Myths and Matriarchs
Nu Graves wrote in The White Goddess: "I could not . . . have answered a single question in the Hanes Taliesin puzzle . . . if I had not known most of the answers beforehand by poetic intuition. Rea4, .that I needed to do was to verify them textually,"—a principle to he has applied to all his research. As a result he is not tempted 10 enquire too closely into the antecedents of ancient evidence or modern theories which agree with his own beliefs. Mr. Graves is precise about Scylla's characteristics; she was a mixture nf dog and cuttle-fish, who had numerous love-affairs and was & Manifestation of Thetis. Now the cuttle-fish is seldom more han a toot across; so presumably Mr. Graves is confusing it with the Giant Squid. But even among ancient authors, quo! capita, tot sententlae. Homer credits her with twelve feet and six necks (a squid has ten feet n„,n1Y); Aeschylus refers to her as a bitch and a two-headed serpent; vygii mentions several Scyllae. Palaephatus explained her as a Pirate ship, Heracleitus and St. Jerome as a courtesan who robbed her guests. The cephalopod theory only seems to date back to Lenz's z °°10gie der alten Griechen and Romer. Etymologically Mr. Graves Presumably derives her name from the verb skyllein (to molest or de but Boisacq, in the latest edition of his Dictionnaire EtymologiqUe ",e la Langue Grecque, pp. 879-80, makes no allusion to this theory at ail. In company with Homer, he connects it with scylax, a whelp, and various Sanskrit words to do with barking or howling. To state (Tts unsupported etymology as a fact is at least dubious. But even if °eYIla were a cuttle-fish (or squid), does this mean that every represen- 1421,13n of a cuttle-fish in Crete or Brittany (if they are cuttle-fishea) leads Us back to her ? Miss Levy refers to Carnac in The Gate 0,1 ilarn, but she does not equate the megalith figures she treats. of with enttle-fish (pp. 142-4), but with the Mother Goddess. Yet even this is not certain: cf. Poquart and Le Rouzic, Corpus des signes graves des 416'numents megalithiques du Morbihan, plates 88ff. As we have not yet deciphered the Cretan scripts, Minos, Glaucus, and Poseidon can hardly be proved royal Cretan titles on the strength of late mythographers' evidence. The Scylla who betrayed Megara to Minos has nothing to do with our Scylla; the Poseidon story is only vouched for by Ovid and a Tzetzes scholium on Lycophron; and 91aucus the sea-god originated from Anthedon in Boeotia. Mr. Graves Possibly confusing him with the son of Minos treated by Aeschylus to i a lost tragedy. There is no evidence that Thetis was connected With Scylla, or metamorphosed into a cuttle-fish. The sources are A Pollodorus and Pausanias (who mention " a beast "), and a to
Pindar. Nem.3.60, quoting a- fragment of Sophocles, where the Protean lion, dragon, fire and water are cited. Iolcus is not in Crete but Thessaly; and Thetis herself was a predominantly Thessalian goddess
With regard to Calypso, there are other things „she could conceal besides the dead. The habitation of islands is not restricted to death- goddesses. " Awful goddess of mortal speech " is a mistranslation. A Homeric scholium states that Calypso did not have uncanny qualities like Circe; not only Woodhouse and myself, but Wilamowitz regard her as poetic fiction. It is noteworthy that she had no cult, and was bound to obey the Olympian's. Ogygia has no etymological connection with Oceanus or Ogenos (not Ogen)—see Boisacq pp. 1,079-80,—nor clethra, an alder, with any putative correlative (7 lathra) denoting concealment; nor Vron (Old Slavonic or Polish), Bran (early Irish), and Cronos (pre-Greek) with each other. Cypress, poplar, and alder are usual trees in the Mediterranean; owls and falcons are not uncommon. Corone is not a " sea-crow " but a shearwater; parsley was used to crown victors in the Games as well as at funerals; and ion does not mean iris but violet. ' The Thesprotia legend (only found in Proclus' late epitome of Eugammon's Telegony, Kinkel p.57) makes no reference to banishment, nor to a period of seven years; and there are several alternative versions of the story. 1 look forward to Mr. Graves' encyclopedia of Greek myths and pseudo-myths with the liveliest interest.
Lastly, I did not refer to either Sir James Frazer or Miss Harrison as imaginative cranks; 1 did not use the word crank at all I merely pointed out that these two authors opened the way for such people. Nor do I consider primitive matriarchies fantastic, but only scholars who use them as a universal key to the " primitive " mind.—Yours 15 Trinity Street, Cambridge.
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