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Oil the Early Kings of Attica. 353 been changed into a king, the mortal husband of Alcestis. The signification of N^yXeJ^ is probably the same, for in mythology brothers frequently represent the same idea: ea was an old Greek root for light, whence aeXio^, aeXas^ aeXrjvr], €ir] and Nt^XgJs is derived from it by the same negative pre- fix as vrjXe^^ from eXeo?^*^. From the same root and not the Hebrew S*T2 1 should deduce NeTo9 which meant black, whether it were so called from the black Ethiopians among whom it rose (Paus. 8. 24) or because Egyptum 7iigra foecundat arena"' Virg. Georg. 4. 291. 'A/mvOawv the brother of Pelias and Neleus is probably only an epithet ; ^leXdfjiTrov^^ in whose name there is the same allusion to the rites of dark- ness, was the reputed hierophant of the Egyptian myste- ries^^, possessing like Proteus the power of changing him- into any shape that he pleased. In the da7'k faced Pelops, for this is the meaning of the name IleXox//, I think we may discern another trace of the same religion, referred indeed not to Thrace like that which Ogyges and Orpheus represent, nor to Phoenicia and Egypt like that of Melampus, but to Phrygia. The differ- ence however is not material, for the Phrygian worship of the earth, under the character of the great mother, was essen- tially the same as the Thracian, probably in origin the same. It is of no importance to inqviire here whether the traces of this religion in the mythological history of Argos, arose from a real colonization from Phrygia, or from a connexion between the population of Greece and Asia Minor, preceding all his- torical records. My purpose is only to point out these traces and on the ground of them to assign to Pelops a mythical, instead of the historical character which he has hitherto sustained. Tantalus, the father of Pelops is said to have disclosed the mysteries of the gods, Eudoc. Viol. p. 390. Schol. Lycophr. 155. The story of the caldron and the division of the body is that of Orpheus and Pelias '° There were two rivers in Eubaja called Kipeus and 'NlXcvs or N7]Xeu§ Strabo x. p. 655. Ox. the Kt^eu? made the sheep white, the N?;Xeu§ black. Kt/309 or KippS^ is a light or bright colour, such as that of white wine or white grapes, or flame ; this use of N7;eu9 places beyond doubt the explanation of the name given in the text. A river in Ba?otia was called I^Ielas from the same quality Plin. 2. 103. '• Eudoc. V^iol. p. 280. 7- Herod. 2. 49.