MYTHOLOGY 



4051 



MYTHOLOGY 



Meanwhile at home Pandora sat dismayed. 

 She had slammed down the lid of the box, but 

 too late to shut within it any of the buzzing 

 throng. At length she heard a tiny tapping on 

 the lid, and a tiny voice that said "Let me out ! 

 "Let me out !" 



"' she cried. "If there Is one of you in 

 there, you shall stay." 



But still the tapping and the pleading kept up, 

 and finally Pandora, whose curiosity was not all 

 dead, opened the lid ever so little and peeped in. 

 And there was the most beautiful creature with 



white wings, which flew merrily out into the light. 

 "I am Hope, I am Hope," it sang, and it seemed 

 to Pandora that the world grew brighter with its 

 song. Away it flew to the quarreling Epimetheus 

 and his friends, and at its approach the buzzing 

 troubles and wickednesses took their flight, and 

 peace came again. Not the same peace the 

 peace of innocence had gone forever ; but while 

 there was Hope in the world, those men who for 

 the first time had tasted sorrow and anger 

 realized that no troubles would be too bad to be 

 borne. 



Aesthetic Myths 



The ancients had no novels, no short stories 

 such as make up so large a proportion of the 

 reading matter of to-day, but they did have 

 their myths which must have answered just the 

 same purpose. These aesthetic myths seem to 

 have had no teaching purpose, either moral or 

 intellectual, save as any good story teaches its 

 own lesson. The first that follows here is one 

 which the Xorse children must have listened to 

 with delight but with shudders; while the sec- 

 ond was probably a favorite with the young 

 people in the sunny land of Greece. 



The FenrlB Wolf 



Nothing proved more clearly that Loki was not 

 fit for the company of the gods than the fact that 

 he wandered off to the home of the giants and 

 there married the fiercest giantess of all, Anger- 

 bode. Naturally enough, the children she bore 

 him were not sweet and beautiful, but surely 

 even from her Loki could not have expected 

 such offspring. First of all there was the gloomy 

 daughter Hela, a very strange person to look 

 for she was half blue and half white, and 

 leep eyes there was a look of such uncon- 

 querable sadness that no one who looked upon 



r smiled again. But the other two chil- 

 dren were much, much worse. One was a great 

 slimy serpent, with vicious poison fangs, the 

 other a huge wolf with glaring eyes and teeth as 

 harp as swords. Loki himself was not afraid of 

 his children, but the other gods looked down from 

 Asgard in dismay, for the monsters grew as much 



our as any ordinary creature would grow 

 In a year. 



thing must be done," pondered Odin, king 



gods, "for soon we shall not be safe on 

 our thrones from the hatred I see burning in their 



ry.-s " 



So he sent Thor to bring them to Asgard before 

 they became too large and strong for even this 

 moet powerful of the gods to manage, and all the 

 gods gathered In council discussing their fate. 

 First Odin turned to I 



"You are not vicious," he said, "but the death 



;r eyes makes It unsafe to leave you on 



i you shall be sent to reign 



Me underworld the vast kingdom of the 



>ut a word Hela turned and left the coun- 



' There was no happiness In the world. 



lie world of the dead of 



those who had met inglorious death in their beds 

 instead of dying bravely on the battlefield could 

 add nothing to her sadness. 



Then Odin turned to the serpent, and though it 

 could understand very well the language of the 

 gods he said no word to it, but seized it in hi.; 

 arms and threw It over the wall that encircled 

 Asgard. At length to the ears of the listening 

 gods there came a great splash, which meant that 

 the serpent had fallen Into the sea. There it 

 grew and grew to such an enormous size that it 

 stretched about the whole earth, holding its tail 

 in its mouth. 



But there still remained the Fenris wolf, the 

 most troublesome of the three. 



"Let us kill him," whispered one on Odin's 

 right hand. 



"Not so," replied Odin, "for we have one and all 

 sworn that no blood shall be spilled in the beau- 

 tiful city of the gods. Let us see whether l.\ 

 kindness we cannot tame him." 



So the wolf was turned loose to prowl about 

 the streets of Asgard, and the night was oftm 

 made hideous by his howls. As he grew rapidly 

 larger he grew fiercer, also, and only the war god 

 Tyr, the bravest of all the gods, dared go near 

 enough to him to feed him. 



"This cannot go on," said Odin one day in coun- 

 cil. "Son Thor, can you not make In your smithy 

 a chain heavy enough to bind him?" 



"I shall make a chain which I myself cannot 

 break," said Thor, "and I am very strong" 

 Away he hurried to his smithy, and before long 

 they heard his fire roaring, and his hammer 

 clanging on his anvil. The next morning he 

 showed his chain proudly, and told of his crafty 

 plan for binding the wolf. 



"Come, Fenris," he called, "let us play n game. 

 This chain is so strong that not all of us .<n 

 break it, but If you will allow us to bind you 

 with it you can prove how much stronger you are 

 than the gods." 



Growling and glaring, the wolf drew near and 

 1- t them bind him. and very tight they drew the 

 chain. But without the least effort the wolf rose, 

 shook himself, and threw off the broken, nank- 

 in* chain. The gods were dismayed, all save 

 Thor, who vowed that he would make a chain that 

 could not be br< 



In the morning, after the K od 

 night to the beats of his hatmn< t. ho appeared 

 among them with a ni:iln whirh he declared was 

 the strongest that could possibly be forged. Again 

 proposed the same test to the wolf, and again 

 he submitted, knowing his own strength too well 



