Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

84
BOOK
II.
MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
counsels Cyrus to raise the standard of revolt. The sequel is
an institutional legend, of much the same value with the
story of the setting up of the Median monarchy by Deiokes,
a name in which we also recognise the Dahak or biter of
Hindu mythology.
In its earlier scenes the legend of Chandragupta presents
some points of difference with that of Cyrus. The child is
exposed to great danger in his infancy ; but it is at the
hands, not of his kinsman, but of a tributary chief who has
defeated and slain his suzerain, and it is his mother who,
' relinquishing him to the protection of the devas, places him
in a vase, and deposits him at the door of a cattle-pen.'
Here a bull named Chando comes to him and guards him,
and a herdsman, noting this wonder, takes the child and
rears him as his own. The mode by which he is subse-
quently discovered differs from the Persian story only by the
substitution of the chopping off of hands and feet instead of
scourging. This is done by axes made of the horns of goats
for blades, with sticks for handles ; and the lopped limbs are
restored whole at Chandragupta's word when the play is
done. 1 Slightly altered, this story becomes the legend of
Semiramis, whom her mother the fish-goddess Derketo exposes
in her infancy; but she was saved by doves, and
like Cyrus, Romulus, and Chandragupta, brought up by a
shepherd until her beauty attracts Onnes, one of the king's
generals, and afterwards makes her the wife of king Ninus
himself, whom in some versions she presently puts to death,
in order that she may reign alone, like Eos surviving
Kephalos. 2
1 Max Miiller, Sanskr. Lit. 290.
2 Unlike Cyrus and Chandragupta,
Ninus and Semiramis are, like Romulus,
purely mythical or fabulous beings.
'The name of Ninus is derived from
the city: he is the eponymous king and
founder of Nineveh, and stands to it in
the same relation as Tros to Troy, Modus
to Media, Mason to Mseonia, Romulus to
Rome. His conquests and those of Semiramis
are as unreal as those of
Sesostris. It is the characteristic of
these fabulous conquerors, that, although
they are reported to have overrun and
subdued many countries, the history of
—
those countries is silent on the subject.
Sesostris is related to have conquered
Assyria ; and the king of Assyria was
doubtless one of those whom he harnessed
to his chariot. But the history
of Assyria makes no mention of Sesostris.
Semiramis is related to have conquered
Egypt ; but the history of Egypt
makes no mention of Semiramis.' Sir
G. C. Lewis, Astronomy of the Ancients,
408. Romulus is one of seven kings
whose chronology is given with great
precision ; but this chronology is
throughout, in Niebuhr's trenchant
words, ' a forgery and a fiction.' Hist.