Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

238 MYTHOLOGY OF THE AEYAN NATIONS.
BOOK
II.
Hermes
and the
Charites.
Hermes
the herald.
taken to signify a small statue of Hermes, but which might
also mean a small prop or stay. This word sp/xa M. Breal
connects with the Greek slpyo) and sp/co?; and the Latin
arcere, erctum, may in the same way have led to the identifi-
cation of the Latin Ercules or Herculus, the god of boun-
daries, with the Greek Herakles. The word "spjmaiov, as
denoting a god-send or treasure-trove, may belong to either
the one root or the other. 1
The office of Hermes connects him necessarily with many
legends, and especially with those of Prometheus, 16, Paris,
and Deukalion : but it is more noteworthy that ' as the
Dawn in the Yeda is brought by the bright Harits, so
Hermes is called the leader of the Charites.' 2 His worship,
we are told, was instituted first in Arkadia, and thence
transferred to Athens. 3 That it may have been so is possible,
but in the absence of all historical evidence, we cannot affirm
it as fact : and no argument can be based on traditions con-
cerned with such names as Athens, Arkadia, Ortygia or
Eleusis. If Hermes be the son of the twilight, or the first
breeze of the morning, his worship would as certainly begin
in Arkadia (the glistening land), or at Athens (the home of
the Dawn), and his first temple be built by Lykaon (the
gleaming), as the worship of Phoibos would spring up in the
brilliant Delos, or by the banks of the golden Xanthos in the
far-off Lykia or land of light, whence Sarpedon came to the
help of Hektor. The reasons have been already given, 4
which seem to warrant the conclusion that historical infer-
ences based on names which, although applied afterwards to
real cities or countries, come from the mythical cloudland,
can be likened only to castles built in the air.
The staff or rod which Hermes received from Phoibos, and
which connects this myth with the special emblem of Vishnu, 5
was regarded as denoting his heraldic office. It was, how-
ever, always endowed with magic properties, and had the
power even of raising the dead. 6 The fillets of this staff
1 See M. Breal's letter on this subject,
inserted in Prof. Max Miiller's Led. on
Lang. s