Now each such descent required a
separate divine amour, and a new scandalous story of Zeus or Apollo,
though Zeus may originally have been as celibate as the Australian Baiame
or Noorele are, in some legends. Once more, syncretism came in as a
mythopoeic influence. Say that several Australian nations, becoming more
polite, amalgamated into a settled people. Then we should have several
Gods, the chief Beings of various tribes, say Noorele, Bunjil, Mungan-
ngaur, Baiame, Daramulun, Mangarrah, Mulkari, Pinmeheal. The most
imposing God of the dominant tribe might be elevated to the sovereignty
of Zeus. But, in the new administration, places must be found for the
other old tribal Gods. They are, therefore, set over various
departments: Love, War, Agriculture, Medicine, Poetry, Commerce, while
one or more of the sons take the places of Apollo and Hermes. There
appears to be a very early example of syncretism in Australia. Daramulun
(Papang, Our Father) is "Master of All," on the coast, near Shoalhaven
River. Baiame is "Master of All," far north, on the Barwan. But the
locally intermediate tribe of the Wiraijuri, or Wiradthuri, have adopted
Baiame, and reduced Daramulun to an exploded bugbear, a merely nominal
superintendent of the Mysteries; and the southern Coast Murring have
rejected Baiame altogether, or never knew him, while making Daramulun
supreme.

One obvious method of reconciling various tribal Gods in a syncretic
Olympus, is the genealogical. All are children of Zeus, for example, or
grandchildren, or brothers and sisters. Fancy then provides an amour to
account for each relationship. Zeus loved Leto, Leda, Europa, and so
forth. Thus a God, originally innocent and even moral, becomes a perfect
pattern of vice; and the eternal contradiction vexes the souls of
Xenophanes, Plato, and St. Augustine. Sacrifices, even human sacrifices,
wholly unknown to the most archaic faiths, were made to ghosts of men:
and especially of kings, in the case of human sacrifice. Thence they
were transferred to Gods, and behold a new scandal, when men began to
reflect under more civilised conditions. Thus all these legends of
divine amours and sins, or most of them, including the wanton legend of
Aphrodite, and all the human sacrifices which survived to the disgrace of
Greek religion, are really degrading accessories to the most archaic
beliefs. They are products, not of the most rudimentary savage
existence, but of the e