Thereupon the king and his son prepare a war of vengeance against the treasurer and his daughter. According to a promise previously given the doctor they must at once stop the fight when the physician appears with the flag of peace. Then there is a cessation of hostilities and the marriage of both.
In B. Schmidt ("Das Volksleben der Neugriechen," p. 171) we find the following case from Pausanius (VI, 6, 7–10) interesting to us on account of its associations.
A companion of Odysseus had committed rape on a maiden in Temesa and was stoned. As a spirit (vampire) he killed everything until they erected a temple to him and yearly sacrificed the most beautiful virgin. Finally he was vanquished by Enthymos and escaped.
To conclude I would like to mention that group of beautiful fairy tales in which the motive of the persecuted beauty is dealt with, a motive, the erotic basis of which is very clear. One can hardly go wrong if one conceives of the persecution as a sexual rivalry; the persecutor will do some harm to the heroine with the object of preventing her marriage with a prince.
"Little Snow-White" is probably the best known fairy tale of this kind.
Rittershaus (XXVIII) mentions some Icelandic and other settings of the theme. Sometimes the stepmother, sometimes the mother is the persecutor.[1] It is interesting that among the evil charms which the persecutor of the heroine uses (in other versions spells are used) is a belt which kills the heroine unless the king of Germany comes and loosens it and thereby marries the heroine, or unless gold of the same quality is held to it. In this case it is the gold ring, of the fairy prince, which is made of the same gold through which the heroine is delivered and married.
Apuleius[2] has treated the theme of the persecuted beauty in the fairy tale of "Amor and Psyche" in incomparably beautiful language and so offered the greatest art material for presentation.
It is well worth while to consider it somewhat in detail.
A king and a queen had three daughters of great beauty. The
