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148-629: The Triple Goddess is a deity or deity archetype revered in many Neopagan religious and spiritual traditions. In common Neopagan usage, the Triple Goddess is viewed as a triunity of three distinct aspects or figures united in one being. These three figures are often described as the Maiden , the Mother , and the Crone , each of which symbolizes both a separate stage in the female life cycle and

296-567: A chthonic or underworld aspect of Zeus; or the twice-born son of Zeus and the mortal Semele . The Eleusinian Mysteries identify him with Iacchus , the son or husband of Demeter . Most accounts say he was born in Thrace, traveled abroad, and arrived in Greece as a foreigner. His attribute of "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults, as he is a god of epiphany , sometimes called "the god who comes". Wine

444-503: A pantheon of deities which live, die and may be reborn like any other being. Although most monotheistic religions traditionally envision their god as omnipotent , omnipresent , omniscient , omnibenevolent , and eternal , none of these qualities are essential to the definition of a "deity" and various cultures have conceptualized their deities differently. Monotheistic religions typically refer to their god in masculine terms, while other religions refer to their deities in

592-540: A phase of the Moon , and often rules one of the realms of heavens, earth, and underworld. In various forms of Wicca, her masculine consort is the Horned God . The Triple Goddess was the subject of much of the writing of early and middle 20th-century poet, novelist and mythographer Robert Graves , in his books The White Goddess and The Greek Myths as well as in his poetry and novels. Modern neopagan conceptions of

740-412: A Byzantine encyclopedia based on classical sources, states that Dionysus was so named "from accomplishing [διανύειν] for each of those who live the wild life. Or from providing [διανοεῖν] everything for those who live the wild life." Academics in the nineteenth century, using study of philology and comparative mythology , often regarded Dionysus as a foreign deity who was only reluctantly accepted into

888-590: A cow"), in the Mysteries of Lerna . Braetes , Βραίτης ("related to beer") at Thrace . Brisaeus , Βρισαῖος , a surname of Dionysus, derived either from mount Brisa in Lesbos or from a nymph Brisa, who was said to have brought up the god. Briseus , Βρῑσεύς ("he who prevails") in Smyrna . Bromios Βρόμιος ("roaring", as of the wind, primarily relating to the central death/resurrection element of

1036-422: A creator God or transcendental absolute principle ( monistic theologies), which manifests immanently in nature. Henotheism accepts the existence of more than one deity, but considers all deities as equivalent representations or aspects of the same divine principle, the highest. Monolatry is the belief that many deities exist, but that only one of these deities may be validly worshipped. Monotheism

1184-696: A divine communicant between the living and the dead. He is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god . Romans identified Bacchus with their own Liber Pater , the "Free Father" of the Liberalia festival, patron of viniculture, wine and male fertility, and guardian of the traditions, rituals and freedoms attached to coming of age and citizenship, but the Roman state treated independent, popular festivals of Bacchus ( Bacchanalia ) as subversive, partly because their free mixing of classes and genders transgressed traditional social and moral constraints. Celebration of

1332-483: A feminist re-visioning of the Crone symbolism away from its usual associations with "death" and towards "wisdom" can be useful in women transitioning to the menopausal phase of life and that the sense of history that comes from working with mythological symbols adds a sense of meaning to the experience. Author Margaret Atwood recalls reading Graves's The White Goddess at the age of 19. Atwood describes Graves' concept of

1480-574: A few of them, particularly Dumuzid , Geshtinanna , and Gugalanna were said to have either died or visited the underworld. Both male and female deities were widely venerated. In the Sumerian pantheon, deities had multiple functions, which included presiding over procreation, rains, irrigation, agriculture, destiny, and justice. The gods were fed, clothed, entertained, and worshipped to prevent natural catastrophes as well as to prevent social chaos such as pillaging, rape, or atrocities. Many of

1628-400: A goddess-based "Old European" religion being overtaken by a patriarchal Indo-European one "essentially sound". Academic rejection of her theories has been echoed by some feminist authors, including Cynthia Eller . Others argue that her account challenges male-centred histories and creates a powerful origin-myth of female empowerment. John Chapman suggests that Gimbutas' Goddess theories were

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1776-431: A male god. They give the example of Diana only becoming three (Daughter, Wife, Mother) through her relationship to Zeus, the male deity. They go on to state that different cultures and groups associate different numbers and cosmological bodies with gender. The threefold division [of the year] is inextricably bound up with the primitive form of the goddess Demeter, who was also Hecate, and Hecate could claim to be mistress of

1924-655: A pantheon of deities, the chief of whom was the god El , who ruled alongside his consort Asherah and their seventy sons . Baal was the god of storm, rain, vegetation and fertility, while his consort Anat was the goddess of war and Astarte , the West Semitic equivalent to Ishtar , was the goddess of love. The people of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah originally believed in these deities, alongside their own national god Yahweh. El later became syncretized with Yahweh , who took over El's role as

2072-429: A phase of the moon, is a modern creation of Graves', who in turn drew on the work of 19th and 20th century scholars such as especially Jane Harrison ; and also Margaret Murray , James Frazer , the other members of the " myth and ritual " school of Cambridge Ritualists, and the occultist and writer Aleister Crowley . While Graves was the originator of the idea of the Triple Goddess as embodying Maiden/Mother/Crone, this

2220-437: A poet and mythographer, Robert Graves claimed a historical basis for the Triple Goddess. Although Graves's work is widely discounted by academics as pseudohistory (see The White Goddess § Criticism and The Greek Myths § Reception ), it continues to have a lasting influence on many areas of Neopaganism . Ronald Hutton argues that the concept of the triple moon goddess as Maiden, Mother, and Crone, each facet corresponding to

2368-469: A poetic projection of her personal life, based on her idealized childhood and adolescence. While most Neopagans are not Wiccan , and within Neopaganism the practices and theology vary widely, many Wiccans and other neopagans worship the "Triple Goddess" of maiden, mother, and crone. In their view, sexuality, pregnancy, breastfeeding—and other female reproductive processes—are ways that women may embody

2516-529: A preference for a female sovereign. In the anthology The Greek Myths (1955), Graves systematically applied his convictions enshrined in The White Goddess to Greek mythology, exposing a large number of readers to his various theories concerning goddess worship in ancient Greece. Graves posited that Greece had been settled by a matriarchal goddess-worshipping people before being invaded by successive waves of patriarchal Indo-European speakers from

2664-496: A prehistoric female deity. A number of probable representations of deities have been discovered at 'Ain Ghazal and the works of art uncovered at Çatalhöyük reveal references to what is probably a complex mythology. Diverse African cultures developed theology and concepts of deities over their history. In Nigeria and neighboring West African countries , for example, two prominent deities (locally called Òrìṣà ) are found in

2812-613: A presiding deity, who inspired social rituals, special trading markets and community festivals. A deity with aspects similar to Kulkulkan in the Aztec culture has been called Quetzalcoatl . However, states Timothy Insoll, the Aztec ideas of deity remain poorly understood. What has been assumed is based on what was constructed by Christian missionaries . The deity concept was likely more complex than these historical records. In Aztec culture , there were hundred of deities, but many were henotheistic incarnations of one another (similar to

2960-488: A single female deity. The deity was regarded as representing the earth, and as having three aspects, of which the first two were Maiden and Mother; she did not name the third. ... Following her work, the idea of a matristic early Europe which had venerated such a deity was developed in books by amateur scholars such as Robert Briffault's The Mothers (1927) and Robert Graves's The White Goddess (1948). John Michael Greer writes: Harrison proclaimed that Europe itself had been

3108-407: A specific and flawed personality. They were not omnipotent and could be injured in some circumstances. Greek deities led to cults, were used politically and inspired votive offerings for favors such as bountiful crops, healthy family, victory in war, or peace for a loved one recently deceased. The Roman pantheon had numerous deities, both Greek and non-Greek. The more famed deities, found in

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3256-519: A testament of faith than a well-conceived thesis", stating that "Just because a triangle schematically mimics the female pubic region, or a hedgehog resembles a uterus (!), or dogs are allied with death in Classical mythology, it is hardly justifiable to associate all these images with 'the formidable goddess of regeneration'." Lynn Meskell considers such an approach "irresponsible". However, linguist M. L. West has called Gimbutas's fundamental thesis of

3404-608: A triple moon goddess, noting the statement by Aristotle that Athene was the Moon but not "only" the Moon. In discussing examples of his Great Mother archetype, Neumann mentions the Fates as "the threefold form of the Great Mother", details that "the reason for their appearance in threes or nines, or more seldom in twelves, is to be sought in the threefold articulation underlying all created things; but here it refers most particularly to

3552-413: A variety of ways—male, female, hermaphroditic , or genderless. Many cultures—including the ancient Mesopotamians , Egyptians , Greeks , Romans , and Germanic peoples —have personified natural phenomena , variously as either deliberate causes or effects. Some Avestan and Vedic deities were viewed as ethical concepts. In Indian religions , deities have been envisioned as manifesting within

3700-513: A young girl ( Clotho ), an older woman ( Lachesis ), and an elderly woman ( Atropos ), but no surviving art from antiquity depicts them as such. The connection between the Fates and the variously named Triple Moon Goddess, then ultimately led to the conflation of these concepts. Servius made the explicit connection between these phases and the roles of the Moirai: "some call the same goddess Lucina, Diana, and Hecate, because they assign to one goddess

3848-528: A young woman. However, according to the 3rd century BC grammarian Epigenes, the three Moirai , or Fates, were regarded by the Orphic tradition as representing the three divisions of the Moon, "the thirtieth and the fifteenth and the first" (i.e. the crescent moon, full moon, and dark moon, as delinted by the divisions of the calendar month). The Moirai themselves were depicted in Renaissance and modern art as

3996-411: Is Hekate, the symbol of her varying phases and of her power dependent on the phases. Wherefore her power appears in three forms, having as symbol of the new moon the figure in the white robe and golden sandals, and torches lighted: the basket, which she bears when she has mounted high, is the symbol of the cultivation of the crops, which she makes to grow up according to the increase of her light: and again

4144-476: Is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over the universe, nature or human life. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines deity as a god or goddess , or anything revered as divine . C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness , beyond

4292-645: Is also supposed to encompass a personification of all the characteristics and potential of every woman who has ever existed. Other beliefs held by worshippers, such as Wiccan author D. J. Conway , include that reconnection with the Great Goddess is vital to the health of humankind "on all levels". Conway includes the Greek goddesses Demeter, Kore-Persephone, and Hecate, in her discussion of the Maiden-Mother-Crone archetype. Conway specifically believes

4440-587: Is deemed to be a full deity with the Christian cross as his icon. The theological examination of Jesus Christ, of divine grace in incarnation, his non-transferability and completeness has been a historic topic. For example, the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE declared that in "one person Jesus Christ, fullness of deity and fullness of humanity are united, the union of the natures being such that they can neither be divided nor confused". Jesus Christ, according to

4588-455: Is derived from Proto-Germanic *guthan , from PIE *ghut- , which means "that which is invoked". Guth in the Irish language means "voice". The term *ghut- is also the source of Old Church Slavonic zovo ("to call"), Sanskrit huta- ("invoked", an epithet of Indra ), from the root *gheu(e)- ("to call, invoke."), An alternate etymology for the term "god" comes from

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4736-405: Is discussed in the works of both Carl Jung and Karl Kerényi , and the later works of their follower Erich Neumann . Jung considered the general arrangement of deities in triads as a pattern which arises at the most primitive level of human mental development and culture. In 1949 Jung and Kerényi theorized that groups of three goddesses found in Greece become quaternities only by association with

4884-643: Is found in other names, such as that of the Dioscures , and may derive from Dios , the genitive of the name of Zeus . Nonnus, in his Dionysiaca , writes that the name Dionysus means "Zeus-limp" and that Hermes named the new born Dionysus this, "because Zeus while he carried his burden lifted one foot with a limp from the weight of his thigh, and nysos in Syracusan language means limping". In his note to these lines, W. H. D. Rouse writes "It need hardly be said that these etymologies are wrong". The Suda ,

5032-533: Is found on a dinos by the Attic potter Sophilos around 570 BC and is located in the British Museum . By the seventh century, iconography found on pottery shows that Dionysus was already worshiped as more than just a god associated with wine. He was associated with weddings, death, sacrifice, and sexuality, and his retinue of satyrs and dancers was already established. A common theme in these early depictions

5180-473: Is impossible to conclusively identify any prehistoric figurines as representations of any kind of deities, let alone goddesses. Nonetheless, it is possible to evaluate ancient representations on a case-by-case basis and rate them on how likely they are to represent deities. The Venus of Willendorf , a female figurine found in Europe and dated to about 25,000 BCE has been interpreted by some as an exemplar of

5328-509: Is masculine, and the related feminine equivalent is devi . Etymologically, the cognates of Devi are Latin dea and Greek thea . In Old Persian , daiva- means " demon , evil god", while in Sanskrit it means the opposite, referring to the "heavenly, divine, terrestrial things of high excellence, exalted, shining ones". The closely linked term " god " refers to "supreme being, deity", according to Douglas Harper, and

5476-430: Is strictly monotheistic and the first statement of the shahada , or Muslim confession of faith, is that "there is no ʾilāh (deity) but Allah (God)", who is perfectly unified and utterly indivisible. Dionysus His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian , others as Greek. In Orphism , he was variously a son of Zeus and Persephone ;

5624-414: Is the belief that divinity pervades the universe, but that it also transcends the universe. Agnosticism is the position that it is impossible to know for certain whether a deity of any kind exists. Atheism is the non-belief in the existence of any deity. Scholars infer the probable existence of deities in the prehistoric period from inscriptions and prehistoric arts such as cave drawings , but it

5772-429: Is the belief that only one deity exists. A monotheistic deity, known as "God", is usually described as omnipotent , omnipresent , omniscient , omnibenevolent and eternal . However, not all deities have been regarded this way and an entity does not need to be almighty, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent or eternal to qualify as a deity. Deism is the belief that only one deity exists, who created

5920-457: Is the main form of religion. Graves wrote extensively on the subject of the Triple Goddess who he saw as the Muse of all true poetry in both ancient and modern literature. He thought that her ancient worship underlay much of classical Greek myth although reflected there in a more or less distorted or incomplete form. As an example of an unusually complete survival of the "ancient triad" he cites from

6068-408: Is the superstitious man who fears the gods, while the truly religious person venerates them as parents. Cicero, in his Academica , praised Varro for this and other insights. According to Varro, there have been three accounts of deities in the Roman society: the mythical account created by poets for theatre and entertainment, the civil account used by people for veneration as well as by the city, and

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6216-489: Is typically seen as male . In contrast, all ancient Indo-European cultures and mythologies recognized both masculine and feminine deities. There is no universally accepted consensus on what a deity is, and concepts of deities vary considerably across cultures. Huw Owen states that the term "deity or god or its equivalent in other languages" has a bewildering range of meanings and significance. It has ranged from "infinite transcendent being who created and lords over

6364-504: Is unclear what these sketches and paintings are and why they were made. Some engravings or sketches show animals, hunters or rituals. It was once common for archaeologists to interpret virtually every prehistoric female figurine as a representation of a single, primordial goddess, the ancestor of historically attested goddesses such as Inanna , Ishtar , Astarte , Cybele , and Aphrodite ; this approach has now generally been discredited. Modern archaeologists now generally recognize that it

6512-544: Is zoomorphic and is most often found in Middle Eastern archaeological remains depicted as a "snake-dragon" or a "human-animal hybrid". In Germanic languages , the terms cognate with ' god ' such as Old English : god and Old Norse : guð were originally neuter but became masculine, as in modern Germanic languages, after Christianisation due their use in referring to the Christian god . In Norse mythology , Æsir (singular áss or ǫ́ss ) are

6660-555: The Cambridge Ritualists , of which Harrison was a key figure, while controversial in its day, is now considered passé in intellectual and academic terms. According to Robert Ackerman, "[T]he reason the Ritualists have fallen into disfavor... is not that their assertions have been controverted by new information... Ritualism has been swept away not by an access of new facts but of new theories." Ronald Hutton wrote on

6808-577: The Eleusinian Mysteries as a survival into classical antiquity of this ancient goddess worship, a suggestion which Georg Luck echoes. Academic skepticism regarding her goddess-centered Old Europe thesis is widespread. Gimbutas' evidence has been criticized on the grounds of dating, archaeological context, and typologies , with most archaeologists considering her goddess hypothesis implausible. Lauren Talalay, reviewing Gimbutas's last book, The Living Goddesses , says that it reads "more like

6956-800: The First Council of Nicaea in the fourth century, which declared that all three persons of the Trinity are equal. Christians regard the universe as an element in God's actualization and the Holy Spirit is seen as the divine essence that is "the unity and relation of the Father and the Son". According to George Hunsinger, the doctrine of the Trinity justifies worship in a Church, wherein Jesus Christ

7104-512: The Horae , Fates, and Graces as chronological symbols representing the phases of the Moon and the threefold division of the Hellenistic lunar month. However, Harrison's interpretations and contribution to the development and study of the Triple Goddess were somewhat overshadowed by the more controversial and poorly-supported ideas in her works. Most notably, Harrison used historical sources for

7252-488: The Latin deitatem (nominative deitas ) or "divine nature", coined by Augustine of Hippo from deus ("god"). Deus is related through a common Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origin to *deiwos . This root yields the ancient Indian word Deva meaning "to gleam, a shining one", from *div- "to shine", as well as Greek dios " divine " and Zeus ; and Latin deus "god" ( Old Latin deivos ). Deva

7400-598: The New Testament , is the self-disclosure of the one, true God, both in his teaching and in his person; Christ, in Christian faith, is considered the incarnation of God. Ilah , ʾIlāh ( Arabic : إله ; plural: آلهة ʾālihah ), is an Arabic word meaning "god". It appears in the name of the monotheistic god of Islam as Allah ( al-Lāh ). which literally means "the god" in Arabic. Islam

7548-618: The Palace of Nestor in Pylos , dated to around 1300 BC. The details of any religion surrounding Dionysus in this period are scant, and most evidence comes in the form only of his name, written as di-wo-nu-su-jo ("Dionysoio" = 'of Dionysus') in Linear B , preserved on fragments of clay tablets that indicate a connection to offerings or payments of wine, which was described as being "of Dionysus". References have also been uncovered to "women of Oinoa",

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7696-562: The Tridevi ( Saraswati , Lakshmi , and Parvati ), Triglav (Slavs), the Charites (Graces), the Horae (Seasons, of which there were three in the ancient Hellenistic reckoning), and the Moirai (Fates). Some deities generally depicted as singular also included triplicate aspects. In Stymphalos , Hera was worshiped as a Girl, a Grown-up, and a Widow. According to Robert Graves, Hecate

7844-559: The Vanir went to war , according to the Nordic sources. The account in Ynglinga saga describes the Æsir–Vanir War ending in truce and ultimate reconciliation of the two into a single group of gods, after both sides chose peace, exchanged ambassadors (hostages), and intermarried. The Norse mythology describes the cooperation after the war, as well as differences between the Æsir and

7992-584: The Vanir which were considered scandalous by the other side. The goddess Freyja of the Vanir taught magic to the Æsir , while the two sides discover that while Æsir forbid mating between siblings , Vanir accepted such mating. Temples hosting images of Germanic gods (such as Thor , Odin and Freyr ), as well as pagan worship rituals, continued in Scandinavia into the 12th century, according to historical records. It has been proposed that over time, Christian equivalents were substituted for

8140-528: The Yoruba religion , namely the god Ogun and the goddess Osun . Ogun is the primordial masculine deity as well as the archdivinity and guardian of occupations such as tools making and use, metal working, hunting, war, protection and ascertaining equity and justice. Osun is an equally powerful primordial feminine deity and a multidimensional guardian of fertility, water, maternal, health, social relations, love and peace. Ogun and Osun traditions were brought into

8288-442: The avatar concept of Hinduism). Unlike Hinduism and other cultures, Aztec deities were usually not anthropomorphic, and were instead zoomorphic or hybrid icons associated with spirits, natural phenomena or forces. The Aztec deities were often represented through ceramic figurines, revered in home shrines. The Polynesian people developed a theology centered on numerous deities, with clusters of islands having different names for

8436-414: The "Maiden, Mother, and Crone". However, it was not until the early 20th century that this fairly obscure ancient connection was developed and popularized. The belief in a singular Triple Moon Goddess was likely brought to modern scholarship, if not originated by, the work of Jane Ellen Harrison . Harrison asserts the existence of female trinities, and uses Epigenes and other ancient sources to elaborate on

8584-592: The "place of wine", who may correspond to the Dionysian women of later periods. Other Mycenaean records from Pylos record the worship of a god named Eleuther, who was the son of Zeus, and to whom oxen were sacrificed. The link to both Zeus and oxen, as well as etymological links between the name Eleuther or Eleutheros with the Latin name Liber Pater , indicates that this may have been another name for Dionysus. According to Károly Kerényi , these clues suggest that even in

8732-669: The "son of Zeus". Jane Ellen Harrison believed that the name Dionysus means "young Zeus". Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name, since all attempts to find an Indo-European etymology are doubtful. Later variants include Dionūsos and Diōnūsos in Boeotia ; Dien(n)ūsos in Thessaly ; Deonūsos and Deunūsos in Ionia ; and Dinnūsos in Aeolia , besides other variants. A Dio- prefix

8880-660: The Americas on slave ships . They were preserved by the Africans in their plantation communities, and their festivals continue to be observed. In Southern African cultures , a similar masculine-feminine deity combination has appeared in other forms, particularly as the Moon and Sun deities. One Southern African cosmology consists of Hieseba or Xuba (deity, god), Gaune (evil spirits) and Khuene (people). The Hieseba includes Nladiba (male, creator sky god) and Nladisara (females, Nladiba's two wives). The Sun (female) and

9028-576: The Bacchanalia was made a capital offence, except in the toned-down forms and greatly diminished congregations approved and supervised by the State. Festivals of Bacchus were merged with those of Liber and Dionysus. The dio- prefix in Ancient Greek Διόνυσος ( Diónūsos ; [di.ó.nyː.sos] ) has been associated since antiquity with Zeus ( genitive Dios ), and the variants of

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9176-744: The East Semitic Ishtar, became popular, with temples across Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamian mythology of the first millennium BCE treated Anšar (later Aššur ) and Kišar as primordial deities. Marduk was a significant god among the Babylonians. He rose from an obscure deity of the third millennium BCE to become one of the most important deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon of the first millennium BCE. The Babylonians worshipped Marduk as creator of heaven, earth and humankind, and as their national god . Marduk's iconography

9324-611: The Father , God the Son , and the Holy Spirit . The first person to describe the persons of the Trinity as homooúsios ( ὁμοούσιος ; "of the same substance") was the Church Father Origen. Although most early Christian theologians (including Origen ) were Subordinationists , who believed that the Father was superior to the Son and the Son superior to the Holy Spirit, this belief was condemned as heretical by

9472-616: The Germanic deities to help suppress paganism as part of the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples . Worship of the Germanic gods has been revived in the modern period as part of the new religious movement of Heathenry . The ancient Greeks revered both gods and goddesses. These continued to be revered through the early centuries of the common era, and many of the Greek deities inspired and were adopted as part of much larger pantheon of Roman deities. The Greek religion

9620-459: The Goddess, making the physical body sacred. Helen Berger writes that "according to believers, this echoing of women's life stages allowed women to identify with deity in a way that had not been possible since the advent of patriarchal religions." The Church of All Worlds is one example of a neopagan organization which identifies the Triple Goddess as symbolizing a "fertility cycle". This model

9768-660: The Greek pantheon were the Twelve Olympians : Zeus, Hera , Poseidon , Athena , Apollo , Artemis , Aphrodite, Hermes , Demeter , Dionysus , Hephaestus , and Ares . Other important Greek deities included Hestia , Hades and Heracles . These deities later inspired the Dii Consentes galaxy of Roman deities. Besides the Olympians, the Greeks also worshipped various local deities. Among these were

9916-547: The Inca people have corresponded to elements of nature. Of these, the most important ones have been Inti ( sun deity ) responsible for agricultural prosperity and as the father of the first Inca king, and Mama Qucha the goddess of the sea, lakes, rivers and waters. Inti in some mythologies is the son of Viracocha and Mama Qucha . Inca Sun deity festival Oh creator and Sun and Thunder, be forever copious, do not make us old, let all things be at peace, multiply

10064-627: The Indians. Isodaetes , Ισοδαίτης , meaning "he who distributes equal portions", cult epithet also shared with Helios. Kemilius , Κεμήλιος ( kemas : "young deer, pricket"). Liknites ("he of the winnowing fan"), as a fertility god connected with mystery religions . A winnowing fan was used to separate the chaff from the grain. Lenaius , Ληναῖος ("god of the wine-press") Lyaeus , or Lyaios (Λυαῖος, "deliverer", literally "loosener"), one who releases from care and anxiety. Lysius , Λύσιος ("delivering, releasing"). At Thebes there

10212-485: The Moon (male) deities are viewed as offspring of Nladiba and two Nladisara . The Sun and Moon are viewed as manifestations of the supreme deity, and worship is timed and directed to them. In other African cultures the Sun is seen as male, while the Moon is female, both symbols of the godhead. In Zimbabwe , the supreme deity is androgynous with male-female aspects, envisioned as the giver of rain, treated simultaneously as

10360-635: The New Moon or Spring she was a girl; as the Full Moon or Summer she was woman; as the Old Moon or Winter she was hag." In the 1949 novel Seven Days in New Crete , Graves extrapolated this theory into an imagined future society where the worship of the Triple Goddess (under the three aspects of the maiden archer Nimuë , the goddess of motherhood and sexuality Mari, and the hag-goddess of wisdom Ana)

10508-401: The Proto-Germanic Gaut , which traces it to the PIE root *ghu-to- ("poured"), derived from the root *gheu- ("to pour, pour a libation "). The term *gheu- is also the source of the Greek khein "to pour". Originally the word "god" and its other Germanic cognates were neuter nouns but shifted to being generally masculine under the influence of Christianity in which the god

10656-483: The Sumerian deities were patron guardians of city-states . The most important deities in the Sumerian pantheon were known as the Anunnaki , and included deities known as the "seven gods who decree": An , Enlil , Enki , Ninhursag , Nanna , Utu and Inanna . After the conquest of Sumer by Sargon of Akkad , many Sumerian deities were syncretized with East Semitic ones. The goddess Inanna, syncretized with

10804-401: The Triple Goddess as employing violent and misandric imagery, and says the restrictive role this model places on creative women put her off being a writer. Atwood's work has been noted as containing Triple Goddess motifs who sometimes appear failed and parodic. Atwood's Lady Oracle has been cited as a deliberate parody of the Triple Goddess, which subverts the figure and ultimately liberates

10952-543: The Triple Goddess have been heavily influenced by Graves, who regarded her as the continuing muse of all true poetry, and who speculatively imagined her ancient worship, drawing on the scholarship, fiction and mythology of his time, in particular the work of Jane Ellen Harrison and other Cambridge Ritualists . Hungarian scholar of Greek mythology Karl Kerenyi likewise perceived an underlying triple moon goddess in Greek mythology . Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas also argued for

11100-569: The Triple Goddess in several different ways: Graves explained, "As Goddess of the Underworld she was concerned with Birth, Procreation and Death. As Goddess of the Earth she was concerned with the three season of Spring, Summer and Winter: she animated trees and plants and ruled all living creatures. As Goddess of the Sky she was the Moon, in her three phases of New Moon, Full Moon, and Waning Moon...As

11248-417: The Triple Goddess is an archetypal figure which appears in a number of different cultures throughout human history, and that many individual goddesses can be interpreted as Triple Goddesses. The wide acceptance of an archetype theory has led to neopagans adopting the images and names of culturally divergent deities for ritual purposes; for instance, Conway, and goddess feminist artist Monica Sjöö , connect

11396-517: The Triple Goddess stands for unity, cooperation, and participation with all creation, while in contrast masculine gods can represent dissociation, separation and dominion of nature. The Dianic tradition adopted Graves's Triple Goddess, along with other elements from Wicca, and is named after the Roman goddess Diana , the goddess of the witches in Charles Godfrey Leland 's 1899 book Aradia . Zsuzsanna Budapest , widely considered

11544-492: The Triple Goddess to the Hindu Tridevi (literally "three goddesses") of Saraswati , Lakshmi , and Parvati ( Kali / Durga ). Several advocates of Wicca, such as Vivianne Crowley and Selena Fox , are practising psychologists or psychotherapists and looked specifically to the work of Carl Jung to develop the theory of the Goddess as an archetype. Wouter J. Hanegraaff comments that Vivianne Crowley's works can give

11692-541: The Triple Goddess, as an example of her continuing influence in English poetry he instances the "Garland of Laurell" by the English poet, John Skelton (c.1460–1529) — Diana in the leavës green, Luna that so bright doth sheen, Persephone in Hell. — as evoking his Triple Goddess in her three realms of earth, sky and underworld. Skelton was here following the Latin poet Ovid . James Frazer's seminal Golden Bough centres around

11840-544: The Triple Goddess. This theory has not necessarily been disproved, but modern scholarship has favored other explanations for the evidence used by Graves and Harrison to support their ideas, which are not accepted as a consensus view today. The twentieth century archaeologist Marija Gimbutas (see below) also argued for a triple goddess-worshipping European neolithic modified and eventually overwhelmed by waves of partiarchal invaders although she saw this neolithic civilization as egalitarian and "matristic" rather than "matriarchal" in

11988-735: The ancient worship of a universal Triple Goddess in European cultures but, as with Graves, her generalization of these theories to multiple unrelated cultures, and the unsourced homogenization of diverse cultures into one unified cultural and religious figure, has attracted much controversy. Many neopagan belief systems follow Graves' and Gimbutas' proposed figure of a universal, cross-cultural Triple Goddess, and these ideas continue to be an influence on feminism , literature , Jungian psychology and literary criticism . Various triune or triple goddesses, or deities who appeared in groupings of three, were known to ancient religion. Well-known examples include

12136-749: The character of the Triple Goddess. Garner goes further in his other novels, making every female character intentionally represent an aspect of the Triple Goddess. In George R.R. Martin 's A Song of Ice and Fire series, the Maid, the Mother, and the Crone are three aspects of the septune deity in the Faith of the Seven , much as the neopagan triple goddess is incorporated in Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon . Deity A deity or god

12284-539: The classical source Pausanias the worship of Hera in three persons. Pausanias recorded the ancient worship of Hera Pais (Girl Hera ), Hera Teleia (Adult Hera), and Hera Khera (Widow Hera, though Khera can also mean separated or divorced ) at a single sanctuary reputedly built by Temenus, son of Pelasgus , in Stymphalos . Other examples he gives include the goddess triad Moira , Ilythia and Callone ("Death, Birth and Beauty") from Plato 's Symposium ;

12432-733: The conceptual landscape of the neo-pagan world. The three supernatural female figures called variously the Ladies, Mother of the Camenae, the Kindly Ones, and a number of other different names in The Sandman comic books by Neil Gaiman , merge the figures of the Fates and the Maiden-Mother-Crone goddess. Alan Garner 's The Owl Service , based on the fourth branch of the Mabinogion and influenced by Robert Graves, clearly delineates

12580-400: The correspondences of the mythological and cosmic transformation extended to all three phases in which the Greeks saw the moon: she corresponded to the waxing moon as maiden, to the full moon as fulfilled wife, to the waning moon as abandoned withdrawing women". He goes on to say that trios of sister goddess in Greek myth refer to the lunar cycle; in the book in question he treats Athene also as

12728-474: The cry "euae" in lyric passages, and in Euripides ' play, The Bacchae . Iacchus , Ἴακχος a possible epithet of Dionysus, associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries . In Eleusis , he is known as a son of Zeus and Demeter . The name "Iacchus" may come from the Ιακχος ( Iakchos ), a hymn sung in honor of Dionysus. Indoletes , Ἰνδολέτης , meaning slayer/killer of Indians. Due to his campaign against

12876-640: The cult of the Roman goddess Diana who had three aspects, associated with the Moon, the forest, and the underworld. Graves stated that his Triple Goddess is the Great Goddess "in her poetic or incantatory character", and that the goddess in her ancient form took the gods of the waxing and waning year successively as her lovers. Graves believed that the Triple Goddess was an aboriginal deity also of Britain , and that traces of her worship survived in early modern British witchcraft and in various modern British cultural attitudes such as what Graves believed to be

13024-582: The dawn, for instance, is cognate to Indic Ushas , Roman Aurora and Latvian Auseklis . Zeus , the Greek king of gods, is cognate to Latin Iūpiter , Old German Ziu , and Indic Dyaus , with whom he shares similar mythologies. Other deities, such as Aphrodite , originated from the Near East . Greek deities varied locally, but many shared panhellenic themes, celebrated similar festivals, rites, and ritual grammar. The most important deities in

13172-680: The decline the "Great Goddess" theory specifically: "The effect upon professional prehistorians was to make most return, quietly and without controversy, to that careful agnosticism as to the nature of ancient religion which most had preserved until the 1940s. There had been no absolute disproof of the veneration of a Great Goddess, only a demonstration that the evidence concerned admitted of alternative explanations." Hutton did not dispute that in ancient pagan worship "partnerships of three divine women" occurred; rather he proposed that Jane Harrison looked to such partnerships to help explain how ancient goddesses could be both virgin and mother (the third person of

13320-399: The deity is a principle or reality such as the idea of "soul". The Upanishads of Hinduism, for example, characterize Atman (soul, self) as deva (deity), thereby asserting that the deva and eternal supreme principle ( Brahman ) is part of every living creature, that this soul is spiritual and divine, and that to realize self-knowledge is to know the supreme. Theism is the belief in

13468-412: The existence of an ancient Triple Moon Goddess to support her belief in an ancient matriarchal civilization, which has not stood up to academic scrutiny. Ronald Hutton writes: [Harrison's] work, both celebrated and controversial, posited the previous existence of a peaceful and intensely creative woman-centred civilization, in which humans, living in harmony with nature and their own emotions, worshipped

13616-408: The existence of one or more deities. Polytheism is the belief in and worship of multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses , with accompanying rituals . In most polytheistic religions, the different gods and goddesses are representations of forces of nature or ancestral principles , and can be viewed either as autonomous or as aspects or emanations of

13764-464: The formation of an Egyptian state under the Pharaohs and their treatment as sacred kings who had exclusive rights to interact with the gods, in the later part of the 3rd millennium BCE. Through the early centuries of the common era, as Egyptians interacted and traded with neighboring cultures, foreign deities were adopted and venerated. The ancient Canaanites were polytheists who believed in

13912-569: The founder of Dianic Wicca , considers her Goddess "the original Holy Trinity; Virgin, Mother, and Crone." Dianic Wiccans such as Ruth Barrett, follower of Budapest and co-founder of the Temple of Diana , use the Triple Goddess in ritual work and correspond the "special directions" of "above", "center", and "below" to Maiden, Mother, and Crone respectively. Barrett says "Dianics honour She who has been called by Her daughters throughout time, in many places, and by many names." Some neopagans believe that

14060-796: The goat-legged god Pan (the guardian of shepherds and their flocks), Nymphs ( nature spirits associated with particular landforms), Naiads (who dwelled in springs), Dryads (who were spirits of the trees), Nereids (who inhabited the sea), river gods, satyrs (a class of lustful male nature spirits), and others. The dark powers of the underworld were represented by the Erinyes (or Furies), said to pursue those guilty of crimes against blood-relatives. The Greek deities, like those in many other Indo-European traditions, were anthropomorphic. Walter Burkert describes them as "persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts". They had fantastic abilities and powers; each had some unique expertise and, in some aspects,

14208-870: The god of darkness and light and is called Mwari Shona . In the Lake Victoria region, the term for a deity is Lubaale , or alternatively Jok . Ancient Egyptian culture revered numerous deities. Egyptian records and inscriptions list the names of many whose nature is unknown and make vague references to other unnamed deities. Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts, whereas Christian Leitz offers an estimate of "thousands upon thousands" of Egyptian deities. Their terms for deities were nṯr (god), and feminine nṯrt (goddess); however, these terms may also have applied to any being – spirits and deceased human beings, but not demons – who in some way were outside

14356-483: The god taking both an active male and a passive female role. It is subversive for Dionysus to receive anal sex; a high status male was expected to penetrate his youthful lovers. Anthroporraistes , Ἀνθρωπορραίστης ("man-destroyer"), a title of Dionysus at Tenedos. Bassareus , Βασσαρεύς a Thracian name for Dionysus, which derives from bassaris or "fox-skin", which item was worn by his cultists in their mysteries. Bougenes , Βουγενής or Βοηγενής ("borne by

14504-424: The god. Dimetor Διμήτωρ ("twice-born") Refers to Dionysus's two births. Dendrites Δενδρίτης ("of the trees"), as a fertility god. Dithyrambos , Διθύραμβος used at his festivals, referring to his premature birth. Eleutherios Ἐλευθέριος ("the liberator"), an epithet shared with Eros . Endendros ("he in the tree"). Enorches ("with balls"), with reference to his fertility, or "in

14652-484: The goddess Hecate ; the story of the rape of Kore (the triad here Graves said to be Kore , Persephone and Hecate with Demeter the general name of the goddess); alongside a large number of other configurations. A figure he used from outside of Greek myth was of the Akan Triple Moon Goddess Ngame, who Graves said was still worshipped in 1960. Graves regarded "true poetry" as inspired by

14800-501: The goddess Meretseger represented parts of the earth, and the god Sia represented the abstract powers of perception. Deities such as Ra and Osiris were associated with the judgement of the dead and their care during the afterlife. Major gods often had multiple roles and were involved in multiple phenomena. The first written evidence of deities are from early 3rd millennium BCE, likely emerging from prehistoric beliefs. However, deities became systematized and sophisticated after

14948-484: The grounded preoccupations of ordinary life". Religions can be categorized by how many deities they worship. Monotheistic religions accept only one deity (predominantly referred to as " God "), whereas polytheistic religions accept multiple deities. Henotheistic religions accept one supreme deity without denying other deities, considering them as aspects of the same divine principle. Nontheistic religions deny any supreme eternal creator deity , but may accept

15096-401: The hands of Dionysus' followers in later myths, but as an epithet of Dionysus himself, whose mythology describes a god who must endure suffering before triumphing over it. According to Kerényi, the title of "man who suffers" likely originally referred to the god himself, only being applied to distinct characters as the myth developed. The oldest known image of Dionysus, accompanied by his name,

15244-1047: The head of the pantheon, with Asherah as his divine consort and the "sons of El" as his offspring. During the later years of the Kingdom of Judah , a monolatristic faction rose to power insisting that only Yahweh was fit to be worshipped by the people of Judah. Monolatry became enforced during the reforms of King Josiah in 621 BCE. Finally, during the national crisis of the Babylonian captivity , some Judahites began to teach that deities aside from Yahweh were not just unfit to be worshipped, but did not exist. The "sons of El" were demoted from deities to angels . Ancient Mesopotamian culture in southern Iraq had numerous dingir (deities, gods and goddesses). Mesopotamian deities were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. They were generally immortal, but

15392-500: The head, panther or tiger skins, serpents, phallic symbolism (Shiva lingam), association as a wanderer and outcaste and association with ritual ecstasy. Shiva is understood to be one of a triple godhead that includes Vishnu and Brahma. Dionysus is noted in several references with an association with the east and India. A Mycenaean variant of Bacchus was thought to have been "a divine child" abandoned by his mother and eventually raised by " nymphs , goddesses , or even animals." Dionysus

15540-515: The imposition of Christianity during Spanish colonialism , the Inca people retained their original beliefs in deities through syncretism , where they overlay the Christian God and teachings over their original beliefs and practices. The male deity Inti became accepted as the Christian God, but the Andean rituals centered around Inca deities have been retained and continued thereafter into

15688-408: The impression that Wicca is little more than a religious and ritual translation of Jungian psychology. Valerie H. Mantecon follows Annis V. Pratt that the Triple Goddess of Maiden, Mother and Crone is a male invention that both arises from and biases an androcentric view of femininity, and as such the symbolism is often devoid of real meaning or use in depth-psychology for women. Mantecon suggests that

15836-466: The inscription on item KH Gq 5 is thought to confirm Dionysus's early worship. In Mycenaean Greek the form of Zeus is di-wo . The second element -nūsos is of unknown origin. It is perhaps associated with Mount Nysa , the birthplace of the god in Greek mythology, where he was nursed by nymphs (the Nysiads ), although Pherecydes of Syros had postulated nũsa as an archaic word for "tree" by

15984-499: The lead female character from the oppressive model of feminine creativity that Graves constructed. Literary critic Andrew D. Radford, discussing the symbolism of Thomas Hardy 's 1891 novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles , in terms of Myth sees the Maiden and Mother as two phases of the female lifecycle through which Tess passes, whilst the Crone phase, Tess adopts as a disguise which prepares her for harrowing experiences . The concept of

16132-618: The location of an idyllic, goddess-worshipping, matriarchal civilization just before the beginning of recorded history, and spoke bitterly of the disastrous consequences of the Indo-European invasion that destroyed it. In the hands of later writers such as Robert Graves, Jacquetta Hawkes, and Marija Gimbutas, this 'lost civilization of the goddess' came to play the same sort of role in many modern Pagan communities as Atlantis and Lemuria did in Theosophy . The " myth and ritual " school or

16280-643: The modern era by the Inca people. In Maya culture , Kukulkan has been the supreme creator deity , also revered as the god of reincarnation , water, fertility and wind. The Maya people built step pyramid temples to honor Kukulkan , aligning them to the Sun 's position on the spring equinox . Other deities found at Maya archaeological sites include Xib Chac —the benevolent male rain deity, and Ixchel —the benevolent female earth, weaving and pregnancy goddess. The Maya calendar had 18 months, each with 20 days (and five unlucky days of Uayeb ); each month had

16428-491: The moon, Diana of the underworld." Additional examples of the goddess Hecate viewed as a triple goddess associated with witchcraft include Lucan's tale of a group of witches, written in the 1st century BCE. In Lucan's work (LUC. B.C. 6:700-01), the witches speak of " Persephone , who is the third and lowest aspect of our goddess Hecate". Another example is found in Ovid's Metamorphosis (Met. 7:94–95), in which Jason swears an oath to

16576-535: The myth, but also the god's transformations into lion and bull, and the boisterousness of those who drink alcohol. Also cognate with the "roar of thunder", which refers to Dionysus' father, Zeus "the thunderer". ) Choiropsalas χοιροψάλας ("pig-plucker": Greek χοῖρος = "pig", also used as a slang term for the female genitalia). A reference to Dionysus's role as a fertility deity. Chthonios Χθόνιος ("the subterranean") Cistophorus Κιστοφόρος ("basket-bearer, ivy-bearer"), Alludes To baskets being sacred to

16724-452: The mythologies and the 2nd millennium CE European arts, have been the anthropomorphic deities syncretized with the Greek deities. These include the six gods and six goddesses: Venus, Apollo, Mars, Diana, Minerva, Ceres, Vulcan, Juno, Mercury, Vesta, Neptune, Jupiter (Jove, Zeus); as well Bacchus, Pluto and Hercules. The non-Greek major deities include Janus, Fortuna, Vesta, Quirinus and Tellus (mother goddess, probably most ancient). Some of

16872-568: The name seem to point to an original *Dios-nysos . The earliest attestation is the Mycenaean Greek dative form 𐀇𐀺𐀝𐀰 (di-wo-nu-so) , featured on two tablets that had been found at Mycenaean Pylos and dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. At that time, there could be no certainty on whether this was indeed a theonym , but the 1989–90 Greek-Swedish Excavations at Kastelli Hill , Chania, unearthed, inter alia , four artefacts bearing Linear B inscriptions; among them,

17020-650: The natural account created by the philosophers. The best state is, adds Varro, where the civil theology combines the poetic mythical account with the philosopher's. The Roman deities continued to be revered in Europe through the era of Constantine, and past 313 CE when he issued the Edict of Toleration. The Inca culture has believed in Viracocha (also called Pachacutec ) as the creator deity . Viracocha has been an abstract deity to Inca culture, one who existed before he created space and time. All other deities of

17168-508: The nature of existence, guardians in daily lives as well as during wars, natural phenomena, good and evil spirits, priestly rituals, as well as linked to the journey of the souls of the dead. Christianity is a monotheistic religion in which most mainstream congregations and denominations accept the concept of the Holy Trinity . Modern orthodox Christians believe that the Trinity is composed of three equal, cosubstantial persons: God

17316-578: The non-Greek deities had likely origins in more ancient European culture such as the ancient Germanic religion, while others may have been borrowed, for political reasons, from neighboring trade centers such as those in the Minoan or ancient Egyptian civilization. The Roman deities, in a manner similar to the ancient Greeks, inspired community festivals, rituals and sacrifices led by flamines (priests, pontifs), but priestesses (Vestal Virgins) were also held in high esteem for maintaining sacred fire used in

17464-424: The north. Much of Greek myth in his view recorded the consequent religious political and social accommodations until the final triumph of patriarchy. Graves did not invent this picture but drew from nineteenth and early twentieth century scholarship. According to Ronald Hutton, Graves used Jane Ellen Harrison's idea of goddess-worshipping matriarchal early Europe and the imagery of three aspects, and related these to

17612-505: The original uncreated creator, with power of life, with nothing outside or beyond him. Other deities in the Polynesian pantheon include Tangaloa (god who created men), La'a Maomao (god of winds), Tu-Matauenga or Ku (god of war), Tu-Metua (mother goddess), Kane (god of procreation) and Rangi (sky god father). The Polynesian deities have been part of a sophisticated theology, addressing questions of creation,

17760-434: The people, and let there be food, and let all things be fruitful. —Inti Raymi prayers Inca people have revered many male and female deities. Among the feminine deities have been Mama Kuka (goddess of joy), Mama Ch'aska (goddess of dawn), Mama Allpa (goddess of harvest and earth, sometimes called Mama Pacha or Pachamama ), Mama Killa ( moon goddess ) and Mama Sara (goddess of grain). During and after

17908-517: The predominant triple moon goddess (a united figure of Diana/Hecate/Selene), combined with the Orphic belief that the Seasons and the Fates were divisions of this same divinity, along with the latter representing the three stages of life, ultimately gave rise to the modern conception of a Triple Goddess whose symbol is the moon and whose triplicity can be conceived of both in terms of the moon's phases as

18056-580: The principal group of gods, while the term ásynjur (singular ásynja ) refers specifically to the female Æsir . These terms, states John Lindow, may be ultimately rooted in the Indo-European root for "breath" (as in "life giving force"), and are cognate with Old English : os (a heathen god) and Gothic : anses . Another group of deities found in Norse mythology are termed as Vanir , and are associated with fertility. The Æsir and

18204-545: The same idea. There are great deities found across the Pacific Ocean. Some deities are found widely, and there are many local deities whose worship is limited to one or a few islands or sometimes to isolated villages on the same island. The Māori people , of what is now New Zealand, called the supreme being as Io , who is also referred elsewhere as Iho-Iho , Io-Mataaho , Io Nui , Te Io Ora , Io Matua Te Kora among other names. The Io deity has been revered as

18352-587: The sense of gynocratic. Scholar Marija Gimbutas 's theories relating to goddess-centered culture among pre- Indo-European " Old Europe " (6500–3500 BCE) have been widely adopted by New Age and ecofeminist groups. She had been referred to as the "Grandmother of the Goddess Movement " in the 1990s. Gimbutas postulated that in "Old Europe", the Aegean and the Near East, a single great Triple Goddess

18500-455: The sixth century BC. On a vase of Sophilos the Nysiads are named νύσαι ( nusae ). Kretschmer asserted that νύση ( nusē ) is a Thracian word that has the same meaning as νύμφη ( nýmphē ), a word similar with νυός ( nuos ) (daughter in law, or bride, I-E *snusós, Sanskr. snusā ). He suggested that the male form is νῦσος ( nūsos ) and this would make Dionysus

18648-639: The sphere of everyday life. Egyptian deities typically had an associated cult, role and mythologies. Around 200 deities are prominent in the Pyramid texts and ancient temples of Egypt, many zoomorphic . Among these, were Min (fertility god), Neith (creator goddess), Anubis , Atum , Bes , Horus , Isis , Ra , Meretseger , Nut , Osiris , Shu , Sia and Thoth . Most Egyptian deities represented natural phenomenon, physical objects or social aspects of life, as hidden immanent forces within these phenomena. The deity Shu , for example represented air;

18796-445: The standard Greek pantheon at a relatively late date, based on his myths which often involve this theme—a god who spends much of his time on earth abroad, and struggles for acceptance when he returns to Greece. However, more recent evidence has shown that Dionysus was in fact one of the earliest gods attested in mainland Greek culture. The earliest written records of Dionysus worship come from Mycenaean Greece , specifically in and around

18944-517: The symbol of the full moon is the goddess of the brazen sandals." Porphyry also associated Hecate with Dionysus , who he said they set beside her partially "on account of their growth of horns". The specific character of the modern neopagan Maiden, Mother, and Crone archetype is not found in any ancient sources related directly to Hecate, or to most of the triple goddesses or trinities described above. Both Diana and Hecate were almost invariably described as maiden goddesses, with an appearance like that of

19092-407: The temple of every living being's body, as sensory organs and mind. Deities are envisioned as a form of existence ( Saṃsāra ) after rebirth , for human beings who gain merit through an ethical life, where they become guardian deities and live blissfully in heaven , but are also subject to death when their merit is lost. The English language word deity derives from Old French deité ,

19240-533: The testicles" in reference to Zeus' sewing the baby Dionysus "into his thigh", understood to mean his testicles). Used at Samos according to Hesyichius , or Lesbos according to the scholiast on Lycophron's Alexandra . Eridromos ("good-running"), in Nonnus' Dionysiaca. Erikryptos Ἐρίκρυπτος ("completely hidden"), in Macedonia. Euaster (Εὐαστήρ), from the cry "euae". Euius ( Euios ), from

19388-470: The thirteenth century BC, the core religion of Dionysus was in place, as were his important myths. At Knossos in Minoan Crete , men were often given the name "Pentheus", who is a figure in later Dionysian myth and which also means "suffering". Kerényi argued that to give such a name to one's child implies a strong religious connection, potentially not the separate character of Pentheus who suffers at

19536-402: The three powers of birth, growth, and death. Some that say that Lucina is the goddess of birth, Diana of growth, and Hecate of death. On account of this three-fold power, they have imagined her as three-fold and three-form, and for that reason they built temples at the meeting of three roads." Servius' text included a drawing of a crescent moon (representing the new moon), a half moon (representing

19684-508: The three realms. In addition, her relations to the moon, the corn, and the realm of the dead are three fundamental traits in her nature. The goddess's sacred number is the special number of the underworld: '3' dominates the chthonic cults of antiquity." Kerenyi wrote in 1952 that several Greek goddesses were triple moon goddesses of the Maiden Mother Crone type, including Hera and others. For example, Kerényi writes: With Hera

19832-405: The three temporal stages of all growth (beginning-middle-end, birth-life-death, past-present-future)." Andrew Von Hendy writes that Neumann's theories are based on circular reasoning , whereby a Eurocentric view of world mythology is used as evidence for a universal model of individual psychological development which mirrors a sociocultural evolutionary model derived from European mythology. As

19980-524: The triad being as yet unnamed). She was, according to Hutton, "extending" the ideas of archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans who in excavating Knossos in Crete had come to the view that prehistoric Cretans had worshiped a single mighty goddess at once virgin and mother. In Hutton's view Evans' opinion owed an "unmistakable debt" to the Christian belief in the Virgin Mary . The Triple Goddess as an archetype

20128-528: The triple goddess has been applied to a feminist reading of Shakespeare . Thomas DeQuincey developed a female trinity, Our Lady of Tears, the Lady of Sighs and Our Lady of Darkness, in Suspiria De Profundis , which has been likened to Graves's Triple Goddess but stamped with DeQuincey's own melancholy sensibility. According to scholar Juliette Wood, modern fantasy fiction plays a large part in

20276-591: The universe" (God), to a "finite entity or experience, with special significance or which evokes a special feeling" (god), to "a concept in religious or philosophical context that relates to nature or magnified beings or a supra-mundane realm", to "numerous other usages". A deity is typically conceptualized as a supernatural or divine concept, manifesting in ideas and knowledge, in a form that combines excellence in some or all aspects, wrestling with weakness and questions in other aspects, heroic in outlook and actions, yet tied up with emotions and desires. In other cases,

20424-434: The universe, but does not usually intervene in the resulting world. Deism was particularly popular among western intellectuals during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Pantheism is the belief that the universe itself is God or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent deity. Pandeism is an intermediate position between these, proposing that the creator became a pantheistic universe. Panentheism

20572-543: The votive rituals for deities. Deities were also maintained in home shrines ( lararium ), such as Hestia honored in homes as the goddess of fire hearth. This Roman religion held reverence for sacred fire, and this is also found in Hebrew culture (Leviticus 6), Vedic culture's Homa, ancient Greeks and other cultures. Ancient Roman scholars such as Varro and Cicero wrote treatises on the nature of gods of their times. Varro stated, in his Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum , that it

20720-509: The waxing moon), and the full moon. According to Jane Ellen Harrison: The three Horae are the three phases of Selene, the Moon waxing, full, and waning. ... [T]he Moon is the true mother of the triple Horae, who are themselves Moirai, and the Moirai, as Orpheus tells us, are but the three moirai or divisions ( μέρη ) of the Moon herself, the three divisions of the old year. And these three Moirai or Horae are also Charites ." The syncretism of

20868-466: The witch Medea, saying he would "be true by the sacred rites of the three-fold goddess." The neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry was the first to record an explicit belief that the three aspects of Hecate (an important goddess in the Neoplatonic tradition of Late Antiquity ) represented the phases of the moon: new, waxing, and full. In his 3rd century AD work On Images , Porphyry wrote: "the moon

21016-488: Was a religious focus in the cult of Dionysus and was his earthly incarnation. Wine could ease suffering, bring joy, and inspire divine madness. Festivals of Dionysus included the performance of sacred dramas enacting his myths, the initial driving force behind the development of theatre in Western culture . The cult of Dionysus is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as

21164-409: Was not the only trinity he proposed. In his 1944 historical novel The Golden Fleece , Graves wrote "Maiden, Nymph and Mother are the eternal royal Trinity...and the Goddess, who is worshipped...in each of these aspects, as New Moon, Full Moon, and Old Moon, is the sovereign deity." In his best-known work, The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth (1948), Graves described the trinity of

21312-414: Was polytheistic, but had no centralized church, nor any sacred texts. The deities were largely associated with myths and they represented natural phenomena or aspects of human behavior. Several Greek deities probably trace back to more ancient Indo-European traditions, since the gods and goddesses found in distant cultures are mythologically comparable and are cognates . Eos , the Greek goddess of

21460-410: Was the "original" and most predominant ancient triple moon goddess. Hecate was represented in triple form from the early days of her worship - although contrary to popular belief, all three forms were usually shown as being the same age. Diana (Artemis) also came to be viewed as a trinity of three goddesses in one, which were viewed as distinct aspects of a single divine being: "Diana as huntress, Diana as

21608-543: Was the metamorphosis, at the hand of the god, of his followers into hybrid creatures, usually represented by both tame and wild satyrs , representing the transition from civilized life back to nature as a means of escape. While scholarly references are scarce, there exists a notable overlap between the Greco-Roman Dionysus and the Hindu god Shiva. Shared iconography and background include a crescent or horns on

21756-729: Was variably known with the following epithets : Acratophorus , Ἀκρατοφόρος ("giver of unmixed wine"), at Phigaleia in Arcadia . Acroreites at Sicyon . Adoneus , a rare archaism in Roman literature, a Latinised form of Adonis , used as epithet for Bacchus. Aegobolus Αἰγοβόλος ("goat-shooter") at Potniae , in Boeotia . Aesymnetes Αἰσυμνήτης ("ruler" or "lord") at Aroë and Patrae in Achaea . Agrios Ἄγριος ("wild"), in Macedonia . Androgynos Ἀνδρόγυνος ( androgynous , specifically in intercourse) referring to

21904-559: Was worshipped, predating what she deemed as a patriarchal religion imported by the Kurgan culture , nomadic speakers of Indo-European languages . Gimbutas interpreted iconography from Neolithic and earlier periods of European history evidence of worship of a triple goddess represented by: The first and third aspects of the goddess, according to Gimbutas, were frequently conflated to make a goddess of death-and-regeneration represented in folklore by such figures as Baba Yaga . Gimbutas regarded

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