Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/436

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to put it down as necessarily of later growth than the myth which forms the subject of the Odyssey. There is nothing to be urged against, there is much to be urged for, the priority of such myths as Kephalos and Prokris, Demeter and Persephone, over by far the larger number of legends noticed or narrated in our Homeric poems ; and if one story is to be pronounced of later growth than another, the verdict must be based on other and more conclusive evidence than the mere fact that it happens not to be mentioned in our Iliad or Odyssey. Penelope indeed is only the dawn or the evening light : and Aphrodite is but another aspect of Athene. As such, Penelope is thrown by her parents into the sea at her birth, and she becomes Anadyomene when the sea-birds, from which she was also said to have her name, raise her up on their cloud-like wings. As such also, when Odysseus has been slain by Telegonos,^ she becomes the wife of his murderer, either in Aiaia or in Leuke where Helen is also wedded to Achilleus. The wo- To the success of the Trojan expedition Odysseus is only less Odysieus. necessary than the great chieftain of Phthia ; and hence we have the same story of his unwillingness to engage in it which we find in the story of Achilleus. In this case as in the other it is a work to be done for the profit of others, not his own. It is, in short, a task undertaken against his will ; and it answers strictly to the servitude of Phoibos in the house of Admetos, or the subjection of Herakles to the bidding of Eurystheus. ^'ith the idea of the yoke thus laid upon them is closely connected that notion of weakness to which the Homeric hymn points when it speaks of the nymphs as wrapping Phoibos in the w'hite swaddling-clothes before he became Chrysaor. This raiment becomes a disguise, and thus the workmen jeer at Theseus for his girlish appearance, and Achilleus is found in woman's garb by those who come to take him to Ilion. The idea of disguise, however, readily suggests that of feigned madness, and as such it comes before us in the story of Odysseus, who is described as sowing salt behind a plough drawn by an ox and an ass. The trick is found out by Palamedes, who, placing the infant Telemachos in his way, makes Odysseus turn the plough aside and avoid him. He is now bound to attempt the rescue of Helen, as he and all her suitors had sworn to do when they sought her hand. At Troy, however, he is

phos and Telephassa, denotes the far- slain by these gods. Hence Odysseus reaching spears (rays) of the sun : and not less than his enemies must be slain as Helios and Phoibos became the lords by Phoibos or somebody who represents of life and death, of the light and him. darkness which depends on the orb of
 * This name, like Telemachos, Tele- the sun, it follows that all who die are