POLYTHEISTIC AND MONOTHEISTIC PRIESTHOODS. 743 



habitually they describe fights among the gods themselves ; 

 and habitually they depict the chief god as the one who 

 acquired supremacy by force. These are just the traits of a 

 pantheon resulting from the apotheosis of conquering in 

 vaders and from the usurpations now and then witnessed 

 among their leaders. And evidently the subjugation of 

 peoples one by another, and consequent elevation of one 

 pantheon above another, must be a chief cause of differences 

 among the powers of the major and minor deities, and of 

 contrasts in importance among their respective cults and 

 priesthoods. 



613. Eventually there results under favouring conditions 

 a gravitation towards monotheism. It is true that for a long 

 time there may continue in the minds of a polytheistic people, 

 a fluctuating conflict among the beliefs respecting the relative 

 powers of their gods. Of the ancient Aryans, Professor Max 

 Muller writes &quot;It would be easy to find, in the numerous 

 hymns of the Veda, passages in which almost every single 

 god is represented as supreme and absolute. . . . Agni is 

 called the ruler of the universe ; . . . Indra is celebrated 

 as the strongest god, . . . and the burden of one of the 

 songs ... is ... Indra is greater than all. Of Soma it is 

 said that ... he conquers every one.&quot; Of the Egyptian 

 gods too, a like fact is stated. The exaggerated language of 

 worshippers attributes now to this of them and now to that, 

 and sometimes to a living king, a greatness so transcendent 

 that not only all other things but all other gods exist through 



But the position of &quot;father of gods and men&quot; becomes 

 eventually settled in the minds of believers; and if sub 

 sequently usurped, the usurpation does not diminish the 

 tendency towards monotheism but increases it; since there 

 results the idea of a divinity more powerful than was before 

 believed in. How recognition of superiority in a conquering 

 people, and by implication in their gods, tends to dwarf the 



