[43] It was also told of Ptolemaös, the son of Lagos and Arsinoë, that an eagle protected the exposed boy with his wings against the sunshine, the rain and birds of prey (loc. cit.).
[44] F. E. Lange, “Herodot’s Geschichten” (Reclam). Compare also Duncker’s “History of Antiquity” (Leipsig, 1880), N. 5, page 256 et sequitur.
[45] The same “playing king” is found in the Hindoo myth of Candragupta, the founder of the Maurja dynasty, whom his mother exposed after his birth, in a vessel at the gate of a cowshed, where a herder found him and raised him. Later on he came to a hunter, where he as cow-herder played “king” with the other boys, and as king ordered that the hands and feet of the great criminals be chopped off. [The mutilation motive occurs also in the Kyros saga, and is generally widely distributed.] At his command, the separated limbs returned to their proper position. Kanakja, who once looked on as they were at play, admired the boy, and bought him from the hunter for one thousand Kârshâpana; at home he discovered that the boy was a Maurja. (After Lassen’s Indische Altertumskunde, II, 196, Annotation 1.)
[46] Justinus, “Extract from Pompeius Trogus’ Philippian History,” I, 4-7. As far as results from Justinus’ extract, Deinon’s Persian tales (written in the first half of the fourth century before Christ) are presumably the sources of Trogus’ narrative.
[47] The words in parenthesis are said to be lacking in certain manuscripts.
[48] Nicol. Damasc. Frag. 66, Ctes.; Frag. Pers., 2, 5.
[49] This daughter’s name is Amytis (not Mandane) in the version of Ktesias.
[50] On the basis of this motive of simulated dementia and certain other corresponding features Jiriczek (“Hamlet in Iran,” in the Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, Vol. X, 1900, p. 353) has represented the Hamlet Saga as a variation of the Iranese myth of Kaikhosrav. This idea was followed up by H. Lessmann (“Die Kyrossage in Europa”), who shows that the Hamlet saga strikingly agrees in certain items, for example, in the simulated folly, with the sagas of Brutus and of Tell. (Compare also the protestations of Moses.) In another connection, the deeper roots of these relations have been more extensively discussed, especially with reference to the Tell saga. (See: Das Inzest-Motiv in Dichtung und Sage, Chapter VIII.) Attention is also directed to the story of David, as it is told in the books of Samuel. Here again, the royal scion, David, is made a shepherd, who gradually rises in the social scale up to the royal throne. He likewise is given the king’s (Saul’s) daughter in marriage, and the king seeks his life, but David is always saved by miraculous means from the greatest perils. He also evades persecution by simulating dementia and playing the fool. The relationship between the Hamlet saga and the David saga has already been pointed out by Jiriczek and Lessmann. The biblical character of this entire mythical cycle is also emphasized by Jiriczek, who finds in the tale of Siâvaksh’s death certain features from the Passion of the Savior.
[51] The name Zohâk is a mutilation of the original Zend expression Ashi-dahaka [Azis-dahaka], meaning pernicious serpent. (See “The Myth of Feridun in India and Iran,” by Dr. R. Roth, in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, II, p. 216.) To the Iranese Feridum corresponds the Hindoo Trita, whose Avestian double is Thraetaona. The last named form is the most predominantly authenticated; from it was formed, by transition of the aspirated sounds, first Phreduna, then Frêdûn or Afrêdun; Feridun is a more recent corruption. Compare F. Spiegel’s “Eranische Altertumskunde,” I, p. 537 et seq.
[52] Compare Immermann, “Tristan und Isolde, Ein Gedicht in Romanzen,” Düsseldorf, 1841. Like the epic of Gottfried of Strassburg, his poem begins with the preliminary history of the loves of Tristan’s parents, King Riwalin Kannlengres of Parmenia and Marke’s beautiful sister Blancheflur. The maiden never reveals her love, which is not sanctioned by her brother, but she visits the king, who is wounded unto death, in his chamber, and dying he procreates Tristan, “the son of the most daring and doleful love.” Grown up as a foundling in the care of Rual and his wife, Florete, the winsome youth Tristan introduces himself to Marke in a stag hunt, as an expert huntsman, is recognized as his nephew by a ring, the king’s gift to his beloved sister, and becomes his favorite.