Goddess

For other uses, see Goddess (disambiguation).

A goddess is a female deity. Often deities are part of a polytheistic system that includes several deities in a pantheon. Common associations of goddesses are the Earth, the Mother, Love, and the household, reflecting historical gender roles.

The primacy of a monotheistic or near-monotheistic "Great Goddess" is advocated by some modern matriarchists as a female version of, preceding, or analogue to, the Abrahamic God associated with the historical rise of monotheism in the Mediterranean Axis Age.

Some currents of Neopaganism, in particular Wicca, have a ditheistic concept of a single goddess and a single god, who in hierosgamos represent a united whole. Polytheistic reconstructionists focus on reconstructing polytheistic religions, including the various goddesses and figures associated with indigenous cultures.

Some religions have living Goddesses to this day, for example the practice of worshipping the goddess Kumari Devi a pre-pubescent girl as a source of supreme power has been an integral part of both Hinduism and Buddhism. In Nepal the Kumari Devi lives in the building known as the Kumari Ghar, right beside Kathmandu's Durbar Square.

The Goddess of the South Seas or Nyai Lara Kidul, also called the Queen of the Spirits, dwells in the ocean to the south of Java and each year the Sultan of Yoga spends a night with her to maintain ties between Queen Lara Kidul and the great royal family of Mataram. The deep spiritual significance of the union of Queen Lara Kidul and the king of Mataram can be witnessed during the Labuhan ceremony, still celebrated annually at the water’s edge. The ceremony, which takes place after the birthday of the Sultan of Yogyakarta, is in honor of Queen Lara Kidul, and seeks her continued blessing on the sultan, his court, and his people. Offerings are brought from the sultan’s palace to Parangsumo, on the southern coast facing the Indian Ocean. The offerings include money, petals and female garments such as a shawl and a length of batik. There are also offerings of the sultan’s hair and fingernail clippings.

Historical polytheism

Further information: Polytheism

Ancient Near East

Ancient Egypt

Main article: netjeret

A statue of the Egyptian war goddess Neith wearing the Deshret crown of northern (lower) Egypt, which bears the cobra of Wadjet.

• Goddesses of the Ennead of Heliopolis: Isis, Nut, Nephthys, Tefnut
• Goddesses of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis: Naunet, Amaunet, Kauket, Hauhet; originally a cult of Hathor
• Satis and Anuket of the triad of Elephantine

Mesopotamia

Main articles: Assyro-Babylonian religion and Sumerian religion

Ishtar (Inanna) was the main goddess of Babylonia and Assyria. Other Mesopotamian goddesses include Ninhursag, Ninlil, Antu

Canaan

Main article: Baalat

Further information: The Hebrew Goddess

Goddesses of the Canaanite religion: Ba`alat Gebal, Astarte, Anat.

Pre-Islamic Arabia

In pre-Islamic Mecca the goddesses Uzza, al-Manāt and al-Lāt were known as "the daughters of god". Uzzā was worshipped by the Nabataeans, who equated her with the Graeco-Roman goddesses Aphrodite, Urania, Venus and Caelestis. Each of the three goddesses had a separate shrine near Mecca. Uzzā, was called upon for protection by the pre-Islamic Quraysh. "In 624 at the battle called "Uhud", the war cry of the Qurayshites was, "O people of Uzzā, people of Hubal!" (Tawil 1993).

According to Ibn Ishaq's controversial account of the Satanic Verses (q.v.), these verses had previously endorsed them as intercessors for Muslims, but were abrogated. Most Muslim scholars have regarded the story as historically implausible, while opinion is divided among western scholars such as Leone Caetani and John Burton, who argue against, and William Muir and William Montgomery Watt, who for its plausibility.

Indo-European

See also: Proto-Indo-European religion

Pre-Christian and pre-Islamic goddesses in Indo-European cultures.

Indo-Iranian

Further information: Proto-Indo-Iranian religion and Rigvedic deities

Ushas is the main goddess of the Rigveda. Prithivi, the Earth, also appears as a goddess. Rivers are also deified as goddesses.

Greco-Roman

Statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture

Main articles: Greek religion and Roman religion

• Eleusinian Mysteries: Persephone, Demeter, Baubo
• Aphrodite: Goddess of love, lust and beauty.
• Artemis: Goddess of the moon, fertility, childbirth, and the hunt. She is the protector of children and maidens and she is also virgin goddess.
• Athena: Goddess of crafts, strategy, wisdom and war. Athena is also virgin goddess.
• Cybele
• Eris: Goddess of discord (chaos).
• Hera: Goddess of family and marriage. She is the wife of Zeus and the queen of the Olympians. Mother of Ares.
• Hekate: Goddess of sorcery, crossroads and magic. Often considered an chthonic or lunar goddess. She is either portrayed as a single goddess or a triple goddess (maiden, woman, crone).
• Iris: Messenger of the gods.
• Nike: Goddess of victory. She is predominantly pictured with Zeus or Athena.
• Potnia Theron
• Selene: The original moon goddess but later gave her powers to Artemis. Her twin brother Helios is the sun god.

Celtic

Main article: Celtic pantheon

Goddesses in Celtic polytheism:

• Celtic antiquity: Brigantia
• Gallo-Roman goddesses: Epona, Dea Matrona
• Goddesses of Insular (Welsh, Irish) mythology: Mórrígan-Nemain-Macha-Badb, Brigid, Ériu, Danu

Germanic

The goddess Freyja is nuzzled by the boar Hildisvíni while gesturing to Hyndla (1895) by Lorenz Frølich.

Further information: List_of_Germanic_deities_and_heroes § Goddesses

Surviving accounts of Germanic mythology and later Norse mythology contain numerous tales and mentions of female goddesses, female giantesses, and divine female figures. The Germanic peoples had altars erected to the "Mothers and Matrons" and held celebrations specific to them (such as the Anglo-Saxon "Mothers-night"), and various other female deities are attested among the Germanic peoples, such as Nerthus attested in an early account of the Germanic peoples, Ēostre attested among the pagan Anglo-Saxons and Sinthgunt attested among the pagan continental Germanic peoples. Examples of goddesses attested in Norse mythology include Frigg (wife of Odin, and the Anglo-Saxon version of whom is namesake of the modern English weekday Friday), Skaði (one time wife of Njörðr), Freyja (wife of Óðr), Sif (wife of Thor), Gerðr (wife of Freyr), and personifications such as Jörð (earth), Sól (the sun), and Nótt (night). Female deities also play heavily into the Norse concept of death, where half of those slain in battle enter Freyja's field Fólkvangr, Hel receiving the dead in her realm of the same name, and Rán, receiving those who die at sea. Other female deities such as the valkyries, the norns, and the dísir are associated with a Germanic concept of fate (Old Norse Ørlög, Old English Wyrd), and celebrations were held in their honor, such as the Dísablót and Disting.

Folk religion and animism

Further information: Folk religion and Marian devotion

African religions

Further information: Traditional African religions and African diasporic religions

Further information: Mami Wata, Asase Ya, Oshun, Oya, and Yemaja

In African and African diasporic religions, goddesses are often syncretized with Marian devotion, as in Ezili Dantor (Black Madonna of Częstochowa) and Erzulie Freda (Mater Dolorosa).

A rare example of henotheism focussed on a single Goddess is found among the Southern Nuba of Sudan. The Nuba conceive of the creator Goddess as the "Great Mother" who gave birth to earth and to mankind.

Chinese folk religion

Main article: Chinese folk religion

Further information: Queen Mother of the West

• Mazu is the goddess of the sea who protects fishermen and sailors, widely worshipped in the south-eastern coastal areas of China and neighbouring areas in Southeast Asia.

Hinduism

Main article: God and gender in Hinduism

Further information: Devi, Shakti, and Thuggee

The Hindu warrior goddess Durga killing the buffalo-demon Mahishasura.

Hinduism is a complex of various belief systems that sees many gods and goddesses as being representative of and/or emanative from a single source, Brahman, understood either as a formless, infinite, impersonal monad in the Advaita tradition or as a dual god in the form of Lakshmi-Vishnu, Radha-Krishna, Shiva-Shakti in Dvaita traditions. Shaktas, worshippers of the Goddess, equate this god with Devi, the mother goddess. Such aspects of one god as male god (Shaktiman) and female energy (Shakti), working as a pair are often envisioned as male gods and their wives or consorts and provide many analogues between passive male ground and dynamic female energy.
For example, Brahma pairs with Sarasvati. Shiva likewise pairs with Parvati who later is represented through a number of avatars (incarnations): Sati and the warrior figures, Durga and Kali. All goddesses in Hinduism are sometimes grouped together as the great goddess, Devi.

A further step was taken by the idea of the Shaktis. Their ideology based mainly on tantras sees Shakti as the principle of energy through which all divinity functions, thus showing the masculine to be dependent on the feminine. Indeed, in the great shakta scripture known as the Devi Mahatmya, all the goddesses are shown to be aspects of one presiding female force, one in truth and many in expression, giving the world and the cosmos the galvanic energy for motion. It is expressed through both philosophical tracts and metaphor that the potentiality of masculine being is given actuation by the feminine divine. Local deities of different village regions in India were often identified with "mainstream" Hindu deities, a process that has been called "Sanskritization". Others attribute it to the influence of monism or Advaita which discounts polytheist or monotheist categorization.

While the monist forces have led to a fusion between some of the goddesses (108 names are common for many goddesses), centrifugal forces have also resulted in new goddesses and rituals gaining ascendance among the laity in different parts of Hindu world. Thus, the immensely popular goddess Durga was a pre-Vedic goddess who was later fused with Parvati, a process that can be traced through texts such as Kalika Purana (10th century), Durgabhaktitarangini (Vidyapati 15th century), Chandimangal (16th century) etc.

Abrahamic religions

Monotheist cultures, which recognise only one central deity, generally characterize that deity as male, implicitly grammatically by using masculine gender, but also explicitly by terms such as "Father" or "Lord". In all monotheistic religions, however, there are mystic undercurrents which emphasize the feminine aspects of the godhead, e.g. the Collyridians in the time of early Christianity, who viewed Mary as a goddess, the medieval visionary Julian of Norwich, the Judaic Shekinah and the Gnostic Sophia traditions.

Judaism

Further information: The Hebrew Goddess and Shekhina

The Hebrew cosmogony originally told a story of God creating Adam to marry a local Goddess-associated figure named Lilith. Lilith was a follower of the Great Mother Goddess, Inanna- later known as both Ishtar and Asherah. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh was said to have destroyed a tree that was in a sacred grove dedicated to the goddess Ishtar/Inanna/Asherah. Lilith ran into the wilderness in despair. She then is depicted in the Talmud and Kabbalah as first wife to God's first creation of man, Adam. In time, as stated in the Old Testament, the Hebrew followers continued to worship "False Idols", like Asherah, as being as powerful as God. Jeremiah speaks of his (and God's) displeasure at this behavior to the Hebrew people about the worship of the goddess in the Old Testament. Lilith is banished from Adam and God's presence when she is discovered to be a "demon" and Eve becomes Adam's wife. Lilith then takes the form of the serpent in her jealous rage at being displaced as Adam's wife. Lilith as serpent then proceeds to trick Eve into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge and in this way is responsible for the downfall of all of mankind. It is worthwhile to note here that in religions pre-dating Judaism, the serpent was known to be associated with wisdom and re-birth (with the shedding of its skin).

Judaism is a Patriarchal religion, with emphasis being placed on God as having creating Adam is his own image. Eve is a secondary addition to creation, having been created from Adam's rib. God is referred to as "He" and family lines through Abraham are followed in a Patrilinear fashion. The concept of a Goddess seems to be absent from all but the original Creation myth which some scholars say appears have roots in the nearby Babylonian creation myth, Enuma Elis.

Christianity

Main articles: Marian veneration and Sophia (wisdom)

In Christianity, belief in a feminine deity was deemed characteristic of heresy, but veneration for Mary, the mother of Jesus, as an especially privileged human being, though not as a deity, has continued since the beginning of the Christian faith.

Virgin Sophia design on a Harmony Society doorway in Harmony, Pennsylvania, carved by Frederick Reichert Rapp (1775-1834).

In some Christian traditions (like the Orthodox tradition), Sophia is the personification of either divine wisdom (or of an archangel) which takes female form. She is mentioned in the first chapter of the Book of Proverbs.

In Christian mysticism, Gnosticism, as well as some Hellenistic religions, there is a female spirit or goddess named Sophia who is said to embody wisdom and who is sometimes described as a virgin. In Roman Catholic mysticism, Hildegard of Bingen celebrated Sophia as a cosmic figure both in her writing and art. Within the Protestant tradition in England, 17th Century Christian Mystic, Universalist and founder of the Philadelphian Society Jane Leade wrote copious descriptions of her visions and dialogues with the "Virgin Sophia" who, she said, revealed to her the spiritual workings of the universe. Leade was hugely influenced by the theosophical writings of 16th Century German Christian mystic Jakob Böhme, who also speaks of the Sophia in works such as The Way to Christ. Jakob Böhme was very influential to a number of Christian mystics and religious leaders, including George Rapp and the Harmony Society.

Feminism and Neopaganism

Main articles: Feminist theology and Goddess movement

Further information: Goddess (Wicca) and Triple Goddess

At least since first-wave feminism in the United States, there has been interest in analyzing religion to see if and how doctrines and practices treat women unfairly, as in Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Woman's Bible. Again in second-wave feminism in the U.S., as well as in many European and other countries, religion became the focus of some feminist analysis in Judaism, Christianity, and other religions, and some women turned to ancient goddess religions as an alternative to Abrahamic religions (Womanspirit Rising 1979; Weaving the Visions 1989). Today both women and men continue to be involved in the Goddess movement (Christ 1997). The popularity of organizations such as the Fellowship of Isis attest to the continuing growth of the religion of the Goddess throughout the world.

While much of the attempt at gender equity in mainstream Christianity (Judaism never recognized any gender for God) is aimed at reinterpreting scripture and degenderizing language used to name and describe the divine (Ruether, 1984; Plaskow, 1991), there are a growing number of people who identify as Christians or Jews who are trying to integrate goddess imagery into their religions (Kien, 2000; Kidd 1996,"Goddess Christians Yahoogroup").

Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth, a 1988 interview with Bill Moyers, links the image of the Earth or Mother Goddess to symbols of fertility and reproduction. For example, Campbell states that, "There have been systems of religion where the mother is the prime parent, the source... We talk of Mother Earth. And in Egypt you have the Mother Heavens, the Goddess Nut, who is represented as the whole heavenly sphere". Campbell continues by stating that the correlation between fertility and the Goddess found its roots in agriculture:

Bill Moyers: But what happened along the way to this reverence that in primitive societies was directed to the Goddess figure, the Great Goddess, the mother earth- what happened to that?

Joseph Campbell: Well that was associated primarily with agriculture and the agricultural societies. It has to do with the earth. The human woman gives birth just as the earth gives birth to the plants...so woman magic and earth magic are the same. They are related. And the personification of the energy that gives birth to forms and nourishes forms is properly female. It is in the agricultural world of ancient Mesopotamia, the Egyptian Nile, and in the earlier planting-culture systems that the Goddess is the dominant mythic form.

Campbell also argues that the image of the Virgin Mary was derived from the image of Isis and her child Horus: "The antique model for the Madonna, actually, is Isis with Horus at her breast".

In Wicca "the Goddess" is a deity of prime importance, along with her consort the Horned God. In the earliest Wiccan publications she is described as a tribal goddess of the witch community, neither omnipotent nor universal, and it was recognised that there was a greater "Prime Mover", although the witches did not concern themselves much with this being. Within many forms of Wicca the Goddess has come to be considered as a universal deity, more in line with her description in the Charge of the Goddess, a key Wiccan text. In this guise she is the "Queen of Heaven", similar to Isis; she also encompasses and conceives all life, much like Gaia. Much like Isis and certain late Classical conceptions of Selene, she is held to be the summation of all other goddesses, who represent her different names and aspects across the different cultures. The Goddess is often portrayed with strong lunar symbolism, drawing on various cultures and deities such as Diana, Hecate and Isis, and is often depicted as the Maiden, Mother and Crone triad popularised by Robert Graves (see Triple Goddess below). Many depictions of her also draw strongly on Celtic goddesses. Some Wiccans believe there are many goddesses, and in some forms of Wicca, notably Dianic Wicca, the Goddess alone is worshipped, and the God plays very little part in their worship and ritual.

The lunar Triple Goddess symbol.

Goddesses or demi-goddesses appear in sets of three in a number of ancient European pagan mythologies; these include the Greek Erinyes (Furies) and Moirae (Fates); the Norse Norns; Brighid and her two sisters, also called Brighid, from Irish or Keltoi mythology.

Robert Graves popularised the triad of "Maiden" (or "Virgin"), "Mother" and "Crone", and while this idea did not rest on sound scholarship, his poetic inspiration has gained a tenacious hold. Considerable variation in the precise conceptions of these figures exists, as typically occurs in Neopaganism and indeed in pagan religions in general. Some choose to interpret them as three stages in a woman's life, separated by menarche and menopause. Others find this too biologically based and rigid, and prefer a freer interpretation, with the Maiden as birth (independent, self-centred, seeking), the Mother as giving birth (interrelated, compassionate nurturing, creating), and the Crone as death and renewal (holistic, remote, unknowable) — and all three erotic and wise.

Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth, a 1988 interview with Bill Moyers, links the image of the Earth or Mother Goddess to symbols of fertility and reproduction. For example, Campbell states that, "There have been systems of religion where the mother is the prime parent, the source... We talk of Mother Earth. And in Egypt you have the Mother Heavens, the Goddess Nut, who is represented as the whole heavenly sphere". Campbell continues by stating that the correlation between fertility and the Goddess found its roots in agriculture:

Bill Moyers: But what happened along the way to this reverence that in primitive societies was directed to the Goddess figure, the Great Goddess, the mother earth- what happened to that?

Joseph Campbell: Well that was associated primarily with agriculture and the agricultural societies. It has to do with the earth. The human woman gives birth just as the earth gives birth to the plants...so woman magic and earth magic are the same. They are related. And the personification of the energy that gives birth to forms and nourishes forms is properly female. It is in the agricultural world of ancient Mesopotamia, the Egyptian Nile, and in the earlier planting-culture systems that the Goddess is the dominant mythic form.

Campbell also argues that the image of the Virgin Mary was derived from the image of Isis and her child Horus: "The antique model for the Madonna, actually, is Isis with Horus at her breast".

In Wicca "the Goddess" is a deity of prime importance, along with her consort the Horned God. In the earliest Wiccan publications she is described as a tribal goddess of the witch community, neither omnipotent nor universal, and it was recognised that there was a greater "Prime Mover", although the witches did not concern themselves much with this being. Within many forms of Wicca the Goddess has come to be considered as a universal deity, more in line with her description in the Charge of the Goddess, a key Wiccan text. In this guise she is the "Queen of Heaven", similar to Isis; she also encompasses and conceives all life, much like Gaia. Much like Isis and certain late Classical conceptions of Selene, she is held to be the summation of all other goddesses, who represent her different names and aspects across the different cultures. The Goddess is often portrayed with strong lunar symbolism, drawing on various cultures and deities such as Diana, Hecate and Isis, and is often depicted as the Maiden, Mother and Crone triad popularised by Robert Graves (see Triple Goddess below). Many depictions of her also draw strongly on Celtic goddesses. Some Wiccans believe there are many goddesses, and in some forms of Wicca, notably Dianic Wicca, the Goddess alone is worshipped, and the God plays very little part in their worship and ritual.

The lunar Triple Goddess symbol.

Goddesses or demi-goddesses appear in sets of three in a number of ancient European pagan mythologies; these include the Greek Erinyes (Furies) and Moirae (Fates); the Norse Norns; Brighid and her two sisters, also called Brighid, from Irish or Keltoi mythology.

Robert Graves popularised the triad of "Maiden" (or "Virgin"), "Mother" and "Crone", and while this idea did not rest on sound scholarship, his poetic inspiration has gained a tenacious hold. Considerable variation in the precise conceptions of these figures exists, as typically occurs in Neopaganism and indeed in pagan religions in general. Some choose to interpret them as three stages in a woman's life, separated by menarche and menopause. Others find this too biologically based and rigid, and prefer a freer interpretation, with the Maiden as birth (independent, self-centred, seeking), the Mother as giving birth (interrelated, compassionate nurturing, creating), and the Crone as death and renewal (holistic, remote, unknowable) — and all three erotic and wise.

Adam and Eve

According to Joseph Campbell, "half of the world population believe that the myths of religious traditions are facts. The other half states they are not fact at all. The outcome of it is that we have individuals who consider themselves faithful because they accept these metaphors as facts and the other half believe they are atheist because they don't accept". One of these metaphors is Eve. Campbell argues that Christianity, originaly a denomination of Judaism, embraced part of the Jewish pagan culture and the rib metaphor is an example of how distant the Jewish religion was from the prehistoric religion—the worship of the Mother Goddess or the Goddess. This universal myth is found within a social and religious context whose historical roots are traced from the Paleolithic and Neolithic. According to Campbell, the concept of patriarchy, which emerged from within the Jewish religion, "is due to the bellicose activity of grazing cattle and goats and linked to the constant persecution that triggered the nomadism and the loss of local identity".

Archeology and pagan mythology fully registered the worship of the Goddess. The earliest foundings of a human religion are, initially, the worship of the dead (300.000 kya), and the intense cult of red or ochre "associated with the menstrual blood". In Greek mythology, the mother of all the gods, goddess Rhea (or Cybele among the Romans), this worship can be easily attested is its etimology:rhea means land or flow. Campbell argues that Adam (from the hebrew adamá or red earth; adom, red, dam or blood) was created out of a red clay.

The identity of the mother earth religion, fertility, the origin of life and the maintanance of it, would also be, according to Campbell, portrayed in the Bible: "... the sanctity of the land, in itself, because it is the body of the Goddess. By creating, Jehovah created man from the 'land' of mud and blowing life into the body already formed. He is not there... But the Goddess is there, and continues out here. The body of each is made of her body. These mythologies is the recognition of this sort of universal identity".

Female god(s) and real women

Prof. Chün-fang Yü states in her work Kuan-yin Devotion in China that as long as the traditional stereotypical views about women's pollution or inferiority remain unchallenged, the feminine images of goddess(es) have to be either more or less than real women. They were not and could not be endowed with a real woman's characteristics.

"I would venture to say that the appearance of the feminine Kuan-yin and other new goddesses at this particular time might be connected with the antifeminist stance of established religions, chief of which was undoubtedly Neo-Confucianism. This was the hegemonic discourse and ruling ideology of China during the last millennium. Neo-Confucianism was a philosophy and a system of political thought, but it was also an ideology sustaining the lineage and family system. In one sense, then, the new goddesses' cults can be seen as similar responses to this totalistic system of belief and praxis, but in another way, the feminine Kuan-yin might be viewed as the model and inspiration for the other goddesses. Organized Buddhism and Taoism do not fare much better. Despite the Ch'an rhetoric of nonduality and the Taoist elevation of the feminine principle, these did not translate into actual institutional support for women. We cannot name any woman who became a prominent Ch'an master or Taoist priestess.

Having said that the birth of goddesses might have been in response to the overwhelmingly masculine character of the three religions, I must also point out that some of these new goddesses did reflect the belief in universal sagehood and enlightenment espoused by Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Just as the emperors Yao and Shun were not born sages but became so, this was apparently also the case for gods and goddesses. Wang Ken (1483-1540) could salute everyone he met as sages because they were potential sages if not actual ones. Can we also say that the street was full of bodhisattvas and goddesses?

Finally, we may ask: Did the female Kuan-yin offer more options to Chinese women? It is often assumed that when a religion provides goddesses to worship, it can empower women. When Avalokitesvara was transformed into Kuan-yin, the Goddess of Mercy, new forms and expressions of religiosity became available to women and men in China. But as long as the traditional stereotypical views about women's pollution or inferiority remained unchallenged, the feminine images of Kuan-yin had to be either more or less than real women. They were not and could not be endowed with a real woman's characteristics. It is for this reason that the White-Robed Kuan-yin, though a fertility goddess, is devoid of sexuality. Real women, in the meantime, together with their male countrymen, worshiped Kuan-yin as the "child-giving" Kuan-yin who saw to it that the family religion would never be disrupted by the lack of a male heir. Chinese women never really left the patriarchal home."

Metaphorical use

The term "goddess" has also been adapted to poetic and secular use as a complimentary description of a non-mythological woman. The OED notes 1579 as the date of the earliest attestation of such figurative use, in Lauretta the diuine Petrarches Goddesse.

Shakespeare had several of his male characters address female characters as goddesses, including Demetrius to Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream ("O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!"), Berowne to Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost ("A woman I forswore; but I will prove, Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee"), and Bertram to Diana in All's Well That Ends Well. Pisanio also compares Imogen to a goddess to describe her composure under duress in Cymbeline.

"Domestic goddess" is a humorous term for a housewife.

See also

• Anima (Jung)
• God and gender
• Goddess movement
• Mother goddess
• Sophia
• Ochre
• Venus figurines
• Matriarchy

Bibliography

• Knight, Peter, Thirteen Moons - Conversations with the Goddess, Stone Seeker, 2007.
• Christ, Carol P., Rebirth of the Goddess, Addison-Wesley 1997.
• Kidd, Sue Monk, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, HarperSanFrancisco 1996.
• Jenny Kien, Reinstating the Divine Woman in Judaism, Universal 2000.
• David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Vision of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Traditions, ISBN 81-208-0379-5.
• Plaskow, Judith, Standing Again at Sinai, HarperCollins 1991.
• McDaniel, June (2004). Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Ruether, Rosemary Radford, Woman-Church, Harper & Row 1984.
• Womanspirit Rising, ed. Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow, Harper & Row 1979.
• Weaving the Visions, ed. Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ, Harper & Row 1989.
• Jackson, Jared, "The Rise of Kristy", New Deity Publications 2006.
• Ternes, Jacqueline, "Goddess Vision", Harper & Row 1987
• Barnes, Craig, "In Search of the Lost Feminine: Decoding the Myths That Radically Reshaped Civilization", Fulcrum Publishing 2006