H.—ANTHROPOLOGY 159 
‘Hector, Paris, these are all familiar household words throughout later 
“history. They are among the best-known names of the world. But 
“how suddenly that full tradition lapses into silence! The Epic Saga 
“can tell us about the deaths of Hector, of Paris, of Priam ; in its later 
* forms it can give us all the details of the last destruction of Troy. Then 
“no more ; except a few dim hints, for instance about the descendants of 
* Eneas. 
“It is more strange in the case of Mycenz and Sparta. Agamemnon 
“ goes home in the full blaze of legend ; he is murdered by Egisthus and 
* Clytemnestra, and avenged by his son Orestes ; so far we have witnesses 
“by the score. But then? What happened to Mycenz after the death 
‘ of AXgisthus ? No one seems to know. There seems to be no Mycenz 
“any more. What happened to Sparta after Menelaus and Helen had 
“taken their departure to the islands of the blest ? There is no record, 
‘no memory. 
“. . . It is the same wherever we turn our eyes in the vast field of Greek 
‘legend. The “ heroes ” who fought at Thebes and Troy are known ; 
“their sons are just known by name or perhaps a little more ; Diomedes, 
* Aias, Odysseus, Calchas, Nestor, how fully the tradition describes their 
“doings, and how silent it becomes after their deaths ! ’ 19 
We find the same phenomenon in many parts of the world, and the 
explanation is, in my view, a simple one. When the drama is over, the 
curtain goes down. 
(10) ‘The fact has been noted by Prof. Chadwick that ‘ the religion 
‘of the Heroic Ages is predominantly the worship of gods, while in his- 
“toric Greece and Scandinavia, etc., forms of chthonic worship are more 
“prominent, and survive for centuries.’ 2° Supernatural beings, to be 
brought on to the stage, must of course be represented in human or 
animal form, 
(11) Among the commonest of the miraculous events which figure so 
largely in traditional narrative is shape-changing. In the Vélsunga 
Saga Freya puts on the gear of a crow and flies off. Sigmund puts on 
a wolf-skin and becomes a wolf. These feats are easy on the stage, but 
difficult in real life. Hartland notes that ‘ the dress (which transforms 
“the heroine into a swan, etc.) when cast aside seems simply an article of 
“human clothing, often nothing but a girdle, veil or apron ; and it is only 
“when donned by the enchanted lady, or elf, that itis found to be . . . a 
“complete plumage.’ #4 The stage properties of the ritual drama must 
often have been few and simple. 
(12) There are few traditional narratives which do not include a king 
and queen. Prof. Pearson explained this by supposing that Europe was 
once divided into a vast number of tiny kingdoms, but the real reason 
is that the king and queen are the centre of all ritual, and must therefore 
be represented in all ritual drama. 
(13) A point which has been noticed by various writers is that the 
battle in tradition is always a series of single combats. Prof. Chadwick 
explains this ®? by saying that the possession of armour constituted an 
19 Op. cit., pp. 52-55. 20 Op. cit., p. 424. 
21 Op. cit., p. 301. 22 Op. cit., P. 339. 
