Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/587

Rh demon, like the Libyan dragon, sinks into the sea. Of the mode by which Euthymos mastered him nothing is said ; but Pausanias adds ^' that Euthymos was not subjected to death, and that the demon whom he overcame was a creature terribly dark and black, with the skin of a wolf for his garment. With this legend we may compare the story of the monsters slain by Beowulf,^ the wolf-tamer, the first of these being Grendel, who ravages the country of King Hrothgar, and whom he slays after a struggle as arduous as that of Indra with the Panis. The second is but another form of the first. It is a huge dragon which guards a treasure-hoard near the sea-shore, and which sinks into the waters when smitten by the hero, who, like Sigurd, becomes master of all his wealth.

The same devouring enemy of the lord of light reappears in the The Mino- Cretan Minotauros ; and here also, as we resolve the myth into its *^^°5' component parts, we see the simple framework on which it has been built up. The story in its later form ran that at the prayer of Mirios Poseidon sent up from the sea a bull, by whom Pasiphae becanie the mother of a composite being like Echidna, Orthros, Geryon, or Ker- beros ; that this monster was shut up in the labyrinth made by the cunning workman Daidalos, and there fed with the children whom the Athenians were obliged to send yearly, until at length the tributeship brought among the intended victims the hero Theseus, who by the aid of Ariadne slew the human-headed bull, or the bull-headed man, for this being is exhibited under both forms. To search this myth for a residuum of fact, pointing to some early dependence of historical Athens on the maritime supremacy of some Cretan king, is, as we have seen, utterly useless. We know nothing of Minos, Athens, or Crete at the alleged time to which these myths relate except what we learn from the myths themselves, and these utter no uncertain sounds. The Minotauros is the offspring of the bull from the sea, which appears again in the myth of Europe and is yoked to the chariot of Indra, and of Pasiphae, who gives light to all. This incident is but a translation of the fact that the night follows or is born from the day. The same notion assigns Phoibos Chrysaor, the lord of the golden sword, and the fair nymph Kallirhoe, as the parents of the frightful Geryon. The monster so born must share the nature of Ahi, Vritra, the Panis, Cacus, and the Sphinx. In other words, he must steal, kill, and devour, and his victims must belong to the bright beings from whom he is sprung. The Panis steal the cows of Indra, and the Minotauros consumes the beautiful children of the

' For the Saga of Beowulf, see and Introduction to Comparative My- Fof'ular Romances of the Middle A^es, tholo^y, 309.