TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

318 CONDITION OF GODS.
adjectives a/3poro<?, a^poro?, afjbjBpbcrios, veKrdpeos are passed on
from the food to other divine things 1
(see Suppl.). Plainly then
the gods were not immortal by their nature, they only acquired and
secured this quality by abstaining from the food and drink of men,
and feasting on heavenly fare. And hence the idea of death is not
always nor as a matter of course kept at a distance from them ;
Kronos used to kill his new born children, no doubt before nectar
and ambrosia had been given them, 2 and Zeus alone could be saved
from him by being brought up secretly. Another way
in which
the mortality of certain gods is expressed is, that they fall a prey
to Hades, whose meaning borders on that of death, e.g., Perse
phone.
If a belief in the eternity of the gods is the dominant one
among the Greeks, and only scattered hints are introduced of their
with our ancestors on the contrary, the thought of
final overthrow ;
the gods being immortal seems to retire into the background.
The Edda never calls them eylifir or odauoligir, and their death is
spoken of without disguise :
)?a er regin deyja, Saem. 37a , or more
frequently : regin riu/az (solvuntur), 36 b 40 a 108 b . One
of the
finest and oldest myths describes the death of Balder, the burning
of his body, and his entrance into the lower world, like that of
Proserpine ; 05in s destined fall is mentioned in the Voluspa 9 a ,
05ms lani (bane), Sn. 73, where also Thorr falls dead on the
ground ; Hrungnir, a giant, threatens to slay all the gods (drepa
guS oil), Sn. 107. Yet at the same time we can point to clear
traces of that prolongation of life by particular kinds of food and
drink. While the einherjar admitted into Valholl feast on the
boiled flesh of a boar, we are nowhere told of the Ases sharing in
such diet (Sa3m. 36. 42. Sn. 42) ; it is even said expressly, that
OSinn needs no food (onga vist ]?arf hann), and only drinks wine
(vin er honum bseol dryckr ok matr, both meat and drink) ;
with the viands set before him he feeds his two wolves Geri and
Freki. VitS vin eitt vapngofugr 05inn 03 lifir (vino solo armipotens
semper vivit), Saem. 42 b ; a3 lifir can be rendered semper vescitur,
1 Both nectar and ambrosia, like the holy grail of the Mid. Ages, have
miraculous powers : poured into the nose of a corpse, they prevent decay, II.
19, 38 ; they ward off II. hunger, 19, 347. 353.
2 As human infants may only Le exposed before milk and honey have
moistened their lips, conf. KA. pp. 458-9. When Zeus first receives in the
assembly of the gods the son whom Leto bore him, he hands him nectar in a
golden bowl : by this act he recognised him for his child.