13.
Thus we begin to see why a few simple objects, like the sun,
the sky, the dawn, and the night, should be represented in
mythology by such a host of gods, goddesses, and heroes. For
at one time the Sun is represented as the conqueror of hydras
and dragons who hide away from men the golden treasures of
light and warmth, and at another time he is represented as a
weary voyager traversing the sky-sea amid many perils, with
the steadfast purpose of returning to his western home and his
twilight bride; hence the different conceptions of Herakles,
Bellerophon, and Odysseus. Now he is represented as the son of
the Dawn, and again, with equal propriety, as the son of the
Night, and the fickle lover of the Dawn; hence we have, on the
one hand, stories of a virgin mother who dies in giving birth
to a hero, and, on the other hand, stories of a beautiful
maiden who is forsaken and perhaps cruelly slain by her
treacherous lover. Indeed, the Sun's adventures with so many
dawn-maidens have given him quite a bad character, and the
legends are numerous in which he appears as the prototype of
Don Juan. Yet again his separation from the bride of his youth
is described as due to no fault of his own, but to a
resistless decree of fate, which hurries him away as Aineias
was compelled to abandon Dido.
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