Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/431

Rh makes him look upon the son of Menoitios as he looked on Phaethon CHAP, while doing deadly mischief in the chariot of Helios. So here Zeus takes counsel whether he shall smite him at once or suffer him to go on a little longer in his headlong course. But each story remains perfectly clear. Sarpedon falls by the same doom which presses not only on the man who slays him, but on Achilleus, on Bellerophon, on Kephalos and a hundred others. The Lykian chief dies, like his enemy, in the prime of golden youth and in the far west, for his Lykia lay far away to the east of Ilion, where the sun comes up, and the Dawn is greeting the earth when the powers of sleep and death bear their beautiful burden to the doors of his golden home. By the same inconsistency the eastern tradition made ApoUon the enemy of Patro- klos, as it afterwards associates him with Paris in the death of Achil- leus ; yet the power by which he preserves the body of Hektor from decay is employed by Thetis to preserve that of Patroklos. But the terrible fight over the dead Patroklos is fought over again when Achilleus is smitten, as it is fought out by the clouds which do battle together over the dying Herakles.

From this point all is transparent. The grief of Achilleus when The mourning he learns that his friend is dead is the darkening of the sky when of the sun which had been shining through the cloud-rifts withdraws his light ; and in the tearing of his hair, in the defilement of his beautiful robe and the tossing of the sand over his head and face, we see the torn vapours hurrying hither and thither in a thousand shapeless forms. Henceforth the one thought which fills his heart is that of vengeance, nor is his burning desire weakened when Thetis tells him that the death of Hektor must soon be followed by his own, as the sunset is not far off when the sun wins his final victory over the clouds which have assailed him throughout his journey. Herakles himself met boldly the doom brought upon him by the wTath of Here; and Achilleus is content to die, if only he may first give his enemies sufficient cause for weeping. Then follows the incident in which Thetis and Hephaistos play precisely the part of Hjordis and Regin in the Volsung tale. The arms of Achilleus are in the hands of Hektor, but when the morning comes, Thetis will return from the east bringing a goodly panoply from the lord of fire. At what other time could the sun receive the new armour which is to replace that of which he had been robbed by the powers of darkness? We can scarcely lay too much stress on these points of detail in which the poet manifestly follows a tradition too strong to be resisted. This stcry of the evening which precedes the return of Achilleus to the battle-field is a vivid picture of the sun going down angrily and be-