others, a mere institutional legend, to account for ceremonies in the later ritual.
Egyptian myths.Still less is it necessary to give at length the points of likeness or difference between the Hellenic Herakles and the deities of whom Herodotos or other writers speak as the Herakles of Egypt or other countries. By their own admission their names at least had little in common ; and the affinity between the Greek hero and the Egyptian Som, Chon, or Makeris, must be one of attributes only. It is, indeed, obvious that, go where we will, we must find the outlines, at least, of the picture into which the Greek mind crowded such an astonishing variety of life and action. The sun, as toiling for others, not for himself, as serving beings who are as nothing in comparison with his own strength and splendour, as cherishing or destroying the fruits of the earth which is his bride, as faithful or fickle in his loves, as gentle or furious in his course, could not fail to be the subject of phrases which, as their original meaning grew fainter, must suggest the images wrought up with lavish but somewhat undisceming zeal into the stories of the Hellenic Herakles. Not less certainly would these stories exhibit him under forms varying infinitely from the most exalted majesty to the coarsest burlesque.
Osiris and Rhadamanthys.But although Egyptian mythology lies strictly beyond the limits of our present subject, it is yet worth while to note that, while some of the Egyptian myths seem to have a more direct reference to facts of astronomy than may be found generally in Greek tradition, they had their foundation, as a whole, in phrases which described the phenomena of the outward world in all its parts. The origin of the Egyptian people and of their civilisation is a question into which we cannot enter ; but probably none will be found to assert that the Egyptian people come from the stock which has produced the Aryan nations of Europe and Asia. The character of this wonderful valley would go far towards accounting for the forms assumed by the religion, laws, and customs which grew up within it; and it is enough for us to mark that their growth betrays no working of Aryan influences, while in their turn the institutions and traditions of the Aryan tribes were but little affected by those of Egypt. That there was some interchange of thought as well as of commerce in prehistoric ages between Greeks and Egyptians, is proved by the presence of Egyptian words
in a dress which seems altogether Hellenic and Aryan ; and such names as Harpokrates and Rhadamantliys justify a like inquiry to that which names like Melikertes, Athamas, and Kadmos warrant, when we deal with the myths and legends of Boiotia. Speaking generally, however, we may safely say that between the main body of