Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. 1 (of 2)Lang, Andrew
Religion
Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Lang, Andrew
Myth; Mythology; Religion; Rites and ceremonies
Dr. Brinton in his Myths and Myth-Makers gives examples from Peruvians,
Tupis, Creeks, Iroquois and Algonkins. It would be easy, and is perhaps
superfluous, to go on multiplying proofs of the belief that sun and moon
are, or have been, persons. In the Hervey Isles these two luminaries are
thought to have been made out of the body of a child cut in twain by his
parents. The blood escaped from the half which is the moon, hence her
pallor.(1) This tale is an exception to the general rule, but reminds us
of the many myths which represent the things in the world as having
been made out of a mutilated man, like the Vedic Purusha. It is hardly
necessary, except by way of record, to point out that the Greek myths
of sun and moon, like the myths of savages, start from the conception
of the solar and lunar bodies as persons with parts and passions, human
loves and human sorrows. As in the Mongolian myth of Arakho, the sun
"sees all and hears all," and, less honourable than the Mongolian sun,
he plays the spy for Hephaestus on the loves of Ares and Aphrodite. He
has mistresses and human children, such as Circe and Aeetes.(2)
(1) Gill, Myths and Songs, p. 45.
(2) See chapter on Greek Divine Myths.
The sun is all-seeing and all-penetrating. In a Greek song of to-day a
mother sends a message to an absent daughter by the sun; it is but
an unconscious repetition of the request of the dying Ajax that the
heavenly body will tell his fate to his old father and his sorrowing
spouse.(1)
(1) Sophocles, Ajax, 846.
Selene, the moon, like Helios, the sun, was a person, and amorous.
Beloved by Zeus, she gave birth to Pandia, and Pan gained her affection
by the simple rustic gift of a fleece.(1) The Australian Dawn, with her
present of a red kangaroo skin, was not more lightly won than the chaste
Selene. Her affection for Endymion is well known, and her cold white
glance shines through the crevices of his mountain grave, hewn in a
rocky wall, like the tombs of Phrygia.(2) She is the sister of the sun
in Hesiod, the daughter (by his sister) of Hyperion in the Homeric hymns
to Helios.
(1) Virgil, Georgics, iii. 391.
(2) Preller, Griech. Myth., i. 163.
In Greece the aspects of sun and moon take the most ideal human forms,
and show themselves in the most gracious myths. But, after all, these
retain in their anthropomorphism the marks of the earliest fancy, the
fancy of Eskimos and Australians. It seems to be commonly thought that
the existence of solar myths is denied by anthropologists. This is a
vulgar error. There is an enormous mass of solar myths, but they are not
caused by "a disease of language," and--all myths are not solar!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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