Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

.52 MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK Brynhild reversed ; for here it is Yikram who is banished or
„,_ - sleeps, while the beautiful princess Buccoulee sees her
destined husband in her dreams, and recognises him among
a group of beggars as Eurykleia recognises Odysseus in his
squalid raiment. Him she follows, although he leads her to
a hut in the jungle, where she has but a hard time of it
while the cobra still remains coiled up in his throat. This
woful state is brought to an end by an incident which occurs
in the stories of Panch Phul Ranee and of Glaukos and
Polyidos. Buccoulee hears two cobras conversing, and
learns from them the way not merely to rid her husband of
his tormentor, but to gain possession of the splendid trea-
sure which these snakes guard like the dragon of the
glistening heath or the monsters of the legend of Beowulf. 1
Still more notably is the idea of the old myth softened
down in the tale of Troy, for Ilion is the stronghold of Paris
the deceiver, and Hektor is the stoutest warrior and the
noblest man in all the hosts of Priam. To the treachery
of Alexandros he opposes the most thorough truthfulness, to
his indolent selfishness the most disinterested generosity and
the most active patriotism. But Hektor had had no share
in the sin of Paris, and there was nothing even in the
earliest form of the myth which would require that the
kinsmen of Paris should not fight bravely for their hearths
and homes. We have, however, seen already that the
mythical instinct was satisfied when the legend as a whole
conveyed the idea from which the myth sprung up. Hion
was indeed the fastness of the dark powers ; but each chief
and warrior who fought on their side would have his own
mythical history, and threads from very different looms
might be woven together into a single skein. This has
happened to a singular extent in the Trojan legend. The
warmer hues which are seen in the pictures of Phoibos,
Perseus, and Herakles have been shed over the features even
of Paris himself, while Glaukos, Sarpedon, and Memnon are
children of the dawn who come from the gleaming eastern
1 In the story of Muchie Lai, the fact, the snake who dwells in the shrine
seven-headed cobra is the friend andde- of Athene, the goddess of the morning,
fender of the dawn-maiden, and is, in Dcccan Tales, 244, &c.