Goddesses and Gods

(Editorial published in THE CELATOR, Vol. 12, No. 2)

Goddesses (and Gods, for that matter) as represented on Greek and Roman coins are actually latecomers to the world's religions. As I recall, Ashtoreth (a despised deity of the Old Testament - always described using a masculine gender) was actually Astarte - the Great Goddess as known in Canaan - the near eastern Queen of Heaven, known elsewhere as Innin, Inanna, Nana, Nut, Anat, Anahita, Istar, Isis, Au Set, Ishara, Asherah, Ashtart, Attoret, Attar, and Hathor ... the many named Divine Ancestress. As I understand it, her religion flourished for thousands of years before the arrival of the patriarchal Abraham, prophet of the male deity Yahweh.

The Goddess was evidently worshipped since Neolithic times ... and at some point (depending upon local cultures) acquired a symbolic male ... a son or brother as consort ... over whom she had precedence. He was known in various languages as Damuzi, Tammuz, Attis, Adonis, Osiris, or Baal. This ritual consort died in youth, causing annual grief among those worshipping the Goddess (again ... as I understand it) and whenever we see this ritual, we see the presence of the religion of the Goddess. ...This relationship and ritual of death and rebirth was known in early Egypt and occurs in the earliest literature of Sumer and later Babylon, Anatolia, and Canaan. It survived in the Greek legend of Aphrodite and Adonis and was known in Rome as the rituals of Cybele and Attis. A good source on this subject is James Mellaart's book "Earliest Civilizations in the Middle East". Arthur Evans also said that by the great days of "the Minoan civilization, the religion still continued to reflect the older matriarchal stage of social development. Clearly the Goddess was supreme ... "

The Roman writer Apuleius wrote about the Goddess in his work "The Golden Ass" - as translated by Robert Graves. The Goddess speaks "I am Nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all elements, primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses that are. My nod governs the shining heights of Heaven, the wholesome sea breezes, the lamentable silences of the world below. Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names, and propitiated with all manner of different rites, yet the whole round earth venerates me. The primeval Phrygians call me Pessinuntica, Mother of the gods, the Athenians sprung from their own soil, call me Cecropian Artemis; for the islanders of Cyprus I am Paphian,. Aphrodite, for the archers of Crete I am Dictynna; for the trilingual Silicians, Stygian Prosperine; and for the Eleusinians their ancient Mother of Corn. Some know me as Juno, some as Belona of the Battles; others as Hecate, others again as Rhamnubia, but both races of Aethiopians, whose lands the morning sun first shines upon, and the Egyptians who excell in ancient learning worship me with ceremonies proper to my godhead, call me by my true name, namely Queen Isis ... "

The gods and goddesses we study on ancient coinage can encourage us to look to their origins .. and what existed before ... just as we study comparative religion today in the search for what we finally perceive as truth ...