morphosis which we read in Classic
literature or in our own fairy tales. "Beauty and the Beast" is an
example of this transformation, which our ancestors looked upon as
quite natural; while the savage tales of the werewolf go back to the
same outlook. The serpent in the Garden of Eden is another instance of
the same cycle of ideas. The application of our present knowledge of
totemism to mythology has been very enlightening. Students of Greek
literature used to wonder why all the gods had birds and animals as
companions. As a matter of fact, these animals were once sacred
totems. The eagle and the swan were gradually displaced by Zeus, the
sky deity. But so gradual was {17} this displacement that the animals
became attributes of the younger deity, while he was thought to change
himself at times back into the totem animal. The story of Leda and the
swan can, in this way, be easily understood.

Many myths are explanations of rites which were no longer understood.
Such myths are called aetiological. They are answers to questions which
worshipers were bound, sooner or later, to ask. The myth of
Prometheus, the Titan who stole the fire from heaven to succor men, was
connected with the use of eagles on the front of temples to ward off
lightning. Originally, the story concerns the punishment of the eagle,
but is later attached to Prometheus. It is, according to Reinach, the
development of the following naive dialogue: "Why is this eagle
crucified? It is its punishment for having stolen the fire from
heaven." Other examples of aetiological myths are the Phaethon legend,
the story of Hippolyte, and some of the stories told about Heracles.

Another source of myth is to be found in the sacrifice of animal-gods
who are supposed to possess a secret strength. Such animal-gods are
not anthropomorphized in early times. They are simply regarded as
seats of vital power or _mana_. We must bear in mind the fact that
savage man would not have been shocked by Darwinism as Bishop
Wilberforce was. No distinction worth mentioning was made between men
and animals in those ancient days. "English-lore," writes Andrew Lang,
"has its woman who bore rabbits." The religions of Greece and of Asia
Minor had rites and myths which introduced the sacred bull. In
Mithraism, a religion which almost won against Christianity, the
sacrifice of the bull and the consumption of its {18} blood and flesh
in a communion feast were prominent featu