Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

122 MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK of the great gods. 1 The same wonderful ewer or goblet of
n
the sun was bestowed in the Persian legend on Jerushid, and
explained the glories of his magnificent reign. The same
vessel is the divining cup of Joseph
;
2 and in late traditions it
reappears in the tale which relates how Rehoboam inclosed
the book containing his father's supernatural knowledge in
an ivory ewer and placed it in his tomb. The fortunes of
this vessel are related by Flegetanis, who is said to have traced
up his genealogy on the mother's side to Solomon ;
and Mr.
Price 3 has remarked that it will be ' no matter of surprise to
those who remember the talismanic effect of a name in the
general history of fiction, that a descendant of this distin-
guished sovereign should be found to write its history, or
that another Joseph should be made the instrument of con-
veying it to the kingdoms of Western Europe.' This mystic
vessel, the Sangreal of Arthurian legend, is at once a store-
house of food as inexhaustible as the table of the Ethiopians,
and a talismanic test as effectual as the goblets of Oberon
and Tristram. The good Joseph of ArimathaBa, who had
gathered up in it the drops of blood which fell from the side
of Jesus when pierced by the centurion's spear, was nourished
by it alone through his weary imprisonment of two and forty
years ; and when at length, having either been brought by
him to Britain, or preserved in heaven, it was carried by
angels to the pure Titurel and shrined in a magnificent
temple, it supplied to its worshippers the most delicious food,
1 Pans. iv. 20, 26. With this may heir, and oven raised the dead. It was
be compared the legend of the great in fact the counterpart of the Sangreal,
wizard Michael Scott, In this case the The cruder form of the myth is seen in
Mighty Book is found not in an ewer, the legend of the Caldron of Ceridwen,
but in the hand of the magician. Still the Keltic Demeter. This story is given
the boat-shaped vessel is not wanting, by Mr. Gould (Curious Myths, ii. 335),
The magic lamp (it is a lamp in the who adds that ' this vessel of the liquor
story of Allah-ud-deen) is at his knee; of wisdom had a prominent place in
and' as the sepulchre is opened, the British mythology.' Sir Walter Scott
light bursting forth, remarks, that in many Scottish legends
a driuk
i»S
^orn will prove a cornuc0P
la
fort e $>«! on **°
?
Streamed upward to the chancel roof,
And through the galleries far aloof.
°f p°d „
«n snatch it from the fames and bear
Xo earthly flame blazed e'er so bright,
t? , ,-, i > iii r,,i 4. it across a running stream. As an
It shone like heavens own blessed light.
, +1 • „„, „ ^^j^/i ,r ; t i, emblem this cup is combined with «,« the
Scott, Lay of the Last Minstrel, ii. 18. serpent in the representations of St.
'-' The same vessel in Taliesin imparts John,
to its possessor the wisdom of Iamos. 3
Introd. to Wartons Hist, of Eng.
It healed all the evils to which flesh is Poetry.