(2)  Many  Greek  myths  are  but  a  rendering  in  the  form  of  a
story  of  meteorological  facts-^^^the  continually  repeated  move-
ments of  stars,  alternations  of  day  and  night,  and  the  like.  For
example,  the  wandering  lo,  who  is  watched  by  the  hundred  eyes
of  Argus  until  that  guardian  is  slain  by  Hermes,  seems  obviously
the  horned  moon  wandering  through  heaven  under  the  count-
less eyes  of  the  stars,  which  the  breath  of  morning  makes  pale
and  closes.  A  very  numerous  class  of  myths  records  in  many
forms  and  with  all  possible  variations  the  daily  conflict  between
sun  and  cloud,  between  fair  weather  and  storm.  We  can
scarcely  doubt  that  the  terrible  Medusa,  from  whose  neck,
when  her  head  is  cut  off,  spring  Pegasus  and  Chrysaor,  is  the
dread  storm-cloud  sending  out  wind  and  lightning.  And  when
we  read  how  Hermes,  the  wind-god,  stole  the  cows  of  Apollo,
we  scarcely  need  to  compare  the  Yedas  in  order  to  perceive
that  the  myth  interprets  the  blowing  of  clouds  across  the  sky.
Herakles,  again,  floating  on  the  sea  in  a  golden  bowl,  is  evidently
the  sun  at  his  setting.  But  while  the  meteorological  character
of  many  Greek  myths  is  evident,  there  has  been  among  philo  •
logists  far  too  pronounced  a  tendency  to  attribute  this  character
to  Greek  myths  in  general,  a  tendency  carried  in  the  case  of
some  writers  so  far  as  almost  to  bring  this  method  of  interpre-
tation into  ridicule.
