Of Cimmerian gloom there can be nothing in
the myth primarily, because it deals at the beginning with heaven, and
not with hell; with an auspicious, and not a gloomy, vision of life
after death.
CERBERUS AND COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY.
In conclusion I would draw the attention of those scholars, writers, and
publicists that have declared bankruptcy against the methods and results
of Comparative Mythology to the present attempt to establish an
Indo-European naturalistic myth. I would ask them to consider, in the
light of the Veda, that it is probable that the early notions of future
life turn to the visible heaven with its sun and moon, rather than to
the topographically unstable and elusive caves and gullies that lead to
a wide-gated Hades. In heaven, therefore, and not in hell, is the likely
breeding spot of the Cerberus myth. On the way to heaven there is but
one pair that can have shaped itself reasonably in the minds of
primitive observers into a pair of Cerberi. Sun and moon, the Veda
declares, are the Cerberi.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48