ma), the fickle twilight, whom the Panis, or
night-demons, who serve as the prototypes of the Hellenic Paris, strive
to seduce from her allegiance to the solar monarch. Even Achilleus
(Aharyu) again confronts us, with his captive Briseis (Brisaya's
offspring); and the fierce Kerberos (Carvara) barks on Vedic ground in
strict conformity to the laws of phonetics. [11] Now, when the Hindu
talked about Father Dyaus, or the sleek kine of Siva, he thought of the
personified sky and clouds; he had not outgrown the primitive mental
habits of the race. But the Greek, in whose language these physical
meanings were lost, had long before the Homeric epoch come to regard
Zeus and Hermes, Athene, Helena, Paris, and Achilleus, as mere persons,
and in most cases the originals of his myths were completely forgotten.
In the Vedas the Trojan War is carried on in the sky, between the bright
deities and the demons of night; but the Greek poet, influenced perhaps
by some dim historical tradition, has located the contest on the shore
of the Hellespont, and in his mind the actors, though superhuman, are
still completely anthropomorphic. Of the true origin of his epic story
he knew as little as Euhemeros, or Lord Bacon, or the Abbe Banier.

After these illustrations, we shall run no risk of being misunderstood
when we define a myth as, in its origin, an explanation, by the
uncivilized mind, of some natural phenomenon; not an allegory, not an
esoteric symbol,--for the ingenuity is wasted which strives to detect in
myths the remnants of a refined primeval science,--but an explanation.
Primitive men had no profound science to perpetuate by means of
allegory, nor were they such sorry pedants as to talk in riddles when
plain language would serve their purpose. Their minds, we may be sure,
worked like our own, and when they spoke of the far-darting sun-god,
they meant just what they said, save that where we propound a scientific
theorem, they constructed a myth. [12] A thing is said to be explained
when it is classified with other things with which we are already
acquainted. That is the only kind of explanation of which the highest
science is capable. We explain the origin, progress, and ending of a
thunder-storm, when we classify the phenomena presented by it along with
other more familiar phenomena of vaporization and condensation. But the
primitive man explained the same thing to his own satisfaction when he
had classified it along with the well-kn