Author : Stephen Benko
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 46,38 MB
Release : 2004
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004136397
The contemporary search for the feminine face of God requires a re- examination of the relationship of Christianity to the pagan world in which it was born. This study inquires into extra-biblical sources of Marian piety, belief and doctrine. This publication has also been published in hardback, please click here for details.
Author : M. Rigoglioso
Publisher : Springer
Page : 477 pages
File Size : 24,9 MB
Release : 2010-09-27
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0230113125
This study of various female deities of Graeco-Roman antiquity is the first to provide evidence that primary goddesses were conceived of as virgin mothers in the earliest layers of their cults. By taking feminist analysis of divinities further, this book provides a fresh angle on our understanding of these deities.
Author : Sorita D'Este
Publisher : Avalonia
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 31,87 MB
Release : 2024-06-13
Category : History
ISBN : 9781910191262
In Artemis: Virgin Goddess of the Hunt & Moon, Sorita d'Este offers a thorough scholarly examination of Artemis, a multifaceted deity venerated in antiquity not only as the goddess of the hunt and the moon but also as a powerful figure associated with childbirth, women, music, dance, and wild animals. This volume provides a comprehensive exploration of her vast influence and worship throughout the ancient world. Artemis, daughter of the Titaness Leto and the Olympian god Zeus, emerges as a significant and complex figure from birth, assisting her mother during the delivery of her twin brother, Apollo. Artemis held a unique place in Zeus' affections, receiving numerous gifts and privileges that elevated her status among the Olympian deities. Over the centuries, she assumed various roles, including Potnia Theron, the Huntress, and Mother Goddess. The latter role inspired her temple at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and mentioned in the Bible. This major religious site saw Artemis worshipped by the Melissa Priestesses as a Mother Goddess rather than as the young huntress. This volume details the primary myths, powers, and cult practices surrounding Artemis, offering a study of her temples and sanctuaries, the festivals held in her honour, and her diverse roles in ancient mythology. The text delves into the animals sacred to her, her relationships with her virgin attendants and other gods and goddesses, and the myriad titles attributed to her, making it an essential resource for those seeking an understanding of this enduring goddess. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Second edition of the 2005 book by the same author, Artemis: Virgin Goddess of the Sun and Moon.
Author : Ana Castillo
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 34,72 MB
Release : 1997-10-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1573226300
Goddess of the Americas is a brilliant essay collection and an impassioned, unorthodox celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe: mother goddess, patron saint of Mexico, protector of the downtrodden, who made her first appearance on American soil in 1531. Through a variety of forms -- original essays, historical writings, short fiction, drama, and poetry -- the illustrious contributors to this literary anthology examine the impact this potent deity, the Lady of Guadalupe, has had on the people and culture of Mexico, and her influence beyond that country, in Latin America, North America, and Europe. An unprecedented contribution to the literature of the Americas, Goddess of the Americas is an invigorating investigation, an idiosyncratic adoration, and a profound recognition of our need for the sacred, unwavering love of the mother goddess. Francisco Alarcon * Luis Alfaro * Gloria Anzaldua * Ronnie Burk * Rosario Castellanos * Ana Castillo * Denise Chavez * Sandra Cisneros * Felipe Ehrenberg * Clarissa Pinkola Estes * Rosario Ferre * Francisco Goldman * Guillermo Gomez-Pena * F. Gonzalez-Crussi * Nancy Mairs * Ruben Martinez * Pat Mora * Cherrie Moraga * Octavio Paz * Elena Poniatowska * Margaret Randall * Jeanette Rodriguez * Luis Rodriguez * Richard Rodriguez * Miriam Sagan * Luisah Teish * Liliana Valenzuela
Author : Philippe Borgeaud
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 209 pages
File Size : 24,4 MB
Release : 2004-11-12
Category : History
ISBN : 080187985X
Worshiped throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, the "Mother of the Gods" was known by a variety of names. Among peoples of Asia Minor, where her cult first began, she often shared the names of local mountains. The Greeks commonly called her Cybele, the name given to her by the Phrygians of Asia Minor, and identified her with their own mother goddesses Rhea, Gaia, and Demeter. The Romans adopted her worship at the end of the Second Punic War and called her Mater Magna, Great Mother. Her cult became one of the three most important mystery cults in the Roman Empire, along with those of Mithras and Isis. And as Christianity took hold in the Roman world, ritual elements of her cult were incorporated into the burgeoning cult of the Virgin Mary. In Mother of the Gods, Philippe Borgeaud traces the journey of this divine figure through Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome between the sixth century B.C. and the fourth century A.D. He examines how the Mother of the Gods was integrated into specific cultures, what she represented to those who worshiped her, and how she was used as a symbol in art, myth, and even politics. The Mother of the Gods was often seen as a dualistic figure: ancestral and foreign, aristocratic and disreputable, nurturing and dangerous. Borgeaud's challenging and nuanced portrait opens new windows on the ancient world's sophisticated religious beliefs and shifting cultural identities.
Author : Anjali Paul
Publisher : Createspace Independent Pub
Page : 558 pages
File Size : 25,34 MB
Release : 2012-10-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781479364909
This love story is also a meticulously researched tale of a girl who was selected as the Royal Kumari of Kathmandu, Nepal at the age of four. A Kumari is a girl who is worshipped as a Living Goddess. The novel is based upon a clear-eyed understanding of the deep spiritual knowledge that nourishes this cultural practice. The heroine of "The Virgin Goddess" is Archita Shakya. When she is selected as the Royal Kumari of Kathmandu, she herself is worshipped as the Living Goddess. When she is deposed she returns to her family and acquires an education that is cut short during the pro-democracy struggles of 1989-1990. On discovering a plot to murder her after her wedding, she escapes from Kathmandu by assuming a false identity. In England she loses her original identity as completely as she lost her first love ... or so she thinks. However, life has a few more surprises in store.... This perceptive and witty tale of a Goddess who has to learn how to become a human being is a romantic, generous and very satisfying literary treat. This is a new and revised edition, and it also features an updated glossary.
Author : Tobias Fischer-Hansen
Publisher : Museum Tusculanum Press
Page : 590 pages
File Size : 18,74 MB
Release : 2009
Category : History
ISBN : 8763507889
This text is presented in English and German. This book contains 19 articles dealing with various aspects of the Greek goddess Artemis and the Roman goddess Diana. The themes presented in the volume deal with the Near Eastern equivalents of Artemis, the Bronze Age Linear B testimonies, and Artemis in Homer and in the Greek tragedies. Sanctuaries and cult, and regional aspects are also dealt with - encompassing Cyprus, the Black Sea region, Greece and Italy. Pedimental sculpture, mosaics and sculpture form the basis of investigations of the iconography of the Roman Diana; the role of the cult of Diana in a dynastic setting is also examined. There is a single section that deals with the reception of the iconography of the Ephesian Artemis during the Renaissance and later periods.
Author : Francis X. Clooney
Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 38,86 MB
Release : 2005
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0195170377
The Virgin Mary has long been the object of both devotional and scholarly interest, and recent years have seen a proliferation of studies on Hindu goddess-worship traditions. Despite the parallels between the two, however, no one has yet undertaken a book-length comparison of these traditions. In Divine Mother, Blessed Mother, Francis Clooney offers the first extended comparative study of Hindu goddesses and the Virgin Mary. Clooney is almost unique in the field of Hindu studies as a Christian theologian with the linguistic and philosophical expertise necessary to produce sophisticated comparative analyses. Building on his previous work in comparative theology, he sheds new light not only on these individual traditions but also on the nature of gender and the divine.
Author : Jean Shinoda Bolen
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 50,47 MB
Release : 2004-03-02
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0060572841
A classic work of female psychology that uses seven archetypcal goddesses as a way of describing behavior patterns and personality traits is being introduced to the next generation of readers with a new introduction by the author. Psychoanalyst Jean Bolen's career soared in the early 1980s when Goddesses in Everywoman was published. Thousands of women readers became fascinated with identifying their own inner goddesses and using these archetypes to guide themselves to greater self–esteem, creativity, and happiness. Bolen's radical idea was that just as women used to be unconscious of the powerful effects that cultural stereotypes had on them, they were also unconscious of powerful archetypal forces within them that influence what they do and how they feel, and which account for major differences among them. Bolen believes that an understanding of these inner patterns and their interrelationships offers reassuring, true–to–life alternatives that take women far beyond such restrictive dichotomies as masculine/feminine, mother/lover, careerist/housewife. And she demonstrates in this book how understanding them can provide the key to self–knowledge and wholeness. Dr. Bolen introduced these patterns in the guise of seven archetypal goddesses, or personality types, with whom all women could identify, from the autonomous Artemis and the cool Athena to the nurturing Demeter and the creative Aphrodite, and explains how to decide which to cultivate and which to overcome, and how to tap the power of these enduring archetypes to become a better "heroine" in one's own life story.
Author : M. Rigoglioso
Publisher : Springer
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 47,4 MB
Release : 2009-04-26
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0230620914
Greek religion is filled with strange sexual artifacts - stories of mortal women's couplings with gods; rituals like the basilinna's "marriage" to Dionysus; beliefs in the impregnating power of snakes and deities; the unusual birth stories of Pythagoras, Plato, and Alexander; and more. In this provocative study, Marguerite Rigoglioso suggests such details are remnants of an early Greek cult of divine birth, not unlike that of Egypt. Scouring myth, legend, and history from a female-oriented perspective, she argues that many in the highest echelons of Greek civilization believed non-ordinary conception was the only means possible of bringing forth individuals who could serve as leaders, and that special cadres of virgin priestesses were dedicated to this practice. Her book adds a unique perspective to our understanding of antiquity, and has significant implications for the study of Christianity and other religions in which divine birth claims are central. The book's stunning insights provide fascinating reading for those interested in female-inclusive approaches to ancient religion.
