The Goddess Movement When in 1974 respected archaeologist Marija Gimbutas published The Goddess and Gods of Old Europe (Berkeley: University of California Press), little did she know the effect it would have on feminism, religion and society. Her book was about the spiritual practices of people living in southeastern Europe 6000 to 8000 years ago. Her book presented a theory of matriarchal and matrilineal societies that in many ways were ideal. Men and women lived in harmony, women ran the temples
In his article entitled “Okonkwo’s Suicide as an Affirmative Act: Do Things Really Fall Apart?” Alan R. Friesen discusses and analyzes Okonkwo’s suicide as an act of martyrdom in the form of resistance against colonialism as opposed to a selfish act of defeat. Friesen’s main argument is that Okonkwo’s suicide and its interpretation is solely dependent on fate. Friesen raises the question of whether or not Okonkwo had control of his destiny, despite all of his good attributes and his main role in
The Earth Goddess Every community in Africa recognize the Earth as a spirit and the provider of fertility and harvest. The Akans conceive her as the second in command after Onyankopͻn. Most communities regard her as a female and related to the Great Goddess of India. She is also seen as the dearest of all the deities. The Akans call her Asaase Yaa and Asaase Efua among the Fantes, the Ibos call her Ala or Ane. The Ibos believe she is the most significant goddess among all the gods. They also believe
Fertility cults existed in almost all cultures, where Earth is treated as the Mother (female) and Sun, the Father (male). For instance in Babylon, Ishtar, the earth-goddess, was considered as a supreme deity among the female divinities. Throughout western Asia, the Great Earth Mother, representing fertility was worshipped under diffrent names. When Greek colonists in Asia Minor found her temples, they named her Artemis and the existing
lives. Of these gods and goddesses, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, literature, arts, reason, and battle strategies, is definitely one of the most important, and added many things to the world of the ancient Greeks. In this essay the lineage, appearance, personality, powers, stories, and allusions of this great Greek goddess will be
Compare/Contrast Essay Over the years, many stories have been written, spoken or sung about heroes of great strength in many tribes. Among these stories are Beowulf, whose author is unkown, and the Iliad, which was written by Homer. Both stories present heroes of epic proportion, but in different ways. While both were epic heroes, both had differing characteristics, coming from the fact that the two had different cultural backgrounds, that deemed them as such, a couple differences were: Beowulf
would be complete without an inclusion of the divine nature to which her beauty is credited. Throughout the work we, as readers, can infer subtle allusions focused at Helen’s divine heritage, one such line can be found in her mention of the ‘day my mother gave me to the world’ mentioned earlier within the discussion of book six. This line summons to mind, the well-known tale of Helen’s creation, she was conceived by the divinity Zeus, disguised as a swan, and a mortal Leda. This coupling saw Helen
My aim in this essay is compare Rachel Zucker’s Eating in the Underworld with others previous texts related to hell, focusing on the characteristics which they have in common and the ones that they do not have in common. The books with which I am going to compare with it are the Homeric ‘Hymn to Demeter’, written in the late 7th century BC, but we will take Jules Cashford’s translation of the Greek text for this essay, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book V), written in the early 1st century AD, but always
Ariana Saunders Masculinity vs. Femininity in Eumenides “Oresteia” Masculinity vs. Femininity in Eumenides “Oresteia” Ariana Saunders In this essay I will examine the manner of differences in Masculinity vs. Femininity taking place in The Eumenides, final play of The “Oresteia”. The conspiracy of The Eumenides puts Orestes and Apollo (assemblies of the male gods and male values in general) against the ghost of Clytemnestra and the Fury (equally assemblies of female values.) More conclusively
action and the ruling king of Uruk he is also shown to be a thoughtless oppressor of his people. As clearly shown in tablet I, he would leave no son to his father, no girl to her mother or the young man his spouse. Neither the people nor many of the divinity knew how to unravel this problem. It fell to the birth goddess Aruru the great one who created the human race to find the solution to Gilgamesh and his tyranny. Aruru created Enkidu from a simple pinch of clay as Gilgamesh’s equal, rival and