[American Hero-Myths by Daniel G. Brinton]@TWC D-Link book
American Hero-Myths

CHAPTER I
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Their loose and large robes typify the enfolding of the firmament by the light and the winds.
This interpretation is nowise strained, but is simply that which, in Aryan mythology, is now universally accepted for similar mythological creations.
Thus, in the Greek Phoebus and Perseus, in the Teutonic Lif, and in the Norse Baldur, we have also beneficent hero-gods, distinguished by their fair complexion and ample golden locks.

"Amongst the dark as well as amongst the fair races, amongst those who are marked by black hair and dark eyes, they exhibit the same unfailing type of blue-eyed heroes whose golden locks flow over their shoulders, and whose faces gleam as with the light of the new risen sun."[1] [Footnote 1: Sir George W.Cox, _An Introduction to the Science of Comparative Mythology and Folk-Lore_, p.

17.] Everywhere, too, the history of these heroes is that of a struggle against some potent enemy, some dark demon or dragon, but as often against some member of their own household, a brother or a father.
The identification of the Light-God with the deity of the winds is also seen in Aryan mythology.

Hermes, to the Greek, was the inventor of the alphabet, music, the cultivation of the olive, weights and measures, and such humane arts.

He was also the messenger of the gods, in other words, the breezes, the winds, the air in motion.


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