Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

224 MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK
II.
Hindu and
Greek
myths of
the wind.
The story
of Hermes.
Section II.—HERMES.
The character of the more gentle Vayu, who comes with
the blush of early morning, carries us to the strange legend
of Hermes ; and we have to see how the phrases which
yielded but a slight harvest of myth in the East grew up in
the West into stories enriched by an exquisite fancy, while
they remained free from the cumbrous and repulsive extra-
vagances of later Hindu mythology, and how true to the
spirit of the old mythical speech and thought is the legend
of that son of Zeus, who was born early in the morning in a
cave of the Kyllenian hill, who at noon played softly and
sweetly on his harp, and who at eventide stole away the
cattle of Phoibos. 1
Eising from his cradle (so the story runs), the babe stepped
forth from the cave, and found a tortoise feeding on the
grass. Joyously seizing his prize, he pierced oat its life
with a borer, and drilling holes in the shell, framed a lyre
with reed canes, a bull's hide, and seven sheep-gut cords.
Then striking the strings he called forth sounds of wonder-
ful sweetness, as he sang of the loves of Zeus in the beautiful
home of his mother Maia, the daughter of Atlas. But
soon he laid down his harp in his cradle, for the craving
of hunger was upon him, and as the sun went down with
his chariot and horses to the stream of Ocean, 2 the child has-
tened to the shadowy mountains of Pieria, where the cattle
of the gods feed in their large pastures. Taking fifty of the
herd, he drove them away, sending them hither and thither,
so that none could tell by what path they had really gone,
and on his own feet he bound branches of tamarisk and
myrtle. Passing along the plains of Onchestos, he charged
1 Hymn to Hermes, 17, IS- The
sudden growth of Hermes, followed by
an equally rapid return to his infantile
shape and strength, explains the story
of the Fisherman and the Jin in the
Arabian Nights. This tale is substantially
the same as Grimm's story of the
Spirit in the Bottle. The bottle in the
one ease, the jar in the other, represents
the cradle to which Hermes comes back
after striding like a giant over heaths
and hills, as well as the cave of Aiolos
and the bag of winds which he places
in the hands of Odysseus.
- Hymn to Hermes, 67. I have
striven to adhere with scrupulous care
to the imagery of the hymn, avoiding
the introduction of any notions not
warranted by actual expressions in the
poem.