Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

THE CKADLE OF HERMES. 225
an old man who was at work in his vineyard to forget the CHAP.
things which it might not be convenient to remember. ' ^
Hastening onwards with the cattle, he reached the banks The theft
of Alpheios, as the moon rose up in the sky. There he cattle.
brought together a heap of wood, and, kindling the first
flame that shone upon the earth, he slew two of the cows,
and stretching their hides on the rock, cut up the flesh into
twelve portions. 1 But sorely though his hunger pressed
him, he touched not the savoury food, and hurling his san-
dals into the river, he broke up the blazing pile, and scattered
the ashes all night long beneath the bright light of the
moon. Early in the morning he reached Kyllene, neither
god nor man having spied him on the road ; and passing
through the bolt-hole of the cave like a mist or a soft
autumn breeze, 2 he lay down in his cradle, playing among
the clothes with one hand, while he held his lyre in the
other. To the warning of his mother, who told him that
Phoibos would take a fearful vengeance, and bade him begone
as born to be the plague of gods and men, 3 Hermes simply
answered that he meant to be the equal of Phoibos, and that
if this right were refused to him, he would go and sack his
wealthy house at Pytho.
Meanwhile, Phoibos, hastening to Onchestos in search of The covehis
cattle, had asked the old vinedresser to sav
nt ot
who had j}
•/ Hermes
taken them. But the words of Hermes still rang: in the old and Phoi-
man's ears, and he could remember only that he had seen
cows and a babe following them with a staff in his hand.
Knowing now who had stolen them, 4 Phoibos hastened on to
1 Hermes is thus especially connected Shifty Lad, in the Scottish version of
with the ordering of burnt sacrifices, the myth.
But this we have seen to be the especial
4 Hymn to Hermes, 214-5. Nothing
attribute or function of Agni. could show more clearly than these
2 In other words the great giant has words that the myth pointed to a
reduced himself almost to nothing, physical phenomenon with which
This is the story of the Fisherman and Phoibos was already familiar. Had
the Jin in the Arabian Nights, of the the story been told by one who meant
Spirit in the Bottle in Grimm's German to speak of any human child, he would
stories, of the devil in the purse of the never have represented Apollon as
Master Smith, and again in the story of knowing who the thief was before his
the Lad and the Devil (Dasent), and name was mentioned or the clue to his
the Gaelic tale of The Soldier. Campbell, hiding-place furnished. The poet might
ii. 279. indeed have said that the child had
3 With this we may compare the stolen the cows many times already:
prognostications of the mother of the but the statement would not have agreed
VOL. II. Q