The relation of the Agriculturist to the two warring elements of the sky is very different. Storm, wind, and excessive rain are the declared enemies of his life, whereas the warm sun's rays, which heat and bring to perfection the fruits of the field, are gladly welcomed by him, and their victory over the dark gloomy sky gives him joy. An old Hellenic name of the sun is Zeus Talaios, or Tallaios, or simply Talos, which denotes 'encouraging growth,' as has been proved long ago.[1] It is Zeus who watches the cornfields and sends bountiful harvests;[2] and even clouds and rain are connected with him, insofar as their powers are beneficial to the agriculturist. For this reason Zeus himself becomes the νεφεληγερέτα, the Thunderer and Rain-giver.[3] This variety of relation to nature will be found reflected in the myths formed at these two stages respectively. The altered relation to external nature works a change even in the old and already fully formed myths, and lays down for them a new tendency in accordance with the altered conception of nature. Thus the myth which was already formed at an earlier stage of civilisation frequently still possesses enough power of resistance to preserve, in spite of adaptation to new views, much of the character formerly impressed on it by a past stage of civilisation. But the new myth must bear only the impress of the new stage at which its existence begins. For as the capacity for creating language does not exhaust all its force at once, but still continues to form new modes of speech whenever an alteration of circumstances demands them, so it is with myths. As the agriculturist
- ↑ See Creuzer, Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker, 3rd ed., I. 38.
- ↑ Welcker, Griechische Götterlehre, I. 169.
- ↑ As the myth grows more and more into a religion, and the conception of a mighty god who excels all others becomes fixed, the production of thunder and rain, &c., is gradually transferred to this originally solar god (see also Max Müller, Chips, &c., I. 357 et seq.). The sharp division made above is therefore absolutely true only of the purely mythological stage. Conversely Indra and Varuṇa, originally figures belonging to the gloomy cloudy and rainy sky, which take the highest places in the Indian religion, are in the Vedic Hymns endowed with solar traits.
