By every mortal creature,
And every mortal creature rejoicing
With her sweet glance’s light and warmth;
But in the evening, impell’d, all-disconsolate,
Once more returneth she home
To the moist house and desert arms
Of her grey-headed spouse.’[[270]]
In a Swedish popular song, a King of England has two daughters, the elder black as night (Night itself); the other, younger, beautiful and brilliant like the day (Day itself). The latter goes forward followed by the other, who comes and throws her into the sea.[[271]] In this popular story, also, the sunset is viewed as a fall into the sea; but one new feature is here added, viz., that the two sisters fight, and the black one, the dark Night, throws the brilliant Sun into the sea. In the morning the Sun that had fallen into the sea rises up again out of her night’s quarters. The Roman poet expresses the idea ‘Never did a fairer lady see the sun arise,’ by the words:
Ne qua femina pulchrior
Clarum ab Oceano diem