MYTHOLOGY* N. 



123 



G reek mythology, and so that of every other nation, 

 is a mass of various elements, though kindred in 

 their origin, yet not forming a system. The sources 

 of mythology are the notions which sprung up among 

 the people, the dogmas of the priests, and the repre- 

 sentations of those who treated of mythological sub- 

 jects, without having been initiated into the religious 

 mysteries. These three chief sources of mythology 

 give rise to three chief periods, each requiring a 

 peculiar treatment. The early national mythology 

 of the Greeks is to be explained etymologico-alle- 

 gorically ; the doctrine of the priests, in an historico- 

 dogmatical way ; and the exoteric theory of the poets 

 and philosophers, in a critical way. It belongs to a 

 history of mythology to show how the cyclus of 

 mythuses was formed by poets ; how it was explained 

 by tlie ancient writers on cosmogony and theogony; 

 how it was used arbitrarily by the lyrical and tragic 

 poets; and how it stands in close connexion with 

 ancient history. Many treatises exist, affording rich 

 materials for such a work. The period of the inde- 

 pendent development of mythological fables was 

 followed by that of the Alexandrian collectors of 

 mythuses ; and these were succeeded by sophists and 

 rhetoricians, who tried, with little success, to solve 

 the riddles of mythology. The polemic zeal of the 

 fathers of the church was of greater service, and to 

 their computations we owe the preservation of in- 

 teresting mythuses. Though the labours of some 

 scholars, previous to the time of Heyne, must be 

 acknowledged to have thrown light on this subject, 

 yet he deserves the honour of having first attempted, 



on just principles, the investigation of the meaning 

 of the various traditions. Since Heyne and Voss, 

 the native land of the different mythuses has been 

 carefully investigated, and lias been found in the 

 East, where, of course, new obstacles arose ; and 

 the attempts of Kaune, Wagner, Gorres, Dornedden, 

 Hug, Sickler, to ascertain the native soil of the 

 mythological traditions, sometimes betray a want of 

 accuracy and circumspection. Thus, by degrees, 

 that theory was developed which Creuzer, in his 

 Symbolics and Mythology, strives to establish, and 

 which, through the great erudition and acuteness 

 of the author, has found many adherents, viz. " that 

 mythology is a great panorama of religious ideas and 

 conceptions, mostly originating in the East, and con- 

 ceived and developed in the Oriental fashion, from 

 which, therefore, the symbolic, magic, and allegoric 

 cannot be excluded, any more than from the most 

 ancient Greek poetry." Many maintain that the 

 whole Greek mythology leads strongly to the sup- 

 position of the pre-existence of pure monotheism. 

 Hermann, as we have said, opposed this view, and 

 John H. Voss and Lobek warmly attacked it ; but 

 Gorres, Von Hammer, Munter, Uwaroff, and Ritter 

 have attempted to give new reasons for its support. 

 For information respecting the mythology of India, 

 and of the north of Europe, see Indian Mythology, 

 and Northern Mythology. 



MYTHOLOGY, EGYPTIAN. See Hieroglyphics. 

 MYTHOLOGY, NORTHERN. See Northern 

 Mythology. 



MYTILENE, or MITYLENE. See Lesbos. 



N 



N ; the fourteenth letter and eleventh consonant 

 of the English alphabet ; an articulation formed by 

 placing the point of the tongue against the root of 

 the upper teeth, and forcing out the breath. It is a 

 liquid or semi- vowel, because part of its articulation 

 may be continued for any length of time. It is a 

 nasal letter, the articulation being accompanied by a 

 sound through the nose, caused by the position of the 

 tongue, which forces part of the air in the expiration 

 through that organ. It is a lingual, because pro- 

 duced chiefly by the above-mentioned position of the 

 tongue, which, as the reader will see from the article 

 L, is nearly the same in the pronunciation of both 

 these letters ; in consequence of which persons, who, 

 from neglect, or natural defect, are unable to inflect 

 the tongue, so as to pronounce /, often substitute an 

 n instead of it. N has always something of a nasal 

 sound, and in many languages is the strongest nasal 

 sound ; for instance, before the palatic sounds g and 

 k, as in finger, tinker, ring; in French and Portu- 

 guese, after a vowel in the same syllable, as on, un, 

 &c. For the etymologist n is important, on account 

 of its ready union with other letters, and its frequent 

 omission or insertion between other letters. The 

 same word in the same language often has the n, in 

 some of its modifications, before the palatic sounds g 

 and k, and in others omits it. Thus the original 

 frago, (ago, pago, became in later Latin frango, 

 tango, pango, yet fregi, fraclum, tetigi, tactum, 

 pepigi, pactum, &c., were retained. Thus also fin- 

 gereanAfigura,fictus,figmentum; stringers, strictus. 

 From the Latin lynx, the German forms luchs (the 



Danes loe, the Swedes lo); for the German danken (to 

 thank) and the Swedish danka, the Icelandic has 

 tacka: for the Greek ^eya^the Romans had magnus. 

 In the same way the Latin ending cus passes over 

 into gnus, as benignus, malignus, abiegnus, &c. It 

 often associates also with the labials d and t, while 

 other idioms omit it in the corresponding words; thus 

 in Latin, scindo, scidi ; findere, fidi. In German, the 

 n before dis extremely frequent, thus jugend (youth); 

 in Low Saxon, jogd only; tugend (virtue), for the 

 ancient taugde; nackend (naked) for the old nacket; 

 and in lebendig, wesentlich, ordentlich, and a large 

 number of other words. On the other hand, the 

 Icelandic has for mantel (mantle) mattul, for hand 

 (Swedish handa) only hatt; for land, only lad, &c. 

 From insula also comes the Italian isola. The diffi- 

 culty of passing quickly from the pronunciation of n 

 to that of m, leads, in many languages, to a change 

 of n before m into an m; thus the Latin con, in, the 

 Greek t> and auv, the German en, are changed into com, 

 im, &c., as committere, impar, the German empor, 

 empfangen, empfinden, &c. Some languages put an 

 aspirate before n, which in this case was probably 

 pronounced with a strong breathing through the 

 nose. Thus we find tliat for the German nacken 

 (neck) the Anglo-Saxons had hnecca ; for neigen, 

 hnigan; for napf, hnaeppe. Palatic sounds were 

 put before the n to strengthen it : thus the Germans 

 made the Latin nodus, knoten, &c.: even the sibilant 

 sound * was used to strengthen it, as the German 

 schnee for neu (still used by hunters), from nix, &c. 

 By the Germans in modern Latin, N N. is used to 



