________________
LECTURE I.
49
most meaningless traditions of antiquity, all showing, what is still more important, that these traditions, many of them in their present state absurd and repulsive, regain a simple, intelligible, and even beautiful character if we divest them of the crust which language in its inevitable decay has formed around them.
We never lose, we always gain, when we discover the most ancient intention of sacred traditions, instead of being satisfied with their later aspect, and their modern misinterpretations. Have we lost anything if, while reading the story of Hephæstos splitting open with his axe the head of Zeus, and Athene springing from it, full armed, we perceive behind this savage imagery, Zeus as the bright Sky, his forehead as the East, Hephaestos as the young, not yet risen Sun, and Athene as the Dawn, the daughter of the Sky, stepping forth from the fountain-head of light
Tlavk@ls, with eyes like an owl(and beautiful they are);
Tlapdévos, pure as a virgin; Xpúoea, the golden; -,
'Akpía, lighting up the tops of the mountains, and her own glorious Parthenon in her own favourite town of Athens;
Iards, whirling the shafts of light; 'Aléa, the genial warmth of the morning;
TIpópaxos, the foremost champion in the battle between night and day;
TIávonios, in full armour, in her panoply of light, driving away the darkness of night, and rousing men to a bright life, to bright thoughts, to bright endeavours?
