The evidence turns on theories of phonetic laws as they worked in pre-
Homeric Greece. But these laws, as they apply to common ordinary words,
need _not_, we are told, be applied so strictly to proper names, as of
gods and heroes. These are a kind of comets, and their changes cannot be
calculated like the changes of vulgar words, which answer to stars (i.
298). Mr. Max Muller 'formerly agreed with Curtius that phonetic rules
should be used against proper names with the same severity as against
ordinary nouns and verbs.' Benfey and Welcker protested, so does
Professor Victor Henry. 'It is not fair to demand from mythography the
rigorous observation of phonetics' (i. 387). 'This may be called
backsliding,' our author confesses, and it _does_ seem rather a 'go-as-
you-please' kind of method.