emale Deity of the ancients has been transformed
into a male god. We are assured that the "redundant nomenclature of the
deities of Babylon renders an interpretation of them impossible.
Each divinity has many distinct names, by which he is indifferently
designated." It is observed that each Deity has as many as forty or
fifty titles, each of which represents a certain attribute.

Since the invention of the cuneiform alphabet, by which pictures have
been reduced to phonetic signs, the attempt has been made to arrange or
classify these gods according to their proper order in the Pantheon, but
thus far much obscurity and doubt seem to pervade their history.

In Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian mythologies are observed much
confusion and no small degree of mystery surrounding the positions
occupied by certain gods. "Children not unfrequently change positions
with parents," but more frequently, we are told, "women change places
with men," or, more properly speaking, the titles, attributes, and
qualities ascribed to the Great Universal female God are now transferred
to the reigning monarch. Thus not unfrequently a deity is observed which
is composed of a male triad, the central figure of which is the king or
military chieftain, and to which is usually appended a straggling fourth
member, a female, who, shorn of her power, and with a doubtful and
mysterious title, appears as wife or mistress to his greatness, while
upon her is reflected, through him, a slight hint of that dignity and
honor which was originally recognized as belonging exclusively to the
recognized Deity.

The Goddess Vishnu, from whose navel as she slept on the bottom of the
sea sprang all creation, after her transformation into a male God, is
supplemented by a wife--Lacksmir. Lacksmir means wisdom; but she has
become only an appendage to her "lord," upon whom is reflected all her
former glory.

So greedy did rulers become for the splendid titles belonging to the
female divinities that we are told that "the name of the Great Goddess
Astarte not unfrequently appears as that of a man."

Although man had usurped the titles of the female God and had denied
her recognition as an active creative agency, still, as nothing could
be created without her, she was permitted, as we have seen, to remain
as wife or mistress to the reigning monarch, in whom had come to reside
infinite wisdom and power. Her symbol was an ark, chest, boat, box, or
cave. This woman, althou