, and
in which the new nicknames are still liable to be mistaken for actual
names. Under such conditions there will arise (especially in the case of
a distinguished man) this seemingly-impossible combination of human
parentage with the possession of the non-human, or superhuman,
attributes of the thing which gave the nickname. Another anomaly
simultaneously disappears. The warrior may have, and often will have, a
variety of complimentary nicknames--"the powerful one," "the destroyer,"
etc. Supposing his leading nickname has been "the Sun"; then when he
comes to be identified by tradition with the sun, it will happen that
the sun will acquire his alternative descriptive titles--the swift one,
the lion, the wolf--titles not obviously appropriate to the sun, but
quite appropriate to the warrior. Then there comes, too, an explanation
of the remaining trait of such myths. When this identification of
conspicuous persons, male and female, with conspicuous natural agents,
has become settled, there will in due course arise interpretations of
the actions of these agents in anthropomorphic terms. Suppose, for
instance, that Endymion and Selene, metaphorically named, the one after
the setting sun, the other after the moon, have had their human
individualities merged in those of the sun and moon, through
misinterpretation of metaphors; what will happen? The legend of their
loves having to be reconciled with their celestial appearances and
motions, these will be spoken of as results of feeling and will; so that
when the sun is going down in the west, while the moon in mid-heaven is
following him, the fact will be expressed by saying: "Selene loves and
watches Endymion." Thus we obtain a consistent explanation of the myth
without distorting it; and without assuming that it contains gratuitous
fictions. We are enabled to accept the biographical part of it, if not
as literal fact, still as having had fact for its root. We are helped to
see how, by an inevitable misinterpretation, there grew out of a more or
less true tradition, this strange identification of its personages, with
objects and powers totally non-human in their aspects. And then we are
shown how, from the attempt to reconcile in thought these contradictory
elements of the myth, there arose the habit of ascribing the actions of
these non-human things to human motives.

One further verification may be drawn from facts which are obstacles to
the converse hypothesis. These obje