In the Brahmanic mythology
of India, Salagrama, the fossil ammonite, is recognised as
containing the body of Vishnu's wife, and the Binlang stone has
much the same relation to Siva; so, too, the nymph Ramba was
changed, for offending Ketu, into a mass of sand; by the breath of
Siva elephants were turned into stone; and in a very touching myth
Luxman is changed into stone but afterward released. In the
Buddhist mythology a Nat demon is represented as changing himself
into a grain of sand.
Among the Greeks such transformation myths come constantly before
us--both the changing of stones to men and the changing of men to
stones. Deucalion and Pyrrha, escaping from the flood, repeopled
the earth by casting behind them stones which became men and women;
Heraulos was changed into stone for offending Mercury; Pyrrhus for
offending Rhea; Phineus, and Polydectes with his guests, for
offending Perseus: under the petrifying glance of Medusa's head
such transformations became a thing of course.
To myth-making in obedience to the desire of explaining unusual
natural appearances, coupled with the idea that sin must be
followed by retribution, we also owe the well-known Niobe myth.
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