Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



the comparative infrequency of broad vowels, 

 the softening of consonants and vowels with /, 

 and the constant use of the soft sh. Geo- 

 graphically, too, the idea that to Greeks a Slav 

 tongue was the nearest and commonest of bar- 

 barian languages has everything to recommend 

 it. 



Notwithstanding the horror with which the 

 crime of Tereus was regarded by antiquity he 

 was worshipped after death, another proof that 

 we have in him a god whose story is myth 

 become history. Pausanias mentions his tomb 

 in his description of Attika. According to 

 the Megarians he was a king of the district of 

 Pagai in their land. It will be remembered 

 that to punish him his wife slew their son 

 Itys and served him at a banquet ; but Tereus 

 was not able to avenge the crime on the 

 vengeful woman he had wronged. He died 

 In Megara by his own hand, reports Pausa- 

 nias, and as soon as he was dead they built 

 a cairn over his grave and worshipped him 



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