anthropomorphic features." He has shed the material aspects which loomed
so large in his Egyptian, Babylonian and earlier Aryan prototypes, and a
more ethereal conception of a God of the highest ethical qualities
has emerged.

The whole of this process of transformation has been described with deep
insight and lucid exposition by Professor Cumont, from whose important
and convincing memoir I have quoted so freely in the foregoing
paragraphs.[234]

The creation of a beneficent Deity of such moral grandeur inevitably
emphasized the baseness and the malevolence of the "Power of Evil". No
longer are the gods merely glorified human beings who can work good or
evil as they will; but there is now an all-powerful God controlling the
morals of the universe, and in opposition to Him "the dragon, the old
serpent, which is the Devil and Satan".

[233: "Horus et St. George d'apres un bas-relief inedit du Louvre,"
_Revue Archeologique_, Nouvelle Serie, t. xxxii., 1876, p. 196, pl.
xviii. It is right to explain that M. Clermont-Ganneau's interpretation
of this relief has not been accepted by all scholars.]

[234: Albert J. Carnoy, "The Moral Deities of Iran and India and their
Origins," _The American Journal of Theology_, vol. xxi., No. 1, Jan.
1917, p. 58.]

Chapter III.

THE BIRTH OF APHRODITE.[235]

It may seem ungallant to discuss the birth of Aphrodite as part of the
story of the evolution of the dragon. But the other chapters of this
book, in which frequent references have been made to the early history
of the Great Mother, have revealed how vital a part she played in the
development of the dragon. The earliest real dragon was Tiamat, one of
the forms assumed by the Great Mother; and an even earlier prototype was
the lioness (Sekhet) manifestation of Hathor.

Thus it becomes necessary to enquire more fully (than has been done in
the other chapters) into the circumstances of the Great Mother's birth
and development, and to investigate certain aspects of her ontogeny to
which only scant attention has been paid in the preceding pages.

Several reasons have led me to select Aphrodite from the vast legion of
Great Mothers for special consideration. In spite of her high
specialization in certain directions the Greek goddess of love retains
in greater measure than any of her sisters some of the most primitive
associations of her original parent. Like vestigial structures in
biology, these traits afford invaluable e