WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO GREEK MYTHOLOGY. 53 



inclined to recognise the lower region of the atmosphere, of which Zeus repre- 

 sented the aldrjp, or upper region. But a little consideration has convinced most 

 modern interpreters that this idea was a mistake. When by the completion of 

 the anthropomorphic process, the original ovpavos had become " Father Jove," 

 it was most natural that his elemental counterpart Trj, Mother Earth, should 

 become the matron Hera ; and with this supposition, the well-known description 

 of the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera (II. xiv. 345), together with the 

 cow-symbolism belonging to the Bo<£m?, and her Argive priestess Io, notably 

 harmonise. It is no objection to this view, that Ceres or Demeter is also the 

 anthropomorphised earth ; for " the many names of one shape " (ttoWwv 

 ovofMOLTcov fxop(f>7) fjiia), characteristic of the oldest elemental theology, could easily, 

 and did often crystallise into two or more shapes of one power. We shall, 

 therefore, say with no rash confidence, that the Hellenic Hera means the earth ; 

 and we readily allow the etymological conjectures connected with her name 

 to remain conjectures. 



XXXVIII. On Athena, Max Muller says, " The Sanscrit root Ah, which 

 in Greek would regularly appear as Ach, might likewise then have assumed 

 the form of Ath ; and the termination Ene, is Sanscrit Ana " (" Science of 

 Language," vol. ii. p. 503) ; and again, " How Athena being the Dawn, should 

 have become the goddess of wisdom, we can best learn from the Vedas. In 

 Sanscrit, Budh means to wake and to know " (Do. p. 504). 



But this is manifestly following out a favourite idea upon theories of the 

 most flimsy texture. If any etymology is to be sought for the syllable A0, the 

 native root al6 which signifies to glow, corresponding as it does with the familiar 

 epithet of yXauKwis, or " flashing-eyed " (which I think Welcker suggests), is 

 preferable to that suggested by the distinguished Sanscrit scholar. But here, 

 as in other slippery cases, the principles laid down in the preceding propositions 

 lead me to set etymology aside, and to look at the finished figure of the goddess, 

 with her badges, relations, and actions, as the natural and sure index to her 

 significance. Now if Zeus, according to the Greek conception, was the strong, 

 stormy, and thunderous element of the sky — as his epithets K€huve<fyqs, and 

 ipifipepeTT)?, and TepiriKepavvos, sufficiently declare — his flashing-eyed daughter, 

 who alone is privileged to wield his thunderbolt (^Eschyl. Eumen., 814), must be 

 some action or function of the sky. Let her, therefore, be the flashing lightning, 

 or the bright rifted azure sky between the dark rolling thunder clouds, or both 

 if you please, and you have at once an elemental theory which explains 

 adequately her anthropomorphic parentage and presentation. As to her moral 

 and mental significance, that follows necessarily from her Jovian fatherhood. 

 When the all-powerful was recognised as at the same time the all- wise, and the 

 great counsellor (^rc'era Zeus), his daughter, as a matter of course, became the 



VOL. XXVI. PART I. 



