[558:2] Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 103.
[559:1] Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 308.
[559:2] Müller: The Science of Religion, p. 65.
[559:3] Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 1.
[560:1] As the hand of Hector is clasped in the hand of the hero who slew him. There, as the story ran, the lovely Helen "pardoned and purified," became the bride of the short-lived, yet long-suffering Achilleus, even as Iole comforted the dying Hercules on earth, and Hebe became his solace in Olympus. But what is the meeting of Helen and Achilleus, of Iole and Hebe and Hercules, but the return of the violet tints to greet the Sun in the West, which had greeted him in the East in the morning? The idea was purely physical, yet it suggested the thoughts of trial, atonement, and purification; and it is unnecessary to say that the human mind, having advanced thus far, must make its way still farther. (Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 822.)
[560:2] The black storm-cloud, with the flames of lightning issuing from it, was the original of the dragon with tongues of fire. Even as late as A. D. 1600, a German writer would illustrate a thunder-storm destroying a crop of corn by a picture of a dragon devouring the produce of the field with his flaming tongue and iron teeth. (Baring-Gould: Curious Myths, p. 342.)
[561:1] M. Bréal, and G. W. Cox.
[562:1] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 59.
[562:2] Ibid.
[562:3] Ibid. p. 181.