Note 107 — Lohengrin
Smith Ely Jelliffe translation
The stork is known also in mythology as the bringer of children. Siecke (Liebesgesch. d. Himmels, p. 26) points out the swan as the player of this part in certain regions and countries. The rescue and further protection of the hero by a bird is not uncommon; compare Gilgamos, Zal and Kyknos, who is exposed by his mother near the sea and is nourished by a swan, while his son Tennes floats in a chest upon the water. The interpretation of the leading motive of the Lohengrin saga also enters into present consideration. Its most important motives belong to this mythical cycle: Lohengrin floats in a skiff upon the water, and is brought ashore by a swan. No one may ask whence he has come: the sexual mystery of the origin of man must not be revealed but it is replaced by the suggestion of the stork fable: the children are fished from the water by the swan and are taken to the parents in a box. Corresponding to the prohibition of all enquiries in the Lohengrin saga, we find in other myths (for example, the Œdipus myth), a command to investigate, or a riddle which must be solved. For the psychological significance of the stork fable, compare Freud, Infantile Sexual Theories. Concerning the Hero Myth, compare the author’s extensive contribution to the elaboration of the motives and the interpretation of the Lohengrin saga (Heft 13 of this collection, Vienna and Leipzig, 1911).