Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/412

380 ROOK to the phenomena of the seasons. Every night may be seen the majestic movement of the stars across the heavens ; and in the measured steps of the great procession it would need no very vivid imagination to see a mystic dance regulated by the movements of the spheres. It is quite certain that Greek mythology brings before us a number of names which are no more Greek, or even Aryan, than are the names Athamas, or Harpokrates, or Osiris ; and whatever else they may be, it is not less certain that these names describe generally beings who are pre-eminently hunters and dancers. At the head of these are the forms of Dionysos and Orion ; and among their attendants are the groups of Kouretes, Korybantes, Telchines, and Daktyloi. If these are neither Greek nor' Ar}'an,' the suspicion is justified that they may be creatures who found their way into Hellas by the same road which brought Kadmos and his sister to their Theban home.

Orton Orion is pre-eminently the mighty hunter. But is Orion Greek, Kedalion. oi" ^^ he even Aryan ? In Boiotia, the land where Phenician influence was strongest, he was known not only as Orion, but also as Kandaon, and Kandaon is closely akin to Kandalos, one of the seven children of Helios and Rhodos, and brother of Makar, that is of Melkarth or Bacchus ; ^ and he thus takes his place in the group to which Kadmos and other undoubtedly Phenician strangers belong. In J the Greek versions of the myth, he is sprung from the earth or the waters, as a son whether of Poseidon and Euryale, or of Oinopion. He grows up a mighty hunter, doomed to be smitten down in his full strength, and to rise with renewed splendour after his imprisonment in the land of darkness. In short, Orion is the sun, the racer through the heavens, who wanders alone through the boundless Olympos, in ceaseless pursuit of the beasts whose abode is in the high heaven, and follows the phantoms of the same beasts in his nightly journey across the under world, armed with his mighty club, the glowing torch-mace which is soon to flame with the splendour of the coming day.^ At Chios he sees the beautiful Aero but Avhen he seeks to make her his bride, he is blinded by her father, who, on the advice of Dionysos, comes upon him in his sleep. Orion is now told that he may yet recover his sight if he would go to the east and look toward the risino- sun. Thither he is led by the help of Hephaistos, who sends Ke-

' See p. 326. Mr. Brown [Great Brown's eloquent description of the Dionysiak Myth, ii. 278, 281) rcgaids cliaractcristics of Orion the name as containing' the .Semitic iMyth, ii. 275). The whole section on root ur, light, whence the Assyrian aon, the myth of Orton is marked by singular Heb. aor, the light of day, which shines ability, and must carry conviction to in the land of Ur. every impartial mind as to the origin
 * I liave bonowcd the words of Mr. and significance of the tale.