[523]. Parallel is the mantic significance of the delphic chasm, Mîmir’s brook, etc. “Abyss of Wisdom,” see last chapter. Hippolytos, with whom his stepmother was enamoured, was placed after death with the wise nymph, Egeria.
[524]. That these matrons should declare by lots whether it would be to their advantage or not to engage in battle.
[525]. Example in Bertschinger: Jahrbuch, Vol. III, Part I.
[526]. Compare the exotic myths given by Frobenius (“Zeitalter des Sonnengottes”), where the belly of the whale is clearly the land of death.
[527]. One of the fixed peculiarities of the Mar is that he can only get out of the hole, through which he came in. This motive belongs evidently as the projected wish motive in the rebirth myth.
[528]. According to Gressmann: “Altorient. Text. und Bild.,” Vol. I, p. 4.
[529]. Abyss of wisdom, book of wisdom, source of phantasies. See below.
[530]. Cleavage of the mother, see Kaineus; also rift, chasm = division of the earth, and so on.
[531]. “Schöpfung und Chaos.” Göttingen, 1895, p. 30.
[532]. Brugsch: Ibid., p. 161.