Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

30 MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK river Argyros (the silver stream). The name Bolina looks
^_—^—* much like a feminine form of Apollon. 1
EndymiOn. The reverse of these stories is obviously presented in the
transparent myth of Enclymion and the scarcely less trans-
parent story of JSTarkissos. The former belongs, indeed, to
that class of stories which furnish us with an absolutely
sure starting-point for the interpretation of myths. When
we find a being, described as a son of Zeus and Kalyke (the
heaven and the covering night), or of Aethlios (the man of
many struggles), or of Protogeneia (the early dawn), married
to Selene (the moon), or to Asterodia (the being whose path is
among the stars), we at once see the nature of the problem
with which we have to deal, and feel a just confidence that
other equally transparent names in other Greek myths meant
originally that which they appear to mean. Thus, when we
find that Prokris is a daughter of Herse, we know that
whatever Prokris may be, she is the child of the dew, and
hence we have solid grounds for connecting her name with
the Sanskrit prish, to sprinkle, although it cannot be explained
directly from any Greek word. The myth of Endymion
was localised in Elis (where his tomb was shown in
the days of Pausanias), doubtless because it was the western-
most region of the Peloponnesos, just as the Leukadian
rocks, the most westerly point of northern Hellas, were asso-
ciated with the name of Kephalos ; and when it was once
localised, fresh names and incidents, mostly of little value or
significance, were readily imported into the tale. Thus one
version gave him fifty daughters by Selene, to match the
fifty sons and daughters of Danaos and Aigyptos ; others gave
him Neis, Iphianassa, and others as his wives, or made
him, under the unconscious influence of the old mythical
phrases, the father of Eurydike, the broad flashing dawn,
who is the bride of Orpheus. In fact, the myth of Endymion
has produced rather an idea than a tale. It has little in-
cident, and scarcely anything which might entitle it to be
regarded as epical history, for the few adventures ascribed to
him by Pausanias 2 have manifestly no connection with the
original legend. The visit of Selene, followed by an endless
1 Pausanias vii. 23, 3.
2 viii. 1.