[198] As Keary well says: “The essence of primitive belief lies not in any likeness to humanity, but in differences from it.” _Outlines of Prim. Belief_, p. 26. The Neo-Platonic doctrine of “emanation” led to the belief that a man might become so filled with the divine essence as to become divine himself. This was the claim of Simon the Magician, who “became confessedly a god to his silly followers,” says Hippolytus in his _Refutation of all Heresies_, bk. vi., cap. 13.
[200] Speaking of Jupiter, this fiery preacher exclaims: “Nor is there any kind of baseness in which you do not associate his name with passionate lusts.”—_Adversus Gentes_, lib. v., cap. 22.
[201] Howitt, in _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, vol. xiii., pp. 192, 194; vol. xiv., p. 313.
[202] Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 41; Herzog und Plitt, _Real-Encyclopädie für Prot. Theologie_, _s. v._ Gebet, etc.
[203] Hopkins, _Religions of India_, p. 412.
[204] Calloway, _Religious System of the Amazulu_, p. 34.
[205] As examples, I may name Unkululu, among the Zulus (Calloway, _Relig. System of the Amazulu_, pp. 40, 43); Singbonga, of the Munga-Kohls (Jellinghaus, in _Zeit. für Ethnologie_, Bd. iii., p. 330); the Hunahpu of the Quiches (_Popol Vuh_, p. 1); the Ahsonnuth of the Navahoes (_8th Rep. Bur. Ethnol._, p. 275); etc. I have discussed the psychic origin of androgynous deities in _The Religious Sentiment_, pp. 66, _sqq._ It was also strong in the early Christian Church, Origen and others of the fathers teaching that the Holy Ghost was the feminine principle in God (C. J. Wood, _Survivals in Christianity_, p. 63).
[206] These were frequent in quite primitive faiths. Some of the priests of ancient Mexico, for example, wholly extirpated the genitalia.—Davila Padilla, _Hist. de la Prov. de Mexico_, lib. ii., cap. 88. Comp. Charlevoix, _Journal Historique_, p. 350.
[207] I have pointed out that in various American dialects, as the Chipeway and Cree, the Maya, Quichua, etc., there are words of native origin, which were used to convey the notion of the love of the gods in pure and high senses. See the article on “The Conception of Love in American Languages,” in _Essays of an Americanist_, pp. 416, 421, 428, etc.