sun and the moon are regarded as husband and wife, and among
others as brother and sister. In some countries, both are
female. I can find no instance in which both are male. Hindoos
and Aztecs alike, at one time, said that Luna was male and often
that the sun was female.

[37] Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 272.


The fact that among the Persians the moon as well as the sun was
at a certain period regarded as a source of procreative energy
and as influencing the generative processes, is shown by various
passages in the Avestas. In the Khordah Avesta, praise is
offered to "the Moon which contains the seed of cattle, to the
only begotten Bull, to the Bull of many kinds."

Perhaps the most widely diffused and universally adored
representation of the ancient female Deity in Egypt was the
Virgin Neit or Neith, the Athene of the Greeks and the Minerva of
the Romans. Her name signifies "I came from myself." This Deity
represents not only creative power, but abstract intelligence,
Wisdom or Light. Her temple at Sais was the largest in Egypt.
It was open at the top and bore the following inscription: "I am
all that was and is and is to be; no mortal has lifted up my
veil, and the fruit which I brought forth was the sun." She was
called also Muth, the universal mother. Kings were especially
honored in the title "Son of Neith."

To express the idea that the female energy in the Deity
comprehended not alone the power to bring forth, but that it