Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

ORPHEUS AND EURYDIKfi.
sometimes gave place to serpents ; and the golden sandals, CHAP.
which in the Iliad and Odyssey bear him through the air .
more swiftly than the wind, were at length, probably from
the needs of the sculptor and the painter, fitted with wings,
and the Orphic hymn-writer salutes him accordingly as the
god of the winged sandals. 1 In the legend of Medonsa these
sandals bear Perseus away from the pursuit of the angry
Gorgons into the Hyperborean gardens and thence to the
shores of Libya.
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Section III.—ORPHEUS.
Of the myth of Orpheus it may also be said that it brings ^^
before us a being, in whom some attributes which belong to between
the light or the sun are blended with others which point as °*P heus
clearly to the wind. The charm of the harping of Hermes is Hermes.
fully admitted in the Homeric hymn, but its effect is simply
the effect of exquisite music on those who have ears to hear
and hearts to feel it. In the story of Orpheus the action
becomes almost wholly mechanical. If his lyre has power
over living beings, it has power also over stones, rocks, and
trees. What then is Orpheus? Is he, like Hermes, the
child of the dawn, or is he the sun-god himself joined for
a little while with a beautiful bride whom he is to recover
only to lose her again ? There can be no doubt that this
solar myth has been bodily imported into the legend of
Orpheus, even if it does not constitute its essence. The
name of his wife, Eurydike, is one of the many names which
denote the wide-spreading flush of the dawn ; and this fair
being is stung by the serpent of night as she wanders close
by the water which is fatal alike to Melusina and Undine,
to the Lady of Geierstein and to the more ancient Bheki or
frog-sun. But if his Helen is thus stolen away by the dark
power, Orpheus must seek her as pertinaciously as the
Achaians strive for the recovery of Helen or the Argonauts
for that of the Golden Eleece. All night long he will wander
through the regions of night, fearing no danger and daunted
by no obstacles, if only his eyes may rest once more on her
1 Hymn XXVIII.