Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

II
MYTHOLOGY OF THE ABTAN NATIONS.
BOOK together in that far western land inherits a tearless eternity. 1
Of the other details in the picture the greater number would
be suggested directly by these images drawn from the phenomena
of sunset and twilight. What spot or stain can be
seen on the deep blue ocean in which the islands of the
blessed repose for ever ? What unseemly forms can mar the
beauty of that golden home lit by the radiance of a sun
which can never go down ? Who then but the pure in heart,
the truthful and the generous, can be suffered to tread the
violet fields ? And how shall they be tested save by judges
who can weigh the thoughts anc^ intents of the heart ? Thus
every soul, as it drew near to that joyous land, was brought
before the august tribunal of Minos, Rhadamanthys, and
Aiakos ; and they whose faith was in truth a quickening
power might draw from the ordeal those golden lessons
which Plato has put into the mouth of Sokrates while
awaiting the return of the theoric ship from Delos. These,
however, are the inferences of later thought. The belief of
earlier ages was content to picture to itself the meeting of
Odysseus and Laertes in that blissful land, the forgiveness of
old wrongs, the reconciliation of deadly feuds as the hand of
Hektor is clasped in the hand of the hero who slew him.
There, as the story ran, the lovely Helen, ' pardoned and pu-
rified,' became the bride of the short-lived yet long-suffering
Achilleus, even as Iole comforted the dying Herakles on
earth, and Hebe became his solace in Olympos. But what
is the meeting of Helen and Achilleus, of Iole, and Hebe,
and Herakles, but the return of the violet tints to greet the
sun in the west, which had greeted him in the east in the
morning? The idea was purely physical, yet it suggested
the thoughts of trial, atonement, and purification ; and it is
unnecessary to say that the human mind, having advanced
thus far, must make its way still further.
To these islands of the blessed only they could be ad-
mitted who on earth had done great things, or who for
whatever reasons might be counted among the good and
noble of mankind. But of the beings who crossed the fatal
streams of Styx, there would be some as far exceeding the
1 &baKpvv vtfxovTai aluva. Pind. 01. ii. 120.