CHAPTER IV

THE TREE IN ITS RELATION TO HUMAN LIFE

The tree represented as the progenitor of the human race; as related in the Eddas; in Iranian mythology; amongst the Sioux Indians—The classical view—Human beings represented as the fruit of a tree—Individual births from a tree—Mythical births beneath a tree; Zeus; Hermes; Hera; Apollo and Artemis; Romulus and Remus.

Metamorphoses—Apollo and Daphne—Meaning of the legend—The daughters of Clymene—Baucis and Philemon—Other instances of metamorphosis—The growth of flowers from the blood of the dead, or from the tears shed over them—Transmigration of souls into trees—Tristram and Iseult—Sweet William and Fair Margaret—Other instances.

The conception of the tree as sympathetically interwoven with human life—The family tree—The community tree—The fig-tree in the Roman Comitium—The patrician and plebeian myrtle-trees.

The tree as the symbol of reproductive energy—The Semitic mother-goddess—Interpretation of the Chaldaean sacred tree as the symbol of fertility—The tree-inhabiting spirit of vegetation as the patron of fertility—Observances connected therewith 72

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