Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

50
MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK akin to the throttling snake, who represents the powers of
. fj: . night
and darkness. This bull Poseidon, it is said, makes
mad ; but although Herakles carries it home on his back, he
is compelled to let it go again, and it reappears as the bull
who ravages the fields of Marathon, till it is slain by the
hands of Theseus, who is the slayer also of the Minotauros.
The clouds and vapours pursued and conquered by the hero
are seen again in the mares of Diomedes, which consume their
master and are thus rendered tame, perhaps as the isolated
clouds are unable to resist the sun when the moisture which
has produced them has been subdued. They appear also as
the Stymphalian birds, with claws, wings, and beaks resem-
bling those of the Sphinx, and like her being eaters of
human flesh or destroyers of men and beasts. These birds,
it is said, had taken refuge in the Stymphalian lake, because
they were afraid of the wolves—a phrase which exhibits the
dark storm-clouds as dreading the rays (Lykoi) of the sun,
which can only appear when themselves have been defeated.
These clouds reappear yet again as the cattle stolen by Ge-
ryon, and recovered by Herakles—a myth of which the
legend of Cacus exhibits the most striking and probably
the most genuine form. Nor is the legend of the golden
apples guarded by the Hesperides anything more than a
repetition of the same idea, being itself, as we have seen,
a result of the same kind of equivocation which produced
the myths of Lykaon, Arktouros, and Kallisto.
The girdle In the girdle of Hippolyte we have one of those mysterious
LPP°"
lyte. emblems which are associated with the Linga in the worship
of Vishnu. It is the magic kestos of Aphrodite and the
wreath of the Kadmeian Harmonia. Into the myth which re-
lated how Herakles became its possessor, the mythographers
have introduced a series of incidents, some of which do not
belong to it, while others merely repeat each other. Thus,
before he reaches the land of the Amazons, Herakles aids
Lykos against the Bebrykes, in other words, fights the battle
of the bright being against the roaring monsters who are his
enemies ; and thus, after he has slain Hippolyte and seized
the girdle, he visits Echidna, a being akin to the beautiful
but mysterious Melusina, who throws her spell over Ray-