in that month the earth was fecundated by the early rains and warm sunbeams, strange tales arose of the union of the god with an Io, Isis, or Europa. Vishnu, for the benefit of man, was said to have taken at one time the form of a fish, then of a boar, a tortoise, a lion-headed man, and a dwarf, all symbols of zodiacal signs. Thus also are to be explained the Egyptian gods with heads of crocodiles, hawks, and dogs, and of sphinxes-figures of the Nile flood, occurring between the signs of the lion and the virgin.

From this observation of the planets and constellations arose the astrolatry of the Chaldeans, and the astrology of ancient and mediæval times. "The ancient astrologers," says Maimonides, "having consecrated to each planet a colour, an animal, a piece of wood formed in a special manner, a metal, a fruit, a plant, formed of all these things a figure or representation of the star, observing for this purpose the proper instant, and a lucky day, a right conjunction, or any other aspect regarded as favourable. By magical ceremonies, they thought to make the influence of the superior beings pass into these figures or idols. Such were the idols adored by the Chaldee-Sabæans. In the worship tendered to them, the priest wore the colours proper to the symbolized planet. By these means the astrologers and magicians succeeded in passing themselves off as the dispensers of celestial favours. As the early peoples were all agriculturists, they persuaded them that they had the power to dispose of rains and all the good things of the seasons. Consequently agriculture was carried on subject to astrologic rites, and the priests made talismans, and inaugurated processions to draw down upon the harvests the salutary influences of the celestial virtues, and to drive far off all maleficent influences."1

1 Renand: Nouvelle Symbolique, p. 35; Bruxelles, 1861.

A world of deities analogous to the world of men was in like manner arranged into states, of which one became the head to whom the others were subordinated. Two empires were always represented, one of light, the other of darkness-one of life, the other of death-and afterwards morally contrasted as realms of good and of evil. The kingdom of light was subdivided according to the elemental divisions, and there were air, earth, and water deities; the air gods were of heavenly nature and disposition, those of the earth approached in character the gods of the nether world, but were nevertheless members of the heavenly kingdom. But this classification was the work of a later date, and was arbitrary, and often inexact. The moon goddess is made an earth goddess, and the god of the skies is precipitated into the sea, where he inaugurates a watery kingdom. In the following chapter we shall see some farther developments of Polytheism.

The origin and modification in religious belief is due to the sense of man's physical weakness, his mental weakness, and his moral weakness.

At first he was only conscious of physical inferiority; and then his gods were his superiors in brute force alone: when his intellect grew, he felt how unequal it was to grasp the laws of nature, and then the gods were treated as his superiors in wisdom and understanding.

At last his moral consciousness awakened, and with it a consciousness of sin; then he raised his gods to an altitude of moral holiness and purity which he himself despaired to reach.

Thus, if it be true that man is made in the image of God, it is also true that the gods man worships are images of himself, but larger, mightier, wiser, better. God is the superlative of man the positive.

CHAPTER VIII

THE ORIGIN OF MYTHOLOGY

Mythology not the invention of priests-Confusion in myths-The causes of the rise of myth: 1. Forgetfulness of the signification of words; 2. Confusion arising from words having several meanings; 3. Accumulation of similitudes; 4. Philological attempts to explain the significance of words that are antiquated; 5. Allegories misunderstood; 6. Attempts to account for natural curiosities-Brotomorphosis or Euhemerism.

WE E are greatly mistaken if we suppose that religion was the invention of priests, as was taught by the philosophers of the last century. These men supposed that the religious systems, the theogonies and mythologies of antiquity, were designedly constructed to deceive mankind, and bring it fettered to the foot of the priest. But this doctrine is wholly devoid of substantial proof. Religion is the spontaneous outgrowth of human nature; and as far back as one can trace the history of theodoxy, one finds the sacerdotal classes sharing with the laity those fundamental notions which form the essence of popular religion. The priest believed what was believed by the mass of the nation; he believed with greater exaltation, enthusiasm, and fanaticism, and in that lay his power.

In the formation of the primitive myths there was no premeditation; those who created them were guided by

impulses acting upon all alike, and were, in fact, but the mouthpiece of popular opinion. Mythology rests, not on individual conception, but on a conception common to a nation or to a religious community. Each adds his trifle, and the myth, embellished now by one narrator, now by another, rolls down centuries, gathering accretions insensibly, like a snowball. Consequently, myths are very varied. There is scarcely a Greek myth, for instance, which is not found in numerous variations; and this want of uniformity is not due to poets, but to the popular belief which the poets followed.

For instance, the same goddess is given to a god, now as a wife, and now a sister, and in another version she appears as his mother. This happened through the retention of the same name for a changing goddess; but if she has several names, she becomes several different persons. So the predicates of gods appear as divine personages, and unite with them again: thus, Nike appears beside Athene, and Themis beside the Earth.

If we classify the forces at work in the mythopoeic age, we shall find them to be as follow:

1. Language, at an early period of the history of mankind, was full of sap. Its superabundant vigour exhibited itself in prodigality of terminology in the designation of a single object, and in a surprising profusion of synonyms. Instances have been given in the preceding chapter. These names, when their signification was clouded, became each a distinct deity. Nevertheless, since all these figures had among them an appearance of relationship, they were reduced to theogony, and were grouped into a family. All

1 The arrangement of M. Bréal has been followed, with, however, some important additions: (Hercule et Cacus, pp. 7-20).

the epithets which had, through misconception of their meaning, consolidated into proper names, and which were floating purposeless in the popular mythology, were gathered, and artificially arranged into a system which overlapped history and disturbed chronology.

But this was not all. A reason had to be given why the supreme god was called first by one name and then by another. As it was supposed that these names must belong to distinct beings, celestial dynasties were invented, and revolutions in heaven; Ouranos yielded his throne to Kronos, and Kronos was displaced by Zeus. The past was filled with imaginary cataclysms, by placing in it the old worn-out titles of the actual divinities, as personal gods who had abdicated, or had been driven out of power by newer and more vigorous deities.

In the time of Homer, the work of classification and coordination was tolerably complete in Greece. Hesiod gives the gods and all fabulous beings their genealogies. The Titans are distinguished from the Giants, the Gorgon from Medusa. Typhoeus by Echidna engenders Cerberus, Hydra, the Chimera, and Orthos, and by his own mother begets Sphinx. Thus, the same monster generates by himself. Many a myth arose out of this forgetfulness of the original identity of two or more divinities. Zeus is actually the same as Dionysus; the later being the Aios worshipped at Nysos. Zeus was at one time named Tyndareus, the Thunderer, and it was said that the morning and evening twilights were the offspring of the sky and darkness. Leda is darkness, and may well be called the consort of the thundercloud. But afterwards it was fabled that Zeus had committed adultery with Leda, when the identity of Zeus and Tyndareus was forgotten.

The same deity entered mythology at different periods.