- esting for the purpose of studying the differences between
the Norse and Greek mind, which reflects itself in the expression of the thought.
The hard stone weeps tears, both in Greece and in Norseland; but let us notice how differently it is expressed. In Greece, Niobe, robbed of her children, was transformed into a rugged rock, down which tears trickled silently. She becomes a stone and still continues her weeping—
Et lacrymas etiamnum marmora manant,
as the poet somewhere has it. In Norseland all nature laments the sad death of Balder, even the stones weep for him (gráta Baldr).
Let us take another idea, and notice how differently the words symbolize the same truth or thought in the Bible, in Greece, and in Norseland. In the Bible:
And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how
people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich
cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she
threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto
him his disciples and said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
that this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which
have cast into the treasury: for all they did cast in of their
abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had,
even all her living.
In Greece:
A rich Thessalian offered to the temple at Delphi one
hundred oxen with golden horns. A poor citizen from Hermion
took as much meal from his sack as he could hold between two
fingers, and he threw it into the fire that burned on the altar.
Pythia said, that the gift of the poor man was more pleasing to
the gods than that of the rich Thessalian.
In Norseland the Elder Edda has it:
