ANTHROPOMORPHIC INTERPRETATIONS. 53 



spicuous natural agents, lias become settled, there will in 

 due course arise interpretations of the actions of these 

 agents in anthropomorphic terms. Suppose, for instance, 

 that Endymion and Selene, metaphorically named, the 

 one after the setting sun, the other after the moon, have 

 had their human individualities merged in those of the 

 sun and moon, through misinterpretation of metaphors ; 

 what will happen ? The legend of their loves having to 

 be reconciled with their celestial appearances and motions, 

 these will be spoken of as results of feeling and will ; so 

 that when the sun is going down in the west, while the 

 moon in mid-heaven is following him, the fact will be ex 

 pressed by saying : &quot; Selene loves and watches Endym 

 ion.&quot; Thus we obtain a consistent explanation of the 

 myth without distorting it ; and without assuming that 

 it contains gratuitous fictions. We are enabled to accept 

 the biographical part of it, if not as literal fact, still as 

 having had fact for its root. &quot;VVe are helped to see how, 

 by an inevitable misinterpretation, there grew out of a 

 more or less true tradition, this strange identification of 

 its personages, with objects and powers totally non-human 

 in their aspects. And then we are shown how, from the 

 attempt to reconcile in thought these contradictory ele 

 ments of the myth, there arose the habit of ascribing the 

 actions of these non-human things to human motives. 



One further verification may be drawn from facts 

 which are obstacles to the converse hypothesis. These 

 objects and powers, celestial and terrestrial, which force 

 themselves most on men s attention, have some of them 

 several proper names, identified with those of different 

 individuals, born at different places, and having different 

 sets of adventures. Thus we have the sun variously 

 known as Apollo, Endymion, Helios, Tithonos, etc. per 

 sonages having irreconcilable genealogies. Such anoma- 



