Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

BOOK
IL
MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
that there is no longer any hope, as the gods have abandoned
them. The city is therefore surrendered, and Thersandros,
the son of Polyneikes, is seated on the throne of Kadmos.
Of the remaining incidents connected with these two
great struggles the most remarkable is the doom of Anti-
gone, who is condemned by Kreon to be buried alive because
she had performed the funeral rites over the body of Polyneikes,
which had been cast forth to the birds and dogs. Of
the sentiments which Sophokles puts into her mouth as
explaining her motives and justifying her actions all that we
need to say here is that they belong seemingly rather to
the Eastern than the Western world, and may be a genuine
portion of the Persian myth which Herodotos has clothed in
a Greek garb in the story of the Seven Conspirators. But
the dismal cave in which she is left to die seems but the
horrid den into which the Panis sought to entice Sarama,
and in which they shut up the beautiful cattle of the dawn.
It is the cave of night into which the evening must sink and
where she must die before the day can again dawn in the
east. Nor can we well fail to notice the many instances in
which those who mourn for mythical heroes taken away put
an end to their own lives by hanging. It is thus that Haimon
ends his misery when he finds himself too late to save
Antigone ;
it is thus that Iokaste hides her shame from the
sight of the world ; it is thus that Althaia and Kleopatra
hasten away from life which without Meleagros is not worth
the living for. The death of these beings is the victory of
Echidna and Ahi, the throttling or strangling snake ; and
the tradition unconsciously preserved may have determined
the mode in which these luckless beings must die.
Nor may we forget that after the death of Amphiaraos
the fortunes of his house run parallel with those of the
house of Agamemnon after his return from Ilion. In
obedience to his father's command Alkmaion slays his
mother Eriphyle, and the awful Erinys, the avenger of
blood, pursues him with the unrelenting pertinacity of the
gadfly sent by Here to torment the heifer 16. Go where he
will, she is there to torture him by day and scare him by
night; and not until he has surrendered to Phoibos the