Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/62

BOOK I.

laboured for the sons of men, and sunk down to rest, after a hard battle, in the evening. But now the lord of light would be Phoibos Apollôn, while Helios would remain enthroned in his fiery chariot, and his toils and labours and death-struggles would be transferred to Heraklês. The violet clouds which greet his rising and his setting would now be represented by herds of cows which feed in earthly pastures. There would be other expressions which would still remain as floating phrases, not attached to any definite deities. These would gradually be converted into incidents in the life of heroes, and be woven at length into systematic narratives. Finally, these gods or heroes, and the incidents of their mythical career, would receive each "a local habitation and a name." These would remain as genuine history, when the origin and meaning of the words had been either wholly or in part forgotten.

Results of mythical language.But in such a process as this, it is manifest that the men amongst whom it sprang up would not be responsible for the form which it might assume. Words, applied at first simply to outward objects or phenomena, would become the names of personal gods; and the phrases which described those objects would then be transferred to what were now deities to be adored. But it would not follow that a form of thought which might apply, not only without harm but with a marvellous beauty, to things if living yet not personal, would bear translation into the conditions of human life. If in the older speech, the heaven was wedded to the earth, which returned his love with a prodigal fertility,, in the later time the name of the heaven would be the name of a god, and that god would necessarily be earthly and sensual. But this developement of a mythology, much of which would inevitably be immoral and even repulsive, would not necessarily exercise a like debasing influence on the morality and practice of the people. It had started with being a sentiment, not a religion,—a personal opinion, but not a moral belief; and the real object of the heart's adoration would remain not less distinct from the creations of mythology than it had been before. Nay, it might be that, with any given people, the tone of thought and the character of society might be more and more raised, even while the incongruous mythological fabric assumed more stupendous proportions. But the first condition of thought, which regarded every object in creation, would have in itself only two possible developements. It must issue either in an anthropomorphous polytheism, or in a degrading fetish worship. The character of the people would in each case determine whether the result for them should be an idolatrous terror of inanimate things, or the multiplication of deities with human forms and human