TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

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WISE WOMEN.
Ares ; in 4, 440 and 5, 518 "Ept? apo-rov iiepavla with Ares, who is
also followed by Aelfios and $o/3o? (p. 207-8). And lastly, the
Charites are nearly allied ; and there was supposed to be a special
Charis of victory. Still nearer to our wood-wives stand particular
classes of nymphs, especially those whom Theocritus 5, 17 names
ra9 \ifjLvd5a? vvp<l>a<;,
or those called vv^ai CLKOL^TOL, Sew/at deal
fypoubran 13, 44. The graceful myth of swan-wives appears
indeed to be unknown to the Greeks and Komans, while we Teutons
have it in common with the Celts ; yet a trace of it remains in the
story of Zeus and Leda (p. 338), and in the swan s prophetic song,
as in the Indian Nalus too the gold-bedizened swan (hansa = anser,
goose) finds human speech (Bopp s ed. pp. 6. 7).
The Slavs have not developed any idea of goddesses of fate.1 .
The beautiful fiction of the vila is peculiar to Servian mythology :
she is a being half fay, half elf, whose name even resembles that
of the vala. The relation of valkyrs to Christian heroes is suggested
by the fraternal bond between the vila and Marko (Vuk 2, 98. 232.
Danitza for 1826, p. 108), as also by the vilas appearing singly,
In some things they come
having proper names, and prophesying.
nearer the German elfins of our next chapter : they live on hills,
love the song and the round dance (Ir. elfenm. Ixxxii), they mount
fatal arrows at men ustrielila ga vila,
up in the air and discharge :
the vila has shot him with her shaft. Their cry in the wood is
like the sound of the woodpecker hacking, and is expressed by the
word kliktati . The vila has a right to the child whom his mother
in heedless language (diavo ye odniyo !) has consigned
to the devii
(Vuk no. 394), as in similar cases the wolf or bear fetches him away.
Vile te odnele! (vilae te auferant) is a curse (Vuks sprichw. p. 36);
<kad dot u vile k otchiin (quando vilae ante oculos veniunt) signifies
the moment of extreme distress and danger (ibid. 117). The vila
rides a seven-year old stag, and bridles him with snakes, like the
Norse enchantresses (see Suppl.). 2
1 The Bohem. sudice translates parca, but it simply means judge (fern.) :
the Russians even adopt the word parka. We must at least notice the
lichoplezi in Hanka s Glosses 21 a who are said to be three, like the sirens
, an<
mermaids.
2 The Bulgarian samodlva or samorila corresponds
to the
.
Servian
.,
vila.
When the wounded Pomak cries to his sister samodiva,
she conies and
cures him. The samodivy carry off children ; and mischief wrought by