preservation of the species was placed under the immediate
guardianship of religion.

Such considerations explain the close connection of sexual thoughts with
the most sacred mysteries of faith. In polytheisms, the divinities are
universally represented as male or female, virile and fecund. The
processes of nature were often held to be maintained through such
celestial nuptials.

Yet stranger myths followed those of the loves of the gods. Religion, as
the sentiment of continuance, finding its highest expression in the
phenomenon of generation, had to reconcile this with the growing concept
of a divine unity. Each separate god was magnified in praises as
self-sufficient. Earth, or nature, or the season is one, yet brings
forth all. How embody this in concrete form?

The startling refuge was had in the image of a deity at once of both
sexes. Such avowedly were Mithras, Janus, Melitta, Cybele, Aphrodite,
Agdistis; indeed nearly all the Syrian, Egyptian, and Italic gods, as
well as Brahma, and, in the esoteric doctrine of the Cabala, even
Jehovah, whose female aspect is represented by the "Shekinah." To this
abnormal condition the learned have applied the adjectives epicene,
androgynous, hermaphrodite, arrenothele. In art it is represented by a
blending of the traits of both sexes. In the cult it was dramatically
set forth by the votaries assuming the attire of the other sex, and
dallying with both.[66-1] The phallic symbol superseded all others; and
in Cyprus, Babylonia and Phrygia, once in her life, at least, must every
woman submit to the embrace of a stranger.

Such rites were not mere sensualities. The priests of these divinities
often voluntarily suffered emasculation. None but a eunuch could become
high priest of Cybele. Among the sixteen million worshippers of Siva,
whose symbol is the Lingam, impurity is far less prevalent than among
the sister sects of Hindoo religions.[66-2] To the Lingayets, the member
typifies abstractly the idea of life. Therefore they carve it on
sepulchres, or, like the ancient nations of Asia Minor, they lay clay
images of it on graves to intimate the hope of existence beyond the
tomb.

This notion of a hermaphrodite deity is not "monstrous," as it has been
called. There lies a deep meaning in it. The gods are spirits, beings
of another order, which the cultivated esthetic sense protests against
classing as of one or the other gender. Never can the ideal of beauty,
either physical or