land poem. The Greek was and still is a native of both sea and land
which are physically interwined and bound together in Greece as in no
other portion of the globe. His great poetical book envisages his
country as well as himself.

The main point, however, is that Fableland being negative to the Greek
world is put outside of all of its known geographical limits, and thus
becomes the setting for the marvelous story. It may here be added that
Grimm's Tales have a similar border which lies between civilized life
and the forest, since the forest was, for our Teutonic ancestors, the
fairy realm, in which their supernatural beings dwelt for the most
part. Out of culture back to nature the human being sometimes has to go
and have strange communings with the spirits there; such is often the
movement of the Fairy Tale. But who are these spirits or weird powers
dwelling in the lone island or in the solitary wood?

3. This question brings us to the pivotal fact of all Fableland: it is
ruled over by a new order of deities, not Olympians; the poet, throwing
it out of Hellas below, throws it out of Olympus above. Indeed what
else could he do? The Gods of Greece are the protectors of its
institutions, State and Family; they are the embodiment of its spirit,
of its civilization. But a spirit is now portrayed which is negative to
Greek spirit, which denies and defies it in its very essence; the
result is a new set of supernatural shapes which dominate the separated
world. The negation also must be seen taking on a plastic form, and
appearing before the Greek imagination.

The deities of Fableland, or its supernatural powers, are therefore
opposite to the deities of Olympus. Hence their shape is changed, they
can be even monstrosities, such as Polyphemus, the Laestrigonians,
Scylla and Charybdis. Circe and Calypso are beautiful women, yet not
natural women, in spite of their beauty; there is something superhuman
about them, divine, though they be not Olympians. Shapes of wonder they
all seem, unreal, yet in intimate connection with mankind. Moreover
they are local, attached to a given spot, or island; they are not
universal, they have no general sway like the Olympians; limited,
confined, particular is their authority, which the human being can and
must transcend.

At this point Olympus can descend into their world and give command.
So, after all, the Greek Gods rule over the realm which is negative to
them, must do so, else they we