The God-Idea of the Ancients; Or, Sex in ReligionGamble, Eliza Burt
Religion
The God-Idea of the Ancients; Or, Sex in Religion
Gamble, Eliza Burt
Religion; Sex -- Religious aspects; Women and religion
In the Theogony of Hesiod, Uranus is represented as being the parent of
three sons, and the same legend repeated in the story of Cronus portrays
him also as a triplicated deity. According to the Peruvian Kosmogony all
things sprang from Viracocha who is said to be identical with the Greek
Aphrodite. Besides this superior God they venerated a triad which
was closely connected with the sun. These gods were called Chuquilla,
Catuilla, and Intyllapa. They say that as their ancestors journeyed from
a remote country to the Northwest they bore the image of their god in a
coifer or box made of reeds. To the four priests who had charge of this
box or ark he communicated his oracles and directions. He not only gave
them laws but taught them the ceremonies and sacrifices which they were
to observe. "And even as the pillar of cloud and fire conducted the
Israelites in their passage through the wilderness, so this Spanish
devil gave them notice when to advance forward, and when to stay."(94)
94) Faber, Pagan Idolatry, book i., ch. v.
According to Marsden, the New Zealanders believe that three gods created
the first man, and that the first woman was made from one of his ribs.
Among the Otaheitans and various tribes of Indians, the belief prevails
that all created things have proceeded from a triplicated deity who was
saved from the ravages of a flood in an ark or ship.
The fact is observed that the Theogonies and Kosmogonies of all
peoples have reference to a flood or to the renewal of life after the
destruction of the world, and that the Great Father who is preserved,
and who comes forth from an ark or ship with the seeds of a former
world, represents the beginning of a new era. Adam with his three sons,
Cain, Abel, and Seth, Noah with his triad, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Menu
and his triple offspring, and so on, all mean exactly the same thing,
namely, the renewal of life at the close of a cycle, or manwantara.
From the traditions extant in nearly every quarter of the globe, it
would seem that, prior to the so-called flood in the time of Noah,
man, as a Creator, had not to any extent been worshipped, but, on the
contrary, that the great universal dual principle which pervades Nature
and which is back of matter and force, for instance Tien among the
Chinese, Iav among the Hebrews, and Aum among the Hindoos, had been the
Deity adored; but with the decline of virtue and knowledge, this God
was gradually abandoned for a lesser one, a deity better suited to the
comprehension of "fallen" man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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