With the exception of some of the older divinities, whose forms, as they are less complex, retain throughout the simplicity of their primitive character, few gods escaped this adoration, which tended to make them all universally supreme, each being endowed with all the attributes of godhead.

One might think that no better fate could happen to a god than thus to be magnified.

But when each god in the pantheon was equally glorified, the effect on the whole was disastrous.

In fact, it was the death of the gods whom it was the intention of the seers to exalt.

And the reason is plain.