Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/545

Rh CHAP, chose the flower whose name denoted this dreamy lethargy. Even in her gloomy nether abode the character of the maiden is not wholly changed. She is still not the fierce queen who delights in death, but the daughter yearning to be clasped once more in her mother's arms. That mother is carefully nursing the child of Keleos, the seed which grows without food or drink, except the nourishment of the dew and of the heat which still lurks in the bosom of the winter-smitten earth. But while she is engaged in this task, she is mourning still for the' daughter who has been taken away from her, and the dreary time which passes before they meet again is the reign of the gloomy winter, which keeps the leaves off the trees and condemns the tillers of the soil to unwilling idleness. The sequel of the hymn simply depicts the joy of returning spring and summer, when the mourning mother is exalted in glory to the everlasting halls of Olympos. Hence, so far as the meaning of the myth is concerned, it matters little whether Demeter be herself the earth grieving for the lost treasures of summer, or the dawn-mother mourning for the desolation of the earth which she loves.^

This story is naturally found in all lands where the difference The Sleep ol Winter, between summer and wmter is sufficiently marked to leave on the mind the impression of death and resurrection. Its forms of course vary indefinitely, but it is in fact repeated virtually in every solar legend. The beautiful earth laughing amidst the summer flowers is as truly the bride of the sun as is the blushing dawn with its violet tints. The grief of Demeter for Kore is the sorrow of ApoUon when bereft of Daphne, as its converse is the mourning of Psyche for Eros or Selene for Endymion. But there is hope for all. Sarpedon, Adonis, Memnon, Arethousa, shall all rise again, — but only when the time is come to join the being who has loved them, or who has the power to rouse them from their sleep. The utter baiTcnness of the earth, so long as the wrath of Demeter lasts, answers to the locking up of the treasures in Teutonic folk-lore ; but the awakening of spring may be said to be the result of the return, not only of the maiden from the under world, but of the sun from the far-off regions to which he had departed. In the former case the divine messenger comes to summon the daughter from the unseen land ; in the other

' Professor Max Miiller prefers the Poseidon or Helios to Apollun. Gaia latter explanation and refers the name is thus the actual soil from which the to the Sanskrit dyavamatar. — Lectures, deadly narcissus springs, and therefore second series, 517. If Demeter, or Deo, the accomplice of Polydcgmon, while as she also styles herself, be only a Demeter is the mysterious power which name for the earth, then Gaia stands to causes all living things to grow and Demeter in the relation of Nercus to ripen.