The-mythology-of-ancient-greece-and-italy-thomas-keightley

INTRODUCTION. 15
Bystem, and were the product of other minds than those which
afterwards set them in connexion, not unfrequently without
fully understanding them8.
3. We should pay particular attention to the genealogies
which we meet with in mythology, as they frequently form
the key to the meaning of a mythe, or even of a whole cycle b.
Great caution however should be used in the application of
this rule, or it may lead us into error and absurdity if carried
beyond its legitimate bounds.
4. The same or even greater caution is required in the ap
plication of etymology to this subjecte. If applied judiciously
it will at times give most valuable results ; if under no guid
ance but that of caprice and fancy, it will become the parent
of all sorts of monsters and lusus natures.
5. Finally, though we should never pronounce a mythe
which we have not examined to be devoid of signification, we
should not too confidently assert that every mythe must have
an important meaning, for certainly some have been but the
creation of capricious fancy d. On these occasions it would
be well to bear in mind the following words of Johnson :
" The original of ancient customs," says he, " is commonly
unknown, for the practice often continues after the cause has
ceased ; and concerning superstitious ceremonies, it is vain to
conjecture, for what reason did not dictate reason cannot ex
plaine." We use the words bear in mind, for if adopted as a
principle it will only serve to damp ardour and check inquiry.
The rule should be,—this mythe most probably has a mean
ing, but it is possible it may not have one.
* Buttmann,Mytholog.i.l55.157. MUller, Proleg. 218, 219. Orchomenos, 142.
Hermann, Ueber das Wesen, &c. 71. 125. 132.
b Volcker, Myth. der Jap. patsim. MUller, Proleg. 274, seq.
e MUller, Proleg. 232.
d Volcker, however, asserts positively that there is no mythe without a meaning.
Myth. dcr Jap. 50. This may be true, but the meaning is often a very trifling one.
e Kasselas, chap. 48. See Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, i. 480. Lobeck, Aglaoph.
672 seq. Buttmann, Mytholog. ii. 294, 295. Welcker, Tril. 249.