have been produced from the egg. There is a remarkable legend of
this sort which ascribes Venus and her egg to the age of Typhon
and Osiris, in other words, to the age in which Noah was
compelled by the deluge to enter into the ark."[46]

[46] Origin of Pagan Idolatry, book i., ch. iv.


The Preserver of the Persians, who is seated on a rainbow in
front of their rock temples, is Mithras, who is identical with
Noah. Sometimes this ancient mariner is represented as riding on
the back of a fish, and again as floating in a boat. The God of
Hindostan, like the classical Dionysos, was enclosed in an ark
and driven into the sea. According to the Gothic traditions as
recorded in the Eddas, there once existed a beautiful world,
which was destroyed by fire. Another was created, which, with
all its inhabitants save a giant and his three sons, who were
saved in a ship, were destroyed by water. With this triad, which
originally sprang from a mysterious cow, the new world began.
This new world, which represents the present system, will in time
be devoured by flames; but another earth will arise from the
ocean,--an earth far more beautiful than this, upon which all
kinds of grain and delicious fruits will grow without
cultivation. Veda and Vile will be there, for the conflagration
will have been powerless to destroy them. While the flames are
devouring all things, two human beings, a female and a male, will
be concealed under a hill, where they will feed upon dew, and
will propagate so abundantly that the earth will soon be peopled
with a new race of beings. During the catastrophe, the sun will
be devoured by a wolf, but before her death she will give birth