Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

52 MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK kles encounters the giant who, under the name of Polyphe-
_ / ..
mos,
seeks to crush Odysseus. Like the latter, the Libyan
monster is a son of the sea-god—the black storm-vapour
which draws to itself new strength from the earth on which
it reposes. Hence Herakles cannot overcome him until he
lifts him off the earth and strangles him in the expanse of
heaven, as the sun cannot burn up and disperse the vapours
until his heat has lifted them up above the surface of the land.
Herakles
m}
tcs
The fiercer heats of summer may, as we have seen, suggest
*ne ^ea no^ onty ^ a^ ano^ner hand less firm than that of
Helios is suffering his fiery horses to draw too near the earth,
but that Helios himself has been smitten with madness, and
cares not whether in his fury he slays those whom he has
most loved and cherished. The latter idea runs through the
myths of the raging Herakles, and thus, when he has won
Iole the daughter of Eurytos as the prize for success in
archery, her father refuses to fulfil the compact because a
• being who has killed one bride and her offspring may repeat
the crime : and thus he is parted from Iole at the very
moment of winning her. It is the old story of Daphne,
Prokris, or Arethousa, with this difference only that the
legend of Iole belongs to the middle heats of summer. But
Herakles may not be injured with impunity. The beautiful
cattle of Eurytos are feeding like those of Helios in the pas-
tures where the children of Neaira tend them, and Herakles
is suspected of driving them away, as the tinted clouds of
morning tide vanish before the sun. His friend Iphitos
pleads his cause, but when he asks the aid of Herakles in
recovering the lost cattle, the angry hero turns on his friend
and slays him. The friendship of Herakles is as fatal to
the new invaders of the land, and who we need say is that they become more
therefore betook themselves to the stupid as we go further north. The
mountains. It is of the very essence of Kyklops of the Odyssey is not quite
the myths of Indra, Herakles, Bellero- such a fool as the Troll who slits his
phontes, Perseus, or any other light- stomach that he may eat the more, beborn
heroes, that they should be victo- cause ' Boots who ate a match with the
rious over the enemies opposed to them, Troll' and has made a slit in the scrip
and that these enemies should appear in which he carries under his chin, assures
horrible shapes which yet are not so for- him that the pain is nothing to speak of.
midable as they seem ; in other words, The giant in the story of the Valiant
they cannot stand against the hero Tailor (Grimm) is cheated much in the
whose insignificant stature and mean same fashion,
appearance they had despised. All that