Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

PHORONEUS AND NIOBE. 195
line, speaks of Hermes as supplying to men e matches, tin- CHAP.
derbox and steel ' for the kindling of the flame. «
Another discoverer or bestower of fire is the Argive Pho- The Ar-
roneus, who represents the Yedic fire-god Bhuranyu, and ^ e
whose name is thus seen to be another form of the Greek
Pur, the Teutonic feuer and fire. Phoroneus is thus the
fire itself, and as such he dwelt on the Astu Phoronikon of
Argos,— in other words he is the Argive Hestia with its holy
flame of everlasting fire. 1 In this aspect he was naturally
represented as the first of men and the father of all who are
subject to death ; and as such, he is also described, in ac-
cordance with the myth of the Askingas, as springing from
an ash-tree. 2 To Phoroneus himself more than one wife is
assigned. In one version he is the husband of Kerdo, the
clever or winsome, a name pointing to the influence of fire
on the comfort and the arts of life ;
" in another of Telodike,
a word which indicates the judicial powers of the Greek
Hestia and the Latin Vesta. For the same reason, he is
also wedded to Peitho, persuasion. Among his children are
Pelasgos, Iasos and Agenor, of whom a later tradition said
that after their father's death they divided the kingdom of
Argos among themselves. He is thus described as the
father of the Pelasgic race, in contrast with Deukalion, who
is the progenitor of the Hellenic tribes. But it is unneces-
sary to enter the ethnological labyrinth from which it seems
as impossible to gather fruit as from the barren sea. It
is enough to say that Agenor, in this Argive myth, is a
brother of Europe, while in that of the Phoinikian land he is
her father, and that Argos and Phoinikia are alike the
glistening regions of the purple dawn. The phrase that
Europe, the broad- spreading morning light, is the daughter
of Phoroneus, corresponds precisely with the myth which
makes Hephaistos cleave the head of Zeus to allow the dawn
to leap forth in its full splendour. But from fire comes
smoke and vapour, and Phoroneus is thus the father of
Niobe, the rain-cloud, who weeps herself to death on Mount
Sipylos.
1 Preller, Gr. Myth. ii. 37. chos, who thus becomes the father of
2
lb. Melia, of course, becomes a Phoroneus.
nymph, and is said to be redded to Inao2
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