Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

SINIS, THE PINE-BENDER. 63
travellers below. But Sinis the robber, or plunderer, is his
kinsman, being like himself a son of Poseidon, and from his
name Pityokamptes is the stormwind which bends the pine
CHAP,
^—^—
trees. Hence the myth went that he slew his victims by
compelling them to bend a fir tree which he allowed to fly
back upon them, and that Theseus who caught him in his
own trap nevertheless felt that he needed to purify himself
for the death of one who was also a son of the sea. The
same idea gave rise to the myth of Phaia, the dark or ashen-
coloured sow of Krommyon, who shares the fate of all such
monsters, and again to that of Skeiron, who hurls from the
cliffs the travellers whom he has constrained to kneel and
wash his feet, 1 and who in his turn is in like manner destroyed
by Theseus. In Kerkyon, whose name apparently connects
him with the Kerkopes, we have a reflection of Laios, Akri-
sios, Amulius, and other beings who seek from fear for them-
selves to destroy their children or their children's children.
The story of his daughter Alope is simply the story of Auge,
Semele, Danae, and many others; but Kerkyon himself is
the Eleusinian wrestler, who is defeated by Theseus in his
own art and slain. The robber Prokroustes is a being of
the same kind ; but the myth attached to his name does not
explain itself like the rest, and may perhaps have been sug-
gested by the meaning of the word which may denote either
the process of beating or hammering out, or simply a down-
right blow. In the latter case Prokroustes would simply be
Sinis or Periphetes under another name ; in the former, the
story of a bed to which he fitted the limbs of his victims by
stretching them or cutting them off might not unnaturally
spring up.
Theseus now enters the dawn city with a long flowing Theseus at
robe, and with his golden hair tied gracefully behind his
head; and his soft beauty excites the mockery of some
workmen, who pause in their work of building to jest upon
the maiden who is unseemly enough to walk about alone.
It is the story of the young Dionysos or Achilleus in woman's
1 Preller has no doubt on this head, ischen Felsen, so hiess dieser Pass,
1 Es seheint wohl dass dieser Skeiron. . . leicht in die See hinunterstiessen, wo die
ein Bild fur die heftigen Sturme ist, Klippen seine G-lieder zerschellten.'
welche den Wanderer von den Skeiron- Gr. Myth. ii. 290.
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