[Editor’s Note: This and the forthcoming sequels are originally published in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (2018 Mago Books). Part 5 discusses the extended family of Greek Goddesses.]
Patriarchy versus Matriarchy—In Classical Athens
The takeover of Greece and the Aegean Islands by the Mycenaeans and other Hellenic clans resulted in a syncretic religion, where many gods and goddesses were worshipped, mixing local religious customs with those of the patriarchal warrior clans. In both Crete and Greece, the polytheistic pantheon with their multiple divine personae were called upon to address the vast array of human needs and desires.
The extended family of Greek Goddesses expanded to include not only Gaia, Themis, Phoebe, Diké (Justice), Nemesis, and Hekate; but also Hestia, Rhea, Demeter, Hera, Aphrodite, Hygeia (Health), Athena, Artemis, Irene (Peace), Iris (Rainbow), Thalassa (Sea), the Three Graces, the three Fates, the Three Furies, the Four Seasons, Nine Muses, the Dawn, the Night, the Goddesses of Democracy, of Persuasion, of Pity, Pandora, the Medusa sisters, and more. Each had sacred attributes, plants and animals, and sacred stories that spoke of their special powers. During the Classical Age (circa 500 to 323 BCE), people celebrated numerous religious festivals each month to honor the many Greek deities.
According to legend, Kekrops, became the first king of the city-state of Athens, circa 1600 BCE.
Kekrops called for a vote as to who should be the primary deity of the new city-state he would lead: Athena, Giver of the olive tree; or Poseidon, God of the Sea? The women voted for Athena, the men for Poseidon; and the women won by one vote.[1] Poseidon was enraged by his loss and flooded the Thrasian fields of Eleusis and Attika. To placate him, the men decided to punish the women by taking the vote away from them, the women could not be citizens of the new city-state, and children were to be called after their fathers instead of their mothers.[2]
This represents the shift from Mother-Rite to Father-Right at Athens; the ascendency of the patriarchal family and ruling class; and the end of the earlier democratic practices where women had been the equals of men.
From the union of the Earth Mother Goddess Rhea and Father of Time, Kronos, came Hestia, Demeter, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, and Zeus. The youngest of the offspring, Zeus, overthrew his father Kronos and became the chief of the Greek Gods and Goddesses. The Olympian Goddesses who succeeded the Titan Goddesses gradually were constricted to more limited roles shaped by the patriarchal beliefs of the Hellenic clans.[3]
Hestia, first born of Rhea and Zeus, was the Goddess of the Hearth. She was worshipped in practically every household, as the central flame of family life. Her place among the Twelve Olympians was later given to Dionysus, God of Wine, Drama, and Ecstasy. The Olympian Twelve then included seven male gods and five female gods, reflecting the decline in female domestic powers.
Demeter was a Great Mother Goddess, another Earth-Mother, Bringer of Seasons and Bestower of Fruits. She was “the honoured one … for mortals and immortals alike … the greatest blessing and source of joy.”[4]She was Mountain Mother; Great Goddess; Mother of Green Growth; Goddess of Warmth; Goddess of Childbirth; Bearer of the Laws of Civilization; the Unifier; Goddess of Good Counsel; Sender-up of Gifts; Light-bearer, Goddess of Healing; Cherisher of Children; Black Demeter (mournful Demeter in Phigalia of Arcadia, and of the black Earth in Eleusis); Furious Demeter; Savioress; and much more. She is Two-in-One, Mother and Daughter.[5] During the Hellenistic Age, Demeter’s Mysteries were seen as similar to the Mysteries of Isis of Egypt.[6] Under Hellenic rule, Demeter became restricted to Goddess of Agriculture and Goddess of Grain.
Hera, the Great Mother Goddess of Argos, became the wife of her brother Zeus and the Goddess of Marriage. Their three hundred years of nuptial bliss were imaginatively extolled in Vergil’s Aeneid.[7] Hera later was remembered for her jealousies for Zeus’ many couplings with other Goddesses and human women.
Aphrodite was the Goddess of Love, Beauty, the Arts, and Laughter. She was a goddess of erotic and sexual love, maternal love, and universal love. When wild animals followed Aphrodite on the mountains, “She filled their hearts with longing, so that they all went in twos into the shade of the valleys and made love with each other.”[8]The Pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles, in the fifth century BCE, praised the pre-patriarchal, pre-warrior culture of the peoples of Cyprus, the birthplace of Aphrodite:
No war-god Ares was worshipped, nor the battle-cry
Nor was Zeus their king nor Kronos nor Poseidon
but Cypris [Goddess of Love] was Queen.[9]
Leto, daughter of the Titan Moon Goddess Phoebe and Titan god Koeus, became the mother, in partnership with Zeus, of the twin deities, Artemis and Apollo. She was known in Anatolia and Crete as Lato. Peoples of northeastern Crete named their town Lato for her as their presiding deity.
Artemis, daughter of Zeus and Leto, was a maiden goddess. Because she was born first, before her twin Apollo, she served as midwife to her mother; thus Artemis was often called upon by women for help during childbirth. The herb named for her, artemisia (mugwort), eases childbirth. Artemis shunned the cities for the mountains, living in the wild with her female companions, including Britomartis of Crete. One of Artemis’ names was Mistress of Animals, as animals were under her care; another was Agrotera, Goddess of the Countryside. The bear was one of the animals closely associated with Artemis, and her young priestesses were named bear-priestesses. In the city-state of Ephesus on the western sea-coast of Anatolia, Artemis was worshipped as a Great Cosmic Mother, called Artemis Polymastos, the Many-Breasted Artemis, Mistress of Nature, Plants, and Animals; votaries called upon her as Great, Magnificent, Queen, Commander, Guide, Advisor, Legislator, Spreader of Light, Savior, and Controller of Fate.
Athena was a Great Goddess in the region of Attica before the founding of Athens, which followed the arrival of the Hellenic clan led by Kekrops. She became a maiden Goddess to later Athenians. According to Athenian legend, Athena’s mother was Metis, the African Goddess of Wisdom; Zeus swallowed Metis to prevent her from giving birth; and then Athena was born from Zeus’ head, fully dressed in armor. Athena was the Goddess of Wisdom; Prescient, Far-Sighted; Bestower of numbers, silver-smithing, and many other crafts, including women’s crafts of spinning and weaving; Goddess of Healing; Patroness of Workers; inventor of the flute; and a warrior goddess, Protector of the City and Goddess of Victory.[10]
Kore, Despoina, Persephone. Demeter’s daughter, initially, was simply Kore, Daughter. In southern Greece, Demeter’s daughter was also known as Despoina, Divine Mistress. Despoina was the result of the rape of Demeter by Poseidon-Hippius (Horse), a god of the Indo-European Hellenic clans that came down through central Europe into southern Greece, with their horses. Together, Demeter and Despoina were known as the Great Goddesses.Persephone was better known in Attica. She is mentioned by Homer as the “awesome” Goddess found in the Underworld with Hades.[11] Hesiod relates that Persephone was the offspring of Demeter and Zeus. Persephone became known not only as Bride of Hades and Queen of the Dead, but as a Goddess of Birthing, a divine Midwife. With Demeter, Persephone was a Goddess of the Thesmophoria—a woman-only ritual celebrated on behalf of Demeter and her Daughter to bless the grain seeds before their planting in late Autumn. Together with her Mother, Persephone bore the patterns of the cosmos and nature, good farming practices, procreation, and community.
Irene was the Goddess of Peace, the daughter of Zeus and Themis (Social Justice). Artists portrayed Irene, Peace, holding the child Plutus, Abundance, in her arms. Plutus was the son of Demeter, who was also named Abundance. Farmers needed Peace to prevail so crops could grow and be harvested.
Hygeia, the Goddess of Health, was said to be the sister, or wife, or daughter of Asklepios, the God of Healing. She shared with him the great healing center at Epidauros, also their precinct in Athens, and other healing centers. It was said that: “Health, without you, no one is happy!”[12]
The Three Graces were named Aglaia, Radiance; Euphrosyne, Joy; and Thaleia, the Flowering. These sisters brought mirth and growth, beauty and charm and grace to one’s life. “They stand for the joy and beauty produced by the blessings of fertile nature and by things that evoke the spontaneous emotion of pleasure.”[13]
The Three Fates held in their hands the fate of each individual. Clotho first spun out the thread of a person’s life. Lachesis then wove it into the pattern that created the main forces, conditions, flows of one’s life. Finally, Atropos cut the thread, causing the person’s death. But according to another telling, Love was the earliest Fate of all.[14]
The Three Furies, the Erinyes, were the defenders of blood kinship, especially mother-kin. When at Athens, the legal decision was made that the mother’s blood was no longer more powerful and sacrosanct than the father’s, the Furies were relegated to a place of silence beneath the Athenian Acropolis. They lament:
“Gods of the younger generation, you have ridden down
the laws of the elder time, torn them out of my hands.
I, disinherited, suffering, heavy with anger …
afflicted, … [I am] mocked by these people.
I have borne what can not
be borne. Great the sorrows and the dishonor upon
the sad daughters of night.”[15]
The Nine Muses were invoked for their creative powers. They are: Calliope, Muse of Eloquence and Epic Poetry; Clio, Muse of History and Writing; Erato, Muse of Love Poetry; Euterpe, Muse of Music; Melpomene, Muse of Tragedy; Polyhymnia, Muse of Oratory, Sacred Hymns, and Poetry; Terpsichore, Muse of Dance; Thalia, Muse of Comedy; and Urania, Muse of Astronomy and Science.[16]
The marvelous powers and gifts of the Greek Goddesses were seen as great blessings. They were so numerous, it is far beyond the scope of this chapter to include them all. So I will share the mythos of but one more goddess.
Pandora is remembered as the Greek Goddess through whom all evils entered the world. And yet, originally, she was a Great Goddess of beneficence, whose name Pandora means simply, All Gifts.[17]
After approximately a thousand years, the cosmic and earthly struggles between the matricultural societies of Old Europe, on the one hand, which were Goddess-centered and relatively peaceful, prosperous, artistic, and spiritual; and on the other hand, the patriarchal, God-centered, warrior clans of the Indo-Europeans; ended in the dominance of androcratic ruling elites in Greece. This only worsened over time, as patriarchal Rome, which in turn dominated Greece, was even more male dominant and imperial than Classical Athens, and the Roman Goddesses became ever more reduced in their powers.
One of the major common threads that weaves throughout, beginning from the epoch of Damatrian Crete, moving to Southern Greece, and on to Classical Athens, is the worship of DA-MA-TA, DA-MA-TE, DEMETER. Her festivals were the most popular of all the religious festivals in Greece. In her religious tradition, preserved most elaborately at Eleusis, we can see the fullness and inclusiveness of her sacred roles.
Throughout Greece, the worship of Demeter and her Daughter ritualized the arrival of the seasons and the life cycles of all living things, including plants, animals, the creatures of the air and sea, and humans. Demeter’s rites celebrated the birth, sexual union, and death/rebirth of humans. They ritualized the key points of the agricultural cycle that were crucial for blessing the seeds, plowing the fields, cultivating the crops, harvesting them, and storing the best seeds for the next year’s planting. Demeter was also invoked to bless the political confederations of the Greek peoples, and for her values and wisdom to guide Athens’ council meetings. Thus, Demeter was invoked for cosmic, human, agricultural, and political purposes.
This combination of functions all came together in the annual festival of the Eleusinian Mysteries, celebrated each Fall (around the Equinox) at Athens and its nearby neighbor, Eleusis. This nine-day rite led initiates each day into deeper and deeper communion with the Mother and Daughter Goddesses. The first day saw The Gathering, in the Athenian Agora, when initiates received the invitation to Mysteries, but were warned away if they had any unatoned blood-guilt on their hands. The second day was the journey to the sea, so initiates could be cleansed and held in the womb waters of Mother Earth. The third day was the official state ceremony of offerings and sacrifices. On the evening of the fourth day, initiates went to the sanctuary of Asclepius and Hygeia on the southern slope of the Acropolis to receive a visitation in their dreams from a divinity, a healing dream that prescribed what the person needed to do to accomplish healing, by coming into harmony with their own divine purpose. On the fifth day a Grand Procession with music and dancing and merriment led as many as 30,000 celebrants from Athens to Eleusis. The dancing and festivities continued in an all-night revelry, followed by resting and more sacrifices. The seventh and eighth day were called the Nights of the Mysteries, celebrated by initiates inside Demeter’s great temple. From clues gathered, the secret rites probably included the abduction of Kore by Hades; the adoption of the hearth-child (from Athens); the loving reunion of Mother and Daughter; a Sacred Marriage; the birth of a Sacred Son; Demeter’s bestowal of the gift of agriculture to the Eleusinian lad, Triptolemos; a great fire; and the receiving of a vision of the great beauty to be found all around, which changed one’s way of seeing and understanding life. The eighth day ended in a procession of all celebrants to the nearby Thrasian Plain, the most fertile fields of all Attica, to invoke the fertility of Mother Earth and the rains of Father Sky: “Sky, pour down rain! Earth, conceive, bring forth!”[18] After this, the initiates and the joined communities of Athens and Eleusis witnessed the Sacred Marriage of Heaven and Earth, as across the bay of Eleusis, the Sun set between the mountain breasts of Mother Earth.[19] The final day was a day for pouring libations to the ancestors, and perhaps to placate Hades for the return of Persephone to her Mother; and also for the Return, back across the threshold of liminality to ordinary life—only now, with a new way of seeing the beauty of life, having experienced the fullness of love of the Mother and Daughter for one another and the abundance of their gifts.[20]
The Eleusinian rites were centered on the mythos of Demeter and her Daughter. According to The Homeric Hymn to Demeter from the Archaic Age, the culmination of the rites celebrated the reunion of the Daughter and Mother.
Then all day long, spirits communing, hearts blessed by each other’s presence,
they embraced in the fullness of love, finally relinquishing sorrow.
Happy at long last together, held close in one another’s arms,
each received joy from the other, each gave joy in return![21]
According to the testimony of initiates, this experience of the Mother-Daughter Mysteries was profoundly life-changing. The Greek author Isocrates of the fifth century BCE asserted: “Demeter … gave these two gifts, the greatest in the world—the fruits of the earth which have enabled us to rise above the life of the beasts, and the holy rite which inspires in those who partake of it sweeter hopes regarding both the end of life and all eternity.”[22] The Roman statesman Cicero of the first century BCE, believed, “We have been given a reason not only to live in joy, but also to die with better hope.”[23]
The rites of Demeter and her Daughter at Eleusis were celebrated for almost two thousand years, from the Mycenean era through the Classical Greek era, and into the Roman era, until they were outlawed by edict of the Roman Christian emperor Theodosius II, in 389 CE. Yet these rites bear witness, then and still, to the enduring popularity and devotion generated by these Two Goddesses and their rites, weaving together an understanding of love as personal, social, and cosmic, manifest within human individuals, community, and nature.
(To be continued)
[1] See Ovid, Fasti, V, 231-232.
[2] See St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei [City of God], 18.9.
[3] Mara Lynn Keller, “The Eleusinian Mysteries and Greek Goddess Traditions”(unpublished manuscript, last modified April 21, 2018, Microsoft Word file.
[4] Homeric Hymn to Demeter, lines 267-269, trans. Jules Cashford, with Introduction and Notes by Nicholas Richardson (London: Penguin Books, 2003), 16.
[5] Mara Lynn Keller, “Demeter/Persephone,” in Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, 2nd ed., vol. 1, D. A. Leeming, ed. (New York Heidelberg Dordrecht London: Springer, 2014), 471-478.
[6] Apuleius, Golden Ass, Book 11.
[7] Vergil, Aeneid, VI.450-476.
[8] “Hymn to Aphrodite, V,” in The Homeric Hymns, trans. Jules Cashford, with Introduction and Notes by Nicholas Richardson (London: Penguin Books, 2003), 88.
[9] Empedocles, The Purifications, 466. In A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. 2, The Presocratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965).
[10] See Miriam Robbins Dexter, Whence the Goddesses (New York: Teachers College Press, 1990), 119-21.
[11] Homer, Odyssey X. 527-529.
[12] Emma Stafford, “‘Without You No One is Happy,’” in Health in Antiquity, ed. Helen King, (London/New York: Routledge, 2005), 120; see 120-135.
[13] Oxford Classical Dictionary, see under “Charites,” 227; eds. N. G. L. Hammond, H. H. Scullard, 2nd edition. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, [1970] 1987).
[14] Pausanias, Guide to Greece I.19.2, trans. Levi.
[15] Aeschylus, Oresteia, The Libation Bearers, 778-91, trans. Richmond Lattimore, in Aeschylus, Oresteia by Aeschylus (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1953), 164.
[16] Angeles Arrien, The Nine Muses: A Mythological Path to Creativity (New York: Jeremy Tarcher/Putnam, 2000), 35-39.
[17] See Charlene Spretnak, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: A Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths (Boston: Beacon Press, [1978], 1992), 53-57.
[18] Proclus, ad Platonis Timaeum 293 C, cited in Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 161.
[19] Mara Lynn Keller, “Cosmological Dimensions of the Eleusinian Mysteries,” paper for the conference on The Cosmological Imagination: Transforming World Views for the Planetary Era (St. John’s Presbyterian Church and Chabot Planetarium, Berkeley CA, November 2, 2002).
[20] Mara Lynn Keller, “The Ritual Path of Initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries,” Rosicrucian Digest 2 (2009): 28-42.
[21] Homeric Hymn to Demeter, lines 434-438, trans. Keller, in Keller, “The Greater Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone,” (unpublished manuscript, last modified April 21, 2018), Microsoft Word file; following Thelma Sargent, HomericHymn #2, “To Demeter,” line 424 in Thelma Sargent, The Homeric Hymns: A Verse Translation (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1973), 12.
[22] Isocrates, Panegyricos, 4. 28, trans. G. Norlin, in Isocrates, trans. George Norlin and Larue Van Hook. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, [1928] 1980).
[23] Cicero, The Laws 2.14.36, in Anthony Everitt, Cicero: A Turbulent Life (London: John Murray Publisher, 2001), cited in Carl Kerenyi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, trans. Ralph Mannheim, Bollingen Series LXV.4 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, [1960, 1962 German edns.], 1967), 15.