Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

,0
;
MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK finding a parallel in other Aryan myths. The beautiful
_ IL
, stranger, who beguiles the young wife when her husband is
gone away, is seen again in the Arkadian Ischys who takes
the place of Phoibos in the story of Koronis, in the disguised
Kephalos who returns to win the love of Prokris. The de-
parture of Menelaos for Crete is the voyage of the sun in
his golden cup from west to east when he has reached the
waters of Okeanos
away are the treasures of the Yolsung tale and the Nibelung
song in all their many versions, the treasures of light and
life which are bound up with the glory of morning and
evening, the fatal temptation to the marauding chiefs, who
in the end are always overcome by the men whom they have
1 and the treasures which Paris takes
wronged. There is absolutely no difference between the
quarrel of Paris and Menelaos, and those of Sigurd and
Hogni, of Hagene and Walthar of Aquitaine. In each case
the representative of the dark power comes in seeming
alliance with the husband or the lover of the woman who is
to be stolen away ; in other words, the first shades of night
thrown across the heaven add only to its beauty and its
charm, like Satan clothed as an angel of light. In each
case the wealth to be obtained is scarcely less the incitement
than the loveliness of Helen, Brynhild, or Kriemhild.
Nor must we forget the stress laid in the Iliad on these
stolen treasures. All are taken : Paris leaves none behind
2 him and the proposals of Antenor and Hektor embrace the
;
surrender of these riches not less than that of Helen. The
narrative of the war which avenges this crime belongs
rather to the legend of Achilleus; and the eastern story
of Paris is resumed only when, at the sack of Troy, he is
wounded by Philoktetes in the Skaian or western gates, and
with his blood on fire from the poisoned wound, hastens to
Ida and his early love. Long ago, before Aphrodite helped
him to build the fatal ship which was to take him to Sparta,
Oinone had warned him not to approach the house of Menelaos,
and when he refused to listen to her counsels she had
told him to come to her if hereafter he should be wounded.
But now when he appears before her, resentment for the
great wrong done to her by Paris for the moment over-
1 Helios leaves Eos behind him.
2 //. iii. 70, 91.