harmony with the methods of the Mysteries. We find such harmony in
Plato in the fullest degree. His explanations of myths and his
application of them in his teaching may be taken as a model (_cf._ p.
78 _et seq._). In the _Phaedrus_, a dialogue on the soul, the myth of
Boreas is introduced. This divine being, who was seen in the rushing
wind, one day saw the fair Orithyia, daughter of the Attic king
Erectheus, gathering flowers with her companions. Seized with love for
her, he carried her off to his grotto. Plato, by the mouth of
Socrates, rejects a rationalist interpretation of this myth. According
to this explanation, an outward, natural fact is poetically symbolised
by the narrative. A hurricane seized the king's daughter and hurled
her over the rocks. "Interpretations of this sort," says Socrates,
"are learned sophistries, however popular and usual they may be....
For one who has pulled to pieces one of these mythological forms must,
to be consistent, elucidate sceptically and explain naturally all the
rest in the same way.... But even if such a labour could be
accomplished, it would in any case be no proof of superior talents in
the one carrying it out, but only of superficial wit, boorish wisdom,
and ridiculous haste.... Therefore I leave on one side all such
enquiries, and believe what is generally thought about the myths. I do
not examine them, as I have just said, but I examine myself to see
whether I too may perhaps be a monster, more complicated and
therefore more disordered than the chimaera, more savage than Typhon,
or whether I represent a more docile and simple being, to whom some
particle of a virtuous and divine nature has been given."

We see from this that Plato does not approve of a rationalistic and
merely intellectual interpretation of myths. This attitude must be
compared with the way in which he himself uses myths in order to
express himself through them. When he speaks of the life of the soul,
when he leaves the paths of the transitory and seeks the eternal in
the soul, when, therefore, images borrowed from sense-perception and
reasoning thought can no longer be used, then Plato has recourse to
the myth. _Phaedrus_ treats of the eternal in the soul, which is
portrayed as a car drawn by two horses winged all over, and driven by
a charioteer. One horse is patient and docile, the other wild and
headstrong. If an obstacle comes in the way of the car the troublesome
horse takes the opportunity of im