[63] Alkmene bore Herakles as the son of Zeus, and Iphikles as the offspring of Amphitryon. According to Apollodorus, 2, 4, 8, they were twin children, born at the same time; according to others Iphikles was conceived and born one night later than Herakles (see Roscher’s Lexicon, Amphitryon and Alkmene). The shadowy character of the twin brother, and his loose connection with the entire myth, is again evident. In a similar way, Telephos, the son of Auge, was exposed together with Parthenopaüs, the son of Atalantis, nursed by a doe, and taken by herders to King Korythos. The external subsequent insertion of the partner is here again quite obvious.
[64] For the formal demonstration of the entire identity of the birth and early history of Jesus with the other hero-myths, the author has presumed to re-arrange the corresponding paragraphs from the different versions, in the Gospels, irrespective of the traditional sequence and the originality of the individual parts. The age, origin and genuineness of these parts are briefly summarized and discussed in W. Soltan’s Birth History of Jesus Christ (German text), Leipsic, 1902. The transmitted versions of the several Gospels,—which according to Usener (Birth and Childhood of Christ, 1903, in Lectures and Essays (German text), Leipsic, 1907), contradict and even exclude each other,—have been placed, or left, in juxtaposition, precisely for the reason that the apparently contradictory elements in these birth myths are to be elucidated in the present research, no matter if these contradictions be encountered within a single uniform saga, or in its different versions (as, for example, in the Kyros myth).
[65] Concerning the birth of Jesus in a cave, and the furnishing of the birth place with the typical animals (ox and ass) compare Jeremias, Babylonisches im Neuen Testament (Leipzig, 1905), p. 56, and Preuschen, Jesu Geburt in einer Höhle, Zeitschrift für die Neutest. Wissenschaften, 1902, P. 359.
[66] According to recent investigations, the birth history of Christ is said to have the greatest resemblance with the royal Egyptian myth, over five thousand years old, which relates the birth of Amenophis III. Here again recurs the divine prophecy of the birth of a son, to the waiting queen; her fertilization by the breath of heavenly fire; the divine cows, which nurse the new born child; the homage of the kings, and so forth. In this connection, compare A. Malvert, Wissenschaft und Religion, Frankfort, 1904, pp. 49 et seq, also the suggestion of Professor Idleib in Bonn (Feuilleton of Frankfurter Zeitung, November 8, 1908).
[67] Very similar traits are found in the Keltic saga of Habis, as transmitted by Justin (44,4). Born as the illegitimate son of a king’s daughter, Habis is persecuted in all sorts of ways by his royal grandfather, Gargoris, but is always saved by divine providence, until he is finally recognized by his grandfather, and assumes royal sway. As in the Zarathustra legend, there occurs an entire series of the most varied methods of persecution. He is at first exposed, but nursed by wild animals; then he was to be trampled upon by a herd in a narrow path; then he was cast before hungry beasts, but they again nursed him, and finally he is thrown into the sea, but is gently lapped ashore and nursed by a doe, near which he grows up.
[68] Compare August Rassmann: Die deutsche Heldensage und ihre Heimat, Hanover, 1857-8, Vol. II, pp. 7 et seq; for the sources, see Jiriczek, Die deutsche Heldensage (collection Göschen) and Piper’s introduction to the volume: Die Nibelungen, in Kürschner’s German National Literature.
[69] Compare: Deutsches Heldenbuch, Part III, Vol. I (Berlin, 1871), edited by Amelung and Jaenicke, which also contains the second version (B) of the Wolfdietrich saga.
[70] The motive of calumniation of the wife by a rejected suitor, in combination with the exposure and nursing by an animal (doe), forms the nucleus of the story of Genovefa and her son Schmerzenreich, as told, for example, by the Grimm brothers, in their German Sagas, II, Berlin, 1818, pp. 280 et seq. Here, again, the faithless calumniator proposes to drown the countess with her child in the water. For literary and historical orientation, compare L. Zacher, Die Historic von der Pfalzgräfin Genovefa, Koenigsberg, 1860, and B. Seuffert, Die Legende von der Pfalzgräfin Genovefa, Würzburg, 1877. Similar sagas of wives suspected of infidelity and punished by exposure are discussed in the XI chapter of my investigation of “Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage” (The Incest Motive in Fiction and Legends).
[71] The same accentuation of the animal motive is found in the saga of Schalû, the Hindoo wolf child; compare Jülg, Mongolische Märchen (Mongolian fairy tales; Innsbruck, 1868).
[72] The Grimm Brothers, in their German Sagas (part II, p. 206, etc.), quote six further versions of the saga of the Knight with the Swan. Certain fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers, such as “The Six Swans” (No. 49), “The Twelve Brothers” (No. 9), and the “Seven Ravens” (No. 25), with their parallels and variations, mentioned in the 3d volume of the “Kinder-und Hausmärchen,” also belong to the same mythological cycle. Further material from this cycle may be found in Leo’s “Beowulf,” and in Görre’s “Introduction to Lohengrin” (Heidelberg, 1813).