[5] Elia.
[6] Unless indeed we are to except a figure upon the Ephesian drum
(Artemisium) now in the British Museum, which some have imagined to
represent Thanatos.
[7] Hel is from the Icl. _helja_ "to conceal."
[8] Isaiah xxxviii. 18, 19; cf. also Genesis xxxvii. 35; 1 Samuel
xxviii. 19. Sheol is misrendered "grave" in our version. It means the
place of the dead, not of bodies only.
[9] The fact that the sun dies every day militates against his claim to
the rank of a god: otherwise he would probably always receive the
greatest meed of worship. As it is, he is often worshipped rather as a
hero or demigod than a true immortal.
[10] Fick. "Verg. Wörterbuch der I.-G. Sp." s.v. _mara_.
[11] Hesperides. They are, however, called the daughters of Night by
Hesiod and others.
[12] =Pontos= is from the same root as the Skr. _patha_, a _path_,
_pfad_, &c. One might suppose from this that the Greeks were the first
adventurers upon the deep waters. While the other Aryan folks called the
sea "a death," they called it a "road."
[13] There can be no doubt that the cosmology of the Eddas is to some
extent infected by the source from which we derive it. The picture of
earth, with its mountain Asgard and its surrounding sea, is nearly
exactly the picture of Iceland.
[14] So Poseidôn, the god of the sea, is the earth-shaker; earthquakes
being apparently attributed to the water under the earth.
[15] Weber in Chambr., 1020.
[16] "The sounding," from _gialla_, to sound (yell).
[17] Chaucer.
[18] =Kirkos= (whence =Kirkê=) is given as both hawk and wolf in L. & S.
It is most likely from a root _krik_, meaning to make a grating sound,
and therefore probably applied originally to the bird (cf. our
nightjar). The Latin _quercus_ seems to be from the same root--from its
rustling? We may compare Circe with Charôn, which means "an eagle."
[19] From =scheros=.
[20] Od. vi. 204, _sqq._
[21] "Earthly Paradise."
[22] Od. viii. 562.
[23] Justin Martyr identifies the gardens of Alcinoüs with Paradise.
"Cohort. ad Græc." xxix.
[24] Od. xiii. 79, 88.
[25] "Rheinisches Museum für Philologie," vol. i. N.S. p. 219. _Die
Homerische Phäaken._
[26] Hermödr (heer-muth, kriegsmuth) was originally one of the names of
Odin, and therefore originally the wind. We easily see the connection
between the rushing wind, and the battle's rage. Hermes is likewise the
wind, and means "the rusher" (=hormaô=, and cf. Sârameyas of the Vedas).
[27] Edda Snorra, Dæmisaga, 49.
[28] Procopius, Bel. Goth. iv. The wall identifies the island with
Britain.
[29] The Iranian religion, as it has come down to us, is the historical
one founded by Zarathustra, who swept away most of the traces of the old
Aryan faith. There is difficulty, therefore, in obtaining the evidence
of a belief which was shared by the old Persians.
[30]
=kad' d'epes' en koniêsi makôn, apo d' eptato thymos.=--Od. x. 163.
=oute tis, oun moi nousos epêlythen, hete malista
têkedoni stygerê meleôn exeiletô thymon.=--Od. xi. 200.
[31] We are here speaking of beliefs which sprang originally from the
days of burial in the earth. Of these were all that class which included
the journey of the soul.
[32] V_r_hadâra_n_ayaka. Ed. Pol. iii 4-7.
[33] Fouque.
[34] Sale's Koran, Introd. p. 91. The Persian bridge was called Chinvat.
[35] See Edda den Eldra, Grimnismâl 44, and Edda Snorra, D. 15. That
Bifröst did not tremble through weakness we may gather from the fact
that it is the "best of bridges," "the strongest of all bridges"
(Simrock, D.M. 28), and that it will only be broken at the day of
judgment.
[36] By E. Keary: _Evening Hours_, vol. iii.