thunder-cloud; and if she has not been recognised as the moon, it is not for lack of opportunity.[1] These explanations rest on the habit of twisting each detail of a divine legend into conformity with aspects of certain natural and elemental forces, or they rely on etymological conjecture. For example, Welcker[2] maintains that Athene is "a feminine personification of the upper air, daughter of Zeus, the dweller in æther." Her name Tritogenia is derived[3] from an ancient word for water, which, like fire, has its source in æther.[4] Welcker presses the title of the goddess, "Glaucopis," the "grey-green-eyed," into the service. The heaven in Attica oft ebenfalls wunderhar grün ist.[5] Moreover, there was a temple at Methone of Athene of the Winds (Anemotis), which would be a better argument had there not been also temples of Athene of the Pathway, Athene of the Ivy, Athene of the Crag, Athene of the Market-place, Athene of the Trumpet, and so forth. Moreover, the olive tree is one of the sacred plants of Athene. Now why should this be? Clearly, thinks Welcker, because olive-oil gives light from a lamp, and light also comes from æther.[6] Athene also gives Telemachus a fair wind in the Odyssey, and though any Lapland witch could do as much, this goes down to her account as a goddess of the air.[7]
- ↑ Welcker, i. 305.
- ↑ Griechische Götterlehre, Göttingen, 1857, i. 303.
- ↑ Op. cit., 311.
- ↑ The ancients themselves were in doubt whether Trito were the name of a river or mere, or whether the Cretan for the head was intended. See Odyssey, Butcher and Lang, note 10, p. 415, 4th edition.
- ↑ Op. cit., i. 303.
- ↑ Op. cit. i. 318.
- ↑ Mr. Ruskin's Queen of the Air is full of similar ingenuities.
