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
officiated in the costumes of males, while priests appeared in the dress
peculiar to females. However, that the sensuous element was to a certain
extent already assuming dominion over the higher nature, and that
priests were regarded as being incapable of self-control, is observed in
the fact that in the later ages of female worship one of the principal
requirements of a priest of Cybele was castration.

It is the opinion of Grote that the story which appears in the Hesiodic
Theogony, of the castration of Saturn and Uranus by their sons with
sickles forged by the mother, was borrowed from the Phrygians, or from
the worship of the Great Mother.

In India, the strictest chastity was prescribed to the priests of Siva,
a