Welcome Joao. Cool stuff.
>Athenaia was a very complex Greek deity. She surely has Greek and
>Pre-Greek components, like Ugaritic Anath (sister/lover of Baal) and
>North Egyptian Neith ( Shield-Goddess, virgin mother of Sun Ra), but
>... has she any IE feature?
Hmm, this is tasty. Of course you must be familiar with Mallory who mentions
*Tritos "The Third One" in his "In Search of the Indo-Europeans".
>Athena's symbols, the cat, the snake, the bird, the pillar and the
>shield, don't come from Anath or Neith, but direct from the Cretian
>Great Goddess.
Teehee, I'm really starting to like the Goddess. She pops up everywhere :)
On the standpoint of IE mythology, it's interesting not only to wonder how
Athena might be related to IE myth or the old European Goddess religion, but
also how the Goddess religion might be directly related to the very
formation of IndoEuropean mythos from the start...
Food for thought.
I seem to recall the big Goddess guru herself, Marija Gimbutas, lending her
thoughts on the origin of Athena. She sees Athena, like all these goddesses
(Diana, etc), as the result of a larger process whereupon the big bad IE
patriarch males tried to put a stamp on the saintly Goddess religion by
putting the Goddess into submission as a pretty subserviant
wife/consort/prostitute/lawn ornament of the more important male deities.
(Of course, I'm paraphrasing slightly from her ultra-feminist works.)
However, she does make an interesting point. All the IE goddesses do seem to
be, in a way, a continuance of the Great Goddess. The Goddess doesn't really
die as a concept but rather is merged with every female figure found in the
IE mythos. Sometimes even, it would seem that a female figure takes over
where there was originally a male, such as the case of this merger of
*Tritos with the "Vulture" or "Owl", the embodiment of the Goddess as the
reaper of dead souls (hence, the association with "hunting").
John:
>(The war between rival families of the Gods
>may be an old IE myth projected upon subject peoples in different
>localities)
Of course it's an old IE myth! Does Norse "Ragnarok" ring a bell? For that
matter, the very IndoEuropean story of Ragnarok somewhat parallels biblical
stories (enriched with _Semitic_ content, mind you) found in Revelation. I
wouldn't say I'm awfully religious but I do recall there being a final clash
between angels and demons, led respectively by Yahweh and Satan. Gee, I
wonder what Yahweh and Satan might parallel in IE myth... Could it be
something like Poseidon and Zeus, per se? Could the angels and demons be
replaced by the Aesir and the Vanir? Neah. Maybe I'm just dreaming. Cain and
Abel as the Horse twins? Is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad just for
decoration or does it hold up the sky as part of an original creation myth?
"But what is he saying?" you ask? I think we should be asking a larger
question here that ties in so well with the other ongoing topic of IE
origins:
Why would Semitic mythology, the European Goddess and steppe-based myth
blend in such a scrumptious manner? Hmmm....
It's very hard to obtain Semitic elements into IE mythos without the help of
an Anatolian-derived culture/language like "Semitish", isn't it? Of course
it is.
It's also very hard for any partriarchal steppe-based mythos to take over
Europe if IE is spreading in the other direction with the Goddess religion,
isn't it? Of course it is.
So let's all come together now on the inevitable solution to the IE homeland
and origins. The Semitish are very real and the IE are ultimately, without a
shadow of a doubt, from Central Asia. Resistance is futile.
Don't respond just yet, John. There's another message for you coming up
regarding IE origins. Your prolific assembly-line of jestful probes will now
be smashed. :)
John:
>Poseidon has been identified as the Mycenaean Poseidas - a consort of
>Potnia. Could it be that Athena was originally a Cretan Goddess of
>the Sea (along with her many other atributes) and Poseidon was her
>consort, who later usurped her maritime role.
Or could it simply be that Athena is a European-flavoured version of
*Tritos? If so, unless you see homosexuality as a large part of IE myth
which is interesting in itself :), Poseidon (or rather *Nepo:t) is probably
not originally a consort of *Tritos or vice versa. Instead, they are fellow
warriors doing battle against something - a big bad snake? Of course,
nothing says they can't be gay, I suppose. Afterall, what kind of a silly
name is *Tritos, anyway? Let's call him "Lance" or "Guy" instead :)
- gLeN
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