MYTHOLOGY. 



MYTHOLOGY. 



HI 



d Ammon, aocord- 

 from Thebe*. in 

 established, were 

 juried away from 

 r to Dodona and 



ding to which the two bUck pigeon, which 



HOT*, and commanded that the oracle* should be erti 



in reality two Egyptian ptM*te>Ma, who had been oarri 



Egypt by the PhirnicUns, and brought raepectirely to 



the Libyan deeert Livy also attempt*, in a somewhat si 



to give an birtorical explanation of the myth respecting the Buckling 



of Romultu and Kemus by a she-wolf ii.. 4>. 



The author of the ' Book of Wisdom' imagine! that the heathen 

 deities were originally human beings, and account* for their becoming 

 object* of religion* adoration in the following manner : " For a father 

 afflicted with untimely mourning, when he had made an image of hi* 

 child won taken away, now knoweth him a* a god, which wa* then a 

 dead man, and delivered to those that were under him ceremonies and 

 acrihcra. Whom man could not know in presence, because they 

 dwelt far off, they took the counterfeit of his visage from far, and 

 made an express image of a king, whom they honoured, to the end 

 that by this their forwardness they might natter him that was absent, 

 a* if he were present" (xir., 16, 17). 



Among the Greeks this theory was adopted by Ephorus, and was 

 carried to a great length by Kuhemerus, in his ' Sacred History' (itpb 

 Arajfutfi), fragment* of which have been preserved by Diodorus 

 Siculus and Eiwebiu*. Some of the Christian fathers also adopted 

 this view of mythology, and employed it with considerable success in 

 their controversies with the supporters of the Pagan religion. Among 

 the modems this theory has been maintained by Earner, in his 

 'Mythology and Fable* explained by History.' 



3. The Allegorical theory, according to which all the myths of the 

 ancient* were allegorical and symbolical, and contained some moral, 

 religious, or . philosophical tnith, which was originally represented 

 under the form of an allegory, but became, in process of time, to be 

 understood literally. This view of mythology was first introduced 

 into Greece by the Sophists, and an example of it is given by Protago- 

 ras in his explanation of the myth of Prometheus. (Plato, Protayor.) 

 In later times this view of mythology was adopted by the New 

 Platonist* in their controversies with the Christians ; and their object 

 was to show that the ancient mythology, under the garb of allegory, 

 taught all the important duties and doctrines of morality and religion. 

 Thus the view of mythology given by Homer and Hesiod, which was 

 considered by Plato, in his dialogues on the Republic, as mischievous 

 and dangerous, because it attributed human passions and feelings to 

 the gods, occasioned no difficulty with the later Platonists. There is a 

 work of Proclus, of which the curious in such matters may find a 

 translation in the first volume of Taylor's translation of Plato, written 

 for the express purpose of proving, in opposition to Plato, that the 

 mythology of Homer and Hesiod contained nothing contrary to sound 

 principles of morality and religion, since the myths of these poet* ought 

 to be understood allegorically. 



This method of interpreting the ancient mythology has found much 

 favour among modern writers. It ban been adopted by Bacon, in his 

 ' Wiadom of the Ancient* ;' and has been adopted and carried out to a 

 great extent by Creuzer, in his ' Symbolik und Mythologie der alten 

 Vulker, oesonders der Griechen,' as well as by Hermann and other 

 recent writer*. 



4. Tke Phytical Theory, according to which the elements, air, fire, 

 water, Ac., were originally the object* of religious adoration, and the 

 principal deitie* were personifications of the powers of nature. Thus 

 the ancient mythology of the Hindus, as developed in the Veda*, 

 personifies the element* and the planet*, and differs essentially from 

 the hero worship of later tunes. The transition from a personification 

 of the element* to the notion of a supernatural being presiding over 

 and governing the different object* of nature was easy and natural ; 

 and thus we find in the Greek and Italian mythology that the deities 

 presiding over the sun, the moon, the sea:, Ac., and not the objects 

 themselves, are the subject* of religious adoration. The Greeks, 

 whose imagination wag lively, peopled all nature with invisible beings, 



and supposed that every object in nature, from the ion and sea to the 

 smallest fountain and rivulet, was under the care of some particular 

 divinity. Wordsworth, in the fourth book of his 'Excursion,' has 

 beautifully developed this view of Grecian mythology. 



Almost all the theories that have been brought forward, either in 

 ancient or modern times, to account for the origin of mythology, may 

 be claused under one of these four divisions ; but though all . 

 are true to a certain extent, not one of them taken by itself is sui 

 to account for all the mythological traditions of a nation. But among 

 recent authorities a system has been in a great measure developed 

 which, while borrowing something from each of the systems above 

 noticed, goes deeper than any. It is that which has received the name 

 of Comparative Mythology, and which is correlative with and indeed 

 an integral portion of comparative philology. Like that, finding a 

 close similarity between the myths of widely -dispersed civilised races, 

 it traces the original forms back to an Asiatic, or, as it is termed, 

 Arian source ; from whence the Sanskrit on the one hand, and on the 

 other the Greek, Italian, Teutonic, and Slavonic languages and 

 traditions, have alike been derived : the myths, like the dialect*, 

 varying more and more as they advanced farther from their parent 

 home, and taking in every instance their actual and characteristic 

 shape and colour from tLeir respective nationalities. The virtual 

 identity or common origin of Greek, Sanskrit, and Teutonic mythology, 

 for instance, has been shown by Grimm and others. The ; 

 themselves are in this system regarded as having arisen primarily 

 from either the simple poetical conception and expression of natural 

 phenomena, from animal symbolism, or from the aggregation of 

 subsequent events and circumstances about historical facts, or the 

 deeds of national heroes these events being often borrowed from 

 neighbouring tribes or people, as well as those of the nation \\ith 

 which the particular tradition or hero may be identified. But myth*, 

 to whatever class they belong, were in fact in constant course of 

 growth and embellishment; and as the additions were made without 

 any very nice regard to probability or aptitude, and merely with 

 a view to this aggrandisement of the national deity or hero, they 

 almost inevitably came in course of time to present a congeries of 

 incongruities, contradictions, and absurdities. The separation of theae 

 from the primal myth, and their localisation, are among the essential 

 points to be sought after in order to arrive at the original in 

 and purpose of the myth itself, as well as the country in which it 

 originated. 



The preceding observations are only intended to give a general view 

 of mythology, and of the principal systems which have been proposed 

 in ancient and modern times to account for its origin. The particular 

 mythology of any nation must be acquired by aid of the articles in 

 other parts of this work, such as BRAHMA, Visusu, FAIRIES, I 

 GENII, ZEUS, HERA, APOLLO, ARES, &c., and more particularly by tho 

 help of such works of reference as are enumerated below. 



(Scriptoret Serum Mythicarwn, edited by Bode; Bochart's Pkaleg 

 and Canaan / Earner's Mythology and Pablet explained by Ilatory; 

 Bryant's Analyiu of Antient Mythology ; Sir W. Jones, On the (iodt of 

 Greece, Italy, and India ; Rhode, Ueber relii/iote Bilduny, Mythologie, 

 und Phitoiophie der Hindui; K. 0. Muller, Prolegomena zu finer wiseen- 

 ichaftlichen Mythologie, of which there is an excellent translation by 

 Mr. J. Leitch, Introduction to a Scientijic Sytttm of Mythology; Bottiger, 

 Idee* zur Kuaut Mythologie ; Hermann, Lthrliuch der ttricchucken Anti- 

 quitdten ; Gerhard, ftriechuche Mythologie; Lajard, Recherche* tur le 

 OtUte public et let Myttera de Mil/n-a en Orient et en Occident; 

 Buttmann, Mythologia, oder AHian<llitugcti und Aufialze itber die 

 Sagen der Griechen, Homer, und Hcbracr ; Lobcck, A ylauphamtu, lite 

 de Theologite myttica Qracorum catuu ; Loner, Syttem der griechitcken 

 Mythologie ; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie ; Preller, (iriechuchc Mytho- 

 logie; Nitzsch, die Sagenpoetie der Grief hen kritttch dargotellt ; and 

 Max Muller, Kaay on- Comparative Mi/l/mli*/;/, in Oxford Ettays, 1856. 

 The English reader may refer to Keightley's Mythology of Ancient 

 (/recce and Italy ; and Qrote's and TliirlwaU's llieturiet of Greece.) 



