[100] The fairy tales, which have been left out of consideration in the context, precisely on account of these complications, include especially: “The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs” (Grimm, No. 29), and the very similar “Saga of Emperor Henry III” (Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, II, p. 177), “Water-Peter,” with numerous variations (Grimm, III, p. 103), “Fundevogel,” No. 51, “The Three Birdies” (No. 96), “The King of the Golden Mountain” (No. 92), with its parallels, as well as some foreign fairy tales, which are quoted by Bauer, at the end of his article. Compare also, in Hahn, “Greek and Albanese Fairy Tales” (Leipsic, 1864), the review of the exposure stories and myths, especially 20 and 69.
[101] A connection is here supplied with the motive of the twins, in which we seem to recognize the two boys born at the same time, one of which dies for the sake of the other, be it directly after birth, or later, and whose parents appear divided in our myths into two or more parent couples. Concerning the probable significance of this shadowy twin-brother as the after-birth, compare the author’s discussion in his Incest Book (p. 457, etc.).
[102] The early history of Sigurd, as it is related in the Völsunga Saga (compare Rassmann, I, 99), closely resembles the Ktesian version of the Kyros saga, giving us the tradition of another hero’s wonderful career, together with its rational rearrangement. For particulars, see Bauer, p. 554. Also the biblical history of Joseph (1 Moses, 37, et seq.), with the exposure, the animal sacrifice, the dreams, the sketchy brethren, and the fabulous career of this hero, seem to belong to this type of myth.
[103] In order to avoid misunderstandings, it appears necessary to emphasize at this point the historical nucleus of certain hero-myths. Kyros, as is shown by the inscriptions which have been discovered (compare Duncker, p. 289, Bauer, p. 498), was descended from an old hereditary royal house. It could not be the object of the myth to elevate the descent of Kyros, nor must the above interpretation be regarded as an attempt to establish a lowly descent of Kyros. Similar conditions prevail in the case of Sargon, whose royal father is also known (compare Jeremias, p. 410, annotation). Nevertheless, an historian writes about Sargon as follows (Ungnad, “Die Anfänge der Staatenbildung in Babylonien” (Beginnings of State Formation in Babylonia), Deutsche Rundschau, July, 1905): “He was evidently not of noble descent, or no such saga could have been woven about his birth and his youth.” It would be a gross error to consider our interpretation as an argument in this sense. Again, the apparent contradiction which might be held up against our explanation, under another mode of interpretation, becomes the proof of its correctness, through the reflection that it is not the hero, but the average man who makes the myth, and wishes to vindicate himself in the same. The people imagine the hero in this manner, investing him with their own infantile fantasies, irrespective of their actual compatibility or incompatibility with historical facts. This also serves to explain the transference of the typical motives, be it to several generations of the same hero family, or be it to historical personalities in general (concerning Cæsar, Augustus and others, compare Usener, Rhein. Mus. LV, p. 271).
[104] This identification of the families is carried through to the minutest detail in certain myths, as for example in the Œdipus myth, where one royal couple is offset by another, and where even the herdsman who receives the infant for exposure has his exact counterpart in the herdsman to whom he entrusts the rescue of the boy.
[105] Compare Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, London, 1872 (In German by Hartmann: Die Tiere in der indogermanischen Mythologie. Leipzig, 1874). Concerning the significance of animals in exposure myths, see also the contributions by Bauer (p. 574 et seq.), Goldziher (p. 274) and Liebrecht: Zur Volkskunde (Romulus und die Welfen) (Folk Lore, Romulus and the Whelps), Heilbronn, 1879.
[106] Compare Freud’s article on The Infantile Recurrence of Totemism (Imago, Vol. II, 1913). Concerning the totemistic foundation of the Roman she-wolf, compare Jones’ Nightmare (Alptraum), p. 59 et seq. The woodpecker of the Romulus saga was discussed by Jung (loc. cit., p. 382 et seq.).
[107] The stork is known also in mythology as the bringer of children. Siecke (Liebesgesch. d. Himmels, p. 26) points out the swan as the player of this part in certain regions and countries. The rescue and further protection of the hero by a bird is not uncommon; compare Gilgamos, Zal and Kyknos, who is exposed by his mother near the sea and is nourished by a swan, while his son Tennes floats in a chest upon the water. The interpretation of the leading motive of the Lohengrin saga also enters into present consideration. Its most important motives belong to this mythical cycle: Lohengrin floats in a skiff upon the water, and is brought ashore by a swan. No one may ask whence he has come: the sexual mystery of the origin of man must not be revealed but it is replaced by the suggestion of the stork fable: the children are fished from the water by the swan and are taken to the parents in a box. Corresponding to the prohibition of all enquiries in the Lohengrin saga, we find in other myths (for example, the Œdipus myth), a command to investigate, or a riddle which must be solved. For the psychological significance of the stork fable, compare Freud, Infantile Sexual Theories. Concerning the Hero Myth, compare the author’s extensive contribution to the elaboration of the motives and the interpretation of the Lohengrin saga (Heft 13 of this collection, Vienna and Leipzig, 1911).
[108] Compare Freud: Analysis of the Phobia of a five year old Boy. Jahrbuch f. psychoanalyt. u. psychopath. Forschungen, Vol. I, 1909.
[109] Usener (Stoff des griechischen Epos, S. 53—Subject Matter of Greek Epics, p. 53) says that the controversy between the earlier and the later Greek sagas concerning the mother of a divinity is usually reconciled by the formula that the mother of the general Greek saga is recognized as such while the mother of the local tradition is lowered to the rank of a nurse. There may therefore be unhesitatingly regarded as the mother, not merely the nurse of the god Ares.