Zoological Mythology Volume I Part 27

The same Greeks who held the a.s.s up to derision, made the Phrygian king Midas, of the a.s.s's ears, the object of their satire. This is a particular form of the mythico-heroic struggle between Greeks and Phrygians or Trojans. Apollo is the enemy of the Trojans, as he is the enemy of the Phrygian king Midas. The Trojans and Troy are represented by the a.s.s, and the Greeks, who vanquish and take by a.s.sault the Trojan fortress, by the horse; the sun disperses the night; the hero kills the centaur; the horse defeats the a.s.s, the Greek the Trojan; and every one can see how the fact that the Greeks personified in the a.s.s their enemies in Asia Minor, must have damaged the reputation of the poor long-eared animal. The most bitter and cutting satire is always that which is directed towards one's own enemies; and the a.s.s, unfortunately, had at one time the honour of representing the Phrygian, the traditional enemy of the Greek. The a.s.s bore the load of this heroic war, in the same way as in the Middle Ages he was publicly impaled by the Paduans for having had the misfortune of being the sacred animal on the arms of the city of Vicenza, with which the Paduans lived in rivalry.[725]

In the same eleventh book of Ovid where the transformation of the human ears of Midas into a.s.s's ears is described, it is very remarkable that the new ears are called whitish, as in the Mongol story they are said to be golden. This confirms still more the interpretation of the myth, to the effect that the a.s.s is the solar steed during the night. The head and the tail of the night, conceived as an animal, are now the two whitish or grey twilights, and now the two golden auroras of morning and evening.

"Nec Delius aures Humanam stolidas pat.i.tur retinere figuram, Sed trahit in spatium villisque albentibus implet Instabilesque illas facit et dat posse moveri."

The changeableness of the twilights must have served very well to express the mobility of the ears of an a.s.s.

In the story of the a.s.s, Midas, the musical critic, the predestined a.s.s, p.r.o.nounces in favour of Pan; and he does so not only on account of the consanguinity between himself and the G.o.d, but also from a patriotic feeling. Pan was born in a forest of Arcadia, of Zeus and the nymph Kallisto; and it is well known that antiquity celebrated the a.s.ses of Arcadia above those of every other country. The a.s.s as a musician, the a.s.s as a musical critic, Pan the musician, and Pan preferred by the a.s.s, are the same person. Arcadia, the country of pastoral music, of whistling shepherds, which made the Italy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries bleat out so many useless verses, the country of Pan the satyr, _par excellence_, is the country of the a.s.s. Arcadia is the most mountainous and wooded part of Greece,[726] and therefore, when the Olympians came down from heaven, celestial nymphs and satyrs came to people the forests and fountains of Arcadia. The divine guardian of the ambrosia in the heavenly cloud takes, in the Arcadian forest, the form of Pan, G.o.d of shepherds, who keeps guard over the honey. The gandharvas, who danced and sung in the Hindoo Olympus with the apsarasas, has descended into Arcadia in the shape of Pan, to dance and sing with the nymphs.[727] Pan who goes alone into the gloomy forest, Pan who chases fear away, connected as he is with the story of the a.s.s, reminds us on the one hand of the superst.i.tion recorded by Pliny, to the effect that an a.s.s's skin put upon children chases fear from them[728]

(in the same way as in the province of Girgenti, in Sicily, it is believed that shoes made of a wolf's skin, put on children's feet, make them daring and lucky in battle), and, on the other hand, of the unpublished Piedmontese story of the fearless Giovannino, who, in reward for his courage in going alone to h.e.l.l, brings away with him an a.s.s which throws gold from its tail.[729] In Tzetzas[730] I find again the curious notion that Midas sold his own _stercus_ out of avarice, that is, that he changed it into gold, as Vespasian used to do by selling the excrement of his horse.

The aesopian a.s.s, when he goes to battle, terrifies by his braying all the animals of the forest; so Pan defeats his enemies by means of his terrible voice; and according to Herodotus,[731] in the heroic battle of Marathon, the Athenians were helped by the powerful voice of the G.o.d Pan. Finally, as we have seen Apollo to be the rival of Pan and the enemy of the Phrygian Midas, the predestined a.s.s, as well as of the Trojans, so, in the eleventh of the Pythic odes of Pindar, we find the hero Perseus, among the Hyperboreans,[732] eating a.s.ses.[733] The morning sun devours the a.s.s of night, as we have seen the solar hero Rustem do in the _Shah-Name_, where he eats the wild a.s.ses.

But we must look for more mythical personages in connection with the a.s.s Midas in Arcadia, as the region of Pan and of a.s.ses. The a.s.s Midas is considered as a rich progenitor of races, and is supposed to have been the first Phrygian. Windischmann has already observed (with the examples of Yamas, Yima, Ma.n.u.s, Minos, and Radamanthus) the connection between the rich progenitor of races and the rich king or judge of h.e.l.l. To Midas the progenitor and to Midas the judge, corresponds the a.s.s whose excrements are of gold, the a.s.s judge and prophet, the Arcadian and prophetic Pan. The Arcadians considered themselves not only autocthonoi, but proselenoi, or anterior to the moon. But they are also considered in the light of inhabitants of an infernal region.

In Arcadia was situated the lake Stumphalos, the demoniacal birds of which were slain by Herakles in Arcadia; in a chasm formed of wild rocks was the source of the Styx, the princ.i.p.al infernal river, that by which the h.e.l.lenic infernal beings were accustomed to swear. Greek and Latin writers used to narrate of the a.s.s (and the mule) that it had an especial aversion to the water of the Styx, as being poisonous.

This superst.i.tion, when referred to the myth, appears to mean that, when the solar hero drinks this water--the water of the dark or cloudy ocean--he becomes a dark a.s.s. (We find in Russian stories the hero who is transformed into a bull, a horse, or a he-goat, when he drinks water of which a demoniacal bull, horse, or he-goat has previously drunk.) aelianos, in his tenth book relative to animals, speaking of the horned a.s.ses of Scythia, writes that they held in their horns the water of the Styx. A similar narrative is given by Philostratos in the third book of his romantic Life of Apollonios, concerning the fabulous horned a.s.s of India. "It is said," he writes, "that in the marshy ground near the Indian river Hyphasis many wild a.s.ses are to be found; and that these wild beasts have on their heads a horn with which they fight bravely like bulls" (this seems to be a reminiscence of the Indian rhinoceros); "and that the Indians form out of these horns drinking-cups, affirming that those who drink out of these cups are delivered from every illness for all that day; when wounded they feel no pain, they pa.s.s safely through flames, nor, when they have drunk out of it, can they be hurt by any poison. They say that these cups belong to kings alone, nor is it permitted to any other than a king to hunt the animal. It is narrated that Apollonios (the hero of the romance) had seen this animal and observed its nature with wonder.

Moreover, to Damis, who asked him whether he had faith in what was commonly said concerning the virtue of this cup, he answered 'I will believe it when I shall have learned that in this country the king is immortal.'" And no doubt Apollonios would have believed had it been impossible for him to divine that the king who makes use of this marvellous cup is the immortal sun, to whom alone it is reserved to kill the a.s.s of the nocturnal forest, the a.s.s whose hairy ears are like horns,[734] whose ears are of gold.

The horn of the Scythian a.s.s full of Stygian water, the horn of the a.s.s which, when used as a cup, gives health and happiness to him who drinks out of it, remind us (not to speak of Samson's jaw-bone of an a.s.s, which makes water flow) especially of the myth of the cornucopia and that of the goat, with which the satyrs and fauns, having goat's feet, stand in particular connection. It is also for this reason that the a.s.s is found in relation with Pan; wherefore it is too that Silenos rides upon an a.s.s, and appears, as we have already seen, in the story of Midas, in his garden of roses; indeed the mythical centaurs or onocentaurs, satyr, faun, a.s.s, and goat are equivalent expressions. We have seen, a few pages back, the Zendic three-legged a.s.s; in the following chapter we shall find the lame goat.

As the a.s.s was ridden by Silenos,[735] so was he the animal dedicated to Bacchus and to Priapos, whose mysteries were celebrated in the Dionysian feasts. It is said that when Bacchus had to traverse a marsh, he met with two young a.s.ses, and was conveyed by one of them, who was endowed with human speech, to the other side without touching the water. (The 116th hymn of the first book of the _?igvedas_ merits being especially compared with this. In it, immediately after having represented the Acvinau as drawn by winged a.s.ses, the poet celebrates the Acvinau as delivering the hero Bhugyus out of the waters upon a vessel that moved of itself in the air.)[736] On this account it is said that Bacchus, in grat.i.tude, placed the two young a.s.ses among the stars.[737] This is another confirmation of the fact that the mythical a.s.s really had the virtue of flying; and the proverb "Asinus si volat habet alas"[738]

alludes to this myth. The fable of the a.s.s who wishes to fly, and the flight of the a.s.s, are derisive allusions, applied to the earthly a.s.s.

The celestial myth lingers in the memory, but is no longer understood.

In the myth of Prometheus, in _aelianos_ (vi. 5), we have the a.s.s who carries the talisman which makes young again, which Zeus intended for him who should discover the robber of the divine fire (Prometheus). The a.s.s, being thirsty, approaches a fountain, and is about to drink, when a snake who guards the fountain prevents him from doing so. The a.s.s offers the snake the charm which he is carrying, upon which the serpent strips off its old age, and the a.s.s, drinking at the fountain, acquires the power of becoming young again. The a.s.s of night, when he drinks the dew of the dawn, grows young and handsome again every day. It is on this account, I repeat, that youth is celebrated as a peculiar virtue of the a.s.s; it is on this account that the Romans attributed a great cosmetic virtue to a.s.s's milk[739] (the white dawn, or moon).

The mythical a.s.s seems to die every day, whereas, on the contrary it is born anew every day, and becomes young again; whence the Greek proverb does not celebrate the death in the singular, but the deaths of the a.s.s ("Onou thanatous").

The Italian proverb of the a.s.s that carries wine and drinks water, probably alludes to the a.s.s that carries the water of youth, and then, being thirsty, drinks at the fountain in the legend of Prometheus. The wine of the h.e.l.lenic and Latin myth corresponds to the inebriating drink or somas in which Indras delights so much in the _?igvedas_. The a.s.s bears the drunken Silenos on its back.

The sun, who in the cloud is covered with the skin of an a.s.s, carries the rain; whence the Greek proverb the a.s.s is wetted by the rain ("Onos huetai"), and the popular belief that when the ears of the a.s.s or of a satyr (that is to say, of the a.s.s itself) move, it is an indication of rainy weather (or dew). When the sun comes out of the shadows of night, he drinks the milk or white humour of the early morning sky, the same white foaming humour which caused the birth of Aphrodite, the same humour out of which, by the loves of Dionysos (or of Pan, of a satyr, or of the a.s.s itself) and Aphrodite, the satyr was procreated--Priapos, whose phallic loves are discovered by the a.s.s.

The satyr serves as a link between the myth of the a.s.s and that of the goat. On this account (that is, on account of the close relation between the mythical a.s.s and the mythical goat) two ancient Greek and Latin proverbs--_i.e._, to dispute about the shadow of the a.s.s ("Peri onou skias") and to dispute, "De lana caprina"--have the same meaning, a dispute concerning a bagatelle (but which is no trifle in the myth, where the skin of the goat or of the a.s.s is sometimes changed into a golden fleece), which seems so much the more probable, as the Greeks have also handed down to us another proverb in which the man who expects to reap where he has not sown is laughed at as one who looks for the wool of the a.s.s ("Onou pokas zeteis"), or who shears the a.s.s ("Ton onon keireis"). We have seen, in the myth of Midas, the king, whose ears, when combed, betray his asinine nature. The Piedmontese story of the maiden on whose forehead a horn or an a.s.s's tail grows, because she has badly combed the good fairy's head, is connected with this story of the combing of the long-eared Midas. The combed a.s.s and the sheared a.s.s correspond with one another; the combed a.s.s has golden ears, in the same way as gold and gems fall from the head of the good fairy combed by the good girl in the fairy tale. To this mythical belief, I think, may be traced the origin of the mediaeval custom in the Roman Church, which lasted till the time of Gregory VII., in which public ovations were offered to the Pope, and an a.s.s bearing money upon its head was brought before him.[740]

The shadow of the a.s.s[741] betrays him, no less than his ears, his nose, and his braying. The shadow of the a.s.s and his nose are found in connection with each other in the legend of the Golden a.s.s of Apuleius, which, after narrating how the a.s.s, by putting his head out of the window, had betrayed his master the greengrocer or gardener (the friend of perfumes, "Gandharvas, asinus, in unguento, onos en muro"), concludes thus: "The miserable gardener having been found again, and taken before the magistrates to pay the fine, they lead him to a public prison, and with great laughter cease not, says the a.s.s Lucius, to "make merry with my face;" whence also was derived the popular proverb concerning the face and shadow of the a.s.s ('De prospectu et umbra asini')." The a.s.s who betrays his master the greengrocer or gardener by his face is a variety of the a.s.s who, dressed in the forest in the lion's skin[742] (like Herakles who goes into h.e.l.l dressed in a lion's skin), betrays himself by his braying, and of the a.s.s who discovers by his braying Priapos, who delights in gardens (the v.u.l.v.a), Priapos the gardener, like the ogre[743] of the _Pentamerone_, who finds before him in his garden a beautiful maiden.

The a.s.s can restrain neither his voice nor his flatus; we have already seen something similar in the story of Midas, where the comber of the a.s.s feels he will burst if he is not permitted to relieve himself of the secret of the a.s.s. Diogenes of Laertes narrates that the fields of Agrigentum being devastated by malignant winds which destroyed the crops, the philosopher Empedocles instructed them to take a.s.ses'

skins, and having made sacks of them, carry them to the summits of the hills and mountains, to chase the winds away. aelianos, confounding one noise with another, suggests, to prevent the a.s.s from braying, the advantage of appending a stone to its tail. This ancient Greek fable is to this day very popular in Italy, and the narrator is accustomed to furbish it up with a character of actuality, as if it had happened yesterday, and among his acquaintances.

In the Italian stories,[744] when the a.s.s brays upon the mountain, a tail grows on the forehead of the step-mother's ugly daughter; the third crowing of the c.o.c.k is the signal for the monster's death; the third braying or flatus of the a.s.s announces the death of the fool. With the end of the night the a.s.s disappears, and the fool also disappears or dies. The braying of the a.s.s cannot mount up into heaven; after the a.s.s has brayed, after the cloud has thundered, the a.s.s comes down upon the earth, is dissolved into rain, is dispersed and dies; the dark a.s.s cannot remain in the luminous sky, it can only inhabit the cloudy, watery, or gloomy sky of h.e.l.l. The way in which the fool of the story tries to elude death resembles that which was used, according to aelianos, to prevent the a.s.s from braying. In a story of Armagnac,[745]

Joan lou Pec runs after a man whom he believes to be a sage, and asks him when he will die; the man answers, "Joan lou Pec, mouriras au troisiemo pet de toun ase." The a.s.s does so twice; the fool endeavours to prevent the third: "Cop sec s'en-angonc cerca un pau (a stake) bien pounchut et l'enfouncec das un martet dens lou cu de l'ase. Mes l'ase s'enflec tant, e hasconc tant gran effort, que lou pau sourtisconc coumo no balo e tuec lou praube Joan lou Pec."

In _Herodotus_, the Scythians are defeated when the a.s.ses bray, and the dogs bark among Darius's tents. The braying of the a.s.s, the thunder of the cloud, is an oracle; the a.s.s that brays is a judge and a prophet. In h.e.l.l everything is known; the devil knows every art, every species of malice, every secret; the a.s.s in h.e.l.l partic.i.p.ates in this knowledge. The a.s.s Nicon, in _Plutarch_, in the Life of Antony, predicts to Augustus his victory at the battle of Actium; on the contrary, in the Life of Alexander, by the same author, an a.s.s who kills with a kick a great lion belonging to the Macedonian, appears to the great conqueror in the light of an evil omen. The dying sun of evening, the old lion, is killed in the evening by the a.s.s of night; in the morning, on the contrary, the a.s.s of night announces his fortune to the solar hero, who again becomes luminous and wise. The a.s.s can predict all things, because it knows all things; it knows everything, because it hears everything, and it hears everything by means of its exceedingly long ears; the a.s.s of Apuleius says of itself: "Recreabar quod auribus praeditus cuncta longule etiam dissita sentiebam." And this a.s.s which listens from a distance reminds us again of the third brother, now a fool, and now only supposed to be a fool; to the Andalusian Oidin-Oidon, hijo del buen oidor (a relation of the already cited Vedic Indras acrutkar?as), of the second cuento of Caballero,[746] who hears everything that is done in the deepest parts of h.e.l.l, where Lucifer sits, horned and large-eared. The hero who combats with Lucifer only thinks of cutting off his ear; the a.s.s without ears is no longer an a.s.s; the ears of the mythical a.s.s are its vital and characteristic organs. Instead of ears, give horns to the mythical a.s.s, and we have the mythical goat; take the horns away and we have now the mythical abject sheep, now the hog; this is what we shall see in the two next chapters.

FOOTNOTES:

[686] _Ueber den Zusammenhang indischer Fabeln mit griechischen_, eine kritische Abhandlung von A. Weber, Berlin, 1855.

[687] Here is the hymn as given by Du Cange in his _Gloss. M. et I.

L._:--

"Orentis partibus Adventavit Asinus, Pulcher et fortissimus, Sarcinis aptissimus.

Hez, Sire Asnes, car chantez, Belle bouche rechignez, Vous aurez du fom a.s.sez Et de l'avoine a plantez.

"Lentus erat pedibus Nisi foret baculus Et eum in clunibus Pungeret aculeus.

Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.

"Hic in collibus Sichem, Jam nutritus sub Ruben, Transiit per Jordanem, Saliit in Bethleem.

Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.

"Ecce magnis auribus Subjugalis filius Asinus egregius Asinorum dominus.

Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.

"Saltu vincit hinnulos, Damas et capreolos, Super dromedarios Velox Madianeos.

Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.

"Auram de Arabia, Thus et myrrhum de Saba Tulit in ecclesia Virtus Asinaria.

Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.

"Dum trahit vehicula Multa c.u.m sarcinula, Illius mandibula, Dura terit pabula, Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.

"c.u.m aristis hordeum Comedit et carduum; Tritic.u.m a palea Segregat in area.

Hez, Sire Asnes, &c.

"Amen, dicas, Asine, (_Hic genuflectabatur._) Jam satur de gramine: Amen, amen itera Aspernare vetera.

Hez va! hez va! hez va! hez!

Bialz! Sire Asne, car allez; Belle bouche car chantez."

[688] Cfr. Reinsberg von Duringsfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_.

[689] Sometimes the place of the a.s.s is taken by the mule. At Turin, for instance, it is narrated that the church dedicated to the _Corpus Domini_ was erected several centuries ago on account of the miracle of a mule which carried some sacred goods stolen by an impious thief. Having arrived in the little square where the Church of the _Corpus Domini_ now stands, the mule refused to go any farther; and out of a cup, which was among the sacred objects stolen, a wafer containing the body of our Saviour rose into the air. Nor would it come down again until the bishop came forth, and, holding the cup high in the air, besought the wafer to come back into it; which having been miraculously accomplished, the Church of the _Corpus Domini_ was erected on the spot, from which starts and to which returns the solemn procession which takes place annually at Turin on the festival of _Corpus Domini_, and in which, about twenty years ago, the princes and great dignitaries of the state, with the professors of the university, used to take part in all the pomp of mediaeval ceremony and costume.--In Persia the festival of a.s.ses is celebrated at the approach of spring; the a.s.s personifying here the end of the winter season.

[690] The same a.n.a.logy presents itself in the Sansk?it word _arbhakas_, which means little and foolish.

[691] Cfr. the root _gad_, from which we might perhaps deduce an imaginary intermediate form, gadarbhas, besides the known gardabhas and gandharbas or gandharvas.

[692] Cfr. _arvan_ with the roots _arv, arb, arp, ?iph, riph, riv, ?inv_.

[693] x. 10, 5.

[694] Gandharva ittha padam asya rakshati.; _?igv._ ix. 83, 4.

[695] Strikama? vai gandharva?; i. 27.

[696] Professor Kuhn (_Die Herabkunft_, d. f. &c.) has already compared to this the Zend Gandhrawa, who, in the Lake Vouru-Kasha, keeps guard over the tree _hom_ (the Vedic Somas). Kuhn and Weber, moreover, have identified the Vedic gandharvas, K?ica.n.u.s, who wounds the ravisher of the Somas, with the Zend Kerecani, who endeavours to destroy riches; here the gandharvas would appear to be a monstrous and demoniacal being.

[697] ... ut omittam eos, quos libidinis ac f?dae voluptatis causa, coluisse nomen illud atque imposuisse suis, a scriptoribus notatur, qualis olim Onos ille Commodi; qualis exsecrandus Marci Verotrasinus, qualis et alterius On.o.belos, quales, quos matronis in deliciis fuisse scimus. Unde illud atque alium bipedem sibi quaerit asellum, ejus nempe membri causa, quod, in asino, clava, a Nicandro dicitur; _Laus Asini_, Lugd. Batavorum, ex officina Elzeviriana, p. 194.

[698] To this flight into Egypt upon the a.s.s can be referred the Piedmontese custom among children in the middle of Lent--that is, near the festival of St Joseph--of attaching to their companions now a saw, now a devil's head, now an a.s.s's head, p.r.o.nouncing the words, "L'asu caria che gnun lu sa" (the a.s.s burdened, and no one knows it).

Moreover, it seems to me that to the Christian tradition of Joseph, and of the child Jesus carried upon the a.s.s, can be referred the well-known European fable of the old man, the boy, and the a.s.s, of which numerous varieties may be read in the article upon the _asinus vulgi_ in the _Orient und Occident_ of Benfey.