The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-04-20
THE ARYANs.
Hn'erpr+i n.ion and Comparison of Myths

Last evening John Fiske delivered, to deep
ly-lnterested audience, at M, L. A. Hall, The
third of discourse of lecturesbn the Aryans
In 1t he discussed myths, their probable origin
and proper Interpretation. The comparative
method was applied here to legend as in the
preceding lectures it had been applied to Ian.
guage-and with as happy result.
He began by defining a myth as not con-
scious invention or fable, but a story of obscure
origin which embodies some belief now become
antiquated, or which has its root in some habit
of contemplating nature that is now outgrown
and perhaps hardly ineligible. This deini-
ton requires some little qualification when ap-
piled to the great collections of Hydrologic lore
like the Nibelungenlied or the Homeric poems,
in which conscious fiction, immemorial myth,
and probably few vestiges OF traditional his
tory, are so intimately commingled that it Is
1 impossible to separate one element from anoth-
er and assign to each its share in the work.
But after making all needful allowance for
these complicating circumstances it remains
true on the whole that the mythical story diff
fers from the ordinary fictitious narrative by
giving depression to some genuine belief that
1t is only within the present century that the
| Interpretation of myths has been scienti fcally
undertaken. Formerly the theory prevailed
that mythology is simply distorted history, that
| Zeus and Wodan were ancient monarchs or
heroes deifed like the Caesars; and myths were
solved by rejecting the marvellous element,
their essential part, and calling the credible
| portion history. This theory, never very ten
| able, has been thoroughly discredlted by the
| discovery of the substantial identity of the
l prJpcinal mythical of Groooo nd
| India with each other and with those of Scan
| dinavia, and of the diffusion of certain myths
| all over the world. Zeus, Eros, Hermes,
| Helena. Onrauos, and Cerberus appear in India
| and Coward. But in the Rig-Veda the myth
| appears in much simpler and more primitive
form than in the theogony of Hesiod; for at
the earlier day its prime significance had not
been lost sight of. The divinities and heroes
of the Vedas exhibit themselves plainly as per-
soniications of the great phenomena of nature
Dyaus for example, the Greek Zeus, has for its
meaning the brightness of daytime, and is the
personified sky. That this first meaning did
not entirely pass out of the Greek mind is
shown by the Attic prayer, "Rain, rain, dear
Zeus, on the land of the Athenians and on the
fields.' The same root dyd is again seen in
Jupiter, which is identical with Dyaus pitar or
Jove the Father. Again it is found in old Ger
man, where Zio is also the god of day, and in
Auglo-Saxon, where Tuisdaeg, the day of Tuios
or Zeus, is the ancestral form of Tuesday
Again in Sanskrit the root dya assumes the
form dio. whence deUas. bright or divine, and
the Lithuanian diewas, Latin deus, and Greek
theos, all meaning God.
Advancing from this comparison of mytho.
logical names the lecturer considered as an ex>
ample of the substantial identity of myths, the
Latin story of the theft of the cattle of Her
cules by Cacus which, although one of the
Oldest of the traditions common to the whole
Aryan race, appears in Italy as purely local
legend. Were it not for the discoveries of COM
paratve mythology the story might be consid-
cred as distorted fragment of early history.
But in its primitive Italian form the legend
had nothing to do with Hercules, who was
quiet domestic deity, very unlike the mighty
Doric Herakles with whom the accidental re-
sembance of names caused him to be identi-
mans to the Greek mythology had resulted in
the mixing up and partial forgetting of their
own early traditions, In the story as originally
told the hero is no other than Jupiter the god
of day, called by his Sabine name Sancus,
which also means the bright sky And like
wise the name of the demon was not "Cacus,"
the evil one, but "C@cius," the one who dark
ems or steals light. 1t was because the story so
closely resembled the Greek myth of the vic
tory of Herakles over Geryon that the later con-
fusion of names resulted. But the earlier
names give us hint as to the physical signif-
canoe of the myth, which Is confirmed when we
turn to the Rig-Veda and find the counterpart
of both the Greek and the Latin stories. Here
the thief is not Geryon, but his three-headed
dog. who is one of the Pants or robbers that
steal the daylight, and his theft is from the
herd of Indra, the god of light The scene of
conflict is not placed upon the earth, but IN the
armament overhead, aud the entire language
OF the myth is SO transparent that the Hindu
commentators of the Veda have anticipated
modern scholars in explaining it as an account
of the victory of the god of day over the fiend
of the thunderstorm
This warfare of Indra wAih Vrtra and the
other Panis forms one OF the principal themes
of the Vedic hymns; aud as we pass from India
to Persia we see most strkingly illustrated the
way in which such representations of natural
phenomena have given rise to what may be
properly called a system of theology, In the
Veda the Panis do not seem to be regarded
with any decided feeling of moral reprobation,,
but they are feared and hated as makers of mis-
chief. They not only steal the daylight, but
they parch the earth and wither the fruits. AS
Cactus, the "darkener," became ultimately
name Vritra, the 'copcealer," the most famous
of the Panis. was gradually gereralized until it
came to mean enemy" like the English word
fend, and began to be applied Unfortunately
to any kind of evil spirit In Persian mythology
the process is carried much further The fiend-
ish Panis are concentrated iu the person oil Ahri-
man, the spirit of Darkness who maintains
perpetual warfare against the spirit of light"
and the struggle is not for the possession of
herd of pershable cattle, but for the domin-
beautiful and free from sin and pain, but after
him came Ahriman and created evil. Not only
does Ahriman keep the earth covered with
darkness during half Of the day. not only does
he withhold rain and parch the standing corn,
but he is also the author of all evil thoughts
and the instigator of all wicked actions Like
his progenitor Vrtra and his descendant Satan
he is represented under the form of serpent.
Eventually, says this mythology, there is to be
day of reckoning, when Ahriman will be
boand in chains and rendered powerless, or
when, according to another account, he will be
converted to Righteousness, as Burns hoped and
Origen believed would be the case with 'auld
Nickie Ben" In these various versions of the
strife between Ormuzd and Ahriman, Indra
and the Panis Herakles and Geryon, Jupiter
and Cactus, we see well exemplified the diver
sity of forms which the same group of mythical
ideas takes on in the course of its development
in different parts of the world. And in the
help which either version affords toward an un-
Outstanding of the others, we see the great adj
vantage of the comparative method of studying
myths.
1t is great step in advance in the study of
mythology when we are able to say that Zeus
was not some apotheoszed Cretan King, but
the personifcation of daylight, or when we can
trace such legend as that of Hercules and
Cacus back to its more primitive version in the
victory OF Ind ra over the Panis. But what, af-
ter all, is the meaning of this way of speaking
of the sky as bright hero, and the darkness as
three headed monster; Is it mere poetcal
personifcaton, or if not thus explicabIe, in
what pecularities of ancient thought or culture
are we to look for the explanation? The sug-
gestion Of allegory or poetic license is not in
harmony with the fact that the myths were
once literally believed. Men do not believe
allegories and metaphors. Max Muller thinks
myth is mataphorioal saying of which the
metaphorical character has been forgotten, so
that it has come to be accepted literally: but
this Interpretation seemed to the lecturer to ig-
more the enormous difference betwe en- civilized
and primitive men in their ways of looking at
things Uncivilized men believe in the literal
truth of their personfcatons. Zeus, the sky
was actually conceived by tho primitive Greek
as being exercising volition; and the persona
fcation now appears metaphorcal to us only
because we find it difficult to comprehend the
naive ignorance of the primeval men who made
it in literal and sober earnest. We must take
into consideration the characteristics of that
primitive style of thinking to which it seemed
quite natural that the sun should be an uner-
ring archer, and the thunder.cloud black de.
mon finding. his richly merited doom at the
hands of the indignant Lord of Light. Taking
into account the legends and superstitions Of
barbarous races we find in the quaint but not
illogical fancies of uncivilized men the pro-
cesses of thought which give rise to the ele-
mental deities of Olympus and Valhalla, and to
I'll