Part 24 (1/2)
SUN AND DAWN MYTHS.
[Sidenote: Europa.]
The myths of the sun, from which it is almost impossible to separate those of the dawn, are probably more numerous than any others, and have some main features of resemblance in all cases. The first sun myth mentioned in the course of this work is the story of Europa, in which Europa is ”the broad spreading light,” born in Phoenicia (the ”purple land of morn”), the child of Telepha.s.sa (”she who s.h.i.+nes from afar”), carried away from her eastern birthplace by the sky (Jupiter), closely pursued by the sun (her brother Cadmus), who, after pa.s.sing through many lands, slays a dragon (the usual demon of drought or darkness), and sets (dies) at last without having ever overtaken the light of dawn (Europa).
[Sidenote: Apollo.]
Apollo, whose name of Helios is pure Greek for ”the sun,” had therefore not lost all physical significance for the h.e.l.lenic race, who wors.h.i.+ped in him the radiant personification of the orb of day. Another of his appellations, Phoebus (”the lord of life and light”), still further emphasizes his character; and we are informed that he was born of the sky (Jupiter) and of the dark night (Leto), in the ”bright land” (Delos), whence he daily starts on his westward journey.
Like all other solar heroes, Apollo is beautiful and golden-haired, radiant and genial, armed with unerring weapons, which he wields for good or evil, as the mood sways him. He is forced to labor, against his will at times, for the benefit of man, as, for instance, when he serves Admetus and Laomedon; and the cattle, by which he evidently sets such store, are the fleecy clouds, pasturing ”in the infinite meadows of heaven,” whose full udders drop down rain and fatness upon the land, which are stolen away either by the wind (Mercury), or the storm demon (Cacus), or the impious companions of Ulysses, who pay for their sacrilegious temerity with their lives.
[Sidenote: Coronis.]
The sun's affinity for the dawn is depicted by his love for Coronis, who, however beloved, falls beneath his bright darts; and, as ”the sun was regarded naturally as the restorer of life” after the blighting influence of winter and disease, so their offspring (AEsculapius) was naturally supposed to have been endowed with marvelous curative powers.
The sun, for the same reason, was supposed to wage continual warfare against cold, sickness, and disease, and to use his bright beams or arrows against the demon of drought, darkness, or illness (Python), which in some form or other inevitably appears in every solar myth.
[Sidenote: Daphne.]
In the story of Daphne, a name derived from Dahana, the Sanskrit dawn, we find another version of the same story, where the sun, although enamored with the dawn, causes her death. As some mythologists have interpreted it, Daphne is a personification of the morning dew, which vanishes beneath the sun's hot breath, and leaves no trace of its pa.s.sage except in the luxuriant verdure.
[Sidenote: Cephalus and Procris.]
In Cephalus and Procris the sun again appears, and his unerring spear unwittingly causes the death of his beloved Procris ”while she lingers in a thicket (a place where the dew lingers longest).” This interpretation has been further confirmed by philological researches, which prove that the name ”Procris” originated from a Sanskrit word meaning ”to sprinkle;” and the stories evidently arose from three simple phrases,--”'the sun loves the dew,' 'the morning loves the sun,' and 'the sun kills the dew.'”
[Sidenote: Orpheus and Eurydice.]
In the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, while some mythologists see in him a personification of the winds, which ”tear up trees as they course along, chanting their wild music,” others see an emblem of ”the morning, with its short-lived beauty.” Eurydice, whose name, like that of Europa, comes from a Sanskrit word denoting ”the broad spreading flush of the dawn across the sky,” is, of course, a personification of that light, slain by ”the serpent of darkness at twilight.”
Orpheus is also sometimes considered as the sun, plunging into an abyss of darkness, in hopes of overtaking the vanis.h.i.+ng dawn, Eurydice; and as the light (Eurydice) reappears opposite the place where he disappeared, but is no more seen after the sun himself has fairly risen, ”they say that Orpheus has turned around too soon to look at her, and so was parted from the wife he loved so dearly.”
His death in the forest, when his strength had all forsaken him, and his severed head floated down the stream murmuring ”Eurydice,” may also, perchance, have been intended to represent either the last faint breath of the expiring wind, or the setting of the sun in blood-tinged clouds.
[Sidenote: Phaeton.]
In the story of Phaeton, whose name means ”the bright and s.h.i.+ning one,” a description of the golden palace and car of the sun is given us. We are told that the venturesome young charioteer, by usurping his father's place, causes incalculable mischief, and, in punishment for his mismanagement of the solar steeds (the fleecy white clouds), is hurled from his exalted seat by a thunderbolt launched by the hand of Jupiter.
”This story arose from phrases which spoke of drought as caused by the chariot of Helios, when driven by some one who knew not how to guide his horses; and the smiting of Phaeton by the bolt of Zeus is the ending of the time of drought by a sudden storm of thunder.”
[Sidenote: Endymion.]
The story of Diana and Endymion has also been interpreted as a sun myth, in which the name ”Endymion” refers specially to the dying or setting sun, who sinks to rest on Mount Latmus (”the land of forgetfulness,” derived from the same root as ”Leto”). Muller, the great authority in philology, tells us, that, in the ancient poetical and proverbial language of Elis, people said, ”Selene loves and watches Endymion,” instead of saying, ”It is getting late;” ”Selene embraces Endymion,” instead of, ”The sun is setting and the moon is rising;” ”Selene kisses Endymion into sleep,” instead of, ”It is night.”
These expressions remained long after their real meaning had ceased to be understood; and, as the human mind is generally as anxious for a reason as ready to invent one, a story arose without any conscious effort, that Endymion must have been a young lad loved by a young maiden, Selene.
[Sidenote: Adonis.]
In the story of Adonis some mythologists find another sun myth, in which Adonis, the short-lived sun, is slain by the boar, the demon of darkness, and pa.s.sionately mourned by the dawn or twilight (Venus), who utterly refuses to exist without him.
[Sidenote: Tantalus.]
In the story of Tantalus (the sun), who in time of drought offers to Jupiter the flesh of his own offspring, Pelops (the withered fruits), and in punishment for his impiety is doomed to hunger and torturing thirst, we have again merely a story founded upon an expression used in time of drought, when the sun's heat, becoming too intense, burns up the fruit his fostering rays had produced, and men exclaimed, ”Tantalus is slaying and roasting his own child!”
[Sidenote: Sisyphus.]
In the same way the stone which Sisyphus painfully forced up a steep ascent, only to see it go rolling down and plunge into a dark abyss enveloped in a great cloud of dust, has been interpreted to represent the sun, which is no ”sooner pushed up to the zenith, than it rolls down to the horizon.”
[Sidenote: Ixion.]
The name of Ixion has been identified with the Sanskrit word Akshanah, denoting one who is bound to a wheel, and has been proved akin ”to the Greek axon, the Latin axis, and the English axle.” This whirling wheel of fire is the bright orb of day, to which he was bound by order of Jupiter (the sky) because he dared insult Juno (the queen of the blue air); while Dia, his wife, is the dawn, the counterpart of Europa, Coronis, Daphne, Procris, Eurydice, and Venus, in the foregoing ill.u.s.trations.
[Sidenote: Hercules.]
One of the greatest of all the solar heroes is doubtless the demiG.o.d Hercules, born at Argos (a word signifying ”brightness”) from the sky (Jupiter) and the dawn (Alcmene), who, in early infancy, throttles the serpents of darkness, and who, with untiring strength and patience, plods through life, never resting, and always on his journey performing twelve great tasks, interpreted to represent either the twelve signs of the Zodiac, or the twelve months of the solar year, or the twelve hours of daylight.
[Sidenote: Iole.]
Like Apollo and Cadmus, Hercules is forced to labor for mankind against his will. We see him early in life united to Megara, and, like Tantalus, slaying his own offspring in a sudden fit of madness. He loves and is soon forced to leave Iole, the violet-colored clouds. He performs great deeds, slays innumerable demons of drought and darkness on his way, and visits the enchanted land of the Hesperides,--a symbol of the western sky and clouds at sunset.
[Sidenote: Deianeira.]
The main part of his life is spent with Deianeira (”the destroying spouse”), a personification of the daylight; but toward the end of his career he again encounters Iole, now the beautiful twilight. It is then that Deianeira (the daylight), jealous of her rival's charms, sends him the b.l.o.o.d.y Nessus robe, which he has no sooner donned, than he tears it from his bleeding limbs, ascends the burning pile, and ends his career in one grand blaze,--the emblem of the sun setting in a framework of flaming crimson clouds.
Like all solar heroes, he too has unerring poisoned weapons (”the word ios, 'a spear,' is the same in sound as the word ios, 'poison'”), of which he is shorn only at death.
[Sidenote: Perseus.]
Perseus also belongs to this category of myths. Danae, his mother, either the earth (dano means ”burnt earth”) or the dawn, a daughter of Acrisius (darkness), is born in Argos (brightness). Loved by Jupiter, the all-embracing sky, she gives birth to the golden-haired Perseus, a personification of the radiant orb of day; and he, like many another solar hero, is cast adrift immediately after his birth, owing to an ominous prophecy that he will slay the darkness from which he originally sprang.
As soon as Perseus attains manhood, he is forced to journey against his will into the distant land of the mists (the Graeae), and conquer the terrible Medusa, ”the starlit night, solemn in its beauty, but doomed to die when the sun rises.” He accomplishes this by means of his irresistible sword, the piercing rays of the sun, and then pa.s.ses on to encounter the monster of drought, and to marry Andromeda, another personification of the dawn, the offspring of Celeus and Ca.s.siopeia, who also represent night and darkness.
In company with Andromeda, Perseus, whose name also signifies ”the destroyer,” revisits his native land, and fulfills the prophecy by slaying Acrisius (the darkness), whence he originally sprang.
[Sidenote: Theseus.]
In the Athenian solar myth, Theseus is the sun, born of AEgeus (the sea, derived from aisso, ”to move quickly like the waves”) and AEthra (the pure air). He lingers in his birthplace, Troezene, until he has acquired strength enough to wield his invincible sword, then journeys onward in search of his father, performing countless great deeds for the benefit of mankind. He slays the Minotaur, the terrible monster of darkness, and carries off the dawn (Ariadne); whom he is, however, forced to abandon shortly after on the Island of Naxos.
In his subsequent career we find him the involuntary cause of his father's death, then warring against the Centaurs (personifications of the clouds, through which the victorious sun is sometimes forced to fight his way), then again plunging for a short s.p.a.ce of time into the depths of Tartarus, whence he emerges once more; and finally we see him uniting his fate to Phaedra (the twilight), a sister of the beautiful dawn he loved in his youth. He ends his eventful career by being hurled headlong from a cliff into the sea,--an emblem of the sun, which often seems to plunge into the waves at eventide.
[Sidenote: Argonauts.]
In the story of the Argonautic expedition we have Athamas, who marries Nephele (the mist). Their children are Phryxus and h.e.l.le (the cold and warm air, or personifications of the clouds), carried off to the far east by the ram--whose golden fleece was but an emblem of the rays of the sun--to enable them to escape from the baleful influence of their stepmother Ino (the broad daylight), who would fain encompa.s.s their destruction.
[Sidenote: Medea.]
h.e.l.le, an emblem of the condensation of vapor, falls from her exalted seat into the sea, where she is lost. The s.h.i.+p Argo ”is a symbol of the earth as a parent, which contains in itself the germs of all living things.” Its crew is composed mainly of solar heroes, all in quest of the golden fleece (the rays of the sun), which Jason recovers by the aid of Medea (the dawn), after slaying the dragon (the demon of drought). AEetes, Medea's father, is a personification of the darkness, which vainly attempts to recover his children, the dawn and light (?), after they have been borne away by the all-conquering sun.
[Sidenote: Glauce.]
Glauce (the broad daylight) next charms Jason; and the poisoned robe which causes her death is woven by Medea, now the evening twilight, who mounts her dragon car and flies to the far east, forsaking her husband (the sun) in his old age, when he is about to sink into the sleep of death.