Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

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MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
EOOK friend Patroklos. For the most part, indeed, they remain
,' - mere names ; but their radiant forms are needed to fill up
the background of those magnificent scenes in which the
career of the short-lived and suffering sun is brought to a
close. And beyond this, they answered a good purpose by
filling the whole earth with a joyous and unfailing life. If
it be said that to the Greek this earth was his mother, and
that he cared not to rise above it, yet it was better that his
thoughts should be where they were, than that he should
make vain profession of a higher faith at the cost of
peopling whole worlds with beings malignant as they were
powerful. The effect of Christian teaching would necessarily
invest the Hellenic nymphs with some portion of this malig-
nity, and as they would still be objects of worship to the
unconverted, that worship would become constantly more
and more superstitious ; and superstition, although its nature
remains unchanged, is stripped of half its horrors when its
objects are beings whose nature is wholly genial. This
comparatively wholesome influence the idea of nymphs
inhabiting every portion of the world exercised on the
Hellenic mind. Each fountain and lake, each river and
marsh, each well, tree, hill, and vale had its guardian,
whose presence was a blessing T not a curse. As dwelling in
the deep running waters, the nymphs who in name answer
precisely to the Yedic Apsaras, or movers in the waters,
have in some measure the wisdom of ISTereus, Glaukos, and
of Proteus ; hence the soothsayer, as he uttered the oracles
of the god, was sometimes said to be filled with their spirit.
They guarded the flocks and fostered the sacredness of
home, while on the sick they exercised the beneficent art
and skill of Asklepios.
These kindly beings must, however, be distinguished from
the Swan-maidens and other creatures of Aryan mythology,
whose nature is more akin to the clouds and vapours. The
lakes on which these maidens are seen to swim are the blue
seas of heaven, in which may be seen beautiful or repulsive
forms, the daughters of Phorkys, Gorgons, Harpies, Kentaurs,
Titans, Graiai, Phaiakians. Nor can it be said that Thetis,
though called a Nereid, is in all points like the companions