The frequent appearance of queens and women rulers in antiquity, and the power wielded by them even when their sons were the actual rulers, which was the case in Egypt, for instance, was an outcome of the matriarchate. During that period mythological characters are chiefly feminine, as seen from the goddesses Astarte, Demeter, Ceres, Latona, Isis, Frigga, Freya, Gerda, and many others. Woman is invulnerable; matricide is deemed the most dreadful crime that calls upon all men for vengeance. It is the common duty of all the men of the tribe, to avenge an injury inflicted upon any member of their kinship by a member of any other tribe. Defense of the women incites the men to highest bravery. Thus the influence of the matriarchate was perceived in all social relations of the ancient peoples, among the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Greeks before the heroic age, the Italic tribes before the founding of Rome, the Scythians, the Gauls, the Iberians, the Cantabrians, the Germans, and others. At that time woman held a position in society as she has never held since. Tacitus says in his “Germania”: “The Germans believe that within every woman dwells something holy and prophetic; therefore they honor woman’s opinion and follow her advice.” Diodorus, who lived at the time of Cæsar, was quite indignant over the position of women in Egypt. He had heard that in Egypt not sons but daughters supported their aged parents. He therefore spoke disparagingly of the hen-pecked men at the Nile, who granted rights and privileges to the weaker sex that seemed outrageous to a Greek or a Roman.