Myth and Symbol

Goddesses

A goddess is a female deity, in contrast with a male deity known as a "god". A great many cultures have goddesses, sometimes alone, but more often as part of a larger pantheon that includes both of the conventional genders and in some cases even hermaphroditic (or gender neutral) deities.

As the concept of monotheism and polytheism is relativistic, so the related concepts of god and goddess can be culturally misunderstood. The concept of gender as applied to a god and goddess, may connote deeper tendencies of patriarchy and matriarchy, which may have equivalence to the rift between monotheism and polytheism. The goddess concept is advocated by modern matriarchs and pantheists as a female version of, or analogue to god, (i.e., the Abrahamic god) who in feminist and other circles is perceived as being rooted in patriarchal concept of dominance— to the exclusion of feminine concepts.

The feminine-masculine relationship between deifications is sometimes rooted in monism, ("One-ism") rather than through a definitive and rigid concept of monotheism versus polytheism, wherein the goddess and god are seen as the genders of one transcendental monad.

with water and the earth was brought to the surface. These are called diver-myths.

According to some cultures humans and animals once lived together peacefully. However because of a sin caused by the humans they are split up. This sin is often brought on by darkness and is represented as fire. Other times the innocence of humans is taken away by a god.

We continue to wonder. Even now, as the 21st century approaches we continue to make theories on how earth was created. They are our new creation myths. We base our ideas on scientific evidence. However the creation myths were based on what people saw - their observations.

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Goddesses

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