only quell them if they called in the aid of a mortal. Earth was anxious to prevent this, but Zeus was beforehand with her, and the aid of Heracles was secured by Athene. Heracles then proceeded to direct his arrows at Alcyoneus, and having, at the suggestion of Athene, drawn him from where he was invincible, he slew him. The next to be killed by Heracles was Porphyrio, who, offering violence to Here, was assailed by her husband with the thunderbolt, while the other giants were attacked by the other gods; but not a single one of them could finish his antagonist without the aid of Heracles, who despatched them with his invincible arrows.
The question which this inevitably suggests is, why the gods should require the aid of a mortal, why they should not have succeeded without his alliance, and why there was a prophecy that they could not. Let us now turn to Celtic and Norse literature, and what do we there find? This, namely, that according to the interpretation of the myths in point adopted in these lectures, the sort of power wanted to give the gods victory was that of the sun, and more especially of the summer sun. Thus it is the Solar Hero Lug who ends the Fomorian battle of Moytura; and when the Anses have been killed by Swart and his allies, they only appear again after Balder has returned, and all ills are healed at his coming (p. 535). Further, we find that both Celts and Teutons regarded the Solar Hero as the son or offspring of the Culture Hero, and that there are reasons for regarding the latter, whether we call him Gwydion, Woden or Indra, as a man-god, that is to say a god who was by origin a man; by virtue of his descent from a human father, the offspring, namely the Solar Hero, would also reckon as a mortal. This explains the
