Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,2): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Appendixes and index (Cambridge, 1925)

Dioskouroi and Helene in Folk-Tales 1007

sister. The king was so pleased at his success that he gave him a small kingdom.
But the grandmother again plotted with the nurse for his destruction. The nurse
went a second time to the girl and said : ' You are beautiful, sweetheart, but you
would be more beautiful still, if you had the Beauty of the Land.' The brother
set out to get her without delay. The Beauty of the Land was a woman beautiful
beyond compare, who lived on the far side of a river. Whoever wanted to carry
her off had to traverse the dry bed of the river : his horse must there whinny
aloud, and, if she heard it whinnying, he would be able to ride through, but, if
she heard it not, he and his horse would there and then be turned into stone.
When the lad came to the dried up river, he bade the winged horse whinny his
loudest. The horse did so, but the Beauty of the Land heard nothing. ' We are
lost !' cried the horse. ' Courage !' said the lad, ' whinny once more.' This time
the Beauty of the Land heard and answered. The lad rode over and carried her
off; and, as they crossed the dry river-bed, a number of people who were petri-
fied there came to life again and escorted them home, remaining with them till
the marriage between the young man and the Beauty of the Land was celebrated.
The king was greatly delighted at all this. But the king's mother plotted once
again with the nurse to poison the young people. Soon afterwards the king invited
them to a feast. Before they, went, the Beauty of the Land revealed everything
to her husband, counseling him not to strike in the face the poor walled up woman
who was his own mother and at table to eat only of those dishes of which she
herself ate. When the bride, the bridegroom, and the bridegroom's sister ate
only of the dishes set before the king, the king pressed them to eat of others
also. They told him that the rest were poisoned. He hurled the whole meal out
of the window with his own hand and ordered another. Afterwards the Beauty
of the Land begged him to send for the walled up woman. On her arrival the
three young folk stood up and kissed her. The Beauty of the Land told the whole
tale to the king, who embraced his children and his wife. But he had his mother
and the midwife each bound to four horses and torn into quarters.

(5) Three Golden Children in a Folk-tale from Euboia.

(4) A variant hails from Hagia Anna, a small town in the north-east of
Euboia1. The third sister said : ' I would bear the prince three golden children.'
She oore a golden child, while her husband was on a campaign ; but the cruel
mother-in-law flung it into the hen-house and substituted for it a small dog. When
her son returned and asked after the child that his wife had borne, she replied :
' What is to be done ? She is a dog and a dog she has borne.' And the prince
'made answer : 'Dog though it be, it will watch my house.' The second child
she flung into the hen-house and replaced by a cat ; and the prince on his return
was told of it and replied : 'Cat though it be, it will clear my house of mice.'
For the third child she substituted a snake. Then the prince came back and gave
orders that his wife should be flung into the hen-house. There the mother-in-law,
who did not want her to die of hunger, brought her food in secret. When the
boys had grown up, one day the king bade his heralds summon all his people to
assemble before his castle. The boys heard of it, broke their way out of the hen-
house and went to the assembly. The king noticed them, and was so pleased
with them that he wanted to take them into his castle. But they said that they
could not come without their mother; and, when the king asked 'Who is your
mother?,' they replied 'She is the woman whom you shut up in the hen-house'

1 Text unpublished, German summary by J. G. von Hahn Griechische und albane-
sische Aldrchen Leipzig 1864 ii. 291 f. I translate from von Hahn.