Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/54

 48 ANCIENT BELIEFS. BOOK 1. But we must notice this peculiarity — th:itthe domes- tic religion was transmitted only from male to male. This was owing, no doubt, to the idea that genera- tion was due entirely to the males.' The belief of primitive ages, as we find it in the Vedas, and as we find vestiges of it in all Greek and Roman law, was that the reproductive power resided exclusively in the father, The father alone possessed the mysterious principle of existence, and transmitted the spark of life. From this old notion it followed that the domestic worship always passed from male to male ; that a woman participated in it only through her father or her hus- band; and, finally, that after death women had not the same part as men in the worship and the ceremonies of the funeral meal. Still other important conse- quences in pi'ivate law and in the constitution of the family resulted from this : we shall see them as we proceed. ' The Vedas call the sacred fire the cause of male posterity. See the Mitakchara, Oriannes' trans., p. 139.