From: o8ty@hotmail.com   
      
   "Dan Norder"  wrote in message   
   news:20040730185528.18203.00000761@mb-m03.aol.com...   
   > english1413@aol.comstop  (English1413) wrote:   
   > >One thing is motherhood, and to demonstrate this   
   > >I state that the symbol of the cult of the great   
   > >mother goddess was a tree.  But is that phrase   
   > >"cult of the great mother goddess" specific enough?   
   >   
   > It's best to avoid that term and always refer to whatever goddess you mean   
   by   
   > name. I don't know if you mean Ceres/Demeter or some other figure.   
   >   
   > >Also, I've heard that preceding the patriarchal mythical   
   > >system of the classic Greeks, there was a matriarchal system.   
   > >Is it now widely accepted that such a matriarchal period   
   > >actually existed in Greece?   
   >   
   > No, not among scholars anyway. It's widely accepted by people who buy   
   popular   
   > books based on neopagan beliefs.   
   >   
   > >Or is that some baseless wish of contemporary feminists   
   > >or whoever?   
   >   
   > Mostly, though it was also fairly popular among some Victorian theorists,   
   some   
   > of whom explored ruins and managed to distort all sorts of findings into   
   > alleged supporting evidence. (And, of course, they had some help too, as   
   the   
   > residents knew the team was looking for artifacts to prove a goddess   
   religion   
   > so some locals just sort of showed up with such artifacts and they got   
   paid for   
   > them. Most of these are now considered modern fakes. At the very least,   
   they   
   > turned up under conditions that made normal archeological study   
   impossible, so   
   > trying to use them to build conclusions off of is extremely risky.)   
   >   
   > There were goddesses back then, and some were more popular than a lot of   
   modern   
   > people raised in societies where male supernatural figures have been at   
   the top   
   > of the heap for millenia would understand, but there's no good evidence   
   that   
   > there was ever a matriarchy.   
   >   
   > Dan Norder   
   > MythologyWeb   
      
   So says Dan Norder who really has no idea.   
      
   Yes there was earth-mother goddess worship based on volcanos (breasts of the   
   earth) and yes she was transformed into a tree or rather a fungus (mushroom   
   cloud). For the interposition of a male component,  compare the myth of   
   Gaia, Daphne (Daphoinos = Bloody-One) and Apollo.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)