Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions by T. W. Doane

mother who had watched over him at his birth, and the fair maidens whom he has loved, will never forsake him. They yet remain with him, and while their tears drop on his feet, which they kiss, their voices cheer him in his last hour. In these we have the _Dawn_, who bore him, and the fair and beautiful lights which flush the Eastern sky as the Sun sinks or dies in the West.[493:4] Their tears are the tears of dew, such as Eôs weeps at the death of her child. All the Sun-gods forsake their homes and virgin mothers, and wander through different countries doing marvellous things. Finally, at the end of their career, the mother, from whom they were parted long ago, is by their side to cheer them in their last hours.[493:5] The ever-faithful women were to be found at the last scene in the life of _Buddha_. Kasyapa having found the departed master's feet soiled and wet, asked Nanda the cause of it. "He was told that a weeping woman had embraced Gautama's feet shortly before his death, and that her tears had fallen on his feet and left the marks on them."[493:6] In his last hours, _OEdipous_ (the Sun) has been cheered by the presence of Antigone.[493:7] At the death of _Hercules_, Iole (_the fair-haired Dawn_) stands by his side, cheering him to the last. With her gentle hands she sought to soothe his pain, and with pitying words to cheer him in his woe. Then once more the face of Hercules flushed with a deep joy, and he said: "Ah, Iole, brightest of maidens, thy voice shall cheer me as I sink down in the sleep of death. I saw and loved thee in the bright _morning time_, and now again thou hast come, _in the evening_, fair as the soft clouds which gather around the _dying Sun_." The _black mists_ were spreading over the sky, but still Hercules sought to gaze on the fair face of Iole, and to comfort her in her sorrow. "Weep not, Iole," he said, "my toil is done, and now is the time for rest. I shall see thee again in the bright land which is never trodden by the feet of night." The same story is related in the legend of _Apollo_. The Dawn, from whom he parted in the early part of his career, comes to his side at _eventide_, and again meets him when his journey on earth has well nigh come to an end.[494:1] When the Lord _Prometheus_ was crucified on Mt. Caucasus, his especially professed friend, Oceanus, the fisherman, as his name, Petræus, indicates,[494:2] being unable to prevail on him to make his peace with Jupiter, by throwing the cause of human redemption out of his hands,[494:3] "forsook him and fled." None remained to be witnesses of his dying agonies, but the chorus of ever amiable and ever-faithful women, which also bewailed and lamented him, but were unable to subdue his inflexible philanthropy.[494:4]