. The Open court. lexander the Great,for instance, but are not saviours. He says : Herakles never gained victories for himself. He wandered through thecircle of the earth, not as a conqueror, but as a protector. What, indeed, shouldthe enemy of the wicked, the defensor of the good, the peace-bringer, conquer forhimself either on land or sea! , like Herakles, is originally the sun-god and his wan-derings through the earth are the course of the sun over the the sun, Odysseus descends in the far West into Tartaros andcomes up again. 1 Satyrs gaze with astonishment at the
. The Open court. lexander the Great,for instance, but are not saviours. He says : Herakles never gained victories for himself. He wandered through thecircle of the earth, not as a conqueror, but as a protector. What, indeed, shouldthe enemy of the wicked, the defensor of the good, the peace-bringer, conquer forhimself either on land or sea! , like Herakles, is originally the sun-god and his wan-derings through the earth are the course of the sun over the the sun, Odysseus descends in the far West into Tartaros andcomes up again. 1 Satyrs gaze with astonishment at the pyre, the flames of which are extinguished by twonymphs, called Arethusa and Premnusia. 654 THE OPEN COURT. The Odyssey is the Greek version of the Rdmdyana, a Brahmanstory of similar significance, while the Iliad finds its counterpart inthe Mahdbhdrata, the legend of the great war.^ Other heroes, such as Theseus (i. e., he who brings about set-tled conditions, the organiser, or legislator), Bellerophon, Perseus,. the Dioskuri, etc., are all slayers of monsters and are, if we makeallowance for local coloring, variations of the same fundamental 1 These two Indian epics are unquestionably of great antiquity, but it is interesting to notethat (as Weber endeavors to prove) Valmiki, a late redactor of the Rfttndyana, must have beenfamiliar with Homer. He lived somewhat after the beginning of the Christian era when Greekinfluence began to make itself felt in India. 2 Between Hebe, the girlish bride, and Herakles who is here youthful and beardless, hoversEros. Zeus and Hera are on the left. Aphrodite with Hiineros and two of her maids, Charis andPeitho, on the right. Underneath Dionysos arrives in his chariot, drawn by panthers. Fromthe opposite side Apollo and Artemis arrive, while Eunomia and Euthymia receive the guests. ON GREEK RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY. 655 idea that permeates the whole of Greek mythology, of the sametheme of saviourship, which is most apparent in the Herakles myth
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade188, booksubjectreligion, bookyear1887
