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Therefore, I say, 'natural phenomena, explained on savage principles, might give the data of the swallowing myth, of Cronos' that is, the myth of Cronos may be, probably is, originally a nature-myth. But I come round to something like the view of Kuhn. It is not impossible, I think, that if the swallowing myth was originally a nature-myth, it was suggested by Night.
This curious mixture in the story of the astral Ishtar, the creation of the astronomers, and the popular Ishtar, is a trait which shows how the old nature-myth has been elaborated in passing through the hands of the literati. The various steps in the process can still be seen.
In rage she advances to Allatu, threatens to smash the door and break the lock unless admitted. The story in this form must have ended in the restoration of Tammuz. The identification of Ishtar with the planet Venus introduced a new factor. The disappearance of the planet fitted in well with the original nature-myth.
The story serves as an evidence of the intellectual activity displayed in the schools of theological thought that must have flourished for many centuries before a story like that of Adapa could have been produced out of a nature-myth.
Another form of the narrative is known, in which the visitors to the home of the hostile being are, not wooers of his daughter, but brothers of his wife. The incidents of the flight, in this variant, are still of the same character. We shall afterwards see that attempts have been made to interpret one of these narratives as a nature-myth; but the attempts seem unsuccessful.
The attendants given to him heat, lightning, and disease are the popular traits in the story; but with the chief characters in the old nature-myth changed, Marduk or the original Bel replaced by Nergal, and Tiâmat by Allatu, the story loses its popular aspect, and becomes a medium for illustrating a doctrine of the schools.
All the titles given to Ashur by the kings may be said to follow from his rôle as the god who presides over the fortunes of the wars. If he is the 'ruler of all the gods, and their father, he is so simply by virtue of that same superior strength which makes him the 'law-giver' for mankind, and not because of any ancient traditions, nor as an expression of some nature-myth.
The second essay, 'The Bull-Roarer, is intended to show that certain peculiarities in the Greek mysteries occur also in the mysteries of savages, and that on Greek soil they are survivals of savagery. 'The Myth of Cronus' tries to prove that the first part of the legend is a savage nature-myth, surviving in Greek religion, while the sequel is a set of ideas common to savages.
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