Chapter 9

Amongst the train of Ares and Mars there appear certain mythic beings who personify the notions of fear and horror. De‹moj and FÒboj (Il. 4, 440. 11, 317. 15, 119) answer to the Latin Pallor and Pavor; it is the two former that harness the steeds of Ares, FÒboj is called his son (13, 299), and in Aeschylus he is provided with a dwelling (mšlaqron tectum), out of which he suddenly leaps. So in the old Bohemian songs, Tras (tremor) and Strakh (terror) burst out of forest shades on the enemy's bands, chase them, press on their necks and squeeze out of their throats a loud cry. (Königinh. hs. 84. 104); they are ghostly and spectral. This borders upon Vôma, Omi and Yggr (pp. 119, 120), terms which designate the god himself, not his companions, sons or servants, yet they again bear witness to the community there was between Wuotan and Zio. Thôrr was called ôtti iötna, terror gigantum. When in our modern phraseology fear 'surprises, seizes, shakes, deprives of sense,' personfication is not far off; in the Iliad also 17, 67 clwrÕn dšoj (neut.) aƒre‹, pale fear seizes; but masculine embodiments like de‹moj, fÒboj, pallor, pavor, tras, strakh, bring it more vividly before us, and pavor was weakened by passing into the fem. paura, peur of the Romance. AS. þâ hine se brôga ongeat (terror eum invasit), Beow. 2583. OHG. forhta cham mih ana, N. ps. 54, 5; forhta anafiel ubar inan, T. 2, 4; conf. MHG. diu sorge im was sô verre entriten, sie möhte erreichen niht ein sper, fear was fled so far from him, a spear could not reach it, Wh. 280, 10 (see Suppl.). But further on, we shall get acquainted with a female Hilta, comparable to the Lat. Bellona and the Gr. Enyo and Eris, who is really one with war and the war-god.

Týr is described in Sn. 105 as a son of Oðinn, but in the Hymisqviða as a kinsman of the giants. His mother, whose name is not found, but whose beauty is indicated by the epithet all- gullin, all-golden, Sæm. 53ª, must have been a giant's daughter, who bore to Oðinn this immortal son (see Suppl.).