342 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



thought remarkable that heroes of Greek mythology, 

 as Perseus and Orion, should be placed by Homer, or 

 even by Aratus, in spheres which are undoubtedly of 

 Eastern origin. 



ISTow, it may be remarked, first, of Homer, that many 

 acute critics consider the whole story of the " Iliad " to 

 be, in reality, merely an adaptation of an Eastren nar- 

 rative to Greek scenes and names. It is pointed out 

 that, whereas the Catalogue in Book II. reckons up- 

 ward of 100,000 men, only 10,000 fought at Marathon ; 

 and, whereas there are counted no less than 1,200 ships 

 in the Catalogue, there were but 271 at Artemisium, 

 and at Salamis but 378. However this may be, we 

 have the distinct evidence of Herodotus that the Greek 

 mythology was derived originally from foreign sources. 

 He says, " All the names of the gods in Greece were 

 brought from Egypt," an opinion in which Diodorus 

 and other eminent authorities concur. But it is the 

 opinion of acute modern critics that we must go 

 beyond Egyptian to Assyrian, or Indian, perhaps even 

 to Hebrew sources, for the origin of Greek mythology. 

 Bryant traces nearly all the Greek myths to traditions 

 of the dispersion of the Cuthites or Cuseans. And 

 Layard has ascribed to Niebuhr the following signifi- 

 cant remarks : " There is a want in Grecian art which 

 neither I, nor any man now alive, can supply. There 

 is not enough in Egypt to account for the peculiar art 

 and the peculiar mythology which we find in Greece. 



