Chapter 14

Epithets expressing the power, the omnipotence, of the reigning gods have been specified, pp. 21-2. A term peculiar to ON. poetry is ginregin [[the great Gods]], Sæm. 28ª 50ª 51ª 52b, ginheilög goð 1ª; it is of the same root as gîna, OHG. kînan, hiare, and denotes numina ampla, late dominantia, conf. AS. ginne grund, Beow. 3101. Jud. 131. 2. ginne rîce, Cædm. 15, 8. ginfæst, firmissimus 176, 29. ginfæsten god, terrae dominus 211, 10. gârsecges gin, oceani amplitudo 205, 3.

The Homeric reia (=radiwj, Goth. raþizô) beautifully expresses the power of the gods; whatever they do or undertake comes easy to them, their life glides along free from toil, while mortal men labour and are heavy laden: qeoi reia zwontej, Il. 6, 138. Od. 4, 805. 5, 122. When Aphrodite wishes to remove her favourite Alexander from the perils of battle, ton d exhrpax Afrodith reia mal, wste qeoj, Il. 3, 381; the same words are applied to Apollo, when he snatches Hector away from Achilles 20, 443. The wall so laboriously built by the Greeks he overturns reia mala, as a boy at play would a sand-heap 15, 362. With a mere breath (pnoih), blowing a little (hka mala yuxasa), Athene turns away from Achilles the spear that Hector had thrown 20, 440 (see Suppl.). Berhta also blows (p. 276), and the elves breathe (ch. XVII), on people.

The sons of men grow up slowly and gradually, gods attain their full size and strength directly after birth. No sooner had Themis presented nectar and ambrosia (ambrosihn erateinhn) to the newborn Apollo, than he leapt, katebrwj ambroton, out of his swathings, sat down among the goddesses, began to speak, and, unshorn as he was, to roam through the country (Hymn. in Ap. Del. 123-133). Not unlike Vali, whom Rindr bore to Oðinn; when only one night old (einnættr), unwashen and unkempt, he sallies forth to avenge Baldr's death on Höðr, Sæm. 6b 95b. Here the coincidence of adersekomhj with the Edda's 'ne höfuð kembr' is not to be disregarded. Hermes, born at early morn, plays the lute at mid-day, and at eve drives oxen away (Hymn. in Merc. 17 seq.). And Zeus, who is often exhibited as a child among the Kuretes, grew up rapidly (karpalimwj menoj kai faidima guia huxeto toio anaktoj), and in his first years had strength enough to enter the lists with Kronos (Hes. theog. 492). The Norse mythology offers another example in Magni, Thôr's son by the giantess Iarnsaxa: when three nights old (þtînættr), he flung the giant Hrûngni's enormous foot, under whose weight Thôrr lay on the ground, off his father, and said he would have beaten the said giant dead with his fist, Sn. 110 (see Suppl.).

The shape of the gods is like the human (p. 105), only vaster, often exceeding even the gigantic. When Ares is felled to the ground by the stone which Athene flings, his body covers seven roods of land (epta d epesce peleqra peswn, Il. 21, 407), a size that with a slight addition the Od. 11, 577 puts upon the titan Tityos. When Here takes a solemn oath, she grasps the earth with one hand and the sea with the other (Il. 14, 272). A cry that breaks from Poseidon's breast sounds like that of nine or even ten thousand warriors in battle (14, 147), and the same is said of Ares when he roars (5, 859); Here contents herself with the voice of Stentor, which only equals those of fifty men (5, 786). By the side of this we may put some features in the Edda, which have to do with Thôrr especially: he devours at a wedding one ox and eight salmon, and drinks three casks of mead, Sæm. 73b; another time, through a horn, the end of which reaches to the sea, he drinks a good portion of this, he lifts the snake that encircles the whole world off one of its feet, and with his hammer he strikes three deep valleys in the rocky mountains, Sn. 59, 60. Again, Teutonic mythology agrees with the Greek in never imputing to the gods the deformity of many heads, arms or legs; they are only bestowed on a few heroes and animals, as some of the Greek giants are ekatogceirej. Vishnu is represented with four arms, Brahma with four heads, Svantovit the same, while Porevit has five heads and Rugevit seven faces. Yet Hecate too is said to have been three-headed, as the Roman Janus was two-faced, and a Lacedæmonian Apollo four-armed. (8) Khuvera, the Indian god of wealth, is a hideous figure with three legs and eight teeth. Some of the Norse gods, on the contrary, have not a superfluity, but a deficiency of members: Oðinn is one-eyed, Týr one-handed, Höðr blind, and Logi or Loki was perhaps portrayed as lame or limping, like Hephæstus and the devil. Hel alone has a dreadful shape, black and white; the rest of the gods and goddesses, not excepting Loki, are to be imagined as of beautiful and noble figure (see Suppl.).

In the Homeric epos this ideally perfect human shape, to which Greek art also keeps true, is described in standing epithets for gods and especially goddesses, with which our ruder poetry has only a few to set in comparison, and yet the similarity of these is significant. Some epithets have to serve two or three divinities by turns, but most are confined to individuals, as characteristic of them. Thus Here is leukwlenoj or bowpij (the former used also of Helen, Il. 3, 121, (9) the latter of a Nereid 18, 40), Athene glaukwpij or nukomoj (which again does for Here), Thetis arguropeza, Iris aellopoj, podhnemoj, crusopteroj, Eos rododaktuloj, Demeter (Ceres) xanqh 5, 500, and kalliplokamoj 14, 326, just as Sif is hârfögr (p. 309), in allusion to the yellow colour of the waving corn. As the sea rolls its dark waves, Poseidon bears the name kuanocaitij, Il. 14, 390. 15, 174. 20, 144. Zeus could either be called the same, or kuanoqruj (a contrast to Baldr brâhvîtr, brow-white p. 222), because to him belong ambrosiai caitai Il. 1, 528, the hair and locks of Wish (p. 142), and because with his dark brows he makes signs. This confirmatory lowering of the brows or nodding with the head (neuein, kataneuein kuanehsin ep oqpusi Il. 1, 527. 17, 209) is the regular expression of Zeus's will: keqalh kataneusomai, aqanatoisi megiston tekmwr, Il. 1, 524. In refusing, he draws the head back (ananeuei). Thôr's indignant rage is shown by sinking the eyebrows over the eyes (sîga brýnnar ofan fyrir augun, Sn. 50), displaying gloomy brows and shaking the beard. Obviously the two gods, Zeus and Donar, have identical gestures ascribed to them for expressing favour or anger. They are the glowering deities, who have the avenging thunder at their command; this was shown of Donar, p. 177, and to Zeus is given the grim louring look (deina d ipodra idwn, Il. 15, 13), he above all is the meg ocqhsaj (1, 517. 4, 30), and next to him Poseidon of the dingy locks (8, 208. 15, 184). Zeus again is distinguished by beaming eyes (trepen osse qaeinw 13, 3. 7. 14, 236. 16, 645), which belong to none else save his own great-hearted daughted 21, 415; Aphrodite has ommata marmaironta, 3, 397, twinkling, shimmering eyes (see Suppl.).

Figures of Greek divinities show a circle of rays and a nimbus round the head; (10) on Indo- Grecian coins Mithras has commonly a circular nimbus with pointed rays, (11) in other representations the rays are wanting. Mao (deus Lunus) has a halfmoon behind his shoulders; Aesculapius too had rays about his head. In what century was the halo, the aureole, first put round the heads of christian saints? And we have also to take into account the crowns and diadems of kings. Ammian. Marc. 16, 12 mentions Chnodomarius, cujus vertici flammeus torulus aptabatur. N. Cap. 63 translates the honorati capitis radios of the Sol auratus by houbetskîmo (head-sheen), and to portray the sun's head surrounded with flames is extremely natural. In ON. I find the term rôða [[rood, crucifix]] for caput radiatum sancti, which I suppose to be the OHG. ruota rod, since virga also goes off into the sense of flagellum, radius, ON. geisli [[to shed rays, to beam]]. A likening of the gods to radiant luminaries of heaven would at once suggest such a nimbus, and blond locks do shine like rays. It is in connexion with the setting sun that Tac. Germ. 45 brings in formas deorum and radios capitis. Around Thôr's head was put, latterly at all events, a ring of stars (Stephanii not. ad Saxon. Gram. p. 139). According to a story told in the Galien restoré, a beam came out of Charles the Great's mouth and illumined his head. (12) What seems more to the purpose, among the Prilwitz figures, certain Slavic idols, especially Perun, Podaga and Nemis, have rays about their heads; and a head in Hagenow, fig. 6, 12 is encircled with rays, so is even the rune R when it stands for Radegast. Did rays originally express the highest conception of divine and lustrous beauty? There is nothing in the Homeric epos at all pointing that way (see Suppl.).




ENDNOTES: