"THE DAWN OF CIVILIZA'TlON 63 



a cult of an earth divinity, of course female, or in a goddess or 

 demon of fertility. She is sometimes or usually accom- 

 panied by a male partner, companion or son, but he occupies 

 a lower place. 



This cult of the goddess seems to have been a marked 

 feature of Neolithic religion. ^^ We find it in the remains of 

 the Minoan period in Crete: Isis and her companion god 

 Osiris were prominent in Egypt. The cult was wide-spread 

 throughout Asia Minor: Diana, or better Artemis of the Ephe- 

 sians, Ma in Anatolia, the great goddess of the Hittites, are 

 a few examples. Pumpelly found a female idol at Anau. The 

 cult dots, if it does not cover, the migration route. In Greece 

 we find Demeter, and in " Pelasgic Athens " Athena always 

 held the highest place. We find deeply buried traces of a simi- 

 lar goddess cult in most parts of northern Europe. The cult 

 of the goddess probably belongs to the close of the Neolithic 

 period, as the belief in innumerable nameless demons repre- 

 sents the early Neolithic or Palaeolithic stage. Laugh con- 

 ceitedly, if you can and will, at these " superstitions " of our 

 benighted ancestors. They were permeated with an intense 

 vitality. They are still crude in form and will be refashioned 

 and better expressed as man grows in wisdom and reverence. 

 The substance is already present; the elements and possibili- 

 ties of a grand religion. It is a growth of hundreds of mil- 

 lennia. You can change or modify or reexpress it. You can- 

 not uproot it. It has become imbedded in the fibers of man's 

 brain, a part of his life-blood. 



Plutarch seems to have been nearer the truth than some 

 modern observers and students when he wrote " Pass over 

 the earth, you may discover cities without walls, without 

 literature, without monarchs, without palaces and wealth; 

 where the theater and school are unknown; but no man ever 

 saw a city without temples and gods, where prayers and oaths 

 and oracles and sacrifices were not used for obtaining pardon 

 or averting evil." 



13 ^Q. 70. Chap. V. 

 55- 218. 



