Other Goddess Archetypes

The reading for today gives you a view of what some of the other goddess archetypes look like in the Greek mythology. While these "types" may not be present in all religions in the exact form they are in the Greek, they are usually represented somewhere in the greater mythology.

Before we moved into discussing the gods exclusively I thought it would be important to review the complex relationship between Zeus and Hera. These two are destined to run into conflict with each other and Hera is also destined to be the perpetual loser. Even though Zeus is the iron fisted ruler of Olympus, like other Olympians he is susceptible to the power of other powers such as Eros who frequently compels him to commit adultery on his wife Hera. It should be understood that the concept of love as we know it today was an invention which started in the middle ages and slowly evolved into the 20th century to become an emotional/spiritual bond between a man and a woman. The Greeks had no such concept of love; instead they had the sexual yearning and compulsion of Eros to push them forward. Zeus is often a victim of Eros and creates many illegitimate, yet powerful offspring, some of which become powerful heroes like Hercules. Other of his offspring suffer from Hera's interference and come to no good end. One such woman Leda is the subject of another Yeats poem entitled:

"Leda and the Swan"
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower[20]
And Agamemnon dead.

Being so caught up,

So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?


As you may know it was this coming together that created the beautiful Helen of Troy.
This brings us to Hera. As the goddess of marriage, and the sanctity thereof, she was unfortunate to be married to Zeus. What may appear as meddling on her part amounts to an obligation to fulfill her role in the Olympian pantheon. In order to enforce the bonds of matrimony, she must attempt to punish the transgressions of Zeus or, as she frequently does, prevent his offspring from being born. This present a very human family on Olympus, beset by all the moral failings of humanity.
Another goddess and maybe the most interesting is Aphrodite. She fulfills an interesting role in that she initiates a lot of rule breaking in terms of the gods and men. First off, she married to the witty, yet misshapen Hephaestus, the only parthenogenic child of Hera. Hephaestus' handicap is a result of Hera's attempt to create life outside of Zeus' realm of influence. She attempts to circumnavigate his role in creation and comes up with a cripple. As his wife, Aphrodite proves as constant as Zeus does to Hera. Rarely is Aphrodite really punished by her dalliance with gods and mortals, but those mortals always end up in trouble.
For the Greeks sex and power went hand in hand. They saw the world in terms of power relationships with a dominant power and a passive power present. In their world, the gods were always in a superior power position to mortals and so the mortals who dared to aspire to their status are always punished. One other rule the Greeks held was that by nature men dominated women. So when Zeus had affairs with mortal women all the "rules of nature" are are still being upheld: Zeus, the male is dominating the female; and Zeus the God dominates the mortal.
You can see where Aphrodite might throw a monkey wrench into those plans. She was almost always the dominant power in her sexual relationships. In her affairs with Ares she outwits him and manipulates him. To mortal men however she was a deadly attraction. The Greek notion of sex that the male dominates the female cannot hold up in her affairs with mortals. The men cannot usurp the power of the gods and so (unlike Zeus' mortal partners) Aphrodite’s mortal partners all came to a bad end except Anchises whose son Aeneas becomes famous in the Trojan War.
The last and maybe most important of these Goddesses in Athene. She is a very powerful figure for mortal heroes and champions the cause of many such as Odysseus. While she was born was Zeus' head there is no known link, as opposed to what the book says, between that and her power as a tactician. The Greeks did not have any idea that the brain was associated with thought, and like the Egyptians believed it to be a useless mass of goo. She was what I think of as the female Apollo and a splendid example of how contradictory the Greeks could be.

World Goddesses

If you get an hour to sit and watch the video i have posted I highly recommend it.  In this video Joseph Campbell, not Mr Bell, discusses the power of Love and the feminine in mythology.  It is a transformative  experience to see true love in action where the importance of the other eclipses the self.  


The reading for today was intended to make you consider the cosmic significance of the goddess and the universal association she has. The first thing to consider is the similarities between the stories of Innana, Isis, and Demeter. Here we have very close association of deeds and significance. These stories all contain an association between sex and death as the correlates of temporality. The life we have is only possible with the death of others. The goddess becomes an all encompassing figure that contains all the possibilities of life and death. Many traditions separate these aspects of goddesses divinity but a few bring them all together as well. Kali from the "Hindu" tradition is a good example of the goddess of all existence. She carries a sword to cut life down, an open hand affirming life and a drum to tap out the minutes and hours of time.

In the case of Isis we see many parallels to Demeter in her story and function.  In agrarian societies the goddess is the earth and so she is very important.  In many images Osiris can be seen sitting on a throne with Isis in the background.  This is not because she is less important but because she is IS the throne upon which he sits.  She is all of creation and he is living upon her as a representative of human society.  One further note about that story:  Campbell once stated that in the older versions of the Isis and Osris story the birth of Horus occurs when Isis is morning the loss of her husband on the river and she actually has sex with his corpse and conceives Horus.  Most of the stories we read will make reference to Isis laying down with his corpse or some other vague reference to this act.  This simply shows that, as we noted earlier, sex and death are closely bound and we cannot have one without the other.  Furthermore, Horus becomes an important god, the patron of Pharaohs and the arch-nemesis of Set, his fathers murderer.
 

If the goddess is the material of life, the god is the one who moves it into action. The god creates reality out of possibilties. It is through the god that we find that even though we may be reluctant to bring life forward "life must be". He (as the text notes) is "the force that through the green fuse drives the flower".

Consider this poem (a favorite of mine) as we continue:


The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.

The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.

The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.

Dylan Thomas

Demeter and Persephone

For several thousand years the goddess has been in decline. As we will see tomorrow, much of the decline of the goddess can be attributed to cultural factors. In very patriarchal societies such as our own, and to a greater extent the Greeks, the goddess gets shotgun instead of the drivers seat. Her importance in myth cannot be overstated however. Goddesses such as Demeter are central to the existence of all life and particularly human life. The text does a good job in covering the importance of this story in etiological and psychological terms and it does address the importance to the feminine psyche.

I found this myth to be a good guide to a woman's life and importance in society. This story tracks Persephone as maiden, Demeter as mother and life giver, as well as the crone. They may possess incredible potency to give life but it is constrained and directed here by the prerogatives of the patriarchy or social function.

The first glaring example of social duty is Persephone's marriage to Hades. While she is clearly not happy with the match it demonstrates the typical marriage a woman could expect. She would be married to a much older man who would likely appear a monster in her innocence. Much has been written on this subject and it appears in folk tales such as Beauty and the Beast where the young girl must learn to recognize the male not as the "other" but as the other half of her own divided self.

Eventually Persephone comes to an acceptance of her limitations in regards to marriage and becomes an adult woman operating within the bounds of society. While this explains the seasons etc. it also prepares young women for the transition to adulthood and the recognition of their own power as women. Their power may not be (primarily) to make policy and war but they have the gift to deny life, or allow it to continue. Observe the play Pygmalion by Shaw and the earlier Greek myth. The power of life is locked away like a princess in a tower. It takes either a hero's penetration into the restricted zone of her life giving powers to win her over, or the eventual realization on her part that she is is now not a girl but a woman. Earlier societies did a much better job of introducing women (and men) to their new lives of maturity and responsibility than we do today.

Demeter's grief over the separation is presented as somewhat excessive here but highlights the mother's need to relinquish her children to the social order as well. The better Greeks states had compulsory public education for male children starting at the age of 6 or 7. The child was usually removed from the home for a number of years and returned only when his studies were finished. He might be allowed visits home, but his mother no longer had any access or power over him. He had migrated to another realm where she could not reach him.

Demeter as the crone still holds impressive power. Take the example of Demophoon buried in the fire in an effort to grant him immortality. The mother is unable, as a mortal, to comprehend the fire of immortality and sees it only as a threat. Most people fear what they do not understand, (observe the rise of fundamentalism currently going on all over the world) and the young mother mistakes the crone, Demeter's intentions. As we will read later Hecate is the archetypal crone figure and has powers associated with the realm of death. She is the patron of Medea, Jason's wife and exhibits her power to destroy through the maddened woman. The crone is the tomb into which we all must pass.

Why Life is Hard

This is perhaps the most appropriate title from Works and Days. Assuming we were once in an eternal state of bliss it is a far fall to where we are now. If "Works and Days" tells us why life is hard, the story of Prometheus is about the injustice of the universe. Humans are punished for the mistakes of Prometheus even though he is a Titan and we are not.

This story deftly answers one of the most vexing problems of Christianity: If god is all powerful and supremely good why do bad things happen to us?

The Greek answer is that if there is an omnipotent god (Zeus), he/she is indifferent or malevolent. This view was also shared by the Gnostic Christians who were very quickly pushed out of the Christian church.

Prometheus is also something of a scapegoat who comes between the full fury of the gods and mankind. Mankind suffers, but not nearly as much as could be were it not for the suffering of Prometheus. The scapegoat archetype is very common and is seen in figures such as Christ and Odin.  Take a quick look at the image above and tell me that does not resemble Christ.  This image however dates from 350 BC. Scapegoats suffer so that others will not have to. It was very common in early societies to practice scapegoating at the New Year. Often a sacrificial figure would be identified a year ahead of time and pampered like a king for that year. On the eve of the new year they would then be sacrificed, stoned or exiled from the town/village. This symbolic act was a ritual purge of the collective sins or evils of a community. The sacrificial individual would be suffering in the hopes that the community would not have to. It is also connected with early agricultural and hunting societies where death is recognized as an integral part of the life/death/rebirth cycle.

In the case of Christ the sacrifice was of such magnitude that is obviated the need for further sacrifices. Up until that time sacrifice was a regular practice. For more detailed explanations of the scapegoat rituals and documentation see "The Golden Bough" by Sir George James Frazer.

Another trend which is highlighted by Works and Days is the increasing distance humans have from their once divine roots. Most stories of alienation foretell a time of great hardship and strife usually right before the end of the world or a new beginning. According to Hesiod we were experiencing that time now. For a poetic version of the end-days see "The Second Coming" a poem by WB Yeats which I have provided here.

The Second Coming
TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Prometheus is something of a champion for mankind and we recognize his heroic qualities. Prometheus is the source of civilization for humanity as the theft of fire allowed for a shift in the ways humans lived. He was the spark of inspiration that allowed for further progress.

The Golden age that preceded Prometheus is a psychological version of the womb where all the child’s needs were met automatically and there was no want or conflict. The gradual decline in that perfection represents a coming to terms with the world and its necessary evils which cannot be reversed and is only ameliorated in death; which for the Greeks was small consolation. The hope for a return to that world without want and overabundance is a desire to return to the womb.

Obviously a return to that eternal state is only possible in death which brought many cultures to revere the power of the Goddess as supreme. She is the "womb and the tomb" which we will read about for tomorrow.