1. This sun terminated in the destruction of mankind, including a race of giants, by jaguars.
2. The second sun was Quetzalcoatl, and his age terminated in a terrible hurricane, during which mankind was transformed into monkeys.
3. The third sun was Tlaloc, and the destruction came by a rain of fire.
4. The fourth was Chalchintlicue, and mankind was finally destroyed by a deluge, during which they became fishes.
The first episode is clearly based upon the story of the lioness-form of Hathor destroying mankind: the second is the Babylonian story of Tiamat, modified by such Indian influences as are revealed in the Ramayana: the third is inspired by the Saga of the Winged Disk; and the fourth by the story of the Deluge.
Similar stories of world ages have been preserved in the mythologies of Eastern Asia, India, Western Asia, and Greece, and no doubt were derived from the same original source.
[400] The Greek Chronus was the son of Selene.
[401] Or possibly the situations of Upper and Lower Egypt.
[402] See G. Elliot Smith, "The Ancient Egyptians".
[403] The association of north and south with the primary subdivision of the state probably led to the inclusion of the other two cardinal points to make the subdivision four-fold.