dventures of the Dream Time, the
_Alcheringa_, when beings of a more potent race, Gods or Heroes, were on
earth, and achieved and endured such things as the rites commemorate. And
the things thus endured and achieved, as I try to show, are everywhere of
much the same nature; whether they are now commemorated by painted
savages in the Bora or the Medicine Dance, or whether they were exhibited
and proclaimed by the Eumolpidae in a splendid hall, to the pious of
Hellas and of Rome. My attempt may seem audacious, and to many scholars
may even be repugnant; but it is on these lines, I venture to think, that
the darker problems of Greek religion and rite must be approached. They
are all survivals, however fairly draped and adorned by the unique genius
of the most divinely gifted race of mankind.

The method of translation is that adopted by Professor Butcher and myself
in the Odyssey, and by me in a version of Theocritus, as well as by Mr.
Ernest Myers, who preceded us, in his Pindar. That method has lately
been censured and, like all methods, is open to objection. But I confess
that neither criticism nor example has converted me to the use of modern
colloquial English, and I trust that my persistence in using poetical
English words in the translation of Greek poetry will not greatly offend.
I cannot render a speech of Anchises thus:--

"If you really are merely a mortal, and if a woman of the normal kind
was your mother, while your father (as you lay it down) was the well-
known Otreus, and if you come here all through an undying person,
Hermes; and if you are to be known henceforward as my wife,--why, then
nobody, mortal or immortal, shall interfere with my intention to take
instant advantage of the situation."

That kind of speech, though certainly long-winded, may be the manner in
which a contemporary pastoralist would address a Goddess "in a coming on
humour." But the situation does not occur in the prose of our existence,
and I must prefer to translate the poet in a manner more congenial, if
less up to date. For one rare word "Etin" ([Greek text]) I must
apologise: it seems to me to express the vagueness of the unfamiliar
monster, and is old Scots, as in the tale of "The Red Etin of Ireland."

THE HYMN TO APOLLO

The Hymn to Apollo presents innumerable difficulties, both of text, which
is very corrupt, and as to the whole nature and aim of the composition.
In this version it is divided