Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/434

402 BOOK

marks the approaching end of his own life, the myth of Helen carries us back to another aspect of the great drama. She is the treasure stolen from the gleaming west, and with her wealth she is again tlie prize of the Achaians when Paris falls by the poisoned arrows of Philoktetes.^ This rescue of the Spartan queen from the seducer whom she utterly despises is the deliverance of Sarama from the loathsome Panis ; but the long hours of the day must pass before her eyes can be gladdened by the sight of her home. Thus the ten hours' cycle is once more repeated in the Nostoi, or return of the heroes, for in the Mediterranean latitudes, where the night and day may be roughly taken as dividing the twenty-four hours into two equal portions, two periods of ten hours each would represent the time not taken up with the phenomena of daybreak and sunrise, sun- set and twilight. Thus although the whole night is a hidden struggle with the powers of darkness, the decisive exploits of Achilleus, and indeed the active operations of the war, are reserved for the tenth year and furnish the materials for the Iliad, while in the Odyssey the ten years' wanderings are followed by the few hours in which the beggar throws off his rags and takes dire vengeance on his enemies. Hence it is that Odysseus returns, a man of many griefs and much bowed with toil, in the twentieth year from the time when the Achaian fleet set sail from Aulis.

Odysseus The interest of the homeward voyage of the treasure-seekers is iykos. centred in the fortunes of Odysseus, the brave and wise chieftain whose one yearning it is to see his wife and child once more before he dies. He has fought the battle of the children of the sun against the dark thieves of night, and now his history must be that of the lord of day as he goes on his journey through the sky in storm and calm, in peace or in strife. This transparency of meaning marks not only the myth of Odysseus ; it is seen in all that is related of his kinsfolk. The character of his parents merely reflects his own. His grandfather is Autolykos, the true or the absolute light which kindles the heavens at dawn. But Autolykos, who is endowed with a wisdom which coming from Helios passes into a craft like that of Medeia, is a child of Hermes, the morning breeze, and Telauge the far-shining. His bride is Neaira, the early daTi, whose daughters feed the cattle of Helios in Thrinakia.'* His child is Antiklcia, a name which sug- gests a comparison with Antigone and Antiope ; and Antikleia is the wife of Laertes, a being akin to the Laios of Theban tradition, or of

' The story of the wound of Philok- * He is also called the husband of tetes is repeated precisely in the romance Amphithea, the light which gleams all of Tristram. round the heaven.