measure forgotten, it is evident that at this time humanity had
not become wholly sensualized, and that the lower propensities
and appetites had not assumed dominion over the reasoning
faculties.
The Great Mother Cybele, who is represented by the Sphinx, had
doubtless been adored as a pure abstraction, her worship being
that of the universal female principle in Nature. She is
pictured as the "Eldest Daughter of the Mythologies," and as "The
Great First Cause." She represented the past and the future.
She was the source whence all that was and is had proceeded.
In its earliest representations, the Sphinx is figured with the
head of a woman and the body of a lion. By various writers it is
stated that the Sphinxes which were brought as spoils from Asia,
the very cradle of religion, were thus represented. The lion,
which symbolizes royal power and intellectual strength, is always
attached to the chariot of Cybele. The Sphinx is supposed to
typify not only Cybele, but the great androgynous God of Africa
as well. However, as Cybele and Muth portrayed the same idea,
namely, female power and wisdom, we are not surprised that they
should have been worshipped under the same emblem. Neither is it
remarkable, when we recall the fact that the female was supposed
to comprehend both sexes, that in certain instances a beard
appears as an accompanying feature of the Sphinx. We are told
that the fourth avatar of Vishnu was a Sphinx, but a further
search into the history of this Deity reveals the fact that her
ninth avatar is Brahm (masculine). The female principle has at
length succumbed to the predominance of male power, and Vishnu
herself has become transformed into a male God.
Although the rites connected with the worship of Cybele were
phallic they were absolutely pure. In an allusion to this
worship, Hargrave Jennings admits that the "spirituality to which
women in that age of the world were observed to be more liable
than men was peculiarly adverse to all sensual indulgence, and
especially that of the sexes."
Although the creative principle was adored under its
representatives, the Yoni and the Lingham, still the principal
object seems to have been, when administering the rites
pertaining to the worship of Cybele, to ignore sex and the usual
sex distinctions; hence we find that, in order to assume an
androgynous appearance, the priestesses of this Goddess
