Celtic Mythology and Religion

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CELTIC MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION.
untold in her pursuit of him, being finally a slave
in the household of Venus, who treats her very cruelly.
But, of course, she recovers her lost lover at long
last. And, again, in India, in the old religious
books of the Brahmins, is a somewhat similar tale—
the story of Urvasi and Pururavas, the main features
of which are the same as the Gaelic and Greek tales
already given. To the English reader, the wellknown
tale of " Beauty and the Beast " will at
once occur as an exact parallel to all these. And,
if we take the myths where the heroine is the loathly
monster, we shall find an equally wide distribution.
We have the Hindu tale, where the Princess is disguised
as a withered old woman ; the Loathly
Lady of Teutonic Mythology ; and the Celtic story
of Diarmad's love for
the daughter of the king of
the Land under the Waves, who appears first
as a
hideous monster, and becomes, on approaching
Diarmad, the most beautiful woman ever seen.
Thus, then, we have traced the same myth among
nations so widely apart as the Celts and Hindus,
while, intermediate between these, we found it among
the Greeks and Teutons. And some myths are
even more widely distributed than that ;
the tale of
the imprisoned maiden and the hero who rescues
her from the dragon or monster appears among all
the nations of Europe as well as among many of the
nations of Asia. Hence, from India in the East,
to Ireland in the West, we may find a great mass of
mythical tales common to the various nations.