Indra and Krishna, and even Christ, the same.
C. F. Dupuis in France (Origine de tous les Cultes, 1795),
F. Nork in Germany (Biblische Mythologie, 1842), Richard
Taylor in England (The Devil's Pulpit,[1] 1830), were among
the first in modern times to put forward this view. A little
later the PHALLIC explanation of everything came into
fashion. The deities were all polite names for the organs
and powers of procreation. R. P. Knight (Ancient Art
and Mythology, 1818) and Dr. Thomas Inman (Ancient
Faiths and Ancient Names, 1868) popularized this idea in
England; so did Nork in Germany. Then again there was
a period of what is sometimes called Euhemerism
--the theory that the gods and goddesses had actually once
been men and women, historical characters round whom
a halo of romance and remoteness had gathered. Later
still, a school has arisen which thinks little of sungods,
and pays more attention to Earth and Nature spirits,
to gnomes and demons and vegetation-sprites, and to the
processes of Magic by which these (so it was supposed)
could be enlisted in man's service if friendly, or exorcised
if hostile.

[1] This extraordinary book, though carelessly composed and
containing many unproven statements, was on the whole on the
right lines. But it raised a storm of opposition--the more so
because its author was a clergyman! He was ejected from the
ministry, of course, and was sent to prison twice.


It is easy to see of course that there is some truth in