Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

LOKI AND IIEL.
theological horizon for the few whose enthusiasm and convictions
were sincere. But these conditions were changed
with the conversion of tribes, in whom the thought of one
malignant spirit marring and undoing the work of God lmd
never been awakened ; and although henceforth the teaching
of the priesthood might continue to be as severe as that of
Augustine or Fulgentius, it was met by the passive resistance
of men whose superstitions were less harsh and oppressive.
6 The Aryan Nations,' says Professor Max Miiller, ' had no
devil. Pluto, though of a sombre character, was a very
respectable personage : and Loki, though a mischievous
person, was not a fiend. The German goddess, Hel, too
like Proserpine—had seen better days.' l
It was thus no
easy task to imbue them with an adequate horror of a being
of whose absolute malignity they could form no clear con-
ception.
But these tribes had their full share of that large inherit-
ance of phrases which had described originally the covering
or biting snake, Yritra or Ahi, who shuts up the rain-clouds
in his prison-house. Probably not one of the phrases which
furnished the groundwork of Iranian dualism had been lost
or forgotten by any other of the Aryan tribes; but like
Yritra or Ahi, like the Sphinx or the Python, like Belleros
or Chimaira, or Echidna, the beings to whom the German
tribes applied these phrases had already been over-
come. The phrases also had varied in character from grave
solemnity to comedy or burlesque, from the type of the
Herakles whom we see in the apologue of Prodikos to the
Herakles who jests with Thanatos (Death) after he has
stolen away Alkestis. To the people at large the latter
mode of thinking and speaking on the subject was more
congenial; and to it the ideas of the old gods were more
1 Chips, &c, vol. ii. p. 235. Dr.
Dasent's words are not less explicit.
'The notion of an Arch-enemy of god
and man, a fallen angel, to whom power
was permitted at certain times fur an
all-wise purpose by the Great Ruler of
the universe, was as foreign to the
heathendom of our ancestors as his name
was outlandish and strange to their
tongue. This notion Christianity
brought with it from the easl ; and
though it us a plant which ha- struck
deep routs, grown distorted and awry,
and borne a bitter crop of superstition,
it required all the authority of the
Church to prepare the soil for it- recep-
tion.' Popular Ta -
introduction, p. xcviii.
.
CHAP.
X.
The Tentonic
DeviL