COMPARATIVE

MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE

By the same Author.

A HISTORY OF GREECE from the Earliest Period to the end of the Persian War. 2 vols. demy 8vo. cloth, price 36s.

THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS. 2 vols. demy 8vo. cloth, price 28s.

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THE GREAT PERSIAN WAR from the Histories of Herodotus. Fcp 8vo. cloth, price 3s. 6.

A MANUAL OF MYTHOLOGY in the form of Question and Answer. Fcp. 8vo. cloth, price 38.

London: C KEGAN PAUL & CO., 1 Paternoster Square.

AN INTRODUCTION TO

THE SCIENCE OF COMPARATIVE

MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE

BY THE

REV. SIR GEORGE W. COX, BART., M.A.

C. KEGAN PAUL & CO., I PATERNOSTER SQUARE

1881

221. f. 130

(The rights of translation and of reproduction are

reservd)

PREFACE.

MY PURPOSE in this volume is to give a general view of the vast mass of popular traditions belonging to the Aryan nations of Asia and Europe, and of other tribes so far as the conditions of the subject may render necessary.

Its starting point is the principle that the popular traditions of no one Aryan people can be really understood except in their relation to those of other tribes and nations of the same family, and that the epical and dramatic literature of those races has been constructed from materials common to all branches of the Aryan stock and furnished by popular sayings, stories, and tales, many of which have never had the good fortune to be more than the talk of nurses and children.

The Greek term mythology scarcely expresses, indeed, the fact that the traditions, on which the epic, lyric, and dramatic poetry of the Aryan nations has sprung up, really constitute what in strict speech we may speak of as the whole learning of the people in early stages of thought and civilisation, and sum up their thoughts on the origin and constitution of the outward world. Folklore, in short, is perpetually running into mythology; and there are few