was a shrine of Helena Dendritis, Helen of the Tree. We recall that Erigone,
‘the Early-born’, hanged herself from a tree, and we divined that this corre-
sponded to the practice of hanging images from trees. The Rhodian myth is to
be understood in the same way.
Another common decoration of the May-tree, May-branch, or Maypole
consists of eggs or painted eggshells.^136 This is not the only part that eggs
play in the springtime festivities. Often they are collected from householders
by a begging procession.^137 We still associate Easter with eggs. They make an
obvious symbol of rebirth or of the reborn sun. The births of Helen and of
Salme from eggs make sense in the light of the seasonal customs.
The wedding of the Daughter of the Sun has its counterpart in the wide-
spread custom of choosing a May Queen or May Bride and a young man to
be her royal consort, the two being then celebrated as a newly-wedded pair.^138
In the story of Helen’s wedding suitors come from all over Greece and offer
what they can by way of a bride-price. She goes to the highest bidder –– in fact
to a pair of brothers, who, as we have seen, take the place of the ineligible
Dioskouroi. This auctioning of the bride does not correspond to normal
procedure for arranging a marriage. But in various rural parts of Germany it
used to be the custom on May Day or Easter Monday to auction the girls,
starting with the prettiest: each one in turn became the ‘May-wife’ of the
young man who bid most for her, and she remained his dancing-partner
throughout the summer.^139
The As ́vins got Su ̄rya ̄ as their wife not in an auction but by winning a
chariot-race, with the sun as its goal. This too makes sense as a reflection
of seasonal custom. In Germany at Whitsun there were races on foot or on
horseback to the Maypole, which was adorned with flowers, ribbons, a crown,
etc., and the winner became King of the May. In some places he could then
choose his queen, or was provided with one already selected.^140 The Maypole,
about which circular dances take place, has often been seen as a representa-
tion of the world tree or world axis, and as connected with the sun. Mention
was made earlier of an Indian ritual in which a wheel-shaped cake was fixed
to the top of a sacrificial pole, and the sacrificer ‘reached the sun’ by climbing
up and touching it.
(^136) Mannhardt (1905), i. 156 f., 160, 165, 169, 177, 181, 241, 245, 271; A. Dieterich, Kleine
Schriften (Berlin 1911), 324; Frazer (1911–36), ii. 63, 65, 69.
(^137) Mannhardt (1905), i. 181, 256, 260, 263 f., 281, 353, 427, 429; Dieterich (as n. 136), 327 f.;
Frazer (1911–36), ii. 81, 84 f., 92, 96.
(^138) Mannhardt (1905), i. 422–5, 431–40; Dieterich (as n. 136), 331 f.; Frazer (1911–36), ii.
87–96; iv. 257 f.
(^139) Mannhardt (1905), i. 449–54.
(^140) Mannhardt (1905), i. 382–9; Frazer (1911–36), ii. 69, 84, 89, iv. 208.
236 5. Sun and Daughter