- [Footnote: given to Psamathe. The Linos lament is, as Herodotus shows (II, 79),
identical with the Phœnician, Cyprian and Egyptian custom of the Adonis-(Tammuz) lament. As Herodotus observes, Linos is called Maneros in Egypt. Brugsch points out that Maneros comes from the Egyptian cry of lamentation, maa-n-chru: "come to the call." Poine is characterized by her tearing the children from the womb of all mothers. This ensemble of motives is found again in the Apocalypse, xii: 1-5, where it treats of the woman, whose child was threatened by a dragon but was snatched away into the heavens. The child-murder of Herod is an anthropomorphism of this "primitive" idea. The lamb means the son. (See Brugsch: "Die Adonisklage und das Linoslied," Berlin 1852.) Dieterich (Abraxas: "Studien zur Religionsgeschichte des späteren Altertums," 1891) refers for an explanation of this passage to the myth of Apollo and Python, which he reproduces as follows: "To Python, the son of earth, the great dragon, it was prophesied that the son of Leto would kill him; Leto was pregnant by Zeus: but Hera brought it about that she could give birth only there where the sun did not shine. When Python saw that Leto was pregnant, he began to pursue her in order to kill her, but Boreas brought Leto to Poseidon. The latter brought her to Ortygia and covered the island with the waves of the sea. When Python did not find Leto, he returned to Parnassus. Leto brought forth upon the island thrown up by Poseidon. The fourth day after the birth, Apollo took revenge and killed the Python. The birth upon the hidden island belongs to the motive of the "night journey on the sea." The typical character of the "island phantasy" has for the first time been correctly perceived by Riklin (1912 Jahrbuch, Vol. II, p. 246). A beautiful parallel for this is to be found, together with the necessary incestuous phantasy material, in H. de Vere Stacpool: "The Blue Lagoon." A parallel to "Paul and Virginia."]*
