At the lowest as at the highest levels of human society, respect for parents tends to be overshadowed by other interests. The sombre messages that myth and legend bring us from the primeval years of human society give a nasty impression of the power of the father and the ruthlessness with which it has been wielded. Cronus eats his children, rather as the boar eats the sow’s litter, and Zeus castrates his father18 and rules in his stead. The more absolutely the father lorded it over the ancient family, the more the son (as designated successor) must have moved into the position of enemy and the
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