Media, Babylon and Persia : including a study of the Zend-Avesta or religion of Zoroaster, from the fall of Nineveh to the Persian war . et more than human, /^ MYTHS. :>> who crowd the borderland between myth and his-tory, whose disembodied spirits were worshipped astutelary deities, and whose earthly careers, haloedwitli the glory transferred to them from the divinechampions of Sky and Cloud-land, are the materialsout of which races weave their National Epos andHeroic Poetry. The Epos of Eran is rich v^^ith suchmythical heroes, and knows of whole dynasties ofthem, the reputed anc
Media, Babylon and Persia : including a study of the Zend-Avesta or religion of Zoroaster, from the fall of Nineveh to the Persian war . et more than human, /^ MYTHS. :>> who crowd the borderland between myth and his-tory, whose disembodied spirits were worshipped astutelary deities, and whose earthly careers, haloedwitli the glory transferred to them from the divinechampions of Sky and Cloud-land, are the materialsout of which races weave their National Epos andHeroic Poetry. The Epos of Eran is rich v^^ith suchmythical heroes, and knows of whole dynasties ofthem, the reputed ancient kings of the race. Ikit apresentation of them does not lie within the scopeof the present work. If some of them confront usand claim our attention, we shall account for thern as we IV. ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AYESTA—TIIETR AEEEGORI-CAL TRANSFORMATION. I. The myths of a race—as apart and distinguishedfrom its religion—being reducible to physical phe-Jiomena, animated into personal life by poeticaland epic treatment,* necessarily convey some indica-tions as to the physical conditions under which thatrace was placed. Now the influence of India on itspopulation is, on the whole, enervating, both as re-gards climate and soil. The latter is very rich andproduces a great deal in exchange for very littlework ; the forests, indeed, abound in nourishment-fruits, and berries, and roots—which grows wild, forman or beast, while the riv^ers are numerous andseldom dry up ; the larger ones, like the Indus andGanges, never. There is therefore, on one hand,little incentive to hard labor, and on the other, theneeds of men are few, as regards either shelter, cloth-ing, or food, owing to the climate, which is so hot asto make exertion unwholesome and a spare vegetablediet the onl
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