5.1.4: Intertwining Life and Death

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): The Twin Goddess figurine may represent the dual aspects of the Great Goddess, the Mother and the Daughter, a precursor to Demeter and Persephone (Mellaart 140). Twin goddess marble statuette, height 17.2 cm, from Çatal Hüyük, 6000-5500 BC. Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara. (CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia)

By integrating the cycle of death into her many attributes, the Mother Goddess shifts into a more potent deity, often referred to as the Great Goddess (Her latter name), a shift which unintentionally initiates the birth of the male pantheon and their ascension to power, at her expense. Some researchers, such as David Leeming hold the Goddess responsible for the shift to a male-centric mythology, citing as evidence the descent of the Sumerian goddess Inanna to the underworld where she confronts death, her sister Ereshkigal. Leeming distills this episode into a single outcome: “In the Dumuzi myth Inanna has already entered the process in which the goddess will lose power to the god” (Leeming 156). In oversimplifying the actions of Inanna, the brave and willful self-sacrifice of Dumuzi, and the resulting benefit to her people, Leeming’s quick reduction falls into the historical pattern of diminishing the potency of the feminine divine to uphold the “right to rule” for the subsequent male generation to come. He even subtly retitles the epic to “the Dumuzi myth,” rather than the accepted title, “The Descent of Inanna.”

Other authorities, such as Karen Armstrong, trace the transformation of the Mother Goddess through Her Paleolithic and Neolithic appearances, calling her “more powerful than the Sky God,” and recognizing her specter in various incarnations including the Syrian goddess Asherah, spouse of El, the High God, or as Anat, El’s daughter; also in Sumer in Mesopotamia, as Inanna and later in Babylonia as Ishtar; in Egypt as Isis; and in Greece where her power was separated across three or more goddesses, she became Hera, Demeter and Aphrodite. Stressing the intentions of the myths and the role they served for their people, Armstrong believes the myths weren’t meant to be read literally, rather metaphorically as etiological explanations for “a reality that was too complex and elusive to express in any other way . . . . to articulate their sense of the powerful but unseen forces that surrounded them. During this time, Armstrong notes, the Mother Goddess merged with the version the hunting tribes venerated, the Great Mother, maintaining and intensifying her more intimidating aspects (God 5 and Myth 46-47):

Anat, for example, is a ruthless warrior, and often depicted wading through an ocean of blood; Demeter is described as furious and vengeful, and even Aphrodite, goddess of love, exacts fearful revenge . . . . [Myths] were not pastoral idylls, and the Mother Goddess was not a gentle, consoling deity because agriculture was not experienced as a peaceful, contemplative occupation. It was a constant battle, a desperate struggle, against sterility, drought, famine and the violent forces of nature which were also manifestations of sacred power. The sexual imagery of planting did not mean that people experienced agriculture as a romantic love affair with nature. Human reproduction was itself highly dangerous for mother and child. (Armstrong Myth 46-47)

Child and maternal mortality rates in a pre-modern world were terribly high, leading to further energies directed at praising a Great Mother who could ensure the safe carriage and growth of a baby who might contribute to either the farming or hunting necessary to ensure the survival of the agricultural workforce.

Rituals born out of these beliefs are described in a number of cultural myths, including the Babylonian Enuma Elish and the Canaanite myth of Baal-Habad. Enuma Elish was ritually recited on the fourth day of the New Year, and in its telling the audience experiences the creation of the world from a primordial chaos, likely similar to the marshy swamps of Mesopotamia, to the seismic flooding exemplified by the war between Tia’mat and Marduk. Tia’mat is the manifestation of a generative Great Mother who is both terrifying and awesome, one who births an army of monsters to fend off those who seek to organize and subdue her mighty waters. The fearsome power of water was well known to these people who, like the Ancient Egyptians, regularly witnessed mighty flooding that either could feed or destroy a crop.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): This bronze figure of Anat, sister and consort of Baal, dates from the early 2nd millennium BC (Middle Bronze Age (MB I/II A). (From the Walters Art Museum, Public Domain Wikimedia)

Early cultures regularly traded their myths along with goods, and this myth very likely inspired those of Canaan, specifically the character Baal-Habad, the storm and fertility god, who appears often in the Bible as an antagonist (Armstrong God 8). Similar to the “Descent of Inanna,” Baal experiences death, but unlike the goddess Inanna, his story does not end with an auspicious return and rebirth. Instead, upon his death he descends into the realm of Mot, the divine embodiment “of death and sterility.” Learning of his son’s death, El, the High God, abandons his ceremonial throne and takes on mourning garb, a simple sackcloth, and then tears his cheeks as an expression of his sadness. As powerful as he is, he cannot save his own son. Instead, Baal’s sister and consort, Anat, departs to seek her lover’s everlasting spirit, “desiring him as a cow her calf or a ewe her lamb” (qtd. In Armstrong God 8). After recovering his body, and honoring him with a funerary feast, she attacks Mot in spectacular fashion. Cutting him in half first, she then “winnows, burns and grinds him like corn before sowing him in the ground.” The final measure, sowing his remains, is akin to actions of Inanna, Ishtar and Isis, who seek out their dead mates to regenerate the land. Anat, however, finds a measure of victory as Baal is reanimated and returned whole to Anat. Her victory over Mot is celebrated annually in ritual to memorialize her act. Armstrong summarizes:

"This apotheosis of wholeness and harmony, symbolized by the union of the sexes, was celebrated by means of ritual sex in ancient Canaan. By imitating the gods in this way, men and women would share their struggle against sterility and ensure the creativity and fertility of the world. The death of the god, the quest of the goddess and the triumphant return to the divine sphere were constant religious themes in many cultures and would recur in very different themes in many cultures" (God 10-11).

The representation of the questing goddess and the passive god in need of rescue emerged as a theme after the Neolithic age. Rather than being rooted in place like the mortal women of the agricultural Neolithic era, the female divinities sought purposeful restoration, often fighting with death as they brought subsistence to humanity. Unlike cavalier, ego-centric, adventure-seeking characters, like Gilgamesh, the Great Mother represents an honorable ideal, as a heroine who seeks to amend and support humankind (Armstrong Myth 48).

Across the Mediterranean Sea, near the close of the Neolithic and the dawn of the Bronze Age, Indo-Europeans invaded the land that would become Greece, bringing their beliefs with them. The wide area referenced in Greek myths includes the Hellas, the mountainous peninsula on the southeastern edge of Europe, and the lands east of the Mediterranean, along with the Asiatic coasts and the Aegean Islands, a region both fertile and promising to invaders. A later wave brought the Danaans, named from the myth of Danaus, the King of Libya, whose fifty daughters are credited with bringing agriculture and the fertility rites of Demeter from their home in the Middle East. Piecing together the fragments from Apollonius of Rhodes and other sources and archeological evidence from caves, highlights the presence and importance of a mother goddess in the region. Discoveries of goddess figures, temples, and images span as far north-west as Medjugorje, Illyria, as far south as Luxor, Egypt, and as far east as Assour, Syria, with approximately thirty-six locations spread across the wider Mediterranean (Markale 192). Findings in caves near Delphi suggest versions of goddess veneration there dating from 4000 BCE, and by 1400 BCE evidence points to Gaea as the primary deity at the temple. Her reign there lasted until Apollo appeared approximately 700 BCE, and his cult rose in her place (Leeming 161).

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): A number of goddess figures from the pre-Greek Cycladic culture (named for the Cycladic islands) and the Minoan (named for King Minos) have been found in burial sites from 3000-2000 BCE (Leeming 161). This very large marble female figure, carved in canonical type, can justifiably be classed as a statue. Distinguished by clear outlines, perfect proportions and plasticity of forms, it suggests latent movement, indicated by the higher left hip and corresponding shoulder, culminating in the slight inclination of the head to the right which infuses the figure with an air of mystery, establishing it as the distant precursor of the monumental sculptures of Archaic times. There is no doubt that this is the work of a gifted artist who managed to express in marble the awe inspired by the Great Goddess, who is often shrouded in mystery. It is likely a cult statue, based on its height of 1.4 meters, which stood in one of her unknown shrines. Probably from Keros, EC II, 2800-2300 BC. Goulandris Foundation Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Coll. no. 724. (CC BY, via Wikimedia)

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Artemis of Ephesus, in alabaster, 2nd century AD. Though commonly associated with chastity, Artemis embodied fertility aspects, even as early as her service as midwife for her own twin’s birth. As one of the descendants of the Great Goddess, she is sculpted with an abundance of breast (symbols of fertility and nurturing) and clothed with miniature animals and insects in affiliation with her protector role as Mistress of the Animals (Harris and Platzner 138). Two deers flank the statue as symbols of her role as divine huntress. Each symbol combines to emphasize her role as supporter of life (Ephesus Archaeological Museum). (CC BY, via Wikimedia)