Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

70 MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK of Persephone. The shield flashing like a beacon-fire far
IL
- away on the deep sea, the helmet crest gleaming like a star,
the armour which bears up the hero as on the pinions of a
bird, the spear which Cheiron cut on the heights of Pelion,
the undying horses gifted with the mind and the speech of
man, all belong to no earthly warfare. Of the mighty con-
flict which follows we have already spoken ; but it is scarcely
possible to lay too much stress on the singular parallelism
between the several stages in this fatal contest, as compared
with the battle between Odysseus and the suitors. The
hero with the irresistible weapons which no other arm
can wield, filled with the strength of Athene herself, fighting
with enemies who almost overpower him just when
he seems to be on the point of winning the victory,—the
struggle in which the powers of heaven and hell take part,
—the utter discomfiture of a host by the might of one in-
vincible warrior,—the time of placid repose which follows
the awful turmoil,—the doom which in spite of the present
glory still awaits the conqueror, all form a picture, the lines
of which are in each case the same, and in which we see
reflected the fortunes of Perseus, Oidipous, Belleropbon,
and all the crowd of heroes who have each their Hektor to
vanquish and their Ilion to overthrow, whether in the den
of Chimaira, the labyrinth of the Minotaur, the cave of
Cacus, the frowning rock of the Sphinx, or the stronghold of
the Panis. Nor is the meaning of the tale materially altered
whether we take the myth that he fell in the western gates
by the sword of Paris aided by the might of Phoibos, or the
version of Diktys of Crete, that in his love for Polyxena the
daughter of Priam he promised to join the Trojans, and
going unarmed into the temple of Apollon at Thymbra, was
there slain by the seducer of Helen. As the sun is the child
of the night, so, as the evening draws on, he may be said to
ally himself with the kindred of the night again ; and his
doom is equally certain whether the being whom he is said
to love represent the dawn or the sister of the night that is
coming. With all the ferocity which he shows on the loss of
Briseis, Achilleus none the less resembles Herakles ; but the
pity which he feels for the amazon Penthesileia, when