ld
now be represented by herds of cows which feed in earthly pastures.
There would be other expressions which would still remain as floating
phrases, not attached to any definite deities. These would gradually be
converted into incidents in the life of heroes, and be woven at length
into systematic narratives. Finally, these gods or heroes, and the
incidents of their mythical career, would receive each "a local
habitation and a name." _These would remain as genuine history, when the
origin and meaning of the words had been either wholly or in part
forgotten._

For the proofs of these assertions, the Vedic poems furnish indisputable
evidence, that such as this was the origin and growth of Greek and
Teutonic mythology. In these poems, the names of many, perhaps of most,
of the Greek gods, indicate natural objects which, if endued with life,
have not been reduced to human personality. In them Daphne is still
simply the morning twilight ushering in the splendor of the new born
sun; the cattle of Helios there are still the light-colored clouds which
the dawn leads out into the fields of the sky. There the idea of
Hercules has not been separated from the image of the toiling and
struggling sun, and the glory of the life-giving Helios has not been
transferred to the god of Delos and Pytho. In the Vedas the myths of
Endymion, of Kephalos and Prokris, Orpheus and Eurydike, are exhibited
in the form of detached mythical phrases, which furnished for each their
germ. The analysis may be extended indefinitely: but the conclusion can
only be, that in the Vedic language we have the foundation, not only of
the glowing legends of Hellas, but of the dark and sombre mythology of
the Scandinavian and the Teuton. Both alike have grown up chiefly from
names which have been grouped around the sun; but the former has been
grounded on those expressions which describe the recurrence of day and
night, the latter on the great tragedy of nature, in the alternation of
summer and winter.

Of this vast mass of solar myths, some have emerged into independent
legends, others have furnished the groundwork of whole epics, others
have remained simply as floating tales whose intrinsic beauty no poet
has wedded to his verse.[469:1]

"The results obtained from the examination of language in its several
forms leaves no room for doubt that the general system of mythology has
been traced to its fountain head. We can no longer shut our eyes to the
fact that t