coherence could, at most, extend merely to smaller portions orginally connected. Here, however, our inquiry is restricted to the Ideal, as it is exhibited in the heroic or local mythus. If we read mythi simply, and without straining after interpretation, there is only one point where the Ideal uniformly meets the view-the continual agency of the gods. They are the same deities that were worshipped in the temples of Greece. They act, too, almost always in consistency with the character ascribed to them by their worshippers; and, therefore, it is clear that these narrations are an expression of belief in the gods of the country, a profession of religion, (the source of which, however, we shall not yet try to determine, nor even touch the question whether the gods may have originally sprung out of philosophemes.) Religion is therefore, in addition to history, the only element which stands out prominently at the first consideration of the heroic or local mythology. But the more deeply the subject is examined, the more does faith in the gods gain space and importance. We find that they very often appear under names which they do not usually bear, but which are formed from their ancient appellatives; and that the mythus, as it has been handed down to us, while it may contain no direct intimation that it speaks of a god, does, nevertheless, frequently exhibit traces which must lead a reflecting mind to that persuasion. It may be proper that an example of this kind should be here fully developed. Modern investigations have already brought a number of them to light. The goddess Artemis was worshipped in a peculiar manner at Brauron in Attica. The vir gins who served her were called äpкто "she-bears."1 Hence it follows that the bear was held sacred to the goddess. Now Artemis was also worshipped in Arcadia; and there are indications, too, that her worship there corresponded, in several points, to that which was observed at Brauron. But the mythus informs us that Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon, was her constant attendant in Arcadia, and her companion in the chase, until she became pregnant by Zeus, and was changed, by the wrath of the chaste goddess, into a bear, in which form she gave birth to Arcas, the father of the Arcadian people. So the legend ran in a Hesiodic poem, according to the extract in Eratosthenes.2 In another poetical work, also ascribed to Hesiod, Callisto is called a nymph.3 Now, we set out from this, that the circumstance of the goddess, who is served at Brauron by she-bears, having a friend and companion changed into a bear, cannot possibly be a freak of chance, but that this metamorphosis has its foundation in the fact that the animal was sacred to the goddess. In this way only can the mythus, and at the same time the religious observance, be accounted for, and their connexion understood: for, were any one to think also of deriving the latter from the former, he could only, however, do so, if the metamorphosis of her nymph by the goddess into a bear, of all animals, was not accidental; and this, again, still brings us back to the sacredness of the animal. But hence, also, it follows that Hesiod See the Attic dramatists in Harpocr., dgxreñoa, Aristoph. Lysistr., 645, &c. 3 Catast. I. Hygin. Poet. Astron., ii. 1., p. 419, Staveren. no longer handed down the mythus in its original shape; for it would surely have been a glaring inconsistency in the ancient mythus, if Artemis should, in her anger, and as a punishment, bestow on her nymph the form of an animal sacred to herself. The supposition of an alteration is further supported by the observation, which, however, we cannot here prove, that the virginity of Artemis, being an idea generally received by the poets, was transferred to the service of the goddess, even in places where an entirely different notion regarding her originally prevailed. With precisely the same view, later poets introduced the favourite fable of Hera's jealousy, and made Zeus himself, from dread of it, transform Callisto into a bear, as he had changed Io into a cow. It is therefore clear that Callisto became a bear, in the original legend, for this reason only, that that animal was sacred to Arcadian Artemis. We know further, that in the time of Pausanias, a temple to Artemis Kaiorn, "the most beautiful," stood in Arcadia near Mount Mænala; on a high earthen mound too, where, as that writer states, it was believed that Callisto had been buried. The appellative of the goddess cannot have been formed from the name of the nymph, as the latter is evidently the derivative, the former the original; besides, that appellative was widely diffused through other parts of Greece, where the Arcadian Callisto was but little regarded. Artemis was called Kaλλiorn by Sappho;1 and also in a hymn by Pamphus whom Pausanias reckons more ancient than the Lesbian 1 VIII. 35. 7. 2 Pausan., i. 29. 2. poetess.1 In Attica, where these hymns had their home, there was a wooden image called Kaλλiorη in the temple dedicated to Artemis, in the Academy.2 The goddess is styled, by Attic tragedians, á κaλά, by way of eminence, and as if this were her peculiar title. But as the name of Callisto is manifestly connected with the designation of the goddess, we must infer that KaoT is the latter's title of honour changed into a proper name; and we thus arrive at the inevitable conclusion, that Callisto is just nothing else than the goddess and her sacred animal comprehended in one idea. This much is evident from what has been adduced; but in order to point at the connexion to which it belongs, it is sufficient to remark, that the ancient Arcadian fancied his Artemis to be a goddess of nature, who haunted lakes and fountains; who supplied with food and drink, and brought to maturity the young of wild animals, as well as the offspring of man; and to whom, therefore, the most powerful creatures in nature, such as the bear, were sacred; although, as the source of youth, growth, and bloom, she might also be called "the most beautiful," in accordance with the ideas of primeval humanity. We come back, therefore, to the position, in proof of which we adduced this example, that mythological research frequently discovers objects of Grecian deification, even where they did not at first present themselves to the eye. 3 But with these ideas of the gods themselves, another class, which may be termed ethical-fundamental ideas of morality and justice-were united 2 Ibid., i. 29. 2. 1 Pausan., viii. 35. 7. 3 Dorians, vol. i. p. 390, sqq. с from an early period among the Greeks; and are, in like manner, to be found expressed in their mythi. I may refer to that of Lycaon, as a well-known instance. Zeus once visited him, or his sons, in humble disguise; and in consequence of their having served up to him human flesh, destroyed their whole race. Whatever else this mythus may contain, it certainly expresses horror of anthropophagy. If I herewith connect the assertion, that the greater portion of the Ideal in heroic mythology, relates either directly or remotely, mediately or immediately, to the worship of the gods, the point, indeed, cannot at present be settled by proof, as a very complete induction would be required for that purpose; but whoever has made himself familiar with interpretations of mythology, whether ancient or modern, which aimed at discovering and unfolding from its materials some other system of knowledge and thought,-astronomical truths, maxims in practical philosophy, or whatever else it might be, while he may have been struck with the pliability of particular portions of the matter to be explained, in adapting themselves, as it were, to the end in view, must, at the same time, have pronounced the interpretation, as a whole, to be forced, frigid, and unsatisfactory. Let us, therefore, without rejecting anything of that kind, merely hold back, and wait for the development of individual cases; and should we find that it leads us from the certain to the uncertain, so as to explain the latter by the former, we shall joyfully appropriate the result. At all events it is not a rare case to recognise in mythology even portraits of human character, sometimes spun out from particular persons, far across the limits |