goddess

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Snake goddess from the palace of Knossos in Crete, around 1600 BC Chr.
Sumerian goddess, fragment of a stele from 2120 BC. Chr.
Hindu goddess Sarasvati , goddess of art, science and wisdom, prepared in Kolkata for the Vasant Panchami festival

A goddess is a female deity . In many religions , goddesses have been and are currently being worshiped, whose ideas and areas of activity are often associated with fertility , motherhood , growth and decay and eroticism , but there are also goddesses of war, sea goddesses and goddesses of knowledge and wisdom, for example.

meaning

Goddesses, like male gods, are often related to world creation myths with regard to their reproductive power . The female principle is associated with birth, including the birth of the cosmos. This results in the ideas of a mother goddess , also earth goddess , possibly pointing far into the prehistory of mankind , which can be historically identified through the 100 to 200 Venus statuettes from the Upper Paleolithic (from 40,000 years before today, such as the most recent find with Venus from the hollow rock ) seem to confirm, all small figurative representations of naked female bodies with special emphasis on the sexual characteristics. However, this interpretation is mostly rejected by archeology.

In many myths, the goddess appears as a figure that does not seem to correspond to the image of the feminine that is common today. It is also associated with apparently masculine attributes: with war, hunting, domination, violence and power, perfect spirit and autonomous sexuality, as is the basis of the myth of the Amazons, which has not yet been historically clarified . In addition, it also represents the principle of death, whereby the life-giving also takes life, even if this is also in connection with the belief in a rebirth made possible by this. In her role as the goddess of life and death, the feminine is associated with human fate. Due to the opposing properties attributed to goddesses, many (as well as masculine gods) appear as the embodiment of the union of complementary opposites such as creation / destruction, life / death, love / hate, good / evil, spirit / matter, light / dark.

Goddesses in the evolution of civilization

In the transition from smaller social organizations to civilizations, goddess cults had a worldwide meaning. B. in India, Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Japan, Greece and Rome. Goddesses were among others in these complex agricultural societies. a. responsible for fertile agriculture, royalty, protection of religious centers and victorious wars.

In the different cultures goddesses had a variety of important functions, but a universal cult of the 'Great Mother' cannot be established. In some cultures, the goddesses were closely associated with the emergence of larger cities as well as royalty and were considered to be the origin of complex social organizations. Often they were responsible for social institutions such as tax collection and distribution of resources, while in other cultures goddesses merely represented companions of male gods or were adopted from older shamanistic cults in mystery cults .

Historical religions

In the Mesopotamian region, the goddesses are among the oldest deities and some researchers suspect that the presence of female deities goes back to prehistory, as a large part of the sculptures found are female and male sculptures are the exception.

It is controversial whether a primacy of goddesses was related to a social matriarchy . A comparison with today's cultures, which many goddesses know or where the worship of goddesses is prominent, shows that these "are not necessarily societies in which women are valued and opportunities are open to them."

With the exception of the Hittite sun goddess of Arinna , most ancient religions had no goddesses at the top of a hierarchy of gods. They often function as fertility, mother or earth goddesses, or just "as speculative additions to their husband without their own temple."

The Akkadian Ishtar - corresponding to the Sumerian Inanna and the West Semitic Astarte - was a goddess of war, mother and love. As the dominant goddess, her name could also be used synonymously for goddesses in general.

Earth, fertility and other goddesses were also worshiped in regions where arable farmers lived, from Egypt to the Orient and Asia Minor to the Celts , Teutons and Slavs . The high cultures of the Aztecs , Mayas and Incas also worshiped goddesses.

Egypt

There were a multitude of important goddesses in ancient Egypt. For example, the sky goddess Nut , who was also the wife of the earth god Geb , Neith , the goddess of weaving and victorious weapons, and Hathor , who appears in different forms as the sky goddess. Other important goddesses in Egypt were e.g. B. Maat , Bastet and Courage .

One of the most famous Egyptian goddesses is Isis . The Pharaoh was considered the son of Isis and her name is linguistically related to the word for throne, so that she was also considered the holy seat of the Pharaoh. Later, Isis was the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus and eventually became a universal goddess, whose cult also spread to Greece and Rome.

Greece and Rome

The pre-Olympic goddesses of Greece were usually involved in vegetation rituals, such as B. the earth mother and chthonic mother of the gods, Gaia . Before the oracle at Delphi was dedicated to Apollo , it was associated with Gaia. In the practice of the Gaia cult, sacrifices of animals, grain and fruits were made and a trance of possession was practiced.

In the mystery cult of Eleusis , the earth goddess Demeter was worshiped. In this cult, the theme of the rebirth of Demeter's daughter, Persephone , appears, who was kidnapped by Hades into the underworld .

Later Greek goddesses often descended from prehellenic earth goddesses. Olympic goddesses were Hera , Athene , Artemis , Demeter , Hestia and Aphrodite . These goddesses had different roles and functions, which the earlier spheres of influence also showed. Some of the Greek goddesses lost earlier chthonic aspects after being placed in a hierarchy whose supreme god was Zeus . Often they no longer showed any connection to the forces of life and death. Instead of the earth goddesses, goddesses now emerged in the male-oriented pantheon, who embodied aspects of the goddess idea. In the development of Greek culture, this “division of the goddess into individual parts” represented a transformation of goddess worship.

In Roman culture there is a strong identification of Roman and Greek deities, most of the Roman gods had a Greek equivalent. Goddesses that correspond to the Greek are e.g. B. Juno , Diana , Minerva , Venus , Vesta , Ceres and Proserpina .

In ancient times , in addition to the Parzen (goddesses of fate) Artemis , Eileithyia (in connection with Hera ), Juno and Lucina etc. a. as birth goddesses.

In Rome, goddesses from other peoples and cultures were also adopted, such as the Anatolian Cybele and the Egyptian Isis.

Celticum

Epona

In the Celticum, the areas of Europe and Asia Minor populated by the Celts, goddesses were especially worshiped as mother and country goddesses. They played an important role in the Celtic religion from the beginning , which is also attested by the fact that the Indo-European * deivā ("goddess", from which Latin dea ) is well documented in all Celtic languages in the most common variant Deva . These land goddesses often go back to pre-Celtic, sometimes even pre-Indo-European local deities.

The idea of ​​the Celts of their goddesses and their myths is hardly documented, as there are almost no written sources. Few names have been passed down from ancient Greek and Roman authors, such as Andraste and Epona . In consecration and other inscriptions, ancient Celtic and Roman deities are often associated with the Interpretatio Romana (example: Abnoba - Diana ). Some of these goddesses are after the Christianization euhemeristisch worldly, though often been reinterpreted magic competent heroines (Epona - Rhiannon in Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed , 'Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed "). Their former divine function can only be recognized in individual features of the later traditions.

The mother goddesses show themselves in the veneration of the matrons , mostly appearing in triads , individually personified in the goddess Dea Matrona . As goddesses of the country, they are closely connected to the custom of the hieros gamos (“holy wedding”). What is meant here is the sexual connection with the goddess of the country, often actually carried out with a priestess, since the king was recognized as such only through this act of consecration. An example from Irish mythology is the saga Baile in Scáil (“The prophecy of the phantom”, “The vision of the ghost”) about the enthronement of Conn Cétchathach .

Both mother and land goddesses are closely related to the function of fertility goddesses. In the figure of the Tailtiu , the transformation of an earth and fertility goddess into a legendary figure can be seen.

Pre-Islamic Arabia

The ancient Arabic religion also knew several goddesses. Al-Lāt , al-ʿUzzā and Manāt were among the most important goddesses who were worshiped in pre-Islamic times in northern Arabia in the form of stone monuments . After the capture of Mecca in 630, the stone marks of these goddesses were destroyed and their worship prohibited.

Non-European religions

Japan, China and Tibet

In Tibet and Mongolia, Tantric Buddhism is a religion that is heavily focused on the worship of goddesses. The divine power is understood as simultaneously opposing and complementary , which is expressed in male and female manifestations (cf. Yab-Yum ). This connection between female and male principles and dynamic tensions comes from Hindu Tantra . There are an abundance of goddesses who represent the consort and antithesis of a male deity. However, there are also independent and more autonomous goddesses, for example the female bodhisattva Tara .

In Tibetan Bon , goddesses, like Vajrayana, also have an important role. A well-known Bon goddess is z. B. Palden Lhamo .

There are also a large number of goddesses in Chinese Daoism and popular belief . Guanyin , originally a Bodhisattva, is especially venerated by the people , but in popular belief the goddess of grace. Guanyin is still revered in Japan. In Amitabha Buddhism , Guanyin brings believers to the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha and gives them the certainty of enlightenment. She is also considered a teacher.

The highest Daoist goddess is Xiwangmu , other popular goddesses are e.g. B. Mazu and Doumu .

In Japanese Shintoism there are a multitude of female and male nature deities. The god Izanagi and the goddess Izanami are considered to be the creators of the world and represent a couple. They are the parents of the sun goddess Amaterasu and the storm god Susano-o no Mikoto, as well as other gods of nature. The Japanese imperial family referred to Amaterasu as a cult deity, whereby she was viewed not only as the Shinto sun goddess, but also as the Radiant Buddha of Heaven. The Japanese emperor was considered a descendant of Amaterasu and should therefore maintain peace in the world and was responsible for Amaterasu's main shrine .

Hinduism

For Hindus all over the world the belief in the form of God in female form is very popular. The Shaktism , one of the three main streams, sees the goddess than the male deities dominant. The image of the black goddess Kali , who stands triumphantly on the male, white god Shiva , expresses this superiority. In contrast, other depictions show the same goddess as the virtuous, loving wife Parvati at his side. Still others clearly point to the unity of male / female, for example when the tradition depicts Rama and Sita in a single lotus flower or the divine lovers are entwined to form an apparently inseparable unity. In the figure of the Mahadevi, on the other hand, the goddess appears as the highest deity and all-being, from which the male gods emerge.

Although mostly referred to as polytheistic , almost all Hindu religions teach the formless divine One, albeit in different philosophies. For Shakti followers, this highest One is Shakti , the form of God thought to be feminine. If she appears as a young woman without a male counterpart like Durga , she is then again a wife, mother or longing lover; as Lakshmi she is the goddess of housewives and beauty, as Sarasvati she represents the mistress of the arts and sciences. Not only the Hindu philosophy expresses the unity of the divine, also the Puranas and Tantras , books whose knowledge is widely spread among the people make this fact clear in visual language, in stories and in prayers:

As the sun, which is reflected in the ponds, appears as innumerable suns, so you also appear, O mother, as many - you one without second, highest Brahman ! (from the tantric script Mahakalasamhita)

The Indian folk religion also knows a variety of goddesses.

Persia

African and African American religions

Goddesses are worshiped in African religions , including the Yoruba religion , as well as in Afro-American religions such as Candomblé , Santería, and Umbanda . Among the orishas , for example, Yemaja and Oyá are important goddesses.

Western goddesses of modern times

During the French Revolution , at the instigation of Robespierre in 1793 and 1794, attempts were made to replace conventional religion with the cult of an allegorical goddess of reason . During the first celebrations, an actress embodied this goddess in the Paris Notre-Dame Cathedral. With the end of the rule of the Jacobins this attempt at an atheistic state cult failed .

With the advent of Wicca and Neopaganism , the idea of ​​a goddess again became popular in Europe and the USA. The Triune Goddess stands out here in particular .

Theoretical aspects of the worship of goddesses

One of the first European researchers in the 19th century to depict goddesses in his work was Johann Jakob Bachofen .

Some psychologists have also proposed theories of worshiping goddesses. Sigmund Freud interpreted the worship of goddesses as a child's wish to reunite with their mother. He assumed that there were unconscious fantasies that stem from a phase of early psychological development when the mother appears to be omnipotent. Freud's theories are highly controversial these days.

Carl Gustav Jung dealt more with the religious impulses of goddess worship. He assumed that the feminine principle is a universal, inner-psychic archetype that also acts independently in the psyche.

In 1955, the Jungian Erich Neumann developed a fully developed theory of goddess worship in his work The Great Mother , which explains goddesses using a variety of psychological perspectives. Neumann does not go into social contexts, but only uses concepts of the inner-psychic. Although Neumann has been methodologically criticized, his work is one of the most extensive in goddess research. He describes the great abundance of appearances of goddesses and presents transformative aspects of religious impulses in relation to the worship of goddesses. In the archetypal symbol of the goddess, he represents four Dimensions under which every goddess can be classified:

  • the good mother who is related to topics like birth, rebirth and vegetation cults;
  • the terrible mother who is related to subjects like illness, extinction and death;
  • the positive goddess of transformation associated with inspiration and wisdom , ecstasy and visions ;
  • the negative goddess of transformation associated with madness , rejection, impotence and deprivation.

In his work The Masks of God, Joseph Campbell also made a Jungian-oriented contribution to the worship of goddesses, which also addresses phenomenological perspectives.

In 1959, the anthropologist and religious scholar Edwin Oliver James took a historical and cultural approach to goddesses, but also a Jungian perspective.

Between the 1950s and 1980s there were no major works on the phenomenon of the goddesses. It was not until the 1980s that anthropology, religious studies and feminist sciences turned to this area of ​​research again. Reasons for this newer research were the resurgence of the matriarchy discussion, the occupation of feminism with the symbolism of the goddesses and new approaches in the comparative religious studies.

Mircea Eliade dealt with the topic in 1982 in his work Mother Worship: Theme and Variations . Carl Olson was the editor of The Book of the Goddess: Past and Present in 1983 , which contains articles by religious historians and feminist scholars.

The assumption that there was a cultural level of matriarchy , although most religious scholars and anthropologists assume that such a level never existed, has not disappeared from the discussion. A few well-known scientists, such as Joseph Campbell, assume that there was a “mother right,” as Bachofen postulated. These researchers assume that a matriarchy is archaeologically verifiable. Feminist sciences now generally agree with the anthropological view, although some feminist writers continue to cling to the idea of ​​a Great Goddess and matriarchal cultures, an example being Starhawk .

See also

literature

  • Stephen Benko: The Virgin Goddess: Studies in the Pagan and Christian Roots of Mariology, Studies in the History of Religions (= Numen Bookseries. 59). EJ Brill, Leiden 1993, ISBN 90-04-09747-3 .
  • K.-H. Bernhardt: Kind. Gods, strangers. In: Biblical-historical concise dictionary. Volume 1, pp. 590-593.
  • Mircea Eliade (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Religion , Volume 6, New York 1987.
  • Christoph Elsas: Art. Mother goddess. In: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon . Volume 3, pp. 562-565.
  • Marija Gimbutas : Goddesses and Gods in Ancient Europe: Myths and Cult Images 6500 to 3500 BC Chr. Arun, Uhlstädt-Kirchhasel 2010, ISBN 978-3-86663-043-7 .
    • English: The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe, 7000-3500 BC: Myths, Legends and Cult Images . University of California Press, Berkeley / Los Angeles 1974, ISBN 0-520-01995-4 .
  • W. Helck: Considerations on the Great Goddess and the deities connected to her (= religion and culture of the ancient Mediterranean world in parallel research. 2). Oldenbourg, Munich / Vienna 1971, ISBN 3-486-43261-3 .
  • Joe J. Heydecker: The Sisters of Venus: The Woman in Myths and Religions. Heyne, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-453-07824-1 .
  • Monika Hörig: Dea Syria-Atargatis. In: W. Haase (Ed.): ANRW . II, 17.3, Berlin / New York 1984, pp. 1536–1581.
  • Monika Hörig: Dea Syria. Studies on the religious tradition of the fertility goddess in the Middle East (= Old Orient and Old Testament. 208). Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1979, ISBN 3-7887-0604-X . (also: Butzon and Bercker, Kevelaer 1979, ISBN 3-7666-9060-4 )
  • Edwin Oliver James: The Cult of the Mother-Goddess: An Archeological and Documentary Study . Praeger, New York / London 1959, OCLC 807107142 . (also: Barnes & Noble, New York, 1961, LCCN  61-003056 ).
  • Othmar Keel , Christoph Uehlinger: Goddesses, gods and symbols of God: new knowledge on the religious history of Canaan and Israel based on previously untapped iconographic sources. (= Quaestiones disputatae. 134). Herder, Freiburg i. Br. U. a. 1992, ISBN 3-451-02134-X . (6th edition: Academic Press Friborg, Freiburg, Switzerland, 2010, ISBN 978-3-7278-1680-2 )
  • James J. Preston (Ed.): Mother Worship: Theme and Variation . University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill / NC 1982, ISBN 0-8078-1471-7 .
  • R. Stigliti: The great goddesses of Arcadia: The cult name Megalai theai and its bases (= special writings / Austrian Archaeological Institute. 15). Self-published, Vienna 1967, DNB 364670010 .
  • Christoph Uehlinger: Nackte Göttin, B. In: Reallexikon der Assyriologie and Near Eastern Archeology. IX, 1998-2001, pp. 53-64.

Web links

Wiktionary: Goddess  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

References and comments

  1. ↑ Emile Gilliéron and his son played a decisive role in the reconstruction of the Knossos finds. The authenticity of the Minoan snake goddess of Knossos ( Minoan religion ) is seriously questioned based on the results of the radiocarbon method ( 14 C dating).
  2. ↑ Kenneth DS Lapatin: Snake Goddesses, Fake Goddesses. How forgers on Crete met the demand for Minoan antiquities. Archeology (A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America) Volume 54 Number 1, January / February 2001
  3. ↑ Kenneth DS Lapatin: Mysteries Of The Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, And The Forging Of History Paperback. Da Capo Press, 2003, ISBN 0-30681-328-9
  4. ↑ See Franz Sirocko (Ed.): Weather, Climate, Human Development. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 2009, ISBN 978-3-534-22237-7 , p. 79, map distribution of the places where Venus statuettes were found 34,000 -24,000 BP; Siegmar von Schnurbein (ed.): Atlas of the prehistory. Stuttgart 2009, pp. 28-29; see. also project Hypersoil University of Münster, Mother Earth in the Paleolithic
  5. ^ Russell Dale Guthrie: The nature of Paleolithic art . University of Chicago Press, London 2005, p. 368. Guthrie is referring to Martha Ann, Dorothy Myers Imel: Goddesses in world mythology. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, Calif. 1993 / New York 1995. Cf. for classification and evaluation also (received by Guthrie) Lynn Meskell: Goddesses, Gimbutas and 'New Age' archeology. In: Antiquity. 69/262, 1995, pp. 74-86.
  6. ↑ Harald Haarmann: The Madonna and Her Daughters, reconstruction of a cultural-historical genealogy. Georg Olms, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 1996, ISBN 3-487-10163-7 , p. 34 ff.
  7. ↑ Mircea Eliade (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Religion. Volume 6, New York 1987, p. 37.
  8. ↑ a b c d Mircea Eliade (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Religion. Volume 6, New York 1987, p. 40.
  9. ↑ Meret Fehlmann: The speech of matriarchy . Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2011, S, 105
  10. ^ KH Bernhardt: Goddess. In: Biblical-Historical Concise Dictionary. (BHH), Volume 1, p. 600.
  11. ↑ R. Border, Art. Ishtar. In: BHH 2, 778
  12. ↑ a b c Mircea Eliade (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Religion. Volume 6, New York 1987, p. 38.
  13. ↑ a b c d e Mircea Eliade (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Religion. Volume 6, New York 1987, p. 39.
  14. ^ Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 , p. 146 f. (Entire section Celticum ; Helmut Birkhan : Kelten. Attempt to present an overall picture of their culture. Verlag der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 , p. 513 ff.)
  15. ↑ Mircea Eliade (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Religion. Volume 6, MacMillan, New York 1987, p. 54.
  16. ↑ a b c d e Mircea Eliade (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Religion. Volume 6, MacMillan, New York 1987, p. 55.