The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine

"The Goddess is at once a scholarly and intensely personal journey that shows how the great female figures of archaic and classical Greece can serve to illuminate the present and future of women everywhere. Moreover, the author uncovers the patriarchal representation of the more ancient matriarchal traditions with a sensitivity and sympathy that allows the strength of the goddess to emerge as images of liberation for men as well as women. Here is a radical and brilliantly new understanding of an ancient and honored theme. We find not just jealous Hera but also she who is eternal maiden and solitary widow. Persephone is both the virgin goddess of spring and the awesome queen of death and the underworld. Athene's courage and wisdom, too often seen as masculine attributes, are discovered as authentically feminine. Through her subtle interweaving of the many variants and layers of tradition with her own dreams and experiences, Christine Downing communicates the pertinence of each figure she addresses not just to isolated incidents but to the whole of life. With an energy at once tender and powerful, this book enables the reader to enter deeply into the labyrinth where myth is the image of life and life the image of myth." -- Provided by publisher

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