Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/521

 CHAP. Nephele then is the mist of morning tide, which vanishes, Hke The Phai- Daphne and Arethousa, when the sun becomes Chrysaor. The ^ '^°^' myths of the earth under its many names bring the clouds before us in other forms, as the Kouretes, who weave their mystic dances round the infant Zeus ; the Idaian Daktyls, who impart to the harp of Orpheus its irresistible power ; and the marvellous Telchines, who can change their forms at will.^ But the cloud-land in all its magni- ficence and imperial array is displayed not so much in these isolated stories as in the great Phaiakian legend of the Odyssey. It may be safely said that there is scarcely a single detail in this marvellous narrative which fails to show the nature and the origin of the subjects of Alkinoos. We may, if we please, regard them as a people settled historically in the island known to us as Korkyra or Corfu ; and with Preller or other writers we may lay stress on the fact that they are altogether a people of ships and of the sea, living far away from mortal men near the western Okeanos ; but no one who wishes really to get at the truth of facts can thus convince himself that he has solved the problem. Whether Scheria be or be not the Mediter- ranean Korkyra, the meaning of most of the names occurring in the myth is beyond all doubt ; and we have simply to follow the poet as he tells the tale, how long ago they had dwelt in the broad Hypereia, near to the rude and gigantic Kyklopes, who were mightier than they and did them sore harm, until Nausithoos led them away to Scheria, and there built them a city and planted them vineyards and raised temples to the gods.^ Here we have no sooner recalled to mind the nature of the Kyklopes as the storm-cloud which clings to, or keeps its flocks, on the rough mountain-side, than the whole story becomes transparent. The broad Hypereia is the upper region, where dwell also the Hyperboreans in their beautiful gardens, Nay, we may safely say that the Phaiakians are the Hyperboreans who have been driven from their early home by the black vapours between whom and themselves there can be no friendship. From these malignant foes they can but fly to Scheria, their fixed abode,^ where these rugged shepherds * cannot trouble them.

' See p. 480. The name Phaiax that it denotes simply the firm land, contains the root fha, which denotes Gr Myth. i. 492. It would thus be light and sound of all degrees, as in akin to ^vpSs. Gr. alv(i), <pd.os, <pai6s, (prj/xi, L. fari, * The avfpes a(p-r<TTa here spoken fatum. of are clearly the Kyklopes aiid none 2 0(i. vi. I, &c. others. • Of the word Scheria Preller says