ale god), became, by the horse of a giant,
the father of Sleipnir, Odin's eight-footed steed. Mr. W. A. Craigie
supplies this note on Loki's analogy with Poseidon, as a horse, in the
waves of corn:--

'In North Jutland, when the vapours are seen going with a wavy motion
along the earth in the heat of summer, they say, "Loki is sowing oats
today," or "Loki is driving his goats."

'N.B.--Oats in Danish are havre, which suggests O.N. hafrar, goats.
Modern Icelandic has hafrar=oats, but the word is not found in the old
language.'

Is Loki a corn-spirit?

Mannhardt's 'Mean Argument'

Mannhardt now examines the explanations of Demeter Erinnys, and her
legend, given by Preller, E. Curtius, O. Muller, A. Kuhn, W. Sonne, Max
Muller, E. Burnouf, de Gubernatis, Schwartz, and H. D. Muller. 'Here,'
he cries, 'is a variegated list of hypotheses!' Demeter is

Storm-cloud
Sun Goddess
Earth and Moon Goddess
Dawn
Night.

Poseidon is

Sea
Storm God
Cloud-hidden Sun
Rain God.

Despoina is

Rain
Thunder
Moon.

Arion, the horse, is

Lightning
Sun
Thunder-horse.

Erinnys is

Storm-cloud
Red Dawn.

Mannhardt decides, after this exhibition of guesses, that the Demeter
legends cannot be explained as refractions of any natural phenomena in
the heavens (p. 275). He concludes that the myth of Demeter Erinnys, and
the parallel Vedic story of Saranyu (who also had an amour as a mare),
are 'incongruous,' and that neither sheds any light on the other. He
protests against the whole tendency to find prototypes of all Aryan myths
in the Veda, and to think that, with a few exceptions, all mythology is a
terrestrial reflection of celestial phenomena (p. 280). He then goes
into the contending etymologies of Demeter, and decides ('for the man was
mortal and had been a' philologer) in favour of his own guess,
[Greek]+[Greek]='Corn-mother' (p. 294).

This essay on Demeter was written by Mannhardt in the summer of 1877, a
year after the letter which is given as evidence that he had 'returned to
his old colours.' The essay shows him using the philological string of
'variegated hypotheses' as anything but an argument in favour of the
philological method. On the other hand, he warns us against the habit,
so common in the philological school, of looking for prototypes of all
Aryan myths in the Veda, and of finding in most myths a reflection on
earth o