rally, as in the hymn just translated, is lauded only
in connection with Dawn, and for herself alone gets but one hymn, and
that is not in a family-book. She is to be regarded, therefore, less
as a goddess of the pantheon than as a quasi-goddess, the result of a
poet's meditative imagination, rather than one of the folk's primitive
objects of adoration; somewhat as the English poets personify "Ye
clouds, that far above me float and pause, ye ocean-waves ... ye
woods, that listen to the night-bird's singing, O ye loud waves, and O
ye forests high, and O ye clouds that far above me soared; thou rising
sun, thou blue rejoicing sky!"--and as in Greek poetry, that which
before has been conceived of vaguely as divine suddenly is invested
with a divine personality. The later poet exalts these aspects of
nature, and endows those that were before only half recognized with a
little special praise. So, whereas Night was divine at first merely as
the sister of divine Dawn, in the tenth book one poet thus gives her
praise:

HYMN TO NIGHT (X. 127).

Night, shining goddess, comes, who now
Looks out afar with many eyes,
And putteth all her beauties on.

Immortal shining goddess, she
The depths and heights alike hath filled,
And drives with light the dark away.

To me she comes, adorned well,
A darkness black now sightly made;
Pay then thy debt, O Dawn, and go.[100]

The bright one coming put aside
Her sister Dawn (the sunset light),
And lo! the darkness hastes away.

So (kind art thou) to us; at whose
Appearing we retire to rest,
As birds fly homeward to the tree.

To rest are come the throngs of men;
To rest, the beasts; to rest, the birds;
And e'en the greedy eagles rest.

Keep off the she-wolf and the wolf,
Keep off the thief, O billowy Night,
Be thou to us a saviour now.

To thee, O Night, as 'twere an herd,
To a conqueror (brought), bring I an hymn
Daughter of Heaven, accept (the gift).[101]

THE ACVINS.

The Acvins who are, as was said above, the 'Horsemen,' parallel to the
Greek Dioskouroi, are twins, sons of Dyaus, husbands, perhaps brothers
of the Dawn. They have been variously 'interpreted,' yet in point of
fact one knows no more now what was the original conception of the
twain than was known before Occidental scholars began to study
them.[102] Even the ancients made mere guesses: the Acvins came before
the Dawn, and are so-called because they ride o