NATURE 



29 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1915. 



SOLAR MYTHS. 



Sun Lore of All Ages. A Collection of Myths and 

 Legends Concerning the Sun and Its JVorship. 

 By W. T. Olcott. Pp. xiii + 346. (New York 

 and London : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1914.) 

 Price 10s. 6d. net. 



IN the preface it is stated that the author, during 

 the compilation of a volume on " Star Lore 

 of All Ages," found a wealth of interesting 

 material pertaining to the mythology and folk-lore 

 of the sun which seemed worth putting together 

 in a separate volume, including the legends, tradi- 

 tions and superstitions whic"h all ages and nations 

 have woven about the sun. 



The author seems to have gathered his materials 

 from a number of works on mythology and folk- 

 lore, from which he frequently gives verbatim 

 extracts. Outside this subject he does not appear 

 to have made any special study of the general 

 rise and progress of civilisation, as he sometimes 

 makes curious mistakes. For instance, he tells us 

 (p. 137) that Anaxagoras was put to death on 

 account of his scientific opinions. But a worse 

 fault is that no attempt is made to systematise the 

 immense amount of legends and stories he has 

 collected. The reader is repeatedly carried from 

 India to North America, thence to Finland and viA 

 Greece to Scandinavia and back again. And the 

 author has not avoided the snare in which so 

 many students of folk-lore have been caught, by 

 making simply every myth, fable or tale he has 

 met with into a solar myth, from Jack-the-Giant- 

 Killer to Jonah, Cain, the Homeric poems, and 

 so ad infinitum. Needless to say, this process 

 often involves very far-fetched explanations. Thus 

 the Royal Arms of England, "supported by the 

 solar lion and the lunar unicorn," are made to 

 express solar worship. We do not quite know 

 what to make of the following curious statement 

 (p. 173):— 



" The resemblance between the lives of the Sun- 

 God Phoebus Apollo and Jesus Christ, the central 

 figure and Exemplar of the Christian religion, is 

 striking. The circumstances of their birth were 

 in many respects similar, in that they were born 

 in comparative obscurity. . . . For a while 

 Phoebus Apollo hid his greatness in a beggar's 

 garb. . . . This mode of existence was in every 

 way similar to the life of Christ. . . , Although 

 the Sun-God's death at nightfall is ignominious, 

 akin in this respect to the crucifixion, still its pre- 

 dominant feature is one of glory, and the reappear- 

 ance of the triumphant sun after death is in every 

 NO. 2393, VOL. 96] 



way typical of the resurrection, thus portraying in 

 a startling manner the completeness of the analogy 

 between the lives of Christ and Apollo." 



Has the author ever heard of Dupuis and his 

 "Origine de tous les cultes"? Probably not, as 

 he only quotes books written in the English lan- 

 guage. But Dupuis in his voluminous work 

 proved to his own satisfaction that the founder of 

 the Christian religion had never existed : he was 

 only a solar myth, identical with Bacchus, Osiris, 

 and Hercules. It is safer to be cautious in draw- 

 ing parallels between fact and fiction and in look- 

 ing everywhere for solar myths. But all the 

 same, even a critical reader will find much to 

 interest him in the accounts of sun-worship and 

 sun-myths given in this volume, not least in the 

 numerous extracts from the publications of the 

 United States Bureau of Ethnology. The book is 

 beautifully illustrated with thirty plates taken from 

 paintings or giving views of sun temples and 

 worship. 



POCKET ENCYCLOPEDIAS 

 OF PETROLEUM AND CHEMISTRY. 



(i) Petroleum Technologist's Pocket-Book. By 

 Sir Boverton Redwood, Bart., and Arthur W. 

 Eastlake. Pp. xxiv + 454. (London : Charles 

 Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1915.) Price 85. 6d. 

 net. 



(2) The Chemists' Year-Book, 1915. Edited by 

 F. W. Atack. Two vols. Vol. i., pp. 354. 

 Vol. ii., pp. 355-914. (London and Man- 

 chester: Sherratt and Hughes, 1915.) Price 

 los. 6d. net. 



(i)nr^HE names of Sir Boverton Redwood and 

 J. Mr. Arthur W. Eastlake on the title- 

 page of the " Petroleum Technologist's Pocket- 

 Book " would alone be an ample guarantee that 

 thoroughness of treatment and completeness of 

 content would be found in its pages, and the 

 work fully bears out the expectation arrived at. 

 It is indeed a miniature edition of Sir Boverton 

 Redwood's monumental work on petroleum, and 

 in its 454 pages of pocket-book size contains more 

 useful information, tables, and data referring to 

 every branch of the mineral oil industry than it 

 would be thought possible could be got into a 

 portable form. 



Starting with the origin and occurrence of 

 petroleum in the earth's crust and its geographical 

 distribution, prospecting for petroleum is next 

 dealt with, and much useful information is given 

 as to licences, mining leases, and regulations in 

 various parts of the world. 



C 



