sparta. The second stage in the work of Eris was reached. The shepherd of Ida was brought face to face with the fairest of all the daughters of men. He came armed with the magic powers of Aphrodite, whose anger had been kindled against Tyndareos, because he had forgotten to make her an offering ; and so, when Menelaos had departed to Crete and the Dioskouroi were busied in their struggle with the sons of Aphareus, Paris poured his honied words into the ears of Helen, who yielded herself to him with all her treasures, and sailed with him to Ilion in a bark which Aphrodite wafted over a peaceful sea.

There is scarcely a point in this legend which fails of finding a Paris and parallel in other Aryan myths. The beautiful stranger, who beguiles ^ ^"' the young wife when her husband is gone away, is seen again in the Arkadian Ischys who takes the place of Phoibos in the story of Koronis, in the disguised Kephalos who returns to win the love of Prokris. The departure of Menelaos for Crete is the voyage of the sun in his golden cup from west to east when he has reached the waters of Okeanos ; ^ and the treasures which Paris takes away are the treasures of the Volsung tale and the Nibelung song in all their many versions, the treasures of light and life which are bound up with the glory of morning and evening, the fatal temptation to the marauding chiefs, who in the end are always overcome by the men whom they have wronged. There is absolutely no difference between the quarrel of Paris and Menelaos, and those of Sigurd and Hogni, of Hagen and Walthar of Aquitaine. In each case the representative of the dark power comes in seeming alliance with the husband or the lover of the woman who is to be stolen away ; in otlier words, the first shades of night thrown across the heaven add only to its beauty and its charm, like Satan clothed as an angel of light. In each case the wealth to be obtained is scarcely less the incitement than the loveliness of Helen, Brynhild, or Kriemhild. Nor must we forget the ' Ilclios leaves Eos behind liim. Y