the waxing goddess

An Indo-European Contradiction. The Amazons

2008-09-22T03:30:00.000-07:00

In Chapter Three of the History of Goddesses it was seen that Indo-Europeans, like all herder peoples, were both warriors and patriarchal, thanks to the fact that herdsmen tribes are used to fight among themselves for stealing their cattle, and to the consequent lack of weight of women in war. Thus, being the link between the herder, warrior, and patriarchal element so strong, women seem to have no space in herder societies. However, such apparently indissoluble chain seems to have a weak link: herder warriors are used to move, drive cattle and fight, riding horses. For such a reason it can be said that herdsmen are also horsemen. It is just in the horsemen element that the weak link of the chain lies, owing to a deep and frightening contradiction that threatens all herder societies. Here is the contradiction:

young girls are able to ride horses much better than boys

Why is it? Miracles of the Divine Female Power? An especially close link between female spirituality and horses' sensitivity? Nothing of all this. The reason can be defined as follows:

the female body is much more suitable for horse-riding than male

Let us summarize it in three main points:
1) The first time a boy sits on the back of a horse will feel himself in trouble, not finding where to lean his genital parts, a problem of course unknown to girls. After a bit of times he will feel more confortable, but only because, becoming aware of his limits, he will avoid every dangerous movement.
2) For horse-riding it is not necessary a strong musculature, but a quite elastic and flexible one, as girls have.
3) If any muscular power is needed, this is only on the legs, while an upper developed musculature is totally useless: thus, female musculature, with the lower part more developed than the upper one, is more suitable than male.

And now, before analyzing the consequences of all this in Indo-European culture, let me introduce a brief autobiographical account. In summer 2006 I spent two months riding horses in the Argentinian region of Corrientes, close to the Uruguayan limit (where, of course, it was winter): a wealthy Italian family from Milan contacted me for teaching Latin and Greek one hour daily to their fourteen years old daughter in their luxury 3300 hectares estancia (= a huge Argentinian ranch. 1 hectare is 2471 acres), where 3000 oxen, 4000 sheep, and 800 horses were raised, and spending all the free time riding horses and driving cattle. Together with us were also two other young girls, one Italian and the other Californian, friends of my pupil. There, I had the opportunity to see how naturally girls can ride horses.

Thanks to my feminist education, I had no problems admitting that a thirty six years old male, even if athletically trained, as I was, cannot face in horse-riding three teen witches, capable of jumping from one running horse to another as naturally as eating an ice-cream. Furthermore, the Divine Female Power allowed them to ride for several hours without getting tired, while I needed three resting hours for every riding one: I don't want to think how bad should feel an anti-feminist, patriarchal man in my place...

Last, as a heterosexual man, I can also assure you that a girl riding a horse is the most elegant and sexy image a male can have in front of his eyes: the female figure becomes so harmonic that it can be said that horses should be ridden only by girls, not by boys.
At the light of all this, it was impossible for a herder people as Indo-Europeans to ignore such natural talent of maidens for horse-riding: this fact is very likely to have created frightening nightmares to them.

In my opinion, the Greek myth of the Amazons, the warrior horsewomen who lived without men, is nothing more than the outcome of such contradiction. Perhaps, the Valkyries too, the warrior maidens of Scandinavian mythology (another Indo-European tribe), lie on the same root.

Ancient and modern scholars always tried to find historical ground to the existence of Amazons, placing them among herder peoples dwelling either in Asia Minor, Scythia, or Caucasus, i.e. all regions beyond the limits of the civilized world. For Greeks, such regions symbolized only the sphere of the untamed wilderness, in opposition to Greek civilization: untamed wilderness was just the symbolism of Amazons, in opposition, as usual, to Greek patriarchal and misogynous society.
Furthermore, it is noteworthy that the secret sexual dream of every man is to be submitted to an attractive she-warrior, preferentially virgin (patriarchal and misogynous men always fear sexual-experienced women). Thus, for Greek culture Amazons represented both their (official) nightmare and their (secret) dream, never forgetting that the idea itself of a she-warrior is always the product of a male mind.

That's why the greatest Greek heroes, Heracles, Theseus, and Achilles, were imagined to have fought against Amazons, often falling in love with their queens (Hippolyte, Antiope, and Penthesilea). Hence, my analysis of such a myth as a product of the male mind denies any "feminist" feature within Amazons: the male sexual dream of being submitted to a (virgin) she-warrior is connected with sadomasochism -a typical feature of male sexuality-, and sadomasochism has nothing to do with feminism.

The Divine Female Power

2008-09-08T06:13:00.000-07:00

As Louise Lacey has showed (Lunaception. A Feminine Odyssey into Fertility and Contraception, 1974), before the electricity era the female cycle was closely connected to the phases of the Moon, with menstruation taking place during the New Moon and fertility with the Full Moon. These phenomena were especially evident in Stone Age, when people lived according not only to the seasons and Moon phases, but also to the hours of day and night.

Thus, being the Moon imagined to be the main aspect of the Goddess, it was natural to think that the female cycle was regulated by the Goddess Herself. Women, who were thought to be the mortal manifestation of the deity, were especially proud of their cycle and felt it as a strong, spiritual power directly delivered by the Goddess. Furthermore, women were believed to be the instrument through which the Goddess ruled the world: when She decided to communicate with humans, She was used to do it through the delivery of Her words to women with whom Her link was especially close, as prophetesses, and She listened to human requests from the words of priestesses and sorceresses, while She healed people through the hands of she-healers. This special link between women and the Goddess through the female cycle was the Divine Female Power, also named Divine Feminine or Sacred Feminine.

Although little girls already enjoyed from their birth a special protection by the Goddess, Who nourished them with care and love, it was only with the menarche when they began to enjoy the full strength of the Divine Female Power. However, after the menopause this Power did not wane, only changed itself into a sort of Divine Wisdom: most of prophetesses, sorceresses, and healers, were just aged women with a direct touch with the Goddess.
And now, let us summarize the material effects of the Divine Female Power during the three female ages:
Maidens (i.e. girls from the menarche to the first childbirth) enjoyed an irresistible physical energy in comparison with boys: they were capable to spend all the Full Moon night dancing and, after only a couple of hours sleeping, to get up at the dawn for gathering herbs for their grandmothers: in the afternoon they carried out the vintage filling much more baskets of grapes than boys. Maidens had also a stronger resistance to pain, without shouting or crying as boys were used to do.
Mothers had a great capacity of dealing with several jobs, as midwifery, breastfeeding, children education, home works as spinning and weaving, and field works as sewing, harvest, and vintage. Mothers were also capable of facing adversities of life better than men, with a more rational and fearless mind.
Crones, as it was said above, enjoyed the Divine Wisdom which assured them to be priestesses, prophetesses, sorceresses, and healers. While the everyday life decisions were taken by mothers, the most important choices -as the location, position, and orientation of the houses and graves to build- were taken by crones.

And what about the Divine Female Power in patriarchal times? The Indo-European rulers replaced the concept of such power with the idea of a male power that dwelt in the testicles. According to it, the capacity of being good warriors was ought not only to physical strength, but also to a sort of aggressive and predator spirit originating in the testicles. As usual, the Divine Female Power began to be thought as a negative influence of evil energies over women. Of course, such development increased during Christianity: the Divine Female Power was imagined as a possession by the devil, and the wise crones were thought to be witches worshipping Satan. One of the greatest pearls of Christianity, the chase of witches, was only due to the fears of patriarchal society towards the Divine Female Power and Wisdom.

It is important to keep in mind that the Divine Female Power was not only the supersticious belief of a primitive culture: it is a true energy that lies in the womb of every woman. Its effects both in Stone Age maidens and mothers can be observed today too. However, it has not to be confused with female beauty: although the Divine Female Power too can light sexual attraction in men, and female beauty can be used as a kind of power and control over men, they are quite different things, since beauty is a gift that not all women have, while all women have the Divine Female Power.

Unfortunately, more than 3500 years of patriarchal society have changed female minds about it, inspiring them the wrong idea that their monthly cycle is a dirty and impure thing which needs to be hidden as more as possible, with the final result of losing their consciousness of the Divine Female Power.
It is also important to keep in mind that this Power is not a weapon against the male gender, as patriarchal society believes, but an important resource for the whole mankind: prophetesses did not reveal the thoughts of the Goddess only for women's benefit, and healers did not heal only women.

At the light of all this, women should wish to take back the full consciousness of the Divine Female Power and to learn its use. How can they do it? The best thing would be to contact a Witch capable of teaching it: the Witch is a wise woman, devotee to the Goddess and with a close link with Her, totally aware of her Divine Female Power an capable to evocate the divine energies that lie in Nature, e.g. in Earth, stones, and trees. The Divine Female Power is nothing more than one of these energies.

The Earth-Womb Connection in Patriarchal Times

2008-09-01T02:44:00.000-07:00

In pre-Indo-European Europe, a material consequence of the assimilation between the Earth and the female womb as places of birth and rebirth is shown by burial customs. The bodies were buried in round-shaped chamber graves imitating the female womb; to get closer to Mother Earth, these stone-built graves were totally covered by earth. Thus, the Earth was imagined not only as the nourishing mother of the harvest, but also a reassuring place for humans themselves in their after-life, in the same way that the seeds did: after the harvest, the ears of wheat died, but their seeds, hidden beneath the Earth, assured their rebirth.

However, in Middle and Late Bronze Age (2000-1000 B.C.E.), the Indo-European conquest of Europe bore a radical change in burial habits. The new herder and warrior rulers believed neither in the after-life, thanks to cycles of birth, death, and rebirth, nor worship any Earth-Goddess. Inhumation was replaced by incineration, as also witnessed by the Iliad, a VIII Century B.C.E. epic poem which describes the world and society of the new rulers of Greece, both the Mycenean Greeks (XIII-XII Centuries B.C.E.) and the Dorians, another Greek stock which invaded Greece in the X Century B.C.E. Among Greeks, the world of the dead, imagined to be beneath the Earth (the so called Underworld), was inhabited only by shadows without thought and senses. From the name of their lord, Ades (in later times also Hades), which means "where you do not see", it was named the "House of Hades". The Underworld was imagined to be a sad place, connected only with death, not with after-life and rebirth, while the Earth began to be thought as the nest of the most frightening monsters, often imagined as female.
The Greeks imagined a specular divine layout, with the Olympic male gods dwelling in the sky, and female monsters under the Earth, while the souls of the dead were only empty shadows. This layout survived in Christianity, improving its polarity, with the sky-world -the heaven- symbolizing the good, and the under-earth world -the hell- symbolizing the evil.
And what about the female womb? As it can be easy argued, it suffered a quite similar development. In pre-Indo-European Europe, female idols were carved with huge breasts, buttocks, and womb, below which often lay a vertical cut underlining the vulva, worshipped as the gate of birth and rebirth, as the doors of the chamber graves were.

It is well known that Early Greek Art preferred to represent male body instead of female: the former was often naked, while the latter was always dressed. The first artist who dared to unveil a Goddess was Praxiteles, in the second half of the IV Century B.C.E., with his Aphrodite of Cnidos. Since then, female nudity improved its presence until our days, but the comparison with pre-Indo-European rough idols shows that the vertical cut totally lacks. From Praxiteles to Italian Renaissance till Antonio Canova, Western art seems to reckon representations of the vulva (as those of the devil) as the greatest of taboos.

On the other hand, Greek Art had no problems to represent erected phalli, a quite popular subject of Attic Red Figure vases (V Century B.C.E.):

Until not many years ago pregnant women had to hide as much as they could their reassuring round bellies, and, even today, patriarchal society tries to instill in women's minds the unnatural idea that their monthly flow is something dirty and shameful. But the female cycle, being regulated by the Goddess Herself, is the source of the Divine Female Power, that lies just in the womb. Fearing this power, patriarchal society always tried to deprive women of it, through the brain-wash of female cycle's impurity. Among Greeks -and, as J.G. Frazer showed, among many other patriarchal cultures-, women were used to be kept far away from the community while having their cycle, being reckoned as impure: while all mammals are used to mate when females have their cycle, humans are the only who mate in any period but this.
And now, let us conclude this analysis with another consideration about sexuality. When we speak about oral sex we usually mean fellatio (i.e. female giving pleasure to male), very seldom cunnilingus (i.e. male giving pleasure to female). At the basis of such habit is of course not only the patriarchal fears towards the womb and the vulva but also a phallocratic attitude focusing only on male sexual pleasure and not on female's. However, at the light of the different average length of female and male sexual time, fellatio can be reckoned as a quite useless habit. While men reach their pleasure quickly, women need much more time; hence, men, after reaching their pleasure, usually leave women in a quite unsatisfactory condition.
Thus, if we choose to have oral sex, the most natural thing should be to prefer cunnilingus, which allows women to enjoy a longer pleasure, instead of fellatio, which further reduces the length of it, since the time of mating will be shorter. Furthermore, cunnilingus gives man a better knowledge of his woman's sexual rhythm and exigencies, while anorgasmic women have more opportunities to reach pleasure thanks to the direct clitoral stimulation.

Although there is no archaeological direct proof of a widespread practice of cunnilingus in Stone Age Europe -as idols or seals depicting this scenes might be-, it is very likely that it was quite popular: for a culture used to imagine the female womb as a holy place of birth and the seat of the Divine Female Power and Wisdom, it was natural to worship the vulva as the gate to such holy shrine, as witnessed by its widespread representations both in idols and pottery. Moreover, a female-centered society would also preferentially focus itself on female pleasure instead of male's, and would imagine sexuality not only as a gift of the Goddess of Love, as Greek culture did, but as a direct link with Her.
At the light of all this, it can be suggested that cunnilingus should be a fundamental way to get closer to the Goddess, both for women and men: the former, reaching a full, long, and deep pleasure, strengthened their consciousness of the Divine Female Power that lay in their womb, while the latter, lacking such Power and any direct touch with the Goddess, took the chance to have a little share of it while getting as closer as possible to the holy womb. Perhaps, our Stone Age ancestors have many thing to teach us not only about spirituality but also about sexuality.

The Female Nature of the Snake

2008-08-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

The cult of the snake as token of rebirth was widespread in all pre-Indo-European Europe*. For an agricultural society that believed in a close relationship between the earth and the female womb as places of birth and rebirth, it was natural to lay the eyes on an animal used to hide itself beneath the earth during the winter and to wake up in spring after having renewed its skin. Hence, the snake was reckoned not only as a rebirthing animal, but also as a chthonian one, (i.e. “belonging to the earth”, from Greek chthón = “earth”); furthermore, thanks to such a connection between earth and female womb, the snake was also linked to the female element.

Because of she-snake’s ability to defend her eggs, in matriarchal Europe the rôle of this animal was also that of beneficent guardian of inhabited spaces, as houses or towns. Minoan Crete —the better known civilization of pre-Indo-European Europe— worshipped a special aspect of her Goddess of Nature, the so called Snake-Goddess.

The great Swedish scholar M.P. Nilsson showed that Athena, the protectress of the Athenian citadel, derived from the ancient Mycenean Potnia (= “Mistress”, “Mighty Lady” in Greek), a deity who was a heritage of the Minoan Goddess of Fertility. Well, Nilsson suggested that the presence of the snake Erichthonius in the fondation myth of Athens’ citadel by Athena was a direct heritage of the Minoan Snake-Goddess, due to the snake’s rôle of protector of the community.

However, the most noteworthy feature of the snake-earth-female connection was its development after the Indo-Europeization of Greece. The new conquerors, the Mycenean Greeks, submitted the Goddesses to their male-deities, trying always to sink them in a bad light. Thus, the snake-earth-female connection became the incarnation of all the fears of patriarchal society towards women and the Divine Female Power: the most frightening monsters of Greek Mythology were often imagined to be snake or dragon-shaped, chthonian, and —fear of fears— female. Let’s introduce a few of them, as Echidna, the Lernaean Hydra, the Chimaera, and the Delphic Dragoness.

Echidna was an Earth-Goddess whose upper half was of a pretty maiden, while her lower one was of a snake, as portrayed in Hesiod’s Theogony, lines 295-300:

She bore in a hollow cave another monster, intractable, not all similar to mortal beings or to immortal gods: divine, strong-hearted Echidna, half a quick-eyed beautiful-cheeked nymph, but half a monstrous snake, terrible and great, shimmering, eating raw flesh, under the hidden places of the holy earth.

(transl. by H.G. Evelyn-White)

The Hydra of Lerna, daughter of Echidna, was a multi-snake-head monster nurtured by Hera and slain by Heracles.

The fire-breathing Chimaera, another daughter of Echidna, had a triple nature: lion, she-goat, and snake.

In Hesiod (Theogony 319-322) she had three heads, one of each animal, while in Homer (Iliad 6.181) she was in front a lion, behind a dragon, in the middle a she-goat. The Delphic Dragoness is protagonist of the most important myth about the replacement of matriarchal order by patriarchal. She was a huge snake who dwelt under the earth in Delphi; in Greek, the root delph- means female womb. Hence, the snake-earth-female connection is especially clear. After having already slain the Python snake —sent him by Hera—, Apollo decided to conquer the Delphic Oracle. For such a purpose he had to slay its current owner, the Dragoness, of course portrayed as an evil monster (Homeric Hymn to Apollo 300-304):

But near by was a sweet flowing spring, and there with his strong bow the lord, the son of Zeus, killed the bloated, great she-dragon, a fierce monster wont to do great mischief to men upon earth, to men themselves and to their thin-shanked sheep; for she was a very bloody plague.

(transl. by Gl.W. Most)

The slaying of the Delphic Dragoness by Apollo also witnesses the ancient, matriarchal connection between female and oracular prophecy, the divine wisdom assured by the direct touch of women with divinity. It’s noteworthy that the greatest seers of Greek Myth, Melampus and Tiresias, received the prophecy by snakes. Melampus nourished baby snakes, and, one night, when they grew up, they licked his ears, inspiring him the divine prophecy.

Tiresias saw a couple of snakes mating, killed the female, and became a woman. Seven years later, after seen another couple of snakes mating, he killed the male and returned man. Thus, when Zeus and Hera discussed whether women or men feel more pleasure while mating, asked Tiresias for an opinion, because of his experience both as man and as woman. The seer answered that women reach nine tenths of pleasure, while men only one. Hera, angered, blinded him, while Zeus offered him the gift of prophecy. However, the true meaning of the myth is that Tiresias got the gift of prophecy because, after his initiation by a she-snake, he became a woman. Scholars suggest that his return to male gender is very likely to be an artificial addition to the original myth.

The ancient rôle of the snake as guardian was replaced by that of evil obstacle for male-heroes in the accomplishment of their deeds.
To get the Golden Apples of the Hesperides, Heracles had to slay its guardian snake, as Cadmos did with the dragon which defended the holy spring of Thebes, and Jason with the one defending the Golden Fleece.

Such a tradition survived in Middle Age, where, to save the princess, the good hero had often to slay a dragon (see also the myth of St. George).

It is worth of note that in other cultures, as in the Far Eastern, dragon is usually a beneficent symbol of fertility, associated with water and the heavens: hence, it’s important to keep in mind that all the evil nature of dragon in Western culture arose from the original, close relationship of the snake with the female element.

Dragons were often thought to be fire-breathing: flames were a token of hell, imagined to be under the earth, i.e. the female womb. Among the secondary meanings of the word “dragon”, in the Oxford American Dictionary of English Language you can read: “a fierce and intimidating person, especially a woman”.

The rescue of the princess by a hero after slaying a dragon is a patriarchal, pedagogic myth that deserves now to be read in its right meaning: the dragon is a symbol of Female Power and Wisdom, while the rescue of the princess and her marriage to the hero means the submission of the maiden to patriarchal authority; to do it, the male needs to defeat the Divine Female Power.
*pre-Indo-European Europe means Old Europe before the Indo-European conquest, which took place since 2000 to 1000 B.C.E.. The Indo-Europeans replaced the peaceful, agricultural, and matriarchal civilization of Old Europe with a warrior, herder, and patriarchal society, from which Western culture derives. See Chapter IV.

My First Touch with the Goddess

2008-08-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

Since I was a child, the wild nature had a sort of magic power on me. All the times I visited woods, groves, and springs, I always felt unbelievably excited, without knowing the matter. Until the age of twenty eight, I thought the woods to belong to Dionysus and Pan, and to be inhabited by Satyrs, Sileni, Bacchae, and Nymphs. I believed these spirits to be those who inspired me that excitation. Unfortunately, I lived in the Italian town of Venice, interesting and amusing under many points of view, but made of stones: being an island detached from the mainland, it was not easy to reach natural landscapes. Any way, not very far from Venice lie the first southern face of the Alps, the highest European mountains, so I visited its woods as often as I could, to get in touch with Satyrs and Nymphs.
When I was twenty eight I moved to a small town in the mainland, at about twenty miles from Venice. At a few miles from my home lay the springs of river “Sile”, among woods, groves, and meadows. I spent many week-ends losing myself in that wild nature, at all seasons.

However, the observation of the annual renewal of nature, my studies in Greek philology, and my previous relationship with a Mistress —Who clearly showed me all the Power of the female element— changed my mind about the spirits who inspired me the divine excitation. I early understood that behind that magic could be only a female spirit, a Deity as the Minoan Goddess of Nature, who dwelt in Crete, or the Phrygian Goddess Rhea-Cybele, who dwelt in Western Anatolia. I did not deny the presence of Dionysus and Pan, but those spirits should lie below Her, the Goddess. Perhaps, they were nothing more than Her toy-boys.

One day of summer, walking in the wood, I discovered, hidden behind the vegetation, an idol of the Madonna (the Virgin Mary), with a notice where you could read Rispettate la Madonna delle Piante (= “Have regard to the Virgin of Plants”). My mind immediately went to the 18th Idyllium of Theocritus, line 48, where on a plane tree, sacred to Helen, was written “sébeu: m’ Helénas phytòn eimí” (= “worship me: I am the plant of Helen”). Now, Helen’s assimilations to Goddesses of Trees often lie on a possible link between the Rhodian cult of Heléne Dendrîtis (= “Helen of the Trees”) and the Arcadian cult of Ártemis apanchoméne (read “apank-homéne”; = “Artemis hanged”). Furthermore, all around the idol, among other kinds of plants, I reckoned nine palm trees. The species of tree, believed to be sacred to Artemis and especially common within her shrines, and, moreover, its number —a multiple of three, symbol of Moon Goddesses— led me to think that the “Virgin of Plants” should be a heritage of Artemis, surrounded by nine nymphs while dancing a circular dance.

Although my family and I were been always proud to be atheist and anti-Christians, that idol frightened me so much that I escaped. However, the day after I was again in front of Her: I invoked Her, uttering Homeric formulae as Ártemi pótna theà, chryselakátou keladeiné. I asked Her to protect me, offering Her, in return, my total fidelity.
At those times, with striking surprise I had already seen that, at any country-crossroad, lay an idol of the Madonna: it was impossible for me not thinking to Hecate, the Protectress of Crossroads.

In the Full Moon nights, the dogs, sacred to Hecate, were used to bark around those crossroad idols. The natural overlap of the two Moon Goddesses, already present in the sixth century B.C.E. (cfr. Hesiod, fr. 23a.15-26 Merkelbach-West), led me to reckon myself as a worshipper of both Deities, perhaps only two different aspects of the same Goddess.

Now, living in England, I meet Her every Saturday and Sunday in the enchanted groves of this fairy country.

A Tribute to my Mistress

2008-08-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

Being brought up by females —my parents separated when I was a child, so I grew up beside my mother and my older sister—, I was always attracted by strong women, better if feminist.

When I met Her, in summer of 1995, I was twenty five, while She was twenty four. Since I hadn’t yet have a girlfriend and I was been only a few times with women, I knew almost nothing about love. I was attracted by Her green, deep eyes, Her frown, Her maternal shapes, and —why not?—, Her black clothes.

“Are you either a dark lady, a vampire, or a witch?”, I asked Her. “I’m a Black-Shirt”, was Her answer. Now, you have to know that, in Italian, Camicia Nera (= “black shirt”) means a Fascist. In fact, She was an Italian extreme-right militant, and of course I agreed with no one of Her political ideas: She was racist, xenophobe, and classist. While I was for peace and love, She, as Athena, was for wars and violence (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, 10-11):
but she delights in wars and in the works of Ares,
in strifes and battles and in preparing famous crafts.
(transl. by H.G. Evelyn-White)

But, the only important for me, She was a feminist. And what a feminist! She did not teach me only the Gifts of Aphrodite, but also the importance of the Divine Female Power that lies in each woman. I was Her pupil, thirsty to learn more and more about it. As a Goddess, She used Her Power to protect and reassure me, but requiring in return absolute faith and obedience. Otherwise, Her anger was frightening.
I learnt that a man needs a woman to be all day long beside him, because he lacks the Divine Power, while women need men only for a while, to have a bit of fun. Aware of it, I understood that the only way to keep Her beside me was to put Her pleasure always before mine. We mated whenever She wanted, in the hours She wanted, in the days She wanted. She explained me that, while men reach their pleasure quickly, women need much more time: hence, if my body wasn’t able to assure Her a full pleasure for a couple of hours, I should need to finish the job with my tongue. Furthermore, if my body was too tired for mating, I should use the tongue from the beginning. She taught me that loving a woman with the tongue was the greatest way to receive a bit of her Divine Energy: such energy, that dwelt in the womb, could be shared even by men —but in a quite little share—, in the shape of the female fluid.
Proud of Her body and of Her womanhood, She taught me to love Her womb and Her monthly flow: that flow is the backbone of the Divine Female Power, being regulated by the phases of the Moon, i.e. the Goddess Herself. Many times I tasted the female fluid mixed with a bit of Holy Blood —don’t blame me if I do not know whether the days were waxing, full, or waning—. I did never reveal it to my friends, sure that they would perceive it only as a sort of masochistic submission, misunderstanding its holiness.
When She left me, at the beinning of 1999, I spent whole months crying. However, I am always grateful to Her for all those teachings: thanks to Her, I’m totally conscious of the divine nature of women.

Artemis

2008-07-31T13:33:00.000-07:00

The origins of Artemis lie in Minoan religion, the pre-Hellenic culture that dwelt in Bronze Age Crete. The Minoan Artemis was not the goddess of classical mythology —the sister of Apollo—, but a primitive type of deity that became especially widespread in the Peloponnesos and among the Dorians.

This Artemis was the Mistress of Animals, the Goddess of Wild Nature, which has not been touched or altered by men. She roamed about mountains and woods, in shadowy groves and wet meadows, hunting and dancing together with her Nymphs of whom she was but the foremost and the leader, as can be argued from Homer’s Odyssey, where Nausicaa and her handmaiden are compared with Artemis and the Nymphs (Odyssey 102-109):
“And even as Artemis, the archer, roves over the mountains, along the ridges of lofty Taÿgetus or Erymanthus, joying in the pursuit of boars and swift deers, and the wood nymphs, daughters of Zeus who bears the aegis, share her sport, and Leto is glad at heart; high above them all Artemis holds her head and brows, and easily may she be known, though all are beautiful: so amid her handmaids shone the unwed maiden.”
(transl. by A.T. Murray)

The Nymphs were young female creatures, neither goddesses nor women: they were not immortal, but enjoyed very long lives.

A Hesiodic fragment witnesses that they lived 9720 human generations (fr. 304 Merkelbach – West):
A screaming crow lives for nine generations
of men who have reached puberty; a deer is four crows;
the raven grows old at three deer; then the phoenix
at nine ravens; and we at ten phoenixes,
we beautiful-haired Nymphs, daughters of aegis-holding Zeus
(transl. by Glenn W. Most)

Among the Nymphs were also the Naiads, nymphs of the springs:

and the Dryads, spirits of the trees, who dwelt inside the oaks:

The Dryads (from Greek drys, “oak”, but in the beginning “tree”) were thought to live so long as the life of the oaks where they dwelt (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, lines 264-272):
But at their birth pines or high-topped oaks spring up with them upon the fruitful earth, beautiful, flourishing trees, towering high upon the lofty mountains (and men call them holy places of the immortals, and never mortal lops them with the axe); but when the fate of death is near at hand, first those lovely trees wither where they stand and they bark shrivels away about them, and the twigs fall down, and at last the life of the Nymph and of the tree leave the light of the sun together.
(trans. H.G. Evelyn-White)

The early Artemis was a Goddess of Fertility, not of agrarian fertility but of humans and wild animals, helping and assisting females in childbirth: she was the Protectress of Girlhood.
From those common data start two lines of development, which lead on one hand to the Great Mountain Mother of Western Anatolia, who roams the mountains accompanied by her lions,

and on the other hand, to the virgin huntress of Classical Greece:

The former was associated to a Goddess of Fertility and to the renewal of nature, while the latter, as the Goddess of Virgin Nature not touched by men, became a severe virgin not tolerating any male partner.
Among Greek goddesses, Artemis is the one whose assimilation to the Moon was deeper. Such deep assimilation is likely to be ought to her nature of archer, in the same way that happened to the sun god Apollo, with the arrows as a clear token of the sun or moon-rays.

Although the clear evidence of such assimilation is not earlier than Classical Age (Fifth Century B.C.E.), perhaps it already existed at the end of the Seventh Century B.C.E., as it can be argued from a fragment of Sappho (fr. 34 Page):
The stars hide away their shining form around the lovely Moon when in all Her fullness She shines (over all) the Earth
(transl. by D.A. Campbell)

It’s almost certain that the poetess was speaking of a girl who outshone her companions in beauty. Now, since the most obvious comparison of this kind would be that of Artemis and the Nymphs, and its best known image was that of the Odyssey’s passage, it would be suggested that Sappho’s lines were a graceful allusion to Homer. Hence, it is possible that the charming comparison of the girl and the companions to the Moon and the stars infered another more obvious comparison to Artemis and the Nymphs.
Artemis’ assimilation to the Moon increased in Hellenistic times (from Third Century B.C.E.), being often confused with the minor deity Selene —the Moon herself—, and with the Egyptian Isis, another Moon-deity.

Hecate

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As Artemis, Hecate was originally a goddess of fertility, especially of wilderness and childbirth, whose roots seem to be in Caria (South Western Anatolia).

Beside these aspects, in Archaic Greece (Eighth – Sixth Centuries B.C.E.) arose another beneficent function of Hecate as protectress from evil spirits, and for this reason her statues were placed not only at the gates of cities and domestic doorways, but also at countryside crossroads: such places were believed to be dangerous for travellers because of the difficulty of choosing the right way. Thus, crossroads were thought to be inhabitated by evil spirits always trying to inspire wrong decisions to wayfarers: it is worth of note that one of the most wicked episodes of Greek myth, the slaying of Laius by his son Oedipus, was set in a crossroad.

Since the crossroad was imagined as the meeting of three roads, not four —the wayfarer has to choose among three ways, being the fourth only that from which he is coming—, a dispute arose among scholars whether the triple shape of Hecate, attested only from the end of the Fifth Century B.C.E., was ought to an especially deep assimilation to the Moon or only to her rôle of protectress of crossroads. In other words, the dispute was whether she became protectress of crossroads because of her triple nature of Moon goddess, or she got a deep assimilation to the Moon because of her rôle of protectress of crossroads. In my opinion, the two aspects are too old and rooted to be broken down in a cause and effect relationship: the most likely is that both aspects, the Moon goddess and the protectress of crossroads, reciprocally improved the other. Furthermore, I would like to suggest that the evil nature of crossroads in Greek culture was due —as usual— to their close link to the female element because of the triple nature.

A great link between Artemis, Hecate, and the Moon, rose since Fifth Century B.C.E., while in the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, fr. 23a Merkelbach – West (Sixth Century B.C.E.), Iphigeneia becomes the immortal attendant of Artemis assuming the title of Artemis Einodia (= “Artemis in the Roads”), being Einodia the typical Hecate’s epithet. Beside this, the name Hecate (from hekate = the “far-shooter”) originally was nothing more than an epithet of Artemis.

Since dogs and wolves bark to the Moon, Hecate’s deep assimilation to such heavenly body linked these animals to her: while to Artemis —the other great Moon goddess— were sacred hunting dogs, to Hecate were guardians.
Hecate is perhaps the goddess whose development through Indo-European times became most striking and noteworthy. When, in Middle and Late Bronze Age (since 2000 to 1000 B.C.E.), warrior tribes of nomad herders originating from Southern Russia —the so called Indo-Europeans—, conquered all Europe, the peaceful, agricultural, and matriarchal society was slowly replaced by the warrior, herder, and patriarchal one of the new rulers. All pre-Indo-European Earth and Moon goddesses, as Hecate, were submitted to the Indo-European male deities of the sky, of thunder, and of the sun. Because Indo-Europeans, instead of a Triple Goddess —assimilated to the Moon phases— believed in a couple of male, divine, and polarized twins —assimilated to the stars of the dawn and of the evening—, the Indo-Europeization of goddesses often consisted in placing beside their original triple nature a double and polarized one. Thus, Hecate’s beneficent nature of protectress from evil spirits, was slowly joined by another opposite nature of queen of evil, ghosts, magic, and witchcraft.

Because the Indo-Europeization of Hecate improved through the centuries, with the evil aspect often prevailing on the beneficent one, in Roman times (I Century B.C.E – III C.E.) she became nothing more than a Goddess of Evil and Witches, totally losing her ancient beneficent nature of midwife and nurse. However, it’s important to keep in mind that this nature of the goddess was due only to the fears of patriarchal Indo-European society towards women.

I — Stone and Early Bronze Age. Female Triads

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During New Stone Age (7000-3500 B.C.E.) and Early Bronze Age (3500-2000 B.C.E.), in all Europe dwelt a peaceful civilization which devoted itself to agriculture. Among them, female life was divided into three ages: maiden, mother, and crone*, according to the possibility of giving birth.

Such ages were assimilated to the three phases of the Moon —waxing, full, and waning—, due to the similar length of both lunar and female cycle. Hence, the female cycle was thought to be regulated by the Moon’s phases. Furthermore, the whole vegetal and animal realms were thought to be composed by cycles of three phases —birth, full growth, and death—, always renewing themselves through a never ending cycle of birth, death and rebirth: the unploughed field was imagined as a maiden, the full harvest as a mother, while the dormant, frost earth, as a crone.
Thus, it was natural to believe that in head of the reproduction cycles and of the alternation of seasons lay a female deity, assimilated herself to the phases of the Moon. Of course, the Moon itself was thought to be an aspect of such divinity.

It’s important to keep in mind the strong, indissoluble link —summarized by the Moon— between womanhood, nature’s cycles, and divinity. As the woman, the divinity too was worshipped under her three aspects of maiden, mother, and crone: Pausanias 8.22.2 witnesses that in Stymphalus (Arcadia) Hera was worshipped as País (“Girl”), Teleía (“Fulfilled”), and Khéra (“Widow”). Totally ignoring the relationship between female and agricultural cycles —i.e. unploughed field, full harvest, and dormant earth—, male religions cannot understand how can a Goddess be mother and maiden: Pausanias 2.38.2 claims that Hera was believed to restore every year her virginity taking a bath in the Kanathos spring, near Argos, being this ritual a symbol of the earth ready to be ploughed again.
In Bronze Age, the original monotheistic goddess began to be broken down into many somewhat overlapping goddesses of fertility, as the one of agriculture, the one of wild animals, the one of childbirth, etc. In Late Bronze Age (1500-1000 B.C.E.), beside these main goddesses, many minor deities flourished, as those of fate —the Moirai— or those of the seasons —the Horai—. Well, while main deities continued to be worshipped under the three aspects of maiden, mother, and crone, minor deities suffered a breaking up in triads: so, arose the three Moirai, the three Horai, the three Charites (= Graces), the three Gorgons, the three Graiai, the nine Muses etc.

An intermediate breaking up level was that of Hecate, whose triple nature was carved in her body itself.

Because of the strong link between woman and divinity, Greek mythology knows the traditional motive of the three daughters. Heroic genealogies were often built following this pattern, as witnessed by these typical formulaic verses from the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (fr. 26.5-6 Merkelbach-West):
or those as the daughters born to Porthaon,
three, similar to goddesses, who knew magnificent works

Not knowing that the alternation of seasons was ruled by regular astronomic phenomena, the Ancients lived in the fear that spring might not come back.

For this purpose they developed a magic sympathetic ritual imitating the natural cycle of birth, growth, death, and rebirth, in the hope it would help the spring to come back. The ritual consisted of circular dances, carried out by the maidens of the community, in strictly number of three —as the phases of the whole cycle—, or multiples of three.

At the beginning, these dances took place during the nights of New Moon and Full Moon, easy to reckon even for primitive cultures; when the astronomic aknowledge increased, they took place also during the solstices, easier to reckon than the equinoxes. The following step was the equinoxes, and, finally, the intermediate dates between solstices and equinoxes.

*I use the word crone, instead of aged woman, because of the English habit of naming the three female ages maiden, mother, and crone. However, the English word crone has a quite negative nuance in meaning, signifying something old, ugly, decomposing, and useless, deriving from the Old Northern French caroigne, “carrion”, “corpse”. Such negative attitude towards female third age, risen in latter patriarchal society, was totally unknown in the civilization we are dealing with: hence, in this site with the word crone is to be understood only “aged woman”.

II — Middle Bronze Age. The Goddess of Fertility and her Young Mortal Lover

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The evidence that, both for childbirth and for harvest, women and fields needed to be previously fecundated by a seed, bore the idea that the Goddess of Fertility had a lover with whom she was used to mate every year. From such idea arose the myth —widespread in all ancient agricultural societies— of a Mother Goddess accompanied by a young and beautiful boy, who goes through a premature death. The young boy, whose rôle in Greek mythology is usually known with the name of páredros (= “that who sits beside”, from pará, “beside”, and hédra, “seat”), can indifferently be either the lover or the son of the Goddess: when he dies, the Goddess grieves him for a while, and then gives birth to a quite similar son.

It’s the myth of the Phrygian goddess Rhea-Cybele and the youthful Attis; of the Semitic Ishtar and Tammuz; Aphrodite and Adonis; Aphrodite and Anchises, early replaced by the son Aeneas; Selene and Endymion; Eos and Cephalus; perhaps, Thetis and his premature dying son Achilles; Isis and Osiris. Such relationship survives in the Goddess of Christians with her son, who of course dies in youth.

The sculptural type of the Pietà —the Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Jesus Christ on her lap or in her arms— was elaborated in Italian Renaissance on the basis of the Hellenistic type of the Goddess grieving her prematurely died young lover.

The meaning of the myth is well known to anthropology. The Goddess represents of course the Earth, while the páredros represents the ear of wheat. The ear has a short life, but only after its death —the harvest— it can be restored to life, because the grain of wheat that lies in the ear is also the seed of next harvest. Mating with the Earth, the seed gives birth to another ear, in a never ending circle. That’s why the young lover is often thought to be also the son of the Goddess. It’s nothing more than the natural cycle of death and rebirth: the latter cannot exist without the former.

It’s important to keep in mind that, in Stone and Bronze Age Europe, the páredros was not a god: the main feature of all deities is immortality, while the páredros dies every year, and that who is given to birth next year is not the páredros himself restored to life, but only the son of him and of the Goddess, who will mate with her starting so a new cycle. Thus, it is clear that the páredros could never be reckoned as a god, but only as the mortal escort or lover of the Goddess. Although in Near East culture the páredros was often believed to be a god who died every year and was then restored to life —as Semitic Tammuz or Egyptian Osiris—, in European tradition there is no evidence for this, as witnessed by the presence of both lover and son, and their substantial interchangeability: Eros (= Cupid) too, imagined as Aphrodite’s son, originally was a páredros of her.

In Minoan Crete, the archaeological evidence for the existence of a páredros beside the Goddess starts only from Middle Bronze Age (1500-1000 B.C.E.), after the conquer of the island by Mycenean Greeks, a Indo-European patriarchal and warrior people which slowly replaced female deities with male.

In this Minoan gold seal is depicted the Goddess, sitting below a holy tree, honoured by female worshippers; above, on the right, lies a male figure bearing the typical Mycenean “eight-shaped” shield. Many scholars think him to be a páredros of the Goddess: since Minoan art did not know the technique of perspective, it can be argued that the small size of the male figure in comparison with females does not mean that he is far situated in the skyline, but that his status is much lower than theirs*.

Something similar is witnessed by the following seal, with the Goddess on the left and her tiny páredros above, in the middle.
The emergence of male deities in European religion took place only after the Indo-Europeization of Europe, i.e. the replacement of the agricultural and matriarchal society with a patriarchal and warrior one since 1500 B.C.E. It was since then that the mortal lover began to be thought as a god: it is well known that, in the beginning, both Poseidon and Zeus were nothing more than the páredroi of the Goddess, as witnessed by the name Poseidaon itself, that in Mycenean Greek means “Husband of the Earth” (from posis, “husband”, and Da, “Earth”), and the Homeric formula for Zeus, erígdoupos pósis Héres, “loud-thundering husband of Hera”.

The great importance of motherhood in Old Europe was displayed in social organization. Society was matrilineal, that means that the children were thought to belong to the mother, not to the father: and since mother is always certain, she could have children from other men than his mate, who did not care whether or not he were the natural father, because his rôle was only that of mate and lover of the woman, not of father of her children. Therefore, couples were relatively open, and women were free to choose their men, replacing them when getting tired.

Furthermore, it was believed that above all the nature were goddesses; below them were women, who were a mortal manifestation of them. Since goddesses had their mortal lovers, with whom they were used to mate every year, replacing them after mating, women too had their lovers —men—, also them easy replaceable. Thus, men were thought to be only women’s escorts and lovers, not having the direct touch with goddesses that women —as a mortal manifestation of them— had.

At the light of all this, womanhood was reckoned in very high consideration, at any age. Maidens assured the renewal of seasons and vegetation with their circular dances, helped their parents with the harvest and their grandmothers in the preparation of magical potions, gathering herbs, flowers, and leaves. Women not only bore, nourished, and brought up children, but worked both at home, sewing and crafting, at in the field, together with men, especially during the harvest, threshing, and vintage, while in the ploughing and sowing season men carried out the former, women the latter. Elder women, thanks to their wisdom assured by their direct touch with goddesses, led their own families and communities, being either healers, sorceresses, priestesses, seers, or prophetesses.
Although during the religious festivals as solstices, equinoxes, or Full Moon, the main rôles of rituals were played by women, all the inhabitants of the community, both female and male, and of all ages, were present at the celebrations: thus, it was easy for girls to chooce their boyfriends, and for women tired of their lovers to replace them. Such civilization lived following the natural course of seasons and of the Moon: its only rules were those of nature, with no taboos of sex and sexuality. Furthermore, the seldom archaeological evidence of ruined, burned, or destroyed settlements shows that it was also quite peaceful.

*In such seal it can also be seen, below the sun and the waxing Moon, the double axe, symbol of waxing and waning Moon, very common among Minoans.

III — Late Bronze Age. Male Twins

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Since Early Bronze Age (3000-2000 B.C.E.), a herder stock dwelling in Southwestern Russia began to move from its original seat, spreading in two opposite directions: towards East, till Persia and India, and West, in Europe. From the two opposite poles, India and Europe, such stock is named Indo-European. The Aegean area (Greece and Crete) was reached in two different main waves, the first about 2000-1900 B.C.E. and the second, the so called Dorian migration, about 1200 B.C.E. It was not a massive invasion which replaced the former people, but an infiltration of a small number of lords who submitted the former agricultural civilization thanks to their warrior supremacy, due, among other things, to the use of horses and chariots.To understand the phenomena we can think to the British domination in India or to the French one in Algeria.

As all nomad herders, Indo-Europeans were great warriors. Such relationship is easy to understand: nomad herders are used to fight not only against the stationer agricultural peoples that find in their wanderings, but also among themselves for stealing their cattle. To have an idea of it, let us think to another important movement of a warrior herder stock, the Arabs that in the Seventh Century C.E. moved from their original seat, the Arabic peninsula, and conquered all the agricultural peoples dwelling both in Eastern and Western countries, from Afghanistan to Morocco and Spain. Well, as it can be easy argued, a warrior society is also a patriarchal one, due to the lack of weight of females in war: while women are able to do almost all the agricultural jobs -with the only exception of ploughing, the hardest of them-, it is obvious that war and stealing cattle are male jobs.

Thus, Indo-European society was patrilineal: the children were thought to belong to their father, not to their mother. And, since the father is never certain, he will be always frightening to bring up children who are not of him: hence, he will be unbelievably jealous and will lock his wife at home, allowing her to see nobody and allowing nobody to see her. In a patriarchal society woman's role will be only that of child-bearer, being reckoned only for her beauty and, after getting old, being reckoned as a useless thing. It is not an exaggeration to say that, for herder peoples, woman is reckoned as a piece of their cattle, who can be either purchased with a given number of cows according to her beauty, or abducted: in this second case, the offense is perpetrated to her owner (the husband if married, the father if not), since the woman's opinion has no importance. All this picture is clearly showed by the Iliad, an Eighth Century B.C.E. epic poem celebrating the wars of Mycenean Greeks either for cattle or for beautiful and young women.

Furthermore, herder and patriarchal peoples do not worship a Goddess of Nature and of Fertility, dwelling in the Earth, but a male deity of the sky, because in their wanderings the Earth will always change, while only the sky will be the same. This sky-god was worshipped as the god of lightning and thunder, and of the oak (perhaps because of the feature of oaks to attract lightnings more than other trees).
Not only Greece, but all Europe was conquered by Indo-Europeans: Greeks, Latins, Germans, and Celts, were the main branches into which the Indo-European stock was broken down. It is important to remember that also Celts were Indo-European, i.e. herders, warriors, and patriarchal: many people think Celts to belong to the agricultural, peaceful, and matriarchal Stone Henge Britain, and the patriarchal new rulers to be only the later Germanic tribes of the Angles and the Saxons. Nothing of all this. Celts worshipped their god of the sky, of thunder, and of the oak: the name druid derives from the Indo-European root *dry- which means "tree", especially "oak".

While pre-Indo-European society believed in female triads, according to the three female ages and assimilated to the phases of the Moon, Indo-Europeans believed in a couple of divine male twins, assimilated to the stars of the morning and of the evening (ignoring that they were the same heavenly body, Venus). Such twins, known as the Indo-European Dioscuri, had three main features: a deep polarity among them, the nature of horsemen, and that of savers, often saving a female character who can be their sister, mother, or wife of one of them. The most famous examples of Greek twins were the Dioscuri Castor and Polydeuces -who saved their sister Helen after her first abduction by Theseus-, the Atreidai Agamemnon and Menelaus -who saved Agamemnon's wife, always Helen, after her second abduction by Paris-, Neleus and Pelias, Anfion and Zetho, Idas and Lynceus, Cleobis and Bithon, Calais and Zethes, etc.
Thus, 5000 years after the Neolithic Revolution, the agricultural, peaceful, and matriarchal European civilization was definitely over. Another chapter in the history of Europe was open, a chapter made of wars, hates, and violence, until the Twentieth Century. Archaeological evidence shows that, after the Indo-European migrations, history of settlements is a history of destructions.

IV — Iron Age. The Indo-Europeization of Goddesses

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In the previous chapter it was said that Indo-Europeans, instead of female triads, believed in a couple of divine male twins, assimilated to the Morning and the Evening Stars, whose main feature was a deep polarization among them: thus, Castor and Polydeuces were one mortal and the other immortal, Eteocles and Polyneuces slew reciprocally themselves, while Neleus and Pelias fought among them already in the maternal womb. Such polarization was also one of the main features of Indo-European culture, used to divide the whole world into two opposite categories, that of the good and that of the evil: you will never guess into which of the two categories the female gender fell...
This was the pattern:

good ~ evil
male ~ female
sun ~ Moon
day ~ night
light ~ darkness
sky ~ Earth
soul ~ body
life ~ death
right ~ left

Beside other minor typical features of Western culture, as the bad reputation of the left side (birds flying from left were an evil omen, as until a few years ago children were educated to use always their right hand instead of the left), the most important consequence of the polarizing pattern was the attitude towards death: while pre-Indo-European culture thought death as one of the three phases of a never ending cycle of birth, life, and death, always followed by rebirth, Indo-Europeans believed it to be the opposite of life, i.e. the absence of life. Unlike Stone Age culture, which believed in reincarnation or, more generally, in a sort of rebirth after death, Indo-Europeans did not believe in any kind of afterlife, being their Underworld inhabited by empty shadows without feelings and thoughts.

And what about female deities? Of course, they did not disappeared, they were only replaced in importance by Indo-European gods. Major Goddesses were submitted to male deities, being thought to be their sisters (as Hera and Demeter of Zeus, Artemis of Apollo), wifes (Hera of Zeus), or daughters (Artemis, Athena, Persephone, Aphrodite, the Muses, etc. of Zeus).

Both major and minor deities, who, as was seen in Chapter One, were often broken down in triads, began to be regarded as the incarnation of evil, together with their own category of the polarizing pattern. The number three began to be reckoned as the number of magic and sorcery: while in Odyssey 5.125-127 and Theogony 969-971 Demeter carried out an ancient fertility ritual mating with her mortal lover Iasion in a thrice-ploughed field, in Odyssey 4.277, before carrying out a sorcery ritual against the Greek warriors hidden in the wood-horse, Helen walked thrice all round it (accomplishing the so called circumambulation, = "walking round"). The next step was that, to have effect, spells needed to be said three times, while the fulfillment of a vow was thought to be underlined by a triple divine omen: in Theocritus 2.39 (III Century B.C.E.) a sorceress prays thrice Hecate after a triple libation. These phenomena become especially clear in Roman times (I Century B.C.E. - II Century C.E.). In the Aeneid of Virgil, a Numidian sorceress prepares the suicide of Dido (Aen. 4.509-511):

Stant arae circum et crinis effusa sacerdos
ter centum tonat ore deos, Erebumque Chaosque
tergeminamque Hecaten, tria uirginis ora Dianae

"The altars were in circle, and with streaming-hair the priestess
thrice invokes a hundred gods, Erebus, Chaos,
and threefold Hecate, the three-faced maiden Diana"

In Ovid, a triple flame underlines that Pygmalion's request will be fulfilled (Metam. 10.279):

flamma ter accensa est apicemque per aera duxit

"thrice did the flame burn bright and leap up high"
(transl. A.D. Melville)

In Seneca, Medea's spells are received by the triple barking of Hecate (Med. 839-842):

vota tenentur:
ter latratus audax Hecate
dedit, et sacros edidit ignes
face lucifera

"My prayers are received:
thrice has bold Hecate vouchsafed the barking
of dogs, and set off uncanny fires
with her light-bearing torch"
(transl. J.G. Fitch)

Furthermore, beside this outside polarization, Goddesses also suffered an inside polarization, with their triple nature being placed side by side to a double and polarized one. Thus, Goddesses acquired both a good and an evil aspect: Artemis was worshipped as a Goddess of female birth and growth (good aspect), but also capable to kill women with her arrows (evil aspect), totally unknowing that birth and death were not two fighting opposites, but only the first and the third phase of the never ending cycle of nature. Hecate was worshipped as the protectress from evil (good aspect), but also the Goddess of Magic and Witchcraft (evil aspect).

V — Middle and Modern Age. From Goddesses to Witches

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During Christianity, both the outside and the inside polarization of Ancient Goddesses, just seen in the previous chapter, continued their development. Thanks to the outside polarization, i.e. a polarizing pattern good / evil with females, the Moon, and darkness of course filling the second category, not only Goddesses, but also their female worshippers and priestesses began to be reckoned as evil characters.

The connection between females and darkness increased also because of the worshippers' need of hiding themselves while worshipping their Goddesses, owing to the persecutions against pagans.

Artemis and the Nymphs (the former assimilated to the Roman Diana) became Witches, as their female worshippers did, especially while dancing in the nights of Full Moon.

The ancient triad of the Moirai, deities of Destiny, became Faeries: in Roman times the Moirai were named Fata (plural genitive Fatorum), from fatum (singular genitive fati), that in Latin means just "destiny". However, the plural neuter of the second Latin declination Fata - Fatorum in Middle Ages was understood as a singular feminine name of the first declination, fata - fatae, from which derived the Italian word fata, the Spanish hada, the French fee, and, perhaps, the English faery, all of them meaning a young female creature dwelling in woods and groves, borrowing such aspect from the Nymphs.

Thanks to the inside polarization (i.e. the feature of Goddesses of sharing two opposite aspects, the good and the evil), faeries were often divided into good and bad faeries, while witches into white and black witches, and magic into white and black magic.

Although this opposition is quite common in witchcraft, it is important to bear in mind that it is not a genuine and original feature of Stone Age culture, but only the product of its Indo-Europeization.