SAN DIEGO MESA COLLEGE
PHIL 125
CRN: 65364
FALL 2013
INSTRUCTOR: PROF. NINA ROSENSTAND
PHILOSOPHY OF WOMEN
THE GODDESS TRADITION:
A VERY brief overview of the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, as speculated in:
Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy
Marija Gimbutas, Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe
Merlin Stone, When God Was A Woman
Pamela Berger, The Goddess Obscured
Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade
and numerous other books from the past 20 years.
Archaeological finds and ancient myths seem to support the theory that until approx. 6000 years
ago, the social structures in Southern Europe/the Middle East were matrilineal, and perhaps matriarchal.
Evidence of exclusively female (goddess) figurines, women’s graves with symbols of high status, and
evidence from a variety of religions in the regions (myths) point to some form of women’s participation in
the power structure: As rulers, priestesses, teachers, doctors, scholars, traders. The picture is not yet
clear, but evidence points in this direction. Merlin Stone, for example, speculates that women priestesses
in the Middle East may have invented the art of writing as a way to keep the temple books (the first
evidence of writing actually comes from temple bookkeeping). The religion seems to have centered on a
mother goddess figure who was the source of all life; she is often thought to have had three aspects: The
young girl: “the maiden”, the mother, and the old woman: “the crone.” As such, she is responsible for
life, for the taking of life, and for the rebirth of new life. The “three fates” of the Greek tradition may be a
cultural memory of the three aspects of the mother goddess. The great goddess was often associated
with some animal such as the snake and the cat.
From around 6000 years ago until 2500 years ago, great social changes happened in the same
region (in some places, like Crete and Ireland, the matriarchal systems seem to have persisted the
longest). Either a new aggressive cultural group made its way through the old cultural lands of the Middle
East, Southern Europe, and Northern Africa, or the people in the regions adopted new customs, or both.
(Some daring scholars link these changes with natural disasters in connection with an actual astronomical
calamity, preserved in legends of…the Flood!) These changes involved: social structures changing slowly
from matriarchal (women sharing some form of social power) to patriarchal (men being exclusively in
power), and from matrilineal (your family line is your mother’s line) to patrilineal (your family line is your
father’s line); the physical structures of towns changing into fortified cities; weaponry changing toward
more sophisticated swords and spears, often in connection with use of the chariot; and religious changes
involving the setting aside of the Mother Goddess in favor of God the Father. In the beginning of the
transition, the mother goddess acquires a husband, a lover, or a son (sometimes they are one and the
same). He often dies, and she goes to the Underworld to rescue him, mostly to no avail, but sometimes
he is resurrected each year. This is what is usually referred to as the hieros gamos, the Holy Marriage.
Often priests and priestesses would mate symbolically to reenact the holy marriage of the gods. There is
evidence that a queen/priestess may have married a young sacrificial male each year, and next year he
would be killed; A new young man would take his place as the “resurrected” young king. (Robert Garves’s
theory).
The final stage of the transition sees the goddess figure shrunk to the main god’s nagging wife,
his daughter, a female spirit of wisdom (a “holy spirit), the mother of God, or some other fairly powerless
female relative. The God is now all-powerful, is often thought to be a sky-god, and has connections to
thunder and lightning. Several scholars believe that the Virgin Mary is the final vestige of the Mother
Goddess in Christianity. Socially and historically, this corresponds to a complete official patriarchal power
structure. Women have little access to owning property, being in government, teaching in public, or
officiating in religious ceremonies. Myths often reflect the battle of a young god over a snake-woman, or
a giant snake/dragon; these myths are thought to be a symbolic memory of the patriarchal religions
conquering the goddess religions. In the tradition of patriarchy, women with medical knowledge and/or
personal authority have often been referred to as witches; the witch-hunts of the middle ages are wellknown, but witch-hunts and executions of witches went on up until the 19th century.
This cultural development becomes a theory in the early 20th century with the publication of J.J.
Bachofen’s book, “Mother Right”, and has found increasing support from archaeological evidence.
However, it is still only a hypothesis. In the late 20th century, feminists have used the hypothesis to
illustrate 1) the power and pervasiveness of patriarchy, and 2) the relativity of patriarchy (it wasn’t
always there, and it can be undone).