306 
interesting and meritorious works in this direction are some- 
what vitiated by the writers confining themselves too closely 
within the Aryan sphere, and drawing general conclusions 
thence, some of which could not . be sustained on a wider 
investigation. 
3. The Rise of Mythology, 
Mythology, in its most ancient and prominent aspect, may 
be broadly defined as the application in human idea to natural 
phenomena of the mental and physical characteristics peculiar 
to man and other animals ; e.g., the sun is a giant, archer, 
racehorse, or fish ; the stars are the eyes in a peacocU’s tail ; 
the moon and stars are a virgin queen (S. Ursula, i.e ., “ Little 
Shiner”) and her maiden attendants.* This application, which 
is a necessity of thought, in its earliest form contains nothing 
either moral or immoral, religious or irreligious, but has never- 
theless frequently been confounded by religious writers with 
corrupted forms of religion. That Boreas aided the Athenians 
against the Persian fleet, is transparent mythology ; and this 
in a later age passes into conscious simile, becomes connected 
with metaphor, allegory, symbolism, and play upon words (a 
feature which, by no means necessarily jocose, arises from a 
sound having accidentally more than one meaning) ; and, 
finally, takes its place in a high civilization as (what we term) 
poetical imagery and expression. That Boreas (the wild 
“ North-wind”) carried off the damsel Orithyia (the ee Moun- 
tain-tree”) from the top of a rock, is simple enough to us ; but 
the first error in connection with such an idea when it has 
become a legend, is to regard it as an actual occurrence in 
human history ; and not even the mighty mind of Sokrates (or 
Plato), so much is a man the slave of his age, could escape 
from this. He says : “ I might have a rational explanation 
that Orithyia was playing with Pharmacia, when a northern 
gust carried her over the rocks.” He sees that Boreas is the 
wind, but regards Orithyia as a girl thus accidentally killed. 
This error soon produces another, far more serious. Boreas 
comes to be regarded as a divine or semi-divine personage 
having power over the wind, and he is supplicated not to injure 
us, but to destroy our enemies ; and so we find that at the 
time of Sokrates there was some sort of an altar of Boreas 
at the place” where the damsel was said to have been snatched 
* Vide Zoroaster , secs. 6, 30. 
