BOOK II.
the name of any deity. In the Greek dialects the word itself seems to have been lost, while the Latin ignis, with which it is identical, is merely a name for fire ; nor are any myths associated with the Lithuanian Agni, the Slavonic Ogon, beyond that of his being sprung from Svarog, the heaven.^
Section II.— PHOROXEUS AND HESTIA.
The Wind and the Fire. The Ar- give Pho- roneus. The myth of Hermes brings before us one of the many modes in which men were supposed to have become first possessed of the boon of fire. But although Hermes is there said to have been the first to bestow this gift upon mankind, it is simply as supplying or kindling the materials, not as being himself the fire. The hymn-wTiter is care- ful to distinguish between the two. He is the fire-giver because he rubs the branches of the forest trees together till they burst into a flame : but the wood thus kindled and the meat which is roasted are devoured not by himself but by the flames. Hermes remains hungry, although he is represented as longing for the food whose savour fills his nostrils. Nothing can show more clearly that we are dealing simply with the wind or with air in motion, in other words, with the bellows not with the fire. Hence with a keen sense of the meaning of the myth, Shelley, in his translation of the line, speaks of Hermes as supplying to men " matches, tinderbox, and steel " for the kindling of the flame.
Another discoverer or bestower of fire is the Argive Phoroneus, who represents the Vedic fire-god Bhuranyu, and whose name is thus seen to be another form of the Greek Pur, the Teutonic feuer and fire. Phoroneus is thus the fire itself, and as such he dwelt on the Astu Phoronikon of Argos,- — in other words, he is the Argive Hestia with its holy flame of everlasting fire.* In this aspect he was naturally represented as the first of men and the father of all who are subject to death ; and as such, he is also described, in accordance with the myth of the Askingas, as springing from an ash-tree.^ To Phoroneus himself more than one wife is assigned. In one version he is the husband of Kerdo, the clever or winsome, a name pointing to the influence of fire on the comfort and the arts of life ; in another of
Mr. Brown refers us to no Semitic form of the name, we are not justified in surrendering the Aryan interpretation of the word.
' The worship of Ogon, Mr. Ralston tells us {So/i^^s of the Russian people, S5), was connected with that of the domestic hearth, of which the stove has taken the place.
- Preller, Gr. Afyih. ii. 37.
' //>. Mclia, of course, becomes a nym]ih, and is said to be wedded to Inarhos, who thus becomes the father of Phoroneus.
