Goddess and God A Holy Tension in the First Christian Centuries Marco Polo Monographs by Valerie Abrahamsen

Translate to French
German
Translate to German
Italian
Translate to Italian
Translate to Portuguese
Spanish
Translate to Spanish
MPM10: Goddess and God A Holy Tension in the First Christian Centuries
by Valerie Abrahamsen, ThD
Contents _______________________________________ ....Acknowledgements ....Introduction by Carol P. Christ ....1: The Prehistoric Nature Goddess Defined ....2: The Goddess Through Time: Symbols, Folklore, Mythology and Magic ....3: The Goddess in Ancient and Modern Literary Evidence ....4: The Goddess and the Roman Catacombs ....5: The Goddess and Corinth ....6: The Goddess and Philippi ....7: The Ancient Goddess and Early Christian Belief and Praxis ....Conclusions ....Bibliography ....List of Figures ....Index ....Illustrations	ORDER NOW Have you ever wondered about the Virgin Mary? How does she relate to ancient goddesses? This books tells all! ISBN 0-9719496-3-8 Cloth Bound Price $39.95 US ISBN 0-9719496-4-6 Paperback Price $31.00 US AVAILABLE SPRING 2006 Single Orders Volume Orders Excerpt Below
GODDESS AND GOD REVIEW "I am delighted that Valerie Abrahamsen's work is becoming available to students and scholars of early Christianity. Abrahamsen's archeological expertise and her training in Early Christianity enable her to do this creative interdisciplinary work. This book will give people a much fuller understanding of the importance of women's roles and Goddess imagery in the first Christian Centuries." Joanna Dewey, Ph.D. Academic Dean and Harvey H. Guthrie, Jr. Professor of Biblical Studies, Episcopal Divinity School THE AUTHOR Dr. Valerie Abrahamsen, an independent scholar, is author of Women and Worship at Philippi: Diana/Artemis and Other Cults in the Early Christian Era (Astarte Shell Press, 1995). A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, she holds the Doctor of Theology and Master of Theological Studies degrees in New Testament and Early Christian Origins. She has published articles and book reviews in The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, The Journal of Higher Criticism, Biblical Archaeologist, The Oxford Companion to the Bible, and The Christian Ministry, among other venues. A long-time member of the Society of Biblical Literature, she has presented papers at its local, national and international meetings. She is listed in the 2000 Outstanding Scholars of the Twentieth Century, Who's Who of Biblical Scholars and Archaeologists, and Who's Who of American Women 1997-98. Dr. Abrahamsen has taught at the college level and in adult education settings. She is an academic administrator in southern Vermont and an active Episcopalian. In this volume, Dr. Abrahamsen shows that vestiges of the prehistoric Nature goddess, worshipped by Neolithic and other peoples for millennia, survived into the Graeco-Roman period, under different guises, and influenced the development of Christianity. She argues that, while a male-dominated religious ethos supplanted goddess religion in the West starting with the Bronze Age, goddess beliefs and practices persisted "underground" and could not be completely suppressed or ignored. Her evidence is drawn from the existence of goddess symbols in the catacombs, other early church art, and basilica art from the early Byzantine era; from extant folklore and folk traditions; from magic and other quasi-religious practices evident in the early Christian tradition; and from certain rituals preserved by the church. Dr. Abrahamsen maintains that many women (and some men) in the early Christian era continued to revere a very powerful goddess who was equated with Nature and the earth and thus concerned with the sanctity of all of life, with right relationships between human beings (social justice), and with the inner harmony of each individual. Other books by Dr. Abrahamsen include: Women and Worship at Philippi: Diana/Artemis and Other Cults in the Early Christian Era. Portland, ME: Astarte Shell Press, April 1995 The Rock Reliefs and the Cult of Diana at Philippi. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, Inc., 1986
EXCERPTS

Chapter 1: The Prehistoric Nature Goddess Defined

The Nature of the Goddess

Who exactly was this Goddess of prehistory? How would she have been envisioned and imagined by the peoples who worshiped her? How do we know?
Obviously, without literary evidence, the precise nature of such a deity is impossible to ascertain. However, from the extant material evidence, combined with knowledge from other fields and what little remains in the literary record, some attempts at description can be made.1
The most significant attribute of the Goddess is that she was the earth – primordial Mother, Nature, Life. She was not only the creator of everything in the world – human beings, animals, plants, trees, rocks, mountains – she was the very earth from which all life emanated. The earth pulsated with her energy; she was completely in control of all growth, weather, migrating birds and animals, birth, death, the sun, the moon, and the planets. This Earth Mother/Goddess provided all people’s needs – and the needs of all living things – but, through storms, natural disasters, fierce beasts, and accidents, also caused destruction and ended life. She was self-generating and functioned as Giver of Life, Wielder of Death, and Regeneratrix.
One cannot emphasize enough the pervasiveness of this deity’s strength, power and influence and the respect in which she was held, not only by women but by all people who revered her. In contrast to our Western way of thinking, there was no separation, between human beings and God, or between human beings and Nature. In the prehistoric mindset, Nature, earth and deity were one.
This equation allowed most, if not all, peoples of the Mediterranean area, Europe, the Middle East – who inhabited the same planet, experienced many of the same natural phenomena, and lived under the same sun and moon – to view the deity in female form and worship her as one in many. She was thus envisioned as a single deity possessing many traits. This is a form of monotheism, but it was derived not from abstract theological contemplation but from life lived in harmony with, and completely beholden to, the natural world.
It follows, then, that the Goddess was viewed as all-powerful and thus involved in almost every aspect of life, not only in the large-scale events – birth, death, marriage, childbearing – but also in more mundane daily activities. The Goddess oversaw one's everyday work, one's play, the seasons, relationships within one's community, and the creation of clothes and homes. By extension, she dictated ethical behavior: cooperation, not competition or violence, was paramount for the survival of all species. In contrast to many strands of androcentric, historic, war-defined religion the world over, the Goddess belief and praxis system emphasized joy, creativity, beauty and harmony, both between people themselves and between people and Nature. The taking of human life would have been viewed, most likely, as anathema to the Goddess, and the taking of animal and plant life in the service of humankind would have to be accompanied by devout prayers and rituals.  The rituals concerned three major subjects: thanksgiving for the abundance of the earth, supplications of forgiveness for the taking of their lives, and petitions for the continued survival of those plants and animals, on which humanity depended.
	Some critics of this description of the prehistoric Goddess believe that it postulates a sole mother Goddess parallel to the sole patriarchal male god, merely substituting one ruling deity for another; these critics assert that this theory is unhelpful and just replaces the patriarchal and hierarchical paradigm so loathed by feminists and others.  There are at least two answers to this criticism. First, Gimbutas never argued that the prehistoric Goddess created a culture that held up women as superior men, in the way that the patriarchal god elevates men as superior.  Rather, the society produced by Goddess worship was matrilineal, matrifocal and egalitarian – no one gender dominated the other.  What this says about the Goddess, then, is that her worship promoted equality, not domination. 
Second, throughout Gimbutas' work, the "Goddess" (always capitalized, Goddess) was viewed as a multi-faceted being. Gimbutas describes the Bird Goddess, the Snake Goddess, the Birth-Giving Goddess, and their functions, saying "there must have been distinct goddesses, or different aspects of one Goddess, to whom these functions were attributed." 2  The deity’s "manifestations are manifold: she may be anthropomorphic or zoomorphic; she may appear in a triple aspect; she may be a waterfowl or a bird of prey, a harmless or a poisonous snake; but ultimately she is one indivisible Goddess." 3
In human terms, this would mean that a group of people in what is now Bulgaria, for instance, would worship the Bird Goddess under certain life circumstances and the Snake Goddess under other circumstances.  The people of Lithuania would do the same. Is this much different from the way Christians view the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit?  Outsiders to Christianity, including Muslims, see this as polytheistic worship, but Christians see it as the revering of the One God in three natures.  
Anthropological studies of modern pre-industrial peoples further demonstrate that the dualisms in life that we might perceive were not dualisms to the ancient way of thinking. The distinctions between good and evil, birth and death, night and day, dark and light, do not necessarily indicate the presence of a separate evil being whose purpose is to destroy a good being (although it may).  Rather, for peoples who live close to Nature, good and evil, life and death are two sides of the same coin, not polar opposites. This would lead, then, to different ways of handling misfortune; instead of seeing death or natural disaster as an evil to be vanquished, Neolithic peoples would have attempted to make things right with the deity by propitiating her in various ways. To find meaning out of natural disaster, worshipers might offer an animal sacrifice. To heal a breach between human beings, rituals would be enacted to restore harmony.
While a "thealogy of the Goddess" appears to have lasted for at least 25,000 years,4  it was replaced by an androcentric theology and world view, starting with the Bronze Age. Following Jewish, Egyptian and other monotheisms, the early church fathers, philosophers and other intellectuals of the early Christian era attempted to show, among other things, that a female deity was inferior to the male deity, especially the God of Jews and Christians. They argue that a Goddess was only concerned with fertility (a "woman's thing") and not with "loftier" human, social and religious ideals such as justice, mercy, morality, forgiveness, redemption, salvation, and victory over death. It is perhaps this contrast that leaves a visceral mark even on moderns, whether religious or not: the idea of worshiping a deity of fertility – equated with messy, bloody birth-giving, animal reproduction, and, heaven forbid, sex – leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. However, reducing the prehistoric Goddess to these categories ignores many valid aspects of her character. Vestiges of her involvement with the "loftier" areas of life are reflected in traits of later Goddesses such as Athena, who oversaw law and justice; Sophia, the manifestation of Wisdom; Isis, concerned with justice, compassion, mercy, forgiveness and integrity; and Demeter and Kore (Persephone) who oversaw mysteries and secrets of life after death and rebirth.5  These "higher" traits, supposedly lacking in Graeco-Roman goddesses, most certainly evolved from the prehistoric divinity, as clearly evidenced in the kind of society her worship created.  If justice, mercy, forgiveness, the rule of law, morality and a belief in some kind of survival after physical death had not been present in the "thealogy" of the Goddess, the society created by her devotees would have been far less peaceful, comfortable, civilized and joyful.

Whenever we discuss the nature of a deity, of necessity we must discuss her or his myths, myth being one of the major ways in which human beings know about and relate to their object/s of devotion. The myths of the prehistoric Goddess, if any, have not survived in the usual way, through literature, but are, rather, reflected in myths of later times, as we shall see in Chapter 2. However, it is clear from cross-cultural research, including anthropological study of modern pre-industrial cultures, that how people perceive her derives from the human being's initial intimate contact with the woman (mother) who gave her/him birth.  In a profound way, the mother is the infant’s whole world; for a very long period of time, the infant cannot fathom anything or anyone apart from him- or herself and this other, larger, all-powerful (and presumably beneficent) being. As the child grows and its brain develops, it becomes aware of her/himself as separate from the mother and aware of other human beings.
For the pre-industrial person who lives very close to Nature (who is, in many ways, part of Nature), the earth takes on the crucial mother role: the earth (and the sky) provide everything the human being needs to survive – animals and plants for food and clothing, trees for shade from the sun, the sun and rain for nourishment and growth, the night for respite from the heat of the day, the moon for light in the dark sky and for dictating fertility cycles, the mysterious phenomenon of a woman bleeding every month and not dying, the equally mysterious phenomenon of a woman shedding blood to give birth to another human being.
For moderns with a scientific, post-Enlightenment world view, where natural phenomena have rational, scientific explanations, it may be difficult to imagine this previous perspective and its influence. It is also too easy for moderns to dismiss and devalue it and label such people “primitive,” under developed psychologically, and inferior, both intellectually and morally.  We must, however, regroup and see that this earlier way of thinking did have value – not only for those people in that faraway time but also for us.  They lived their lives in an ethical, Nature-affirming way that we have lost yet sorely need as our planet succumbs to devastating violation and violence. If prehistoric people lived in harmony with Nature, it is thus probable that people in the Roman imperial era – pre-industrial, agricultural – still preserved a vestige of this Goddess- and Nature-centered way of thinking, even though it was in some ways underground.  As we proceed, we will uncover evidence of this persistence.

Goddess Civilization

Scientific evidence, from geology to climatology and other fields, helps draw a picture of conditions in Europe and the Middle East in the Neolithic era.6  Around 8300 BCE, the last ice age ended, creating new physical landscapes and warmer climates.  The rise in sea level created inland lakes, marshes and peat areas that spawned a rich habitat for fish and water birds. Consequently, wild plant and animal life flourished, followed by growth in human populations. Gradually, between about 9000 to 6500 BCE, hunting and gathering gave rise to permanent settlements and the domestication of plants and animals, with women doing the bulk of the domestication while men hunted in the wooded areas.7  These trends occurred at different rates in different places, yet by 6500 BCE, a full-blown Neolithic economy, which produced pottery and domesticated sheep, goats, cattle, pigs and dogs, was established in Greece.8  By ca. 4500 BCE, an agricultural way of life had spread as far as the British Isles.9
Thus the physical terrain of Old Europe and parts of the Middle East in the years between the seventh and third millennia BCE consisted of forests, grassy areas, rivers, streams, marshland, swamps, mountains, hills and caves.  Plants, vines, flowers, grasses and trees flourished in the spring and summer, started to decay in the fall, and, for all intents and purposes, died in the winter.  This cycle was not only known to the ancients but also used and adapted by them for agricultural purposes: they knew they must treat and store foods to sustain themselves through the winter months, and they learned how to use natural cycles to sow, plant and harvest.  Women were primary in these endeavors.10
Because of their power to “die” and come back to life again, plants, vines, flowers, grasses and trees – and many things related to them – became symbolic of regeneration and life itself. Through plant-derived food, people were nourished, so plant life came to be revered as a basic necessity for human life.  The earth herself, out of which these life forms arose, and without which they would not survive, was equated with the female form and the human mother.  The earth was the mother of all life and therefore worthy of adoration.  Consequently, floral symbols were primarily identified with the female side of life and became attributes of the all-powerful, life-giving Goddess.11  This thought process and basic understanding of life recurs in Indian cultures of North, Central and South America and in pre-industrial cultures of Asia and Africa, demonstrating its pervasiveness throughout the world, if not also its basic truth and genius.
	Evidence for the people and Goddess of prehistory in Old Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East comes almost exclusively from archaeological material, as opposed to literary evidence.  In recent decades, excavations at Neolithic and other prehistoric sites throughout these regions have produced thousands of figurines and other artifacts.  Below we will provide an overview of three well-excavated prehistoric sights in which Gimbutas and others have found Neolithic and earlier artifacts.

	Sitagroi is an important Neolithic site in northern Greece excavated and analyzed by Marija Gimbutas.12  Significantly for this current study, the evidence for the Goddess at Sitagroi demonstrates her existence in this region of Greece, near several cities that became important for the development of early Christianity.  Approximately 250 figurines, mostly clay, constitute her primary body of Neolithic evidence.  While exact context of most objects is not known, the majority probably came from house or shrine areas.  The artifacts had either flat bases and could stand on a flat surface or were seated on stools or thrones.  Fifty of the objects were zoomorphic – whole animals and heads – and half-human/half-animal creatures. Significantly, "not one can clearly be identified as male, and only about 1% can be considered as possibly portraying men." 13
	Gimbutas stressed that the figurines were not mere art objects but rather sacred objects intended as a way of communicating with the divine.  This is evident from the fact that very few sculptures are rendered naturalistically; instead, they are decorated with symbols, shapes, lines and other details that constitute a "language of the Goddess." 14
	These symbols, inscribed on female figurines or stamps, cylinder seals, and even spindle whorls, include parallel lines, V’s in various combinations, M's, snake coils, circles, zigzags; as we shall see as our investigation continues, these were among the most prevalent Goddess symbols from the Neolithic era.  The cross, X or whirl is associated with the breasts of the Goddess, source of milk, rain and nourishment in general, while the concentric circle, snake coil, double spiral on seated, pregnant figurines represent new life and its source in the body of the Goddess.15
	Gimbutas further discussed several different manifestations of the Goddess worshiped at Sitagroi.  Some of the figurines have bird-like heads, beaks, eyes but no mouth.  They are incised with symbols such as a V or X on breasts, horizontal or vertical zigzags, triple chevrons, and three (or occasionally four) vertical parallel lines between the breasts, on the neck or on the shoulders.  The depiction and offering of this pervasive Bird Goddess may depict the devotee's invocation to a milk- or rain-giving deity.16  The frog-shaped Goddess, well known in southeastern Europe and Anatolia, is portrayed with widely parted legs, a protruding pubic triangle and upraised hands. Its head was human or a triangle, and the belly is emphasized by a   circle or concentric circles.  Toads or frogs are epiphanies of the birth- or life-giving and life-taking Goddess.17
	Many examples of the pregnant Goddess seated on stools or thrones have been found at Sitagroi.  These deities are depicted with very large posteriors and either nude or with clothes incised with symbols – lozenges or pubic triangles with a dot, two dots, or two or four dashes inside.  Snakes, symbols of fertility, usually accompanied them.18  These images recurred widely in later imagery of the ancient world, and will be discussed in more detail below.
	One figurine in the Sitagroi collection can be considered a possible male divinity.  He is seated and leaning slightly forward.  His arms and legs have broken off, but the remaining stumps, spread wide, are characteristically masculine.  He resembles the "thinker" god from several other Neolithic cultures, which are most likely "worrying gods" connected with the death of the year. 19
	Also included in the Sitagroi collection are animal sculptures in the form of bulls, stags, rams, pigs and dogs, created in either whole figures or heads decorating corners of cult vessels.  The most naturalistic whole-figure representations are those of bulls, 18 of which have been found in fragmentary form.  The culture considered bulls strong and powerful based on the way they were portrayed.  Also, on at least one fine example, it is painted with a snake-like design over most of its body.  Sculptures such as this were probably made for special ritual occasions by the best artists.20
	These animals "stimulate, animate, and insure germinating seeds, sprouting, growing and ripening corn and other plants; and they ward off evil (death) powers." That they were intimately associated with the Goddess, as opposed to symbolizing a masculine deity or force, is further shown by their survival into historic times: Artemis Tauropolis in Asia Minor, Artemis riding a bull on Roman coins, the offering of a suckling pig to Demeter in the Thesmophoria, and so on.21
	Evidence for the Goddess at Sitagroi demonstrates her worship in this region of Greece, near several cities that became important for the development of early Christianity. 
One of the best-excavated and most famous Neolithic sites is Çatal Hüyük in present-day Turkey.  Its primary archaeologist was James Mellaart, who excavated in the 1960s. 22  Çatal Hüyük, an orderly settlement that reflected remarkable stability, was a major trading center for grains, obsidian and cowrie shells, and the evidence shows that food was plentiful. It flourished between 6500 and 5650 BCE,23 and it is estimated that up to 7,000 inhabitants could have lived there at one time. 24
Houses were densely grouped; many built against existing structures and open courtyards occurred randomly.  Houses were constructed of mud brick with flat roofs and no doors: one entered through a roof.  Interiors were clean and sparse.  None of the houses  held more than eight persons.  Kitchens occupied about a third of a house’s total floor space and ovens were set low in walls.  Storage rooms contained baskets for grain, tools and other supplies.25
The people of Çatal Hüyük cultivated wheat and barley and grew or gathered green and root vegetables and fruits. They ate meat from cattle, kept goats, and hunted deer and wild pigs. Throughout its existence, the town traded obsidian and flint.  Obsidian – volcanic glass – was used for cutting tools and mirrors.  They also traded in alabaster (used for jewelry and figurines), white marble, iron oxides for pigments, and various rocks used for beads. 26
Religion was administered by priestesses and emphasized the renewing and protecting powers of the Great Mother. 27  Reconstructions of cultic scenes by Mellaart show priestesses conducting funerary rites, indicating an all-female priestly class.28  Temples were found in structures similar to houses; 49 shrines or sanctuaries have been excavated. Of 300 excavated rooms at the site, 88 had painted walls, with each painting usually about 12 to 18 m long.  The main themes depicted were the Goddess of Regeneration, often as a frog-shaped woman giving birth, and the Goddess of Death in the form of a vulture.  Images of the vulture are juxtaposed with those of human skulls, bulls’ heads, the lower jaws of boars, and female breasts.  Such contrasting images of life and death may well indicate the inevitable cycle of being “eaten back” into that primordial source, which gives birth and nourishment to all life.29  In addition, the Goddess is represented in ways that acknowledge her triple aspect of young woman, mother giving birth, and old woman, which in turn correspond to the three stages of the moon – waxing, full and waning (Fig. 1.1, page 17).30   Prehistoric Goddesses abound throughout the Mediterranean, such as Cycladic (Fig. 1.2, page 17)  and Thessalian  (Fig. 1.4, page 18) examples.  
	The dead of Çatal Hüyük were buried under platforms in the houses after their skeletons had been stripped of flesh and internal organs through exposure to birds (excarnation).  Women painted with ochre, the color of blood and life, were found buried under temple floors and under wall paintings. Buried with the remains were amulets, icons, obsidian mirrors and toys.  One woman was buried with three tusked lower jaws of wild boars arranged around her head; this richness, combined with the fact that her grave was underneath the largest temple, suggests that she may have been an especially revered leader.  The richness of female burials is consistent throughout Old European cemeteries; no male graves with such extraordinary symbolic items have been found.31 Rather, men were interred with their hunting weapons in smaller corner sites and never with children.32  Similar burial evidence can be cited at Natufian sites in what is modern Israel.  There is a parallel between the types of body ornaments in the Upper Paleolithic and early Natufian burials.  In particular, women were buried with indications of high rank, such as beaded headdresses.  This dramatically changed by the pre-pottery Neolithic B period, when only men were honored with beaded headdresses at ancestral shrines, such as the one at Nahal Hemar. 33
Found throughout the site of Çatal Hüyük were dozens of bull figures and bull shrines.  Like scholars before him, Mellaart equated the bulls with maleness: "In plaster reliefs goddesses appear solely in anthropomorphic form and the place of the male is taken by bulls and rams, a more impressive exponent of male fertility." 34  Shrine VII.35 is an example of this treatment.  One large bull’s head spans the main panel of the north wall of the shrine; two small ones are found beside it on the same wall and a larger bull’s head appears below a red painted niche on the east wall. Next to this niche a pair of woman’s breasts appear above the animal’s right horn and a second pair, placed vertically, appear above the ram’s head.  From the open nipples protrude the teeth of a fox and a weasel's skull respectively which were incorporated in this pair of breasts. 35 Similar combinations occur in other shrines.36
	Significantly, however, the bull has been shown by Gimbutas to represent the female, not the male. For proof, she noted the remarkable resemblance between bucrania (bulls' heads with horns) and female biology: Fallopian tubes connected to the uterus. 37  While this correspondence may seem far-fetched, it makes perfect sense given the practice of excarnation.  People would have had ample opportunity to see the internal organs of dead and decaying female bodies, and it was obviously from the uterus and Fallopian tubes – one of the few organ complexes different from men’s – that new life sprang. 38 
	Moreover, the bull's omnipresence among other Goddess symbols and representations of the Goddess also indicated femaleness, not maleness. In a number of frescoes in various shrines at Çatal Hüyük, a bucranium is depicted directly beneath the upper portion of a Goddess, as if she is giving birth to the bull. Reflected here is the Goddess as Cow Mother.  Women, knowing that their own breasts produced life-giving milk, were most likely those who first realized that cow and goat milk could be harvested by humans for nourishment.  The cows' and bulls' horns resembled the shape of the crescent moon – hence the equation of the moon and a cow-like Goddess who feeds her children. 
Women of prehistory also came to realize that cows could be slaughtered for their meat, and they most likely killed mainly unproductive bull-calves, sacrificing them in a ritual context. This rite probably gave rise to the religious sacrifice of the sacred bull, son of the Cow Mother, and the equation at Çatal Hüyük of the Goddess and the bull.  This ancient practice seems to have survived to the present day: several modern peoples in East Africa and Asia continue the custom of women milking and tending cows and allow women to keep money from milk sales. 39 
Agriculture was another aspect of life that would have been under feminine control, and it is likely that craft activities were also in women’s purview.  Wooden and stone vessels were made with great skill.  It is difficult to know exactly how men and women related, but it seems from the evidence that women and men participated in the production and consumption of a variety of new kinds of goods and that the social and ceremonial life of these people, while dominated by women, was fairly fluid. 40
In twelve layers of occupation over 32 acres at Çatal Hüyük, no signs of warfare or weaponry have been found there. 41  Given the violence, war, death and destruction that has occurred since the Bronze Age, this is indeed significant.
A third important prehistoric site with evidence for a powerful, all-encompassing Goddess is Crete. Now a well-known Greek island and tourist attraction, Crete was all but unknown to moderns until excavations by Sir Arthur Evans in the early twentieth century. Evans exposed to the world the exquisite prehistoric culture that had long lain dormant. From the first moments of its discovery, the so-called Palace of Knossos on the island illustrated many traits that we have since identified with Minoan civilization, culture and religion: beauty, high artistic achievement, peaceful, harmonious coexistence, the worship of an all-powerful mother Goddess, vibrant love of life, settled agricultural subsistence, and wide-ranging trade with other peoples.
	Legend maintained that the palace was home to King Minos.  This legend has been challenged in recent years.  The "palace" was most likely a sacred center to the Goddess of the Neolithic era, about 6500 to 3000 BCE.  King Minos was actually from the Mycenean culture, which probably conquered the island around 1450 BCE; the culture associated with a king and a palace thus would have existed from 1900 to 1450 BCE. 42  The finds from Knossos prove without a doubt Minoan society’s high level of sophistication. The buildings of the sacred center were several stories high, some up to five.  The complex had a domestic quarter, audience and throne rooms, storage rooms, and places for worship and ritual ablutions.  A modern drainage system complemented the existence of bathrooms containing "elaborate hip baths of baked and glazed clay, beautifully designed and elaborately painted;" 43 even Minoan cooking utensils were painted and adorned.44 Pottery and jewelry were abundant and of high quality, and its mosaics and frescoes exquisite. Trade flourished, agriculture was practiced, some industry was evident, and beer may have been brewed, 45 indicating a peace-loving people who "met each day with exuberance and grace." 46
Evans showed the world that the inhabitants of Crete owed much of their culture to their predecessors in the Neolithic era. The vast majority of votive offerings and clay figurines found at the site represented human or divine females. One of two major types was "short and stumpy [with] an extraordinary development of the rump." 47  Within this category, the figures were either squatting with legs bent under the body or sitting, with knees up and both feet drawn together in front. 48 The second type was flatter, with a rounded body and cruciform upper section. 49 Such figures depict goddesses and human females giving birth – life – the most sacred of all acts. 50 Very few representations of men and male figures came to light. 51 
Minoans continued the earlier worship of the Goddess in her manifestation as a snake, evidenced by two figures found on Crete (Fig. 1.3 on page 18). The first, a seated Goddess approximately 14.2 cm in height, is from South Crete and dated between 6000 and 5500 BCE. She sits in a yogic position and has snakelike legs but human eyes, nose and mouth.52  The second, a standing figure from Knossos, is from the Minoan era, around 1500 BCE.  Her breasts are bared and she may have held snakes in her hands.53  For the Cretans, the snake was related to all animals and Nature; an animal that lives close to the earth, it was believed to hold a revered place near the mother Goddess.54
The classicist Jane Harrison also believed that the Mountain-Mother of prehistory, a most powerful deity, had her origin on Crete.  This Goddess became juxtaposed with the Indo-European "Father-God, head of a patriarchal family." 55  In her work, Harrison analyzed a clay impression of a signet ring from the Museum at Candia on which is portrayed the mother Goddess, mountain lions, and a worshiper in ecstasy: "[t]o the left of the Goddess is a Minoan shrine with 'horns of consecration,' and pillars, the symbols that connect her with plant and animal life, for the pillar is but tree shaped and stylized." 56  Harrison went on to state that the male divinity of Minoan religion is always young and subordinate; the Mother is supreme over Zeus the Father; the mountain was the earth, who was in turn Mother because she gives life to plants, animals and human beings. 57  In addition, "the worship of the Mother emphasizes the group, the face and its continuance rather than the prowess of the individual, it focuses on the facts of fertility and the fostering of life." 58
	Also found, and believed by Evans to be significant, were images of bulls' horns, the motif of the double ax (labrys), and depictions of young men and women performing acrobatic feats with bulls. Evans postulated that the double ax symbolized the Cretan Zeus who died and was reborn in an annual cycle.  According to Evans, it may also have been related to the fierce bulls that terrorized life on the island: it could presumably give mastery over a bull; 59  however, there is no evidence of such terrorizing bulls on that island. 60
As at Çatal Hüyük, bull symbolism must be considered in the larger Cretan context.  While a bull may be fierce and seemingly masculine, its "horns of consecration" symbolize the crescent moon, an aspect of the Goddess; thus the animal was not necessarily a male beast to be feared or tamed. Yale art historian Vincent Scully’s discussion of the Cretan bull dance supports Gimbutas and others in this regard.  The bull dance takes place in an inner court of the Knossos palace structure.  "The uni-linear Minoan dance. . . did not dramatize subtle man [sic] making his own shapes around and finally killing the unreasoning power of nature but instead celebrated both men and women together as accepting Nature's law, adoring it, adding to their own power precisely insofar as they seized it close and adjusted their rhythms to its force. . . . The final sacrifice of the bull to the Goddess [is] an act of reverence to the animal, since it dignified with ceremony and hallowed with gratitude the everyday deaths of his kind."  In addition, there does not seem to be any blood involved in the bull game itself except that shed by dancers who failed to grasp the horns. 61
Vincent Scully further maintains that the builders of the Cretan palaces – at Knossos, Phaistos, Mallia and Gournia – consciously used the natural landscape to dictate how they would construct the palaces.  In other words, "the constructed elements take their form and create four complementary types of enclosure.  These are: the labyrinthine passage, the open court, the columned pavilion, and the pillared cave. . . [t]he natural and the man-made create one ritual whole." 62 
Similarly, at the site of Gournia, the marriage of natural landscape and human-made sanctuary and dwelling places is even more pronounced in some ways.  The town sits in the center of a deep valley.  Directly behind a rocky knoll to the south of the city are two horns of a hill. The horns at this site, however, are more rounded than at other locations, giving the impression of a mother’s breasts: "at Gournia, one has the inescapable impression that human beings are conceived of as children who lie upon the mother’s body. . . . To sleep within such a Goddess shape. . . would itself have been a ritual act, an analogy for the actual death which would have implied its own kind of immortality since it meant a return to her." 63
In addition to the bull, Evans commented on the ax symbol.  It too most likely had a more female-centered interpretation than Evans postulated.  Rather than a tool to down the bull, it symbolizes the two-headed Goddess – she who brings both life and death, with the waxing and waning moon. 64  According to Sjöö and Mor, labrys, "double-ax" in Minoan, is the word source of  "labyrinth," the Hall of the Double-Axes at Knossos. Women in agricultural work used the double ax as an everyday instrument.  As a sacred sacrificial tool, however, its use was restricted to priestesses who downed the Goddess’ ceremonial trees. 65  As Evans noted, trees and pillars were significant to Cretans, symbolizing divine Nature, life and the Goddess.
Like most pre-industrial peoples who lived close to and in harmony with the earth, the Cretans seem to have believed that they owed their entire existence to the Goddess.  By worshiping her, they were able to create a full, peaceful and joy-filled existence for millennia.66  Their culture declined, however, sometime around 1450 BCE, and by 1100 BCE, the civilization was over, probably due to an earthquake and widespread fire.  Some archaeologists have speculated that survivors transferred the royal residence to Mycenae (on the Greek Peloponnesus, a few miles from Corinth),67  or to where Heinrich Schliemann centuries later discovered Troy (northwest Turkey at the entrance of the Dardanelles).68   The civilization we label as Mycenaean is currently understood to be a group of Indo-Europeans, greatly influenced by the Minoans on nearby Crete, whom they may have conquered at some point.  Mycenaean civilization was characterized by militaristic independent states centered on fortified urban settlements, sometimes cooperating together, but usually not. 69  There is less indication that Goddess worship survived among these Indo-Aryans than on Crete.  
	From evidence found at these three sites, it is clear that prehistoric cultures were significantly different on many levels from those that followed.  The symbols painted and incised on ritual and everyday objects pointed almost exclusively to the high regard for the feminine and the female life force.  Architectural and burial evidence show that these were settled agricultural communities that experienced a large growth in population. 70   This culture – a true "civilization" – which survived all over the Mediterranean, Middle East and Old Europe, boasted towns with temples several stories high, a sacred script, four- or five-room houses, and professional ceramicists, weavers, and copper and gold workers.  A network of trade routes facilitated the exchange of obsidian, shells, marble, and salt.71  The society that the Goddess' worship engendered was matrilineal and matrifocal but, significantly, not matriarchal; that is, descent was through the mother, the new husband lived with his wife's family, but women did not dominate – social structure was egalitarian. 72
This civilization ultimately came to an end, giving way to societies in which the horse, writing for economic reasons, male hierarchical systems, and war were paramount. Gimbutas theorized that the end came with the invasion of Indo-Europeans from the east, who brought with them horses, weapons of iron, war, male deities and an androcentric, hierarchical social system.  Her theory has support from a number of linguists and geneticists. 73
From the evidence found at these three sites, traditionalists maintain that so-called "historic" cultures that followed constituted the dawn of Western "civilization."  Many argue that anything "prehistoric" was primitive and homo sapiens little further advanced than gorillas and apes.  The evidence no longer supports this assumption.

Gimbutas and the Symbols of the Prehistoric Goddess

The above overview of significant prehistoric and early Bronze Age sites illustrates a pervasive culture that revered a powerful female deity who encompassed all of Nature and all of Life. It follows that prehistoric peoples communicated with – prayed to – this deity.  How did they do this?
Gimbutas has been a pioneer in deciphering the various religious symbols found carved, inscribed, or painted on the millions of objects discovered in the excavations. 4  Floral, faunal, astral and geometric symbols were originally inspired by the natural world; pregnant and birth-giving female figurines were inspired by actual human events.  (See Fig. 1.3, on page 18, for an example of a Cycladic marble figurine of a pregnant woman, Late Spedos type, ca 2600-2400 BCE.)  In Chapter 2 we will examine symbols and symbolism in depth from the perspectives of psychology, religion and women’s studies. Goddess symbols were transformed and given new meaning in Graeco-Roman, Jewish and Christian contexts; an extensive list of these symbols and their later Christian manifestations can be found in Appendix I.
Here we will examine some of the more pervasive and common symbols to further understand the Goddess and people’s relationship to her.
Tree.  One example of a pervasive floral symbol of the Neolithic era that has ramifications for early Christian studies is the tree. A tree carved or incised on an object was not mere scenery: in many contexts worldwide, it signified life and, relatedly, life after death or immortality. Since the Goddess – Nature, earth – was the provider of all life, the tree was linked to her from early on. Especially in a funerary context, the tree, plant or vine would connote the concern of the Goddess for the deceased person’s continuing life with her – the earth mother. Likewise, in the context of worship, a tree denoted the adoration of the Goddess’ role in providing nourishment and sustaining life, of people, plants and animals, and signified the people’s gratitude to her for these gifts.75
Animals.  Similarly, faunal or animal figures were also symbolic of the Goddess and the female life force, in large part due to animals' various life-affirming characteristics. Among the animals linked with certain aspects of the Goddess were the pregnant deer, the bear, the pig, the ox, the ram, the bull, and the snake.
	The (non-poisonous) snake, for instance, was a major image signifying the vitality and continuity of life, the guarantor of life energy in the home, and the symbol of family and animal life. Its hibernation was viewed as analogous to death, while the shedding of old skin represented a kind of immortality, a continuum of life. The return of the snake in springtime signified the rebirth of the natural world. Thus the image was intimately connected with the cycles of death and rebirth in Nature and, therefore, with the Goddess. 76
	Birds.  Birds also signified aspects of the Goddess – the dove, duck, swallow, owl, peacock and vulture being prime examples.  Doves, for one, were raised in her temples, carved on her stelae and depicted on her jewels and coins.  In the writings of Homer, Athena and Hera assume dove form; until the twentieth century, doves, along with the cuckoo, "were believed to be prophetic birds, omens of death, and spirits of the dead." 77  These are birds of spring, the time of regeneration; this cyclical nature is linked with the Goddess’ overseeing "of the cycles of time, life and death, spring and winter, happiness and unhappiness." 78
The ram and eagle have important meanings for early Christians, yet they too emerged much earlier, from Goddess worship.  A capital from Philippi’s Basilica B (sixth century CE) is decorated with several ram’s heads and eagles, with its base carved with a frieze of lines, diamonds and circles.  In Jewish lore, the eagle was an unclean bird of prey, yet it also had positive qualities, including the nurture of its young and its recuperative powers. In Christianity the eagle represented the Ascension of Christ, immortality and St. John. 79 
In prehistoric times, the ram was the sacred animal of the Bird Goddess and linked with reproduction, food and abundance.80  In Classical Greece, the Bird Goddess came to be associated with Athena, often linked with a variety of birds. As Gimbutas noted, "(t)o this day, the meaning of the ram in folklore is similar to the water bird as a magical animal which brings abundance." 81  (See Fig. 1.4 for a depiction of a Neolithic Bird Goddess figure from Macedonia.)

	Water.  Water was also important to the Goddess – it was the "life-giving moisture of the Goddess’ body," that is, amniotic fluid.  Also, without the water of springs, streams and rivers, people, animals and plants could not live, and without the water from the sky in the form of rain and dew, there could be no life.  Water was variously depicted as the M sign and zigzag or wavy lines. 82  Especially as associated with ducks, geese, cranes, swans and other water birds, this connection is found in the archaeological record as early as the Upper Paleolithic. 83  An example from Yugoslavia, dated around 4500 BCE, is a Bird Goddess figurine sitting on a throne incised with three lines. She "wears a crown, duck mask and bolero jacket; her apron is marked with chevrons, her knees with spirals, and her limbs with coiling lines." 84  The lines and other geometric symbols link the Goddess, the duck and water.  Examples of these combinations are pervasive in the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic eras and are found on figurines, sculptures, effigy vases, altar pieces, and cult vessels.85
	Water was also linked with the ox, closely associated with water: Minoan vases and temple walls show flowers and plants growing between the sacred ox horns.  Gimbutas cites Ovid, Virgil and Porphyry for literary attestation; they wrote that moths and bees – both female symbols – were thought to be the souls of human beings born from an ox. 86
	Red.  The color red, the color of blood, represents for pre-industrial cultures the blood of menstruation and childbirth, that is, the blood of life.  Traces of ochre have been found in many artifacts in Paleolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age contexts, especially burials. 87
Astral symbols and zodiac.  In the Neolithic era and probably earlier, people noticed the vital connection between the sun, moon, stars, rain and other heavenly phenomena and the growth and success of plant and animal life.  The moon especially took on great significance, in part because of its 28-day cycle that paralleled the natural menstrual cycle of human women.  In that way alone, the life-giving aspect of women – the shedding of her blood without dying, and the relationship of this shedding to the bloodletting of childbirth – coincided almost directly with the power of the night’s celestial ruler. 88  Also, the crescent moon resembled the horns of a bull; as we saw above, the bull's head with horns (bucranium) resembles the woman’s uterus and Fallopian tubes. 89
	In addition to the moon, zodiac and astral symbols also came to be used in various contexts.  Ancient peoples noticed the cyclical nature of the heavens, which passed through each configuration of planets on a regular basis each year, the sun with its yearly cycle, the moon with a monthly one.90  Even into historical times, it was widely believed that the stars influenced the weather and, through the gods whose names were given to various stars, influenced human life as well.
	Relatedly, portraying animals processing in a sequential, especially circular, order as in the zodiac, also symbolizes the cyclical motions of time.  Depictions of animal processions have been found dating far back into prehistory – on European vase paintings, engravings on Minoan seals, and Neolithic stone slabs.  When associated with other Goddess symbols (hands, inverted V’s) and signs of cyclical time (spirals and crescents), they were almost certainly linked to the all-powerful female deity of life, death and regeneration. 91
	Geometric symbols and symbolic language.  As we have seen above, geometric symbols appear everywhere on the artifacts recovered from Neolithic sites, especially on pottery, ritual vessels such as jugs and vases, and on grave goods.  The triangle, lozenge, or oval was the vulva and symbolized the Goddess in her role as life-giver.  Vulva symbols were often pictured together with aquatic signs – meanders, M's, zigzags, or wavy parallel lines –mentioned above. 92
V's, X's, and parallel lines most often denote the breasts of the Goddess.  The breasts, of course, produced life-giving milk, both in humans and animals; without it human and animal species could not survive. 93 
	These geometric symbols took on great importance for Gimbutas.  In her excavations, she noted that this script appears only on religious items, usually gifts to the Goddess.  Gimbutas thus concluded that it was intended to be read as a sacred hieroglyphic language, a language of the Goddess. 94  Her theory differed from the traditional view that it was the Sumerians, a later, androcentric Middle Eastern culture, who invented writing; they did indeed invent writing for economic, legal, and administrative purposes, but it was the Neolithic people who, centuries earlier, had created a script for communicating with their deity.
This Neolithic Goddess script, Gimbutas maintained, was widespread, found in almost 100 sites across Europe.  The first compounds – symbols with additional linear signs – appear in the archaeological record around 6000-5300 BCE.  The language consists of approximately 30 core signs and more than 100 modified signs.  The remnants of the script survived for more than several millennia in Crete and Cyprus.  What were people saying with inscriptions on figurines, loom weights, vases, and temple models?  It is difficult to know, but the words or phrases were most likely dedication formulas or the name of the Goddess. 95


Gimbutas, Her Critics and Her Peers

Gimbutas' theories about Goddess symbols and the language used to communicate with the deity have not been without controversy. 96  A major criticism of her theories has been on linguistic and genetic grounds.  Critics argue that Gimbutas’ theory is too simplistic, that cultural change comes about not by invasions of warrior groups but more slowly, through evolutionary means.  However, evolution does not satisfactorily account for marked differences in burial practices and language between the prehistoric (Old European) and more recent (Indo-European) cultures. 97  Dr. L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, a geneticist at Stanford University, has examined Gimbutas’ theory of horseback-riding invaders from the east and the spread of Neolithic culture through farmers’ migrations.  Through genetic mapping, Cavalli-Sforza has demonstrated that a gene pool from the Volga steppes "entered Europe when and where Gimbutas indicated.  It mixed with the Old European gene pool and then spread across Europe, moving up and then outward from the Danube, Elbe, and Rhine Rivers." 98  In addition, his studies confirm "the hypothesis that farmers of the Middle East had . . . spread towards the extreme borders of Europe."  These Neolithic farmers gradually mixed with the local hunter-gatherer populations. 99
Gimbutas' theories are also supported by the work of her predecessors and contemporaries, including Joseph Campbell, Vincent Scully, Jane Harrison, Charlene Spretnak, and Robert Graves. Campbell, for instance, in writing about the "basal Neolithic" (ca. 5500-4500 BCE), noted that "the role of women has perhaps already been greatly enhanced" and that she "participated – perhaps even predominated – in the planting and reaping of the crops." 100  Instead of neglecting women altogether as some scholars have, Campbell cited the meager evidence for women's exact place in this culture and continued to postulate their importance.  He even lobbed a criticism at his colleagues:  "It is therefore not unusual for extremely well-trained archaeologists to pretend that they cannot imagine what services the numerous female figures might have rendered to the households for which they were designed." 101   These services would have included offering magical psychological aid to women in childbirth and conception, protecting occupants from physical and spiritual danger, safeguarding crops and cattle, and guarding children – not trivial tasks!
Campbell went on to equate the mother Goddess of this time with later female objects of devotion such as the Virgin Mary and Holy Mother of God.  He also argued that it was the Goddess, not a male deity, who was associated with the head of a cow and "a mighty bull" – contra Evans, Harrison and Mellaart, as we have seen. 102 
	Throughout his work, Campbell linked women and the Goddess with many of the same animals, symbols, events and mythology that Gimbutas did: the moon, the dove, sheep, goats, pigs, the double ax, the labyrinth, and various geometric symbols. 103  Like Gimbutas, he noted major cultural changes toward the end of the Neolithic, around 3200 BCE.  It is here that he and she diverged most strongly:  Campbell was clearly in the camp of scholars who admire this next era as the epitome of “civilization” (not only Western, we might add, but Indo-European in general or, to use his term, Indo-Germanic).  Whereas Gimbutas asserted that the advanced culture of the Neolithic was virtually annihilated by eastern invaders on horseback, Campbell suggested that the profound cultural changes took place as a result of  "the highly conscious creation . . . of the mind and science of a new order of humanity . . . namely, the professional, full-time, initiated, strictly regimented temple priest." 104
	He went on to assert that it was at this time that certain significant "inventions" occurred in human history – kingship, writing, mathematics and calendrical astronomy. 105  However, Gimbutas and others challenge this.  First, gynocentric and Goddess-centered Neolithic peoples used a form of sacred writing to communicate with the Goddess. 106  Second, the rule of powerful women (the female equivalent of kings) brought about a peaceful, artistic, civilized society for millennia. 107  Finally, mathematics108 and moon-based astronomy were used successfully for gynocentric cultures to control human, floral and faunal fertility and reproduction.109 
	While Campbell continued in this mode and consistently noted the benefits of the "hieratic city-state," he often found at its roots the moon, woman, fertility and life, and found them across a phenomenal array of cultures.  Also, it should be noted that he admitted late in his life that, had Gimbutas’ data been available to him, his findings would have been different.110
Similarly, Vincent Scully, Yale art historian, argues that Greek temples were "physical embodiments of the gods in sacred places." 111  Heading most of the ten chapters of his The Earth, the Temple and the Gods with the name of a deity, and starting with "The Great Goddess" chapter, Scully describes the intimate link between the deity and the natural landscape in and on which the temple or sanctuary was constructed: "the essential belief seems to have been in the earth as a mother. . . upon whose continued presence human life depended." He further argues that "a more complicated meta-physic. . . developed balanced themes of fertility and death, movement and extinction."  He notes the significance of the labyrinth, the ubiquity of female figures, and symbols of the Goddess from prehistoric times, and develops his theories from these starting-points. 112
	Similarly, Jane Harrison offered this scathing critique of one "father" of Greek Literature:

	Through all the glamour of Hesiod's verse, enchanted as he is himself by the vision of the lovely temptress, there gleams also an ugly and malicious theological animus; he is all for the Father and the Father will have no great Earth-Goddess in his man-made Olympus. So she who made all things, gods and mortals, is unmade and remade and becomes the plaything of man, his slave, his lure, dowered only with bodily beauty and with a slave’s tricks and blandishments. To Zeus the arch-patriarchal bourgeois, the birth of the first woman is a hug[e] Olympian joke. 'He spake and the Sire of men and of gods immortal laughed.' Such a myth rose necessarily and naturally in the social shift from matrilinear to patrilinear conditions. 113

Finally, Robert Graves celebrated the Goddess in his classic 1948 work, The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth.  Graves maintained that the religion that continued into the Christian era was rooted in the distant past and based on the worship of a Goddess. One of her aspects was orgiastic: at midsummer, she demands human, male sacrifice.  These rites, wherein the son/hero is bound, beaten, flayed, castrated and impaled, conclude with his blood being sprinkled on the fields and the tribe, to make every living thing fertile.  Herakles/Hercules, the son/hero, derives from Hera, Queen of the Mountains, of summer, of the wind and of the wild oxen.  She is the all-powerful Goddess who chooses a male to participate in the rites.  At the core of the myths and rituals – originally, under Goddess religion – was the cyclical nature of birth-death-rebirth, with the process ruled by the female deity and the myth deriving from observations from the natural world. 114  

Conclusion
	As we can see from an investigation of significant prehistoric sites, besides the works of anthropologists, historians of art and religion, archaeologists, linguists, geneticists and other scholars, our earliest human ancestors, far from being primitive, ignorant and uncivilized, were peaceful, talented human beings who lived lives we might find enviable.  It is not accidental that they worshiped a female deity derived from Nature: their observations of and harmony with the natural world led naturally to the conviction that the Force that governed their lives was in the form of a woman, and that she dictated that human beings live in harmony with each other and their surroundings.
	We owe much of the rediscovery of this true "civilization" to the life and work of Marija Gimbutas.  As noted above, her work has not been universally received and appreciated.  In 1974, she wrote The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe, 7000-3500 BC, which appeared in a revised form in 1982.  These and her other dozen-plus books went relatively unacknowledged until late 1989, when she published The Language of the Goddess.  This work sparked a debate that intensified in 1991, with her publication of The Civilization of the Goddess; that debate continues.
Reviews of these books appeared in such popular venues as Ms., MacLean's, The Atlantic, Whole Earth Review, and Archaeology. Gimbutas' reviewers fall primarily into two categories: feminists and Goddess worshipers, on the one hand, who embrace her as an authority that validates their belief that gynocentric (woman-centered) societies were superior to patriarchal ones, and critics, on the other, who accuse her of making the archaeological evidence fit her biased preconceptions in irresponsible ways.
	 How convincing is her evidence, what do her critics say, and how valid are the criticisms?  As mentioned earlier, the work of Cynthia Eller is noteworthy, if only because hers is a full-blown book rather than a book review or article.  Eller’s arguments are weak for a number of reasons.  First, while citing a number of important works, she also neglects others that support Gimbutas and others like her. 115
	Second, Eller argues that Gimbutas was not held in high esteem by her fellow archaeologists, citing the comment of Bernard Wailes:  "Most of us tend to say, oh my God, here goes Marija again," 116  as if she were a bothersome child. The quote comes from a New York Times article by Peter Steinfels in 1990. 117  Eller states that, while Gimbutas was alive, most of her critics lashed out at her work in book reviews and discussions with journalists (see below), not in full-blown treatments, and that "now that she is gone. . . all that is left are her nonarchaeologically trained disciples." 118
This is significant and disturbing.  Feminists have been railing against such dismissive treatment for thirty years.  Ignoring a scholar with radical, new theories who criticizes the status quo and challenges or threatens mainstream "wisdom," whether in writing or in conversation, can be a very effective way to dismiss that person’s potentially significant, progressive work.  A primary strategy for stifling discussion and progress is to ostracize such scholars.
What in effect a work like Eller's does is to completely dismiss a vast body of new knowledge from a number of scholarly fields, lumping all writers and scholars who believe any part of this "myth" into one category of anti-scholars who’ve contributed virtually nothing in thirty years.  This is much more dangerous than what she proposes: that the myth of matriarchal prehistory does a disservice to the cause of feminism.  In effect, she is advocating what so many male scholars, archaeologists and anthropologists did in the past – ignoring obvious female figurines, artifacts, contributions altogether and/or describing them as neutral or insignificant, in the hopes that no one notices.
Gimbutas’ earlier critics offered little of substance against her work. 119  Unlike Gimbutas' critiques of her colleagues’ works, however, in which she dialogued with their theories and offered concrete counter-examples, her critics – enemies, even – have made broad, unsubstantiated statements without providing alternative interpretations of the evidence. 120  They have disparaged her because she was respected by feminists and others seeking alternatives to patriarchal religion, 121 they have accused her of  "proselytizing," and they have linked her unfavorably with "the modern revival movement of Goddess worship." 122   Some reviewers have used a disdainful, unprofessional tone 123 and even cast aspersions on her books’ appearance, saying they had a "coffee-table look." 124  One reviewer stated, "I doubt if Marija Gimbutas has many followers among her archaeological colleagues." 125
These comments do not constitute a compelling case against Gimbutas' general theories. She made her case by bringing together evidence from the many scholarly fields she mastered – archaeology, mythology, folklore, and linguistics – using such diverse tools as radiocarbon dating, pottery analysis, physical anthropological study of skeletal remains, scientific excavation, paleoethnographics, and examination of modern folklore and rituals.  She was a brilliant, careful and prodigious scholar.  Many respected colleagues agree with her on many points. 
This does not mean that every point she made is incontrovertible or should be taken without testing.  No scholar's work should be viewed that way.  What it does mean is that, like comparable male scholars with similar backgrounds, experience, expertise and productivity, she should be taken seriously and her work discussed at a professional level.  Her critics do themselves and the scholarly world a disfavor by lobbing personal attacks and ignoring the substance of her work.  However, one wishes she had countered criticism, presented conclusions more rigorously, or pursued tantalizing comments she made in passing. 126
	Despite controversy generated by her theories, in time her work will almost certainly be given the respect it deserves. At least among some scholars of religion, that is already occurring.  A 1996 edition of the prestigious Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion honored her legacy and advanced her theories in the field of religion, and her biography, edited by Joan Marler, From the Realm of the Ancestors: An Anthology in Honor of Marija Gimbutas, includes a number of important essays tracing Gimbutas' influence across many disciplines. 127  Some scholars, such as the geneticist L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, mentioned above, now support certain aspects of her work from outside the social sciences, which is highly significant.  An area such as genetics, a "hard" science, is generally regarded by the public as more "scientific" and "objective" than the social sciences and thus more "reliable."  If finds from the hard sciences support those of social sciences, interdisciplinary work of a scholar of Gimbutas' caliber will become increasingly less controversial, more widely accepted, and her conclusions more compelling.



Chapter 6: The Goddess and Philippi


Introduction

	Philippi in northern Greece is a third site useful for exploring the persistence of the prehistoric Nature goddess into the early Christian era. Philippi has been professionally excavated since the early years of the twentieth century and is still an active site, so there is much material for analysis.
         The evidence for goddess worship, goddess symbolism, and female involvement in cultic activity in the historic period is exhibited primarily but not exclusively through the highly unusual live-cut rock reliefs on its acropolis hill, honoring Artemis/Diana more than any other deity. Isis, Livia (deified wife of Augustus), the Virgin Mary and other female figures were also invoked. Many symbols of the goddess � rosettes, geometric designs, birds, vines and other plants � appear as late as the early Byzantine era. Ancient literary references to Philippi that mention or imply early Christian women, including their involvement in pre-Christian goddess cults, include the letter of St. Paul to the Philippians, the Acts of the Apostles, The Acts of Paul and Thecla, and the letter of Bishop Polycarp. Imperial-era inscriptions that have a bearing on the goddess have been found on grave monuments, in conjunction with the rock reliefs, on votive offerings and associated with basilica burials.
	Philippi�s history was shaped by its location both near Thrace and Macedonia and on the Via Egnatia, where a great deal of evidence for the prehistoric Nature goddess remains. The Carpatho-Balkan region, stretching roughly from present-day Romania through Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece, was settled during the late seventh to sixth millennia BCE by Near Eastern Neolithic farmers. Proficient in farming and boasting a mature social structure, these settlers gradually merged with a hunting-food gathering economy centered on the southern Bug valley, northwest of the Black Sea, Ukraine region. A number of regional cultures in this area developed individual identities but generally remained closely related in their agricultural economies, social organization, arts and anthropomorphic cults, which focused on fertility. Especially in the Thracian Plain in current Bulgaria, many settlements continued for centuries on the same site; some reveal steady occupation from as early as the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods through the Bronze Age and even later. 
	The later Carpatho-Balkan Chalcolithic era, beginning late in the fifth millennium and lasting into the fourth, was a time of great prosperity and artistic achievement. Also, some evidence has been found to indicate that an early form of writing may have developed here. Urban planning is indicated by excavations at Polyanitsa in northeast Bulgaria, which shows elaborate defense systems.  Such systems, which may have been protection from wild animals, differ from hill-fort fortifications of later times.  At Maidanets in the Ukraine, two-storied homes have been uncovered, and it is possible that 20,000 people may have inhabited some 1,500 identified buildings. �The original circum-radial plan provided for open spaces, communal houses, presumably for family groups, and industrial quarters.� 
         Philippi is located in the midst of the Thracian-Macedonian region. Other sites in the region, such as Maronia, Makri, Strymi,  Dikili-Tash, Stara Zagora, Plovdiv  and Sitagroi (see Chapter 1), have all produced significant archaeological finds from the prehistoric era, some of them coming to light only in the past two decades. The finds overwhelmingly point to the sovereignty of a powerful female deity. Thus the entire region surrounding Philippi was inhabited from very early times but was also urban, cultured, prosperous, and gynocentric.
	While it therefore comes as no surprise that a goddess in some form (or many forms) persisted into Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman times, it is the Philippi�s legacy as a Christian city, the possible site of St. Paul�s martyrdom,  and home to at least six basilicas in the early Byzantine era, that makes it a premier locale in which to examine the intersection between goddess �thealogy� and early Christianity. 
	Philippi�s unique rock reliefs, carved on the acropolis hill around 200 CE,  exhibit a female to male ratio of seven to one. (See Table 6.1 below.) The figure portrayed most frequently is the goddess Artemis/Diana,  followed closely by unidentified priestesses. It is highly probable that women carved most of the reliefs.  The hill appears to be an open-air sanctuary and is not a cemetery. By the third century, the hill was home to at least two temple complexes � to the wood god Sylvanus and to the Egyptian goddess Isis � and an open-air shrine to Diana. The Sylvanus and Diana cults were flourishing by the mid- to late-second century, while the temple to Isis appears to have been constructed in the early third. While it is not known exactly when any of these shrines finally fell out of use, there is evidence that Isis survived into at least the fifth century.

Table 6.1. Proportion of Female to Male Figures on the Philippian Acropolis Hill

Female			Male

Artemis/Diana	90	Horseman		7
Women	        40	Jupiter			5
Minerva	         2	Man & Male Heads	4
Kybele		 3	Centaur		        1
Lunar deity	 3	Phallus			1
			Man & altar		1
TOTAL:	       138		               19



	Other deities were also prominent at Philippi. Dionysos was one very popular god in the area,  and in the forum, heavily renovated in the mid-second century, were twin Corinthian temples to the emperor and empress. A trio of deities � the male gods Liber and Herakles and the female deity Libera � was apparently honored in a complex south of the forum.  An indigenous deity, the Thracian Horseman, was especially popular among soldiers but also attracted others without regard to gender, occupation or social status. 
	What makes the female element striking at Philippi is twofold: first, Artemis/Diana was the city�s protector deity for a long period of time, and second, the popularity of Diana and Isis, along with the Virgin Mary, lasted well into the Byzantine era. The apostle Paul was apparently quite successful at Philippi in the mid-first century CE: the Philippian Christian community seems to have been both stable and prosperous (Phil. 4:14-18). However, the rock reliefs were carved 150 years after his ministry there, and the Philippians were still honoring Isis in the early fifth century. Pagan competition to Christianity remained strong centuries after the time of Paul.
	On the other hand, Philippi was as patriarchal and hierarchical as most other imperial-era cities. Epigraphic evidence shows that the vast majority of its civic officials were male, and one of its main shrines, dating to the Hellenistic era and situated in the middle of the city, was the tomb of a young male hero and city founder.  Philippi honored the emperors just as most other cities did, and its main Christian witnesses were Paul and Timothy.
	However, even this history masks some partially hidden female remnants, which become important in analyzing the religious practices among the city�s non-ruling populace in the historical period, especially women. First, St. Paul himself worked closely with two female leaders, Euodia and Syntyche (Phil. 4:2-3). While generally overlooked by church historians, these women were probably very prominent in the earliest Christian community.  Second, there is a possibility that Philippi had female bishops at an early time and/or a non-hierarchical shared leadership model.  Third, a temple in the forum dedicated to the Empress Faustina the Younger matched one honoring the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.  Fourth, a colossal monument in the middle of the forum, dated to the late second century CE, was dedicated to the deified Livia, wife of Augustus, and once boasted seven larger-than-life-size priest statues, five of which were female figures.  Finally, an altar, dedicated to Queen Isis and positioned near the city gate, contained an appeal to that goddess for the well-being of the colony;  significantly, an inscription to Mary and Jesus appealing for protection was found nearby, attesting to people�s belief in the power of all three figures in the fifth-sixth centuries CE. 
	The snapshot we have of this colony, then is of an agricultural yet urban Graeco-Roman community of mixed population, including Roman soldiers and their families, with a relatively sophisticated heritage dating to prehistoric times. Philippians were literate and enjoyed the arts: the forum contained a library and the theater had existed for centuries.  They revered typical Graeco-Roman deities and the emperor, with the major deities being female, and women played important roles in the various cults. The Christ-cult was introduced in the mid-first century but was basically a minority religion until at least the fifth century. Below we will examine some of the archaeological evidence in more depth to determine the nature of the goddess worshipped in the colony during this time.


Symbols on the Acropolis Hill

Symbols from the Graeco-Roman period, both pagan and Christian, are evident throughout Philippi and the surrounding region, especially in funerary contexts and in the rock reliefs on the acropolis hill. The symbols among the carvings on the hill, which bear a strong resemblance to symbols of the prehistoric Nature goddess, point to people�s continuing devotion to female deities into the Christian era. The images take a number of forms: stars and round objects, moon symbols, torches, ivy, the branch, the stag, deer, and hounds, Diana in various poses, and human females.
         Stars and round objects resembling rosettes are found among the acropolis reliefs, in the roofs of the temple-like structures that sometimes house a Diana or human female figure, and on grave stelai throughout the region. Under the rule of the prehistoric goddess, stars represented heavenly bodies; like the moon they lit up the night sky. Round objects could represent the full moon or, as rosettes, could have a funerary connotation. The Diana cult at Philippi had as one of its components concern for the dead, with provisions for funerary rites at the time of death as well as anniversary rites for the deceased for many years after death. Therefore, the depiction of these stars, rosettes and round objects on the acropolis hill were linked with the immortality aspect of the Diana (and Thracian Horseman) cults in the region, symbolic reminders or indicators to devotees of the goddess� concern in this area of human existence.  The Roman rites of Rosalia and Parentalia, whereby roses were used in conjunction with funerary rites in some manner, were adopted easily in the region, in part due to their similarity to indigenous rites long associated with the Thracian Dionysos. While the details of these rites are unknown, it is possible that they consisted of a sacrifice of fire on the deceased person�s tomb, at least in the Graeco-Roman era. 
	Astral symbols � stars and crescents � are among the most prominent symbols on the acropolis hill. Reliefs of Diana with a crescent in or near the relief number nine. Crescents also appear in reliefs depicting the following: five human beings (three women, two men); the goddess Kybele; a female lunar divinity; and a six-pointed star. Stars or round objects appear in reliefs depicting two Thracian Horsemen, possibly five Dianas, six priestesses and two crescents. Crescents also appear with all three of the depictions of Diana slaying a stag, as well as with the only portrayal of Diana carrying torches. 
	Two of the Dianas with crescents are shown near priestesses: one Diana near a priestess with her left hand extended; the other Diana near a priestess face front and a second priestess face front with objects mundus muliebris (from the sphere of women) in the field.  A crescent also appears above a Diana of unknown type. While Diana (in her Greek manifestation as Artemis) was not originally a lunar deity, imperial-era coins from nearby Amphipolis depict her with a crescent behind her shoulders � a characteristic of the Asia Minor deity M�n.  On other coins of this era from the islands of Delos and Thasos, she carries a torch,  the symbol of the goddesses Hekate, Persephone, Selene/Luna and others. 
         An additional symbol found on the acropolis hill and elsewhere in the region around Philippi was the ivy branch. A symbol of the Thracian goddess Bendis, Diana�s counterpart, the ivy branch was linked with the ancient Nature goddess� concern with immortality and the afterlife.  Roses, ivy and other plant life, of course, were indicators of the cyclical aspects of Nature: life to death to life/birth to decay to death to resurrection in a never-ending process.
	All the symbols from the acropolis hill, by themselves and in conjunction with symbols found throughout Philippi and the larger region, can be assessed in light of the prehistoric Nature goddess. As noted in Chapter 2, crescents are moon symbols. To ancient peoples, the moon was a dynamic, changing force: it changed shape nightly yet its monthly rhythms were also regular, steady and closely linked with women. Women charted not only their own cycles to the moon but also those of plants and animals,  believing it to be a vital life force: without it, there would be no human or animal conception or agricultural growth.
	The lunar cycle, as depicted on Neolithic-era bowls from Old Europe and in conjunction with graves in Brittany in the same era, so closely connected with women, suggests a very ancient association between cyclical lunar time and the regenerative role of the goddess in the cycles of birth, death and rebirth.  The rock reliefs at Philippi, blending the elements of crescents with Diana as both protector of women in childbirth and of women and children and taker of life (through death in childbirth), constitute compelling evidence for the persistence of these ancient, prehistoric belief and praxis systems.
	Furthermore, the moon was awe-inspiring because it gave light in the dark night sky: hence the connection between the moon, the moon goddess, Diana, and the torches she carried. In the ancient imagination, night was the counterpart to day, and in Mediterranean areas night was a more comforting, comfortable time than the day with its unrelenting heat. Under patriarchal religion, night and darkness took on more evil, menacing and dangerous connotations, now associated with women in a negative way.  At Philippi in the imperial era, however, it seems that night and the bodies that illuminated it gently � the moon and torches � were still considered positive, life-giving and belonging to the goddess.
         The Christian-era rock reliefs, most probably votives by women who had delivered successfully or in memory of women who had died giving birth, may have been carved by women preserving very ancient practices in devotion to the goddess � not just the goddess of Homeric literature but the all-powerful force that predated Greek mythology by millennia.  This devotion could well have continued even while mainstream, god-centered beliefs and practices occurred all around them. 
	Another prominent Diana symbol on the acropolis hill was her pose as slayer of the stag, Diana as mistress of animals and the hunt. The act of slaying the stag, in conjunction with crescents, resonates very strongly with the ancient goddess and her power over life and death. The stag or male deer has a long association with Artemis and other moon goddesses, both in Old Europe and elsewhere. The stag, deer and doe are all related to giving birth, although the connection remains mysterious. Very ancient evidence, from as early as 12,000 BCE, indicates that deer were ritually sacrificed for the mother goddess. Gimbutas speculates that perhaps Mother Doe, the great life-giver, required sacrifices of young life each year to strengthen her ability to create new life. 
         Cross-culturally, deer images have been found in several media dating from as early as the Neolithic and persisting into the Graeco-Roman period. These images strongly suggest a close link between this animal, human fertility, and sacrifice in service to the goddess. Old Anatolian and European cult vases, for instance, have been found in the shape of a deer and date to the second half of the seventh millennium BCE. A Minoan seal from Crete depicts what seems to be a stag dancer with a huge antler for a head, upraised arms and large breasts. Men dressed as women performed stag dances around the New Year in England, Romania and Germany. Evidence for deer cults has also been found on cult vases from Greece and Bulgaria and on Cypriot figurines.  The stag was a symbol of the Sumerian goddess of childbirth, reflecting a synchronicity between the growth cycle of the stag�s antlers and that of spring-grown Neolithic cereal grains.  The image of a deer goddess is preserved in Scottish and Irish fairy tales: Scottish women turned themselves into deer, or vice versa. 
	The stag-goddess link is also reflected in inscriptions and Christian-era literature. Pausanias, who flourished around 150 CE, relates that the statue of Artemis in the temple of Despoina at Arcadia was clothed in deerskin. At an Attic festival called the Elaphebolia, which means �She Who Strikes or Hits the Red Deer,� the goddess receives a deer sacrifice and honey cakes in the shape of a deer.  It is perhaps this connection that most gives rise to the image in the rock reliefs and elsewhere that Diana must slay the deer or stag � to ensure her own strength. Perhaps too the patronage of Diana by hunters reflects a similar impetus: not only is the hunter killing his quarry because it is a source of food, but the act of killing is also the sacrifice to the deity to ensure her strength in helping humans and animals give birth.
	In prehistoric and other agriculturally-based cultures, where the taking of animal life was a necessity for the continuation of human life, hunters often slew the animal under ritualistic conditions � to express gratitude to the goddess for the food and to ask her that the life of other animals continue. Ancient peoples knew that if that life did not continue, there would soon be no more food for themselves.  Relatedly, for the deity to take the life of a woman in childbirth was an act that perhaps required a propitiation: the community must bring offerings to the goddess in an attempt to make things right again, to return the human-goddess relationship to harmony. For, if too many women died in childbirth, the human race would not continue.  Thus it is likely that the loss of a woman (and child) in childbirth was both memorialized on the acropolis hill as a tragedy and acknowledged as a cause for ritualistic action to appease the goddess. 
	In this way, Philippi�s women continued to give birth and to heal under the auspices of the ancient, very powerful goddess � whether called Diana, Artemis or Bendis. Despite the introduction of the Judeo-Christian god in male form, the goddess still reigned supreme, at least in this arena of life. Perhaps the male god was viewed as irrelevant in this sphere of women. Significantly, however, male deities did play a role in the culture, as we shall see below.


The Isis Sanctuary

As noted above, remains of a sanctuary to the Egyptian goddess Isis were found on Philippi�s acropolis hill. Isis, her husband Serapis/Osiris, and their son, Harpocrates/Horus, grew to become among the most popular deities in the Roman empire, both among commoners and in the upper strata of society, but not without sporadic government suppression. Of the three, it was Isis, the mother, who became the most popular when the cult was finally sanctioned in the empire, and it was she who was ultimately the most prevalent deity at Philippi and nearby cities. At Amphipolis, Apollonia, Verroia and Thessaloniki,  her cult was attested to by statues and inscriptions, including two inscriptions to �Queen Isis.� 
The Isis cult, both at Philippi and throughout the Graeco-Roman world, consisted of several standard elements. At daily services, the shrines were opened and the statue awakened and clothed. Congregational singing and praise, sacred dances and processions and initiations for chosen members were all part of the religious praxis; water, believed to be holy water from the Nile, played a large role. Most Isis temples were large complexes that housed professional clergy and temporarily lodged devotees.   Both men and women participated in and were officials of the cult, which survived in various parts of the Empire through the mid-sixth century CE. 
         At Philippi, the cult complex on the acropolis hill consisted of five contiguous rooms on one side and one large room opposite them. The five rooms served as housing for the divinities and people; the one large chamber was used as a gathering room where initiates celebrated a communal, ritual meal. Judging from the inscriptions found in the complex, the sanctuary dates to the third century CE, although it could have been constructed during the second century. 
         That it was Isis and not Serapis who was the dominant member of the pair in Thrace and Macedonia implies not only her overall strength in the region but also the propensity of the general populace toward a female deity and the influence of her proselytizers to promote her qualities. Her healing and apotropaic promises, not to mention her many other attributes, would have constituted serious competition to local deities. Her promoters not only advertised her as Queen but also chose to construct an elaborate worship center in close proximity to the Diana and Sylvanus sanctuaries, one which would have been attractive to a broad cross-section of Philippians.


Male Deities and Gender Pairing

The cult of Isis, with her cultic and mythological links with male deities � husband Serapis and son Harpocrates � illustrates a notable phenomenon that provides another parallel with the prehistoric Nature goddess: gender pairing. At Philippi, at least five male deities in the colony, in addition to Serapis, had followings: Sylvanus, Dionysos, Herakles, the Thracian Horseman and Liber. All were paired in some way with a female deity, involved with female worshippers or syncretized with gods who were paired with goddesses. This pairing of the goddess with a male counterpart was characteristic of prehistoric goddess religion: the male deity was not equal in power to the goddess but rather functioned as a son and consort.
         In Neolithic times, the male god was rarely depicted as a powerful king or ruler in his own right. People knew that the male of animal and human species had an important role in the creation of new life, but it was a role subordinate to that of the goddess: �man�s sexual and physical power was esteemed as magically enhancing female life-giving powers. . . [I]t was believed that their fusing created potency necessary to charge nature with life powers.�  In the pose of the �thinker� � seated in a chair, elbows resting on his knees, head supported with his hands � he most likely represented dying vegetation.  
         At and around Philippi, we can see how various male deities were worshipped and thus how, even through the male, the prehistoric goddess�s influence continued in the early Christian era.

...  SECTION SKIPPED  ...


The Acropolis Hill as Sanctuary

	The actual function of the acropolis hill as an open-air sanctuary, a sanctuary contemporaneous with several temples on the hill and within the city�s forum, further suggests a lingering influence of the prehistoric Nature goddess. Several functions of the rock reliefs on the acropolis hill illustrate this connection, including their use as votives, their funerary and commemorative functions, and their connection with healing. Also, mountain-top sanctuaries themselves served as domains of the goddess and sites of her worship.
Votives were offerings or petitions to a deity for personal health and safety, thank-offerings for the granting of petitions, successful childbirth, victory in games and contests and dedications of various types.  At Philippi, each relief was probably offered by an individual in response to or anticipation of a specific act of the goddess; some reliefs were in the form of small shrines or niches, into which devotees would have placed perishable votive offerings such as food, drink, coins, candles, incense and flowers. Collectively, the votives became offerings useful to the community, not because of their artistic or any intrinsic value but due to their relationship with other reliefs and to their placement in this public shrine, the acropolis hill. Thus the reliefs served three purposes as votives: a gift to the goddess; a permanent legacy to the devotee, even if it were anonymous; and, along with other reliefs, a part of the entire sanctuary complex as used by the community.
Some of the votives on the hill were free-standing reliefs. 

However,
. . . the statuettes were not all meant for the deity. . . . [S]ome at least were meant for human beings; and . . . probably there were worshippers as well as priests among them. But . . . these are not portraits: they represent an act. 

         This act, blessed by the goddess Diana, was that of worship, the bringing of gifts to the deity. Furthermore, as Diana was a goddess who protected women in childbirth, many reliefs and inscriptions were dedicated to her commemorating that occasion. However, the many statuettes and figurines depicting women in various poses (e.g., kneeling, the typical posture in antiquity of a woman giving birth) symbolize the act or process blessed by Artemis even when she was not present in the same vicinity or the same relief. 
	Connected to the hill�s use as a depository for votive offerings was its function as a center for healing, a major characteristic of the prehistoric Nature goddess. Two inscriptions strongly suggest this connection. The first accompanies a female figure carved near two Dianas, both carrying bows: �Aelia Atena has made (this) votive on account of (a vision?).�   Is it possible that it is the woman Aelia Atena who is depicted here? Obviously the votive offering from this woman is one or both of the Diana figures, but perhaps she herself or a member of her family (after her death?) put �her� up there, too, to be protected by the goddess.
         The second inscription is linked to depictions of a pair of eyes and two crescents:  �Galgestia Primilla has rightly paid off with pleasure (this) votive to Diana on behalf of (her) daughter.�   This appears to be a votive offered by Galgestia Primilla to the goddess for an eye cure or some other act having to do with the eyes. It may also symbolize Diana�s ability to see the girl�s problem, as the ear depicted in another relief  might refer to her ability to hear her devotees� petitions. 
	Healing in connection with Artemis/Diana is suggested in many other ways throughout the region around Philippi. The Artemis cult on the nearby island of Thasos was primarily concerned with healing and childbirth.  The Thracian Horseman/Hero � linked with Artemis/Bendis, as noted above � was also associated both with a king who had healing powers and, at a shrine in Bulgaria, with the healing god Asklepios.   In South Thrace (south of the Danube) healing springs are linked to Roman spas, the Three Nymphs and Artemis.  Furthermore, the placement of the Isis sanctuary on the same hill at Philippi suggests that healing was centered around both of these cults, perhaps at different times, given that �it is as healers that the Egyptian gods were associated at Philippi.�  Incubation was practiced at other Isis sanctuaries in antiquity, just as in the Asklepios sanctuaries; judging by the architecture, it is likely that incubation was also practiced at Philippi. 
         Therefore, the acropolis hill, beginning with the Diana and Thracian Horseman cults with their Graeco-Roman and Thracian backgrounds, and followed by Isis and her co-deities, was used in some way as a healing center, and rock reliefs depicting the process of Diana hunting, some with a tree in the scene, were offered, whether by natives, travelers or pilgrims, in thanksgiving for various acts of healing.
	In addition, the acropolis sanctuary was used as a site of commemoration of women at the time of their death, another concern of the prehistoric Nature deity. The acropolis hill at Philippi was not a cemetery: the closest burials were found on the western slope of the hill, some distance from the rock reliefs. However, as we have seen, there was still much thought given to immortality, the afterlife and deification of human beings after death by devotees using the hill.
         What does this mean in terms of the Diana cult as manifested by the rock reliefs? First, the reliefs were not personalized memorials to individuals, not even those of the priestesses. If individuals were to be commemorated, that would have been accomplished with grave stelai or other markers. Rather, the Diana cult was one of the groups, if not the only group, that bore responsibility for preparing women for burial, organizing their funerals and honoring their memories on a regular basis. 
         The majority of anniversary rites would have been carried out at the women�s graves, wherever they may have been. The symbols on and among the reliefs that suggest concern with the afterlife indicate that the primary cult whose main shrine was located on the hill was concerned with the immortality of its members, a concern closely linked to fertility, and that the goddess was viewed by her devotees as ruling over earth, heaven, and the underworld.
         Finally, the acropolis hill as a center for rituals of all kinds also reflects the survival of goddess practices from much earlier times. Ritual processions are common aspects of religious rites the world over; participants in the rite often wear special clothes and carry ritual objects from one point to another over a sacred period of time, sometimes accompanied by music. The objects may then be deposited at the terminus point of the ritual, possibly clothed or adorned, fed, venerated, stored, consumed, and so on. Such processions are depicted on various works of art, including public monuments, as well as described in literary sources. Today ritual processions are, of course, vital parts of liturgy in Jewish, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and other faiths, especially around holy days.
         Evidence exists from Minoan Crete, for instance, for certain idols to be carried in such a procession. At Kannia, a small figure has a handle on the back, indicating that it was made to be carried. Similarly, in the Shrine of the Double Axes on Crete, figures of goddesses discovered in the excavations appear without feet but wearing an elaborate flounced skirt. This shape would presumably allow for easy carrying in procession. Similarity, the frontality of some of the idols indicate that they were made to be set up on benches for viewing. Thus the sequence was that they were first carried then set in special places to be worshipped during the remainder of the rite. 
         It is not difficult to imagine such a procession occurring at Philippi. The structures and finds on the acropolis hill demonstrate that it was used extensively for hundreds if not thousands of years. It is not a steep or large hill, and it overlooks the forum, so accessibility and distance are not impediments. The association of Diana and other female deities with torches suggest nocturnal rituals and mobility, and we know from many sources that the Isis cult had processions as a component (see above). The probability that Philippians in the time of St. Paul marched to and on the acropolis hill to revere one or more goddesses and that they were carrying on very ancient practices is high.
For all these reasons, then, the acropolis hill at Philippi belonged to the goddess in early Christian times, just as it had for thousands of years before. 

The Bendis-Zodiac Relief

	A significant artifact found at Philippi provides a further illustration of the significance and persistence of the goddess in this community even as it became christianized. In 1979, a broken marble relief depicting the head of a female deity with two signs of the zodiac � the bull and the twins � was discovered in the so-called �bishops� palace� of Philippi.  The relief has tentatively been dated to the third century CE.  As reconstructed, it would show a goddess, probably Artemis/Bendis,  with a crescent and the point of a spear behind her head and twelve zodiac symbols around her. Its diameter would be .35 meters (or 14 inches). 
	Artemis/Diana/Bendis in association with the zodiac reflects the importance of the heavens and the goddess� close association with them. Artemis, brandishing her spear for the hunt, is associated with her cyclical moon nature (the crescent) and rules over, or with, the twelve celestial beings represented by the zodiac. She is truly Queen of Heaven, and the astral bodies in turn rule floral, faunal and human existence.
	As we have seen in Chapter 1, the signs of the zodiac and the depiction of animals in procession go back to prehistoric times and are associated with the goddess. The Nature goddess as Earth Mother created all animals � and the heavenly bodies.
         By this time (third century CE) elsewhere in the empire, the zodiac had come to be associated more with figures such as Mithras, the relatively new male deity revered by soldiers, or Sol Invictus, the male Sun God. In fact, in 274 CE, the Emperor Aurelian declared the invincible sun as the imperial religion � an abrupt departure from reverence to the powerful female deities that had previously ruled the heavens. Is it possible, then, that the Bendis plaque at Philippi was made in contradistinction to this trend, or at least as an alternative to it? �No,� its creator might have argued, �it is the goddess, not the god, who rules the heavens. The sun is still subordinate to the female source of all life.� Supporting this is the fact that no remains have turned up at Philippi or in surrounding cities of Mithras or the sun god. The masculine images that have been discovered are much more egalitarian or otherwise equated with female deities, as we have seen above in the discussion of male and female pairs.
	It is especially significant that the plaque was found in a Christian context, even a context of Christian leaders, namely in St. Paul�s Basilica. A small rectangular structure built about 313 CE, the basilica existed through the fifth century when it was reconstructed in octagonal form. Beside it during this time was an episcopal complex consisting of a baptistery, priests� quarters, a bath complex and storage rooms. This area had previously been a rather typical Roman bathing establishment. What would a very pagan plaque, fit for a wall, be doing in the living quarters of Christian bishops?
         The existence of the Artemis/Bendis plaque in the bishops� quarters, along with the Isis altar and petition to Jesus and Mary, found at the city gate (see below), show that the people of Philippi, including the Christian hierarchy, still acknowledged the power of Philippi�s traditional female deity, whether she was called Artemis, Bendis, Diana, Isis or Mary. Whether the plaque had been a wall hanging in a private home or a votive offering from a shrine is unclear. At the very least, these Philippians were appealing to her � in the guise of Queen of the Heavens � for help in times of peril, perhaps in some desperation. In good polytheistic fashion, they were looking to whatever powerful divinities they could find to help them.
	This is not to say that Philippians felt that Jesus the Christ was impotent or was not coming through for them. He was present in the community, certainly. Rather, like other male deities at Philippi from eons earlier, he was in some ways subordinate to and/or paired with the female principle, in this case, Mary. 


The Power of Isis, Mary and Jesus

	By the early Byzantine era, Christianity had taken a fairly strong hold at Philippi, a religious hierarchy was in place, several significant basilicas had been constructed, and Christian symbols were everywhere. However, three pieces of religious evidence have been discovered near one of the city gates that provide more intrigue to the meaning of the Bendis plaque and raise the question of how monolithic Christianity really was here.
	First, a copy of the famous yet spurious correspondence between King Abgar of Edessa and Jesus was found on an inscription near one of the city gates (see above, Chapter 3). In this correspondence, Philippian residents are appealing to Jesus on behalf of their city. 
	Near this inscription was found an altar to the Egyptian goddess Isis that refers to her as �Queen Isis.� A dove and cross, Christian symbols, were carved on one side; nothing was defaced. This altar, probably dating to the third century, had been moved to its findspot sometime in antiquity. Since moving it would have been quite an undertaking it must have been done in the face of some impending doom such as an invasion or an earthquake. With this altar and inscription, Philippians are appealing to Isis for the well-being of the colony. 
	Finally, near this altar was found an inscription to Jesus, �born of the Virgin Mary,�
asking for the city�s protection from some unknown peril; it dates to the fifth or sixth century,  contemporaneous with the Abgar/Jesus letters. In the goddess-dominated atmosphere of this community, the mention of Mary in this short petition indicates her significance for the people. They may be praying to Jesus, but Mary is fully present in their minds� eye.
	Christianity, then, does not appear to be an exclusive or victorious religion, even at this late date. Rather, the people in this city continued to revere their ancient deities, especially perhaps in times of trouble, and the female deity was at least as powerful as the male into the fifth or sixth century. The line between �pagan� and �Christian� was very fine indeed, and the prehistoric Nature goddess remained influential.

The Basilicas:  Remnants of the Prehistoric Goddess in the Early Byzantine Era

	It is in the artistry of the Philippian basilicas that we find some of the most remarkable remnants of prehistoric goddess survival in the Christian era. The ornate mosaic decorations found on floors, walls and apses and the many symbols depicted on capitals and other architectural features of these six early Byzantine structures are striking examples of people�s continuing reverence for Nature and the female life force, even after the Peace of the Church.
         Although none of the six basilicas found thus far at the site was discovered fully intact, mosaic, capital, grave and other decoration was still found in several. The similarities between the designs in this city and in others, such as nearby Thessaloniki, indicate that the architects of these monumental buildings, if not the artists and artisans, were from the same �school,� were following the same orders from Constantinople or other ecclesiastical centers, and/or were some of the same individuals. This in turn indicates that the theology behind such programs must also have been similar.
If, then, many of the symbols were familiar to church leaders and common people because they derived from much earlier ideas and beliefs, it is likely that the rulers who ordered the buildings constructed felt the need to use symbolic decoration that not only promoted their own theological agenda but also resonated with the people. For even in the face of sporadic imperial edicts outlawing paganism, old beliefs died hard, and perhaps political expediency at times dictated, �if you can�t beat them, join them!�
	The six basilicas discovered at Philippi date between 313 and 550 CE. Some were built when others burnt to the ground or collapsed in earthquakes, but at any given time during these two and one-half centuries, two or three basilicas may have been functioning simultaneously. Because of its ideal location on the Roman road the Via Egnatia, archaeologists theorize that Philippi was a pilgrimage site.
         Basilica A.  Directly across the Via Egnatia from the Philippian forum are remains of a Christian basilica constructed between 450 and 500 CE. It consists of several typical features: narthex, three aisles, balcony, ambo, choir area, apsidal construction at the altar (east) end, baptistery and possible priests� rooms (west end).  The interior walls were covered with marble slabs and painted designs, and the floor was composed of mosaic pavements in various geometric and floral patterns. The capitals were ornately sculpted with floral, Christian and animal motifs.
Basilica A was destroyed by fire in 518 CE, probably as a result of an earthquake.  To the southwest are the remains of a small Ionic hero�s shrine from the third or second century BCE,  and nearby the crypt traditionally purported to be the �prison of St. Paul.�  
         While the original archaeologists said little about the basilica�s designs, implying that they were primarily decorative and, if at all symbolic, mainly Christian, the designs do resemble those encountered by Gimbutas and others on Neolithic and other prehistoric artifacts.
         Basilica B (Direkler). Perhaps because of the destruction of Basilica A, Basilica B (or Direkler, meaning �columns� in Turkish) was built around 550 CE on top of the ruins of a large building south of the forum. Several of its walls, demonstrating early Byzantine architectural techniques such as alternating brick and stone, can still be seen. Its size, the originality of its architectural form and its decorative features make it unique among known basilicas in Greece.  
         The complex is comprised of a narthex and atrium, and its basic form is a rectangle which terminates in the east in an apse which had been covered by a semi-cupola. A dome was built above the intersection of the nave and transept.  (It is this dome which may have collapsed prior to completion of the building, thereby preventing its dedication.) A chapel and room thought by the early archaeologists to be a baptistery flank either side of the church proper at the apsidal end, with the southern baptistery slightly longer than the northern. Dug into the northern chamber is a shallow rectangular basin and channels for the evacuation of water. 
         Several surviving capitals boast carefully-wrought decorations of acanthus; the corresponding cornices are decorated with animal (fish and mollusks) and vegetable motifs. The capitals are comparable to those of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Marble slabs have been found which would have covered the walls and floors, as did sculpted plaques. The decoration on the plaques included a duck, pelican, squid, dolphin, zucchini and pomegranate.  Several of these images had significance for prehistoric goddess religion. 
         One particular capital, now housed at the Philippi Museum on-site, is decorated with ram�s heads and eagles, with its base carved with a frieze of lines, diamonds and circles. In Jewish lore, the eagle was viewed as an unclean bird of prey, yet it also had positive qualities such as the nurture of its young and recuperative powers. For Christians, the eagle represented the Ascension of Christ, immortality and St. John.  However, in prehistoric times, the eagle was strongly associated with the goddess of death and regeneration, as were other birds of prey. 
The ram, similarly, was a sacred animal of the bird goddess in Neolithic times and was linked with reproduction, food and abundance.  The bird goddess was both a giver of life, well-being and nourishment and a representative of death.  In Classical Greece, she came to be associated with Athena, who was often linked with a variety of birds. For Christians, the ram was a symbol of strength, especially Christ battling Satan,  and had long been an important animal in Jewish sacrifice. An important reason to believe that these associations may have existed in Byzantine Philippi is that �(t)o this day, the meaning of the ram in folklore is similar to the water bird as a magical animal which brings abundance.� 
         Finally, the geometric designs � line, diamond, circle � may have been decorative, but may also have had meaning, especially as carved in conjunction with the eagle and ram. As noted above, lines, diamonds and circles in certain contexts denoted different traits and attributes of the goddess: water, the bringing forth of new life and the natural cycles of animals, plants and human beings.
Extra-Muros. The Extra-Muros (�outside the wall�) Basilica, whose chronology is problematic, could date as early as the first half of the fourth century. It was located beside a small stream east of Philippi, near the Neapolis Gate, perhaps to commemorate Paul�s baptism of Lydia as recorded in Acts.  
         Numismatic evidence shows that Extra-Muros had three building phases, the second coming within a century or two of the first; the third phase dates to the Medieval period.  The decoration inside, probably dating from this earliest phase, was �simple and unassuming, although skil[l]fully and carefully executed.�   While very little remains of the mosaics and sculptures, what is left, especially in the narthex, is instructive. Various cross designs � four-leaved types, double Maltese crosses, a Latin cross hanging from a lamb�s collar and an encircled monogram cross composed of six ivy leaves with, on either side, Latin crosses standing on ivy stems  � are in evidence. While the crosses undoubtedly point to the church�s Christian heritage, it may not have escaped devotees� attention that the cross symbol was originally that of a tree, a symbol of life, fertility and regeneration long before it came to be associated with the death of Jesus. 
         Likewise, a spiraling ivy branch with leaves that appears in the mosaic floor of the nave is most likely a connection between the ivy leaves and Bendis,   �to whom in her aspect of goddess of the underworld and immortality the ivy was a sacred attribute.�  Moreover, devotees were buried under Extra-Muros,  so the link between the symbols and death � and the antiquity of the association � is unmistakable. Centuries after the prehistoric goddess reigned, people of the area were returning their deceased to the body of Mother Earth for rest and regeneration.
St. Paul�s Basilica and Octagon Complex. An episcopal complex � baptistery, priests� quarters, bath complex, storage rooms � and a corresponding church in the form of an octagon lie directly east of the forum.  This excavated Octagon dates to the mid-fifth century. However, its history can be traced earlier, to the beginning of the fourth century, when the first structure was rectangular; this may have been constructed as early as 313 CE.  
In the tradition of other early Christian buildings, this structure was most likely a privately owned martyrium, built in conjunction with the tomb of a hero or city founder.  The young man buried here in the Hellenistic era probably came to be worshipped in the Byzantine era as a Christian martyr. In addition, young children were buried in the Octagon�s courtyard, so Christians in the fourth to sixth centuries undoubtedly wanted to place their children, perhaps unbaptized, under the protection of the deity and the young hero/martyr in the afterlife. 
	The mosaics on the floor of the ambulatory of this edifice, rich in floral and faunal symbolism, are well preserved. The geometric designs in the mosaics recall ancient labyrinths: parallel, wavy and zigzag lines hearken back to the prehistoric Nature goddess in her role as giver of life and immortality, as do depictions of several types of birds. Again, the link between life and death � for Byzantine Christians far removed in time, though not in space, from their Neolithic ancestors � is obvious. 
	While it might be argued that the symbols and decorations of the Philippian basilicas are �merely decorative,� much evidence from Graeco-Roman antiquity shows that pagans, Christians and Jews co-existed long into the Byzantine era. Therefore, pagan symbolism would not yet be a thing of the past, despite the prevailing monotheistic theology and ongoing appropriation of pagan symbols by Jews and Christians. Philippians still worked close to the soil and, as we have seen by looking at folkloric and mythological evidence in previous chapters, pre-industrial peoples like them the world over continue even into the modern period to carry on practices reaching far back in time. It is not difficult to imagine that Christians of the fourth to sixth centuries had not completely forsaken the deities of their ancestors.

Conclusion
	For all intents and purposes, Philippi was a �city of the goddess� from its beginnings in prehistory through the Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman periods and into the Byzantine era. 
        Philippi was also one of the major Christian cities of antiquity. These trends were held in creative tension for several centuries: when St. Paul and his fellow missionaries arrived at Philippi, they were met by goddess worshippers; a century and a half later, while theological battles raged, martyrs fell, and ecumenical councils made momentous theological decisions, a goddess reigned supreme; even after the reign of Constantine, when the empire had �converted� to the Christian God, Isis still ruled � with Mary.
         Archaeological and literary evidence shows that Philippian Christians never destroyed their female deities. Thus, as we saw at Rome and Corinth, the Christian God coexisted with pagan goddesses and gods. When a Philippian Christian entered a basilica, she found a reminder of her goddess inside � in the ram and eagle, in the flowers, ivy and leaves, in the birds and wavy lines of the mosaic decoration and capital carvings. The incense, the robes of the priests, the candles and torches, the holy water and the flowers would all have signaled Mother � Nature, Life, Earth. Invocations were offered to God and Jesus � but also to Mary and perhaps Sophia and other female figures.
         Some Christian forces throughout the ages may have attempted to annihilate the goddess in favor of the Judeo-Christian God. St. Paul may very well have been martyred here, as suggested provocatively by Bakirtzis and Koester.  This does not mean, however, that individuals in the centuries after Constantine did not also continue to revere the Female. Even today, the survival of the goddess can be seen in devout Orthodox Christians� devout adoration of the Mother of God � descendant of Isis, descendant of the goddess who is Nature, Earth and Life.
TOP