Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

350 MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK throttling serpent, we see the not less beautiful Ariadne who
v_ / _. points out to Theseus the clue which is to guide him to the
abode of the Minotaur ; and thus the myth resolves itself
into a few phrases which spoke of the night as sprung from
the day, as stealing the treasures of the day and devouring
its victims through the hours of darkness, and as discovered by
the early morning who brings up its destined conqueror, the
sun.
Section VI.—THE GLOAMING AND THE NIGHT.
The Phor- Nor are myths wanting for the other phases of the heaven
kides,
Graiai, and
Gorgons.
between the setting and the rising of the sun. If the lovely
flush of the first twilight is betokened by the visits of Selene
to Endymion, the dusky gloaming is embodied in the Graiai,
or daughters of Phorkys and Keto, who are grey or ashen-
coloured from their birth. Thus the phrase that Perseus
had reached the home of the Graiai only said in other words
that the sun had sunk beneath the horizon. In the Hesiodic
Theogony 1 they are only two in number, Pephredo and Enyo,
the latter name being akin to Enyalios and Enosichthon,
epithets of Ares and Poseidon as shakers of the earth and
sea. In the scholiast on iEschylos 2 they appear as swanmaidens,
who have only one tooth and one eye in common,
which they borrow from one another as each may need them.
The night again, as lit up by a grave and sombre beauty, or as
oppressing men by its pitchy darkness, is represented by the
other daughters of Phorkys and Keto who are known as the
Gorgons. Of these three sisters, one only, Medousa, as em-
bodying the short-lived night, is subject to death ; the others,
Stheino and Euryale, as signifying the eternal abyss of
darkness, are immortal. According to the Hesiodic poet,
Poseidon loved Medousa in the soft meadow among the
flowers of spring ; and when her head fell beneath the sword
of Perseus, there sprang from it Chrysaor with his gleaming
sword, and the winged horse Pegasos— an incident which is
simply the counterpart of the birth of Geryoneus from Kallirhoe
and Chrysaor. According to another version, Medousa
1 273.
2 Prom. V. 793.