ee. 
205 
We are reduced then to the assumption that there was once a 
time when the elephant was found in North Africa. How this 
tallies with what must have been the ancient condition of the 
country, we shall presently see. 
I will now direct attention to a totally different subject—a 
puzzle in Mythology. There was a Greek goddess, Athene or 
Pallas Athene, probably meaning the Virgin Athene, Pallas being 
a title of respect. She was, like Minerva among the Romans, the 
goddess of wisdom. All arts and science, especially those con- 
nected with law, order, and government—all that conduced to the 
welfare of man—all skill in what was held to be noble, were 
attributed to her. As skill in war was, and unfortunately is still, 
of vital importance to man, though not loving war for its own sake, 
she was still looked upon as the author of all that in war was 
prudent, and likely to be followed with favourable results, and so 
she was represented as a Virgin Armed. To pourtray her exact 
character, and reconcile all its peculiarities, would occupy too 
much of our time. We may, however, sum up all in one word. 
She was regarded by the Greeks as the author of what we call 
civilization, and if we can discover her origin, we shall know to 
what source the Greeks attributed their earliest civilization. 
According to a well-known story given us by Hesiod, the 
oldest author who has treated of these matters, Metis, or Thought, 
was the first wife of Zeus, or the Bright one, the Greek god. When 
Metis was pregnant with Athene, Zeus swallowed her up, and he 
himself gave birth to Athene, who sprang from his head. A myth, 
_ which has the obvious meaning, that civilization sprang from God, 
or as St. James puts it, “Every good gift, and every perfect gift is 
from above, and cometh down from the Father of Light.” 
But where did Zeus, or the Father of Light, according to 
Greek notions, produce civilisation? The oldest epithets of 
Athene were Trito, Tritonis, Tritogenia, or Tritoginis. Such 
is she called by Hesiod at her birth, that is the one born at, 
or from, or of Triton. Various are the explanations of this term, 
which was quite as unintelligible to ancient authors as to ourselves. 
That she was born at a place called Triton, was the usual 
