Female Goddess Figurines

Reading & WHA 7
ARGUMENT FOR AND AGAINST THE GODDESS BELIEF By: Janine Stizzo

Earliest written records regarding the worship of a mother goddess date to circa 4000 b.c.e. By 3000 b.c.e. “mother goddesses” appeared everywhere in the known world in statues, shrines, and written records. Later written evidence shows that these goddesses served a variety of purposes. Archaeologists over the past generations have uncovered thousands of stone, clay and metal goddesses or female figures. Hardly any of these figurines are male. These numerous goddess figurines from archaeological sites have usually been immediately dismissed as "mere" fertility figures by both male and female researchers. The tiny three-inch figure named the Venus of Villendorf
It was given a distinct signature that is still attached to this female figurine. To date, most of the scholarly writings have not given these feminine artifacts or the ensuing scholarly exploration on them legitimate status. However, the multitude of evidence proves that goddess worship is older than god worship. The earliest goddesses were faceless which, I believe, illustrated their multi-representative purpose amongst their culture and religion. Most of the figurines are designed without any feet, depicted as coming from the ground which quite possibly demonstrates the idea and beliefs of the mother earth concept. Many of these female figures were naked and big breasted with plentiful, robust buttocks and bellies. These artifacts exemplified the stature of the prehistoric female deity, which demonstrated strong prominent powers of the goddesses through the females ability to experience female menstruation and child birth, which was clearly unobtainable by the male population throughout prehistory. Various figurines also represent the female as pregnant, giving birth, or nursing a child. Therefore it appears that there were several different aspects of the goddess or female figure which seemingly
For centuries, people came from all over the world to Eleusis to participate in a series of structured rituals, which produced a change of conscience in the participants. People were instructed to keep secret what happened during the mysteries. The first day was the Day of Assembly, when those who had participated in the purification rituals during the spring of the previous year, processed from Athens to Eleusis, carrying symbols of Demeter. The 2nd day the participants submerged themselves in the ocean and dressed in new linen clothing. The third day, participants re-enacted Demeter’s search for his missing daughter. The entire ritual and culmination of the mystery took place on Holy night in a subterranean temple where participants waited in darkness. The ritual was symbolic of a “harvested ear of corn”. Through this ritual, the cognition of one’s own immortality and divinity were recognized. The myth of Demeter was the focus of the Eleusinian Mysteries and it was said that those who were initiated, no longer feared death, which in turn, substantiates that the myth confirms the cyclical view of life followed by rebirth authenticating the goddess was primary, and the male god, if there was any, derived his power from the female goddess. Prehistoric cultures were egalitarian and had a social structure that included immateriality was