Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

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CHAPTER IX.
THE UNDERWORLD.
Section I.—HADES.
The myths of Denieter and Persephone have already carried CHAP.
X "
us to the hidden land beneath the earth's surface, in which
the seeds of all life lie dormant, until Zeus sends Hermes to The buried
fetch the maiden back to her mother, or in other words,
until Sigurd comes to waken Brynhild out of her sleep.
Hence, as containing the germs of all future harvests, this
unseen region becomes at once a land of boundless wealth,
even if we take no thought of the gold, silver, and other
metals stored up in its secret places. This wealth may be of
little use to its possessor, and poverty beneath the sunlit
heaven may be happiness compared with the dismal pomp of
the underworld ; but its king is nevertheless the wealthiest
of all monarchs, and thus the husband of Persephone l
known especially as Plouton, the king who never smiles in
is
rea&ure -
the midst of all his grandeur.
On this slender framework was raised the mythology of Hades or
Hades, a mythology which runs continually into the stories
related of the dark powers who fight with and are vanquished
by the lord of light. The dog of the hateful king, the
Kerberos of the Hesiodic Theogony, is but another form of
Orthros, who is called his brother ; and Orthros is only a
reflection of the Yedic Yritra, the dark robber who hides
away the cattle of Indra. But the conception of Hades as
the ruler of this nether region is precisely parallel to that of
1 A story was told that Hades was transformation is, of course, a mere play-
also a lover of the nymph Leuke, who on her name, while the myth resolves
on her death was changed into a white itself into the phrase that the night
poplar and planted in Elysion. The loves the tender light of morning.
Ald°neus -
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