"When above the heavens had not been formed, when the earth below had no name, Tiamat brought forth them both. Tiamat, Mother of the gods, Creator of all."
SO BEGINS the earliest known account of the creation of the world. Moving from the Near East to Europe, the earliest known creation story is the pre-Hellenic Pelasgian Creation Myth, which depicts the creation of the universe by Eurynome, the Goddess of All Things. Commenting on this in his classic study of the Greek myths, Robert Graves says: "In this archaic religious system there were as yet neither gods nor priests, but only a universal goddess and her priestesses, woman being the dominant sex."
In all myth throughout the world, the original Creator is feminine. It is only with the coming of a masculine-dominated (patriarchal) social system that She is replaced by a male god. Sometimes (as in the case of Tiamat above) She is said to have been conquered or killed by the new god. Sometimes the patriarchy boldly changed the sex of the Deity without changing the name—as with Ea in Syria, Shiva in India or Atea in Polynesia. Sometimes the goddess was slowly edged out and the god edged in. W. R. Smith points out that the goddesses of the ancient Semites "changed their sex and became gods" in historical times while Atea, the supreme God of Polynesia was a Goddess as little as 500 years ago.
Often the new cult of the male god could only be made to replace the original religion of the Goddess by a very severe patriarchal régime. This was the case with the Hebrew Jehovah. Even then, the people frequently reverted to the worship of 'the Queen of Heaven', much to the chagrin of the patriarchal prophets.
Turning from the 'historical' to the 'prehistoric' period—that is to say, to that vast majority of human history for which written records no longer exist or have been re-written by patriarchal redactors—the material evidence makes it clear that the religion of the feminine Deity was predominant for thousands of years.
The concept of feminine supremacy is so alien to modern minds that many male scholars have described it in terms which imply abject subjection on the part of men. Speaking of Catal Huyuk, the oldest town at present known to archaeology, Mellaart, who was the excavator, speaks of "man's subservience to woman".
Charles Seltman says of the pre-Mycenaean Greeks "religion and custom were dominated by the female principle, and men were but the servers of women". Men, as the "weaker sex" "could be trusted to hunt, fish, gather certain foods, mind flocks and herds . . . so long as they did not transgress matriarchal law". J. J. Bachofen says that in prehistoric times "woman towers above man", and speaks of "the contrast between the dominant woman and the servile man".
It is also likely, judging from the complete absence, rather than subordinacy, of the male image that, at least in many places, the centre of civilisation was a predominantly feminine affair in which men played little part, and in which relations between women, at least among the upper echelons of society, were considered more important than their relations with men. This would be parallel with the pattern in patriarchal societies such as ancient Athens, pre-20th century academic communities, religious hierarchies and so forth.
Mister 13 2012-11-05 21:36:18
"When above the heavens had not been formed, when the earth below had no name, Tiamat brought forth them both. Tiamat, Mother of the gods, Creator of all."
SO BEGINS the earliest known account of the creation of the world. Moving from the Near East to Europe, the earliest known creation story is the pre-Hellenic Pelasgian Creation Myth, which depicts the creation of the universe by Eurynome, the Goddess of All Things. Commenting on this in his classic study of the Greek myths, Robert Graves says: "In this archaic religious system there were as yet neither gods nor priests, but only a universal goddess and her priestesses, woman being the dominant sex."
In all myth throughout the world, the original Creator is feminine. It is only with the coming of a masculine-dominated (patriarchal) social system that She is replaced by a male god. Sometimes (as in the case of Tiamat above) She is said to have been conquered or killed by the new god. Sometimes the patriarchy boldly changed the sex of the Deity without changing the name—as with Ea in Syria, Shiva in India or Atea in Polynesia. Sometimes the goddess was slowly edged out and the god edged in. W. R. Smith points out that the goddesses of the ancient Semites "changed their sex and became gods" in historical times while Atea, the supreme God of Polynesia was a Goddess as little as 500 years ago.
Often the new cult of the male god could only be made to replace the original religion of the Goddess by a very severe patriarchal régime. This was the case with the Hebrew Jehovah. Even then, the people frequently reverted to the worship of 'the Queen of Heaven', much to the chagrin of the patriarchal prophets.
Turning from the 'historical' to the 'prehistoric' period—that is to say, to that vast majority of human history for which written records no longer exist or have been re-written by patriarchal redactors—the material evidence makes it clear that the religion of the feminine Deity was predominant for thousands of years.
The concept of feminine supremacy is so alien to modern minds that many male scholars have described it in terms which imply abject subjection on the part of men. Speaking of Catal Huyuk, the oldest town at present known to archaeology, Mellaart, who was the excavator, speaks of "man's subservience to woman".
Charles Seltman says of the pre-Mycenaean Greeks "religion and custom were dominated by the female principle, and men were but the servers of women". Men, as the "weaker sex" "could be trusted to hunt, fish, gather certain foods, mind flocks and herds . . . so long as they did not transgress matriarchal law". J. J. Bachofen says that in prehistoric times "woman towers above man", and speaks of "the contrast between the dominant woman and the servile man".
It is also likely, judging from the complete absence, rather than subordinacy, of the male image that, at least in many places, the centre of civilisation was a predominantly feminine affair in which men played little part, and in which relations between women, at least among the upper echelons of society, were considered more important than their relations with men. This would be parallel with the pattern in patriarchal societies such as ancient Athens, pre-20th century academic communities, religious hierarchies and so forth.