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'After the death of the primal father' the women tended to usurp his power until they in turn were overcome by the sons: a series of events which is mirrored in the fact that Oedipus, after slaying his father, has then to wrestle with the Sphinx, and which in general finds expression in the numerous myths in which the young hero vanquishes a female monster (woman with the penis). The author also follows Bachofen in assuming a stage of mother-right before the period of father rule, so that we have a total series of four early stages of development as follows:—
1Primitive mother rule (as postulated by Bachofen),
2Father rule,
3Second period of mother rule,
4Son rule (the son in turn eventually becoming the father). The second period of mother rule is correlated with certain well-marked psychological characteristics in women (masculine traits, especially pugnacity, based on father identification).
Considerable space is devoted to an expression of Bachofen's views on certain myths as representing the conflict of matriarchal and patriarchal tendencies and the eventual triumph of the latter.