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The Language of the Goddess: Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization
A noted archaeologist demonstrates the existence of prehistoric goddess-worshipping, egalitarian, nonviolent cultures whose hidden heritage is just now begin restored
388 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
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About the author
Marija Gimbutas
43 books190 followersMarija (Alseikaite) Gimbutas (Lithuanian: Marija Gimbutienė), was a Lithuanian-American archeologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe", a term she introduced. Her works published between 1946 and 1971 introduced new views by combining traditional spadework with linguistics and mythological interpretation, but earned a mixed reception by other professionals.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
April 23, 2024
Gimbutas' seminal (I use the word ironically) work is a beautiful, yet flawed, artifact. The plethora of images showing carvings and etchings on neolithic pottery and statuary, for the most part, is astounding and worth the price of the book alone. Gimbutas provides a taxonomy of these neolithic (and some paleolithic and some bronze age) patterns and representations based on her idea that there was once a Mother Goddess cult that spread from Anatolia into Eastern Europe between the 8th and 3rd centuries, BC.
As a catalog of neolithic imagery, the book is commendable. One can even accept that several of the themes represented were common across large geographical areas and over long periods of human history. The universally-awe-inspiring notions of life, death, and rebirth seem to have inspired much of this art. An obvious example of the neolithic understanding of these themes comes in the form of a burial of an older community member in a fetal position within a womb-shaped tomb. This theme is repeated at several locations over the course of thousands of years.
But at a certain point, Gimbutas' theoretical notions become questionable at best. For example, her claim that "Whirls and four-corner designs are symbols of becoming and the turnings of cyclical time." OK...says who? Says you? Give me some documentation. Show me your line of reasoning. I want EVIDENCE!
This is the book's fatal flaw - the scientific method here has been flirted with, then abandoned. Gimbutas puts forth several suppositions that are sketchy, at best, and completely unfounded, at their worst. Especially in her longer essays, Gimbutas flies off into a new-age, clearly agenda-driven never-never land without providing hard evidence for her claims, many of which are based on assumptions of cultures long-dead onto which she maps her own interpretation of Greek (particularly Minoan) myth and, sometimes, even modern Jungian psychological analysis (I'm not kidding).
Nevertheless, the book is a valuable jumping off point for further research and, for myself, ideas that inform my own fiction (as opposed to her's). In fact, some of the symbolism of my current novel in progress is derived directly from Gimbutas' interpretation of the Mother Goddess cult artifacts. So I'd be dishonest if I didn't say the work was inspiring and that I stand on the shoulders of fictional giants disguised as legitimate scientists.
As a catalog of neolithic imagery, the book is commendable. One can even accept that several of the themes represented were common across large geographical areas and over long periods of human history. The universally-awe-inspiring notions of life, death, and rebirth seem to have inspired much of this art. An obvious example of the neolithic understanding of these themes comes in the form of a burial of an older community member in a fetal position within a womb-shaped tomb. This theme is repeated at several locations over the course of thousands of years.
But at a certain point, Gimbutas' theoretical notions become questionable at best. For example, her claim that "Whirls and four-corner designs are symbols of becoming and the turnings of cyclical time." OK...says who? Says you? Give me some documentation. Show me your line of reasoning. I want EVIDENCE!
This is the book's fatal flaw - the scientific method here has been flirted with, then abandoned. Gimbutas puts forth several suppositions that are sketchy, at best, and completely unfounded, at their worst. Especially in her longer essays, Gimbutas flies off into a new-age, clearly agenda-driven never-never land without providing hard evidence for her claims, many of which are based on assumptions of cultures long-dead onto which she maps her own interpretation of Greek (particularly Minoan) myth and, sometimes, even modern Jungian psychological analysis (I'm not kidding).
Nevertheless, the book is a valuable jumping off point for further research and, for myself, ideas that inform my own fiction (as opposed to her's). In fact, some of the symbolism of my current novel in progress is derived directly from Gimbutas' interpretation of the Mother Goddess cult artifacts. So I'd be dishonest if I didn't say the work was inspiring and that I stand on the shoulders of fictional giants disguised as legitimate scientists.
July 25, 2012
I love this book, but funny part is that this book was from the library and someone had written side notes in pencil, questioning and commenting on the text. I loved it, because it actually made me think over much of the information given instead of just absorbing it.
September 9, 2012
There is one good reason to own this book - the illustrations and, I suppose, the reference material at the back but it is not to be taken seriously theoretically.
Gimbutas was a romantic eccentric, part of whose importance is that she fuelled the rise of the matriarchal myth in feminism and in neo-paganism.
It must not be forgotten, however, that she was a serious academic and the flaw here is merely one of shifting from the evidence, rather imaginatively if inappropriately, to a 'grand narrative'.
The book thus leaps from probabalistic evidence-based social science to becoming part of a world of possibilian intellectual myth-making, of ideology, and eventually of the nonsense spouted by Californian earth mothers.
It is also the world of Campbell, Graves and Jung, and of the earnest desire to believe in lost Golden Ages, simplicity and better times ahead if we all, well, just believed that we were not as we are.
The book encapsulates this well. It is lavish and beautifully produced but it is also filled on page after page with assertions that simply cannot be justified by the data provided on the page.
There are huge leaps in time and space and the many ways to interpret a wavy line or a spiral are sacrificed to the demands of theory.
In the end, I found this book just plain sad. Vast amounts of intellectual labour and hard work have gone into something which is just as mythological as that which it purports to explain - lovely for non-dualist romantics with no sense of history but not taking the rest of us much further forward.
Worse, just as Marx did not intend the labour camps nor Jesus the Vatican, this book has spawned a very malign form of matriarchalism that enhances gender divisions and binary thinking.
Matriarchal feminism, like exaggerated rewritings of 'witch' history, creates an intellectual laziness in its followers and has introduced yet another reason for irrationalism in a world that badly needs critical thinking.
I have an immense amount of time for neo-paganism and magical thinking but these are weakened if they follow the religions of the book in perverting the past and the actualities of the human condition for 'religious effect'.
The high point of matriarchal feminism is probably now peaking with the narcissism of the decaying baby-boomers. Perhaps Gimbutas' work simply appeared at just the right cultural moment and should be seen as a phenomenon worthy of study in that context.
However, the work is presented here not as mythology but as archaeology and anthropology. Although it contains much of value, some of it stimulating and useful in the detail, it does not present a plausible case for a pre-Indo-European continent-wide goddess religion ousted by nomad warrior males. Common sense alone says that humanity is more complex than that simple model.
There may yet be truths within the myth but the superstructure does not justify the dreamy-eyed New Age posturings of Campbell in his introduction nor the socio-political assertions of modern day pagan 'jewish mommas' trying to escape daddy.
I do not usually like to quote Wikipedia at length, partly out of reliability concerns, but I think these criticisms should stand for the record about the corpus as a whole because the very idea of the 'great goddess' must and should be returned to its status of irrational belief or mere inadequately evidenced hypothesis.
" Anthropologist Bernard Wailes comments to the New York Times that he considers Gimbutas "immensely knowledgeable but not very good in critical analysis. [...] She amasses all the data and then leaps from it to conclusions without any intervening argument." He said that most archaeologists consider her to be an eccentric. This assessment was corroborated by female colleagues of Gimbutas.
" David Anthony has disputed Gimbutas's assertion that there was a widespread matriarchal society prior to the Kurgan incursion, noting that Europe had hillforts and weapons, and presumably warfare, long before the Kurgan.
" Two early critics of the "Goddess" theory were Andrew Fleming and Peter Ucko. Ucko, in his 1968 monograph Anthropomorphic figurines of predynastic Egypt warned against unwarranted inferences about the meanings of statues. Ucko, for example, notes that early Egyptian figurines of women holding their breasts had been taken as 'obviously' significant of maternity or fertility, but the Pyramid Texts revealed that in Egypt this was the female sign of grief. Fleming, in his 1969 paper "The Myth of the Mother Goddess", questioned the practice of identifying neolithic figures as female when they weren't clearly distinguished as male, and took issue with other aspects of the "Goddess" interpretation of Neolithic stone carvings and burial practices.
" The 2009 book Knossos and the prophets of modernism by Cathy Gere examines the political influence on archaeology more generally. Through the example of Knossos on the island of Crete, which had been (incorrectly) represented as the paradigm of a pacifist, matriarchal and sexually free society, Gere claims that archaeology can easily slip into reflecting what people want to see, rather than teaching people about an unfamiliar past."
By way of balance, however, like Marx, Gimbutas may have been ill-served by her followers and her publishers and admirers. She was undoubtedly an able academic and researcher and I recommend this article which places her in some kind of context where we can respect her contribution: http://www.suppressedhistories.net/ar...
However, it is also true that it is very difficult to separate the actual work of the woman from her appropriation by others and even a cursory review of the literature shows that many radicals are in a state of willing her if not to be true in fact to be true in principle. That is fatal ...
Gimbutas' tragedy is that she became a pawn in a bigger cultural war between the two main genders within the Western middle classes over resources in the public sector and in the struggle for advantage within left-liberal coalition-builders who aimed at political power.
It is now probably time for a more balanced perspective. We can have respect for her as an academic in the field who contributed to our thinking about archaeological meaning even if wrong-headedly and a determination, as we should in dealing with other part-originators of politically and culturally useful ideologies, to critique the woolly-mindedness and weak evidence behind the myth that arose.
The book remains in the library but with a very big health warning marked 'ideological - take care of your critical faculties'.
Gimbutas was a romantic eccentric, part of whose importance is that she fuelled the rise of the matriarchal myth in feminism and in neo-paganism.
It must not be forgotten, however, that she was a serious academic and the flaw here is merely one of shifting from the evidence, rather imaginatively if inappropriately, to a 'grand narrative'.
The book thus leaps from probabalistic evidence-based social science to becoming part of a world of possibilian intellectual myth-making, of ideology, and eventually of the nonsense spouted by Californian earth mothers.
It is also the world of Campbell, Graves and Jung, and of the earnest desire to believe in lost Golden Ages, simplicity and better times ahead if we all, well, just believed that we were not as we are.
The book encapsulates this well. It is lavish and beautifully produced but it is also filled on page after page with assertions that simply cannot be justified by the data provided on the page.
There are huge leaps in time and space and the many ways to interpret a wavy line or a spiral are sacrificed to the demands of theory.
In the end, I found this book just plain sad. Vast amounts of intellectual labour and hard work have gone into something which is just as mythological as that which it purports to explain - lovely for non-dualist romantics with no sense of history but not taking the rest of us much further forward.
Worse, just as Marx did not intend the labour camps nor Jesus the Vatican, this book has spawned a very malign form of matriarchalism that enhances gender divisions and binary thinking.
Matriarchal feminism, like exaggerated rewritings of 'witch' history, creates an intellectual laziness in its followers and has introduced yet another reason for irrationalism in a world that badly needs critical thinking.
I have an immense amount of time for neo-paganism and magical thinking but these are weakened if they follow the religions of the book in perverting the past and the actualities of the human condition for 'religious effect'.
The high point of matriarchal feminism is probably now peaking with the narcissism of the decaying baby-boomers. Perhaps Gimbutas' work simply appeared at just the right cultural moment and should be seen as a phenomenon worthy of study in that context.
However, the work is presented here not as mythology but as archaeology and anthropology. Although it contains much of value, some of it stimulating and useful in the detail, it does not present a plausible case for a pre-Indo-European continent-wide goddess religion ousted by nomad warrior males. Common sense alone says that humanity is more complex than that simple model.
There may yet be truths within the myth but the superstructure does not justify the dreamy-eyed New Age posturings of Campbell in his introduction nor the socio-political assertions of modern day pagan 'jewish mommas' trying to escape daddy.
I do not usually like to quote Wikipedia at length, partly out of reliability concerns, but I think these criticisms should stand for the record about the corpus as a whole because the very idea of the 'great goddess' must and should be returned to its status of irrational belief or mere inadequately evidenced hypothesis.
" Anthropologist Bernard Wailes comments to the New York Times that he considers Gimbutas "immensely knowledgeable but not very good in critical analysis. [...] She amasses all the data and then leaps from it to conclusions without any intervening argument." He said that most archaeologists consider her to be an eccentric. This assessment was corroborated by female colleagues of Gimbutas.
" David Anthony has disputed Gimbutas's assertion that there was a widespread matriarchal society prior to the Kurgan incursion, noting that Europe had hillforts and weapons, and presumably warfare, long before the Kurgan.
" Two early critics of the "Goddess" theory were Andrew Fleming and Peter Ucko. Ucko, in his 1968 monograph Anthropomorphic figurines of predynastic Egypt warned against unwarranted inferences about the meanings of statues. Ucko, for example, notes that early Egyptian figurines of women holding their breasts had been taken as 'obviously' significant of maternity or fertility, but the Pyramid Texts revealed that in Egypt this was the female sign of grief. Fleming, in his 1969 paper "The Myth of the Mother Goddess", questioned the practice of identifying neolithic figures as female when they weren't clearly distinguished as male, and took issue with other aspects of the "Goddess" interpretation of Neolithic stone carvings and burial practices.
" The 2009 book Knossos and the prophets of modernism by Cathy Gere examines the political influence on archaeology more generally. Through the example of Knossos on the island of Crete, which had been (incorrectly) represented as the paradigm of a pacifist, matriarchal and sexually free society, Gere claims that archaeology can easily slip into reflecting what people want to see, rather than teaching people about an unfamiliar past."
By way of balance, however, like Marx, Gimbutas may have been ill-served by her followers and her publishers and admirers. She was undoubtedly an able academic and researcher and I recommend this article which places her in some kind of context where we can respect her contribution: http://www.suppressedhistories.net/ar...
However, it is also true that it is very difficult to separate the actual work of the woman from her appropriation by others and even a cursory review of the literature shows that many radicals are in a state of willing her if not to be true in fact to be true in principle. That is fatal ...
Gimbutas' tragedy is that she became a pawn in a bigger cultural war between the two main genders within the Western middle classes over resources in the public sector and in the struggle for advantage within left-liberal coalition-builders who aimed at political power.
It is now probably time for a more balanced perspective. We can have respect for her as an academic in the field who contributed to our thinking about archaeological meaning even if wrong-headedly and a determination, as we should in dealing with other part-originators of politically and culturally useful ideologies, to critique the woolly-mindedness and weak evidence behind the myth that arose.
The book remains in the library but with a very big health warning marked 'ideological - take care of your critical faculties'.
January 8, 2024
Marija Gimbutas long sailed strange seas of thought alone. One of her areas of interest was these peaceful villages that appeared 6,000 years ago. She was a personal friend and meditation student of mine. My interview with her can be found by googling James N. Powell Marija Gimbutas.
Search for this latest article about a culture that was of great interest to her.
Cattle in the Earliest European Cities Weren't Bred as Food
SOCIETY
07 January 2024
By CARLY CASSELLA
The earliest cities in Europe were built on the foundations of a mostly vegetarian diet, according to new research. The findings suggest that even with the dawn of agriculture and large, planned settlements, meat was but a delicacy.
The gigantic circular cities of the Trypillia culture emerged around 6,000 years ago in what is now Ukraine and Moldova.
The largest of these mega sites covered an area equivalent to several hundred football fields of land and once housed up to 15,000 people. They were larger than any other settlements in the world at the time, rivaling even the cities of ancient Mesopotamia that would soon follow in the Fertile Crescent , , , ,
James N. Powell
Search for this latest article about a culture that was of great interest to her.
Cattle in the Earliest European Cities Weren't Bred as Food
SOCIETY
07 January 2024
By CARLY CASSELLA
The earliest cities in Europe were built on the foundations of a mostly vegetarian diet, according to new research. The findings suggest that even with the dawn of agriculture and large, planned settlements, meat was but a delicacy.
The gigantic circular cities of the Trypillia culture emerged around 6,000 years ago in what is now Ukraine and Moldova.
The largest of these mega sites covered an area equivalent to several hundred football fields of land and once housed up to 15,000 people. They were larger than any other settlements in the world at the time, rivaling even the cities of ancient Mesopotamia that would soon follow in the Fertile Crescent , , , ,
James N. Powell
June 26, 2020
Extremely interesting. Makes great connections between folk traditions that exist today but originated 10,000 years ago. There is a LOT of detail for the academic reader but the overall explanations and descriptions are fun for the casual reader. Mother Nature - the original goddess and lifegiver - has withstood thousands of years of male dominated religions like a female rebel insurgency that the armies of men can never defeat. Some of her interpretations are just that - INTERPRETATIONS - nobody will ever know what was going on in 8000BC.
Read the reviews on Goodreads and you will see that Ms Gimbutas is marginalized or patronized by men - as she was for years regarding the Kurgan culture. Gimbutas asserted that the male dominated culture of the pastoralist Indo-Europoean horsemen from the Steppe with big bronze clubs had overrun Europe and displaced the matriarchal cultures. She was scoffed at until the latest technology and DNA proved her right. And the archeology world of men had to admit that she had been right all these decades. No big surprise that men reviewers are degrading her work here on goodreads.
Read the reviews on Goodreads and you will see that Ms Gimbutas is marginalized or patronized by men - as she was for years regarding the Kurgan culture. Gimbutas asserted that the male dominated culture of the pastoralist Indo-Europoean horsemen from the Steppe with big bronze clubs had overrun Europe and displaced the matriarchal cultures. She was scoffed at until the latest technology and DNA proved her right. And the archeology world of men had to admit that she had been right all these decades. No big surprise that men reviewers are degrading her work here on goodreads.
July 19, 2021
Lithuanian-American archaeologist Marija Gimbutas gets a bad rap in many circles for her attempts to reconstruct the societies and religions of Neolithic Europe, which often spin thick layers of speculation on very thin evidence. To say nothing of her projecting the ideals of modern feminism unto prehistoric societies. Nonetheless, over the course of this year I have re-read a couple of her books and for all the pure guesswork in them I must say that they do contain much useful information.
For the most part ”Language of the Goddess” feels like more of the same as The Goddesses and Gods of old Europe, 6500-3500 BC. Myths and cult images. (see my review for more information) However, in this one Gimbutas goes in further depth about several topics. The important new information includes her identifying several symbols that are not just commonplace on artifacts from Neolithic Europe but can be found in few other contexts. A good example is the ”gabled chevron” found in locations as far apart as Germany, Hungary and Serbia. Speaking of Serbia, Gimbutas notices that so much of this extremely specific iconography keeps turning up in folk art from the Balkan area even today, in particular rams and birds appearing in the same context, as well as the proliferation of musical instruments shaped like waterbirds.
Another thing about ”The Language of the Goddess” I ought to mention is that re-reading it is an interesting experience after I read Georges Dumézil's Gods Of The Ancient Northmen. Early in, Gimbutas reveals that her method for deducing which deities in the Celtic/Greek/etc pantheons were of possible non-Indo-European origin relies on Dumézil's trifunctional hypothesis. Dumézil believed that proto-Indo-European society was structured around a caste system of warriors, priests and farmers with the religion having one patron deity for each of the three castes. Deities that were difficult to match with a particular social class, or whose name appeared to be of non-Proto-Indo-European origin (eg Pan and Hyacinthos), Gimbutas theorised were first worshipped by the Neolithic Farmers whom the PIEs subjugated. One thing that Gimbutas does prove conclusively in here is that the identification of certain goddesses with the number three (eg the Norns in Norse mythology and the Fates in Greek mythology) was already in place during the Neolithic, before being incorporated into the invading Proto-Indo-Europeans' religions.
More of the new information in here concerns Gimbutas bringing up indigenous Siberian cultures and prehistoric human societies of East Asia. In the process of doing this, she demonstrates how these cultural spheres might have been influenced by the same palaeolithic hunter-gatherers who later ended up in Europe. Going far back in the archaeological record, she documents religious artwork found across Eurasia depicting eerily similar practices revolving around veneration of deer and bears as totem animals.
As usual for Gimbutas much of the speculation is hard to confirm one way or the other, but as the above mentioned examples demonstrate it is inaccurate to accuse her of completely making stuff up. At the very least ”Language of the Goddess” is worth reading just for the even more expansive selection of gorgeous ancient artwork found in here than in "Goddesses and Gods", as well as a lengthy list of literature and maps of where all the artifacts shown were found.
For the most part ”Language of the Goddess” feels like more of the same as The Goddesses and Gods of old Europe, 6500-3500 BC. Myths and cult images. (see my review for more information) However, in this one Gimbutas goes in further depth about several topics. The important new information includes her identifying several symbols that are not just commonplace on artifacts from Neolithic Europe but can be found in few other contexts. A good example is the ”gabled chevron” found in locations as far apart as Germany, Hungary and Serbia. Speaking of Serbia, Gimbutas notices that so much of this extremely specific iconography keeps turning up in folk art from the Balkan area even today, in particular rams and birds appearing in the same context, as well as the proliferation of musical instruments shaped like waterbirds.
Another thing about ”The Language of the Goddess” I ought to mention is that re-reading it is an interesting experience after I read Georges Dumézil's Gods Of The Ancient Northmen. Early in, Gimbutas reveals that her method for deducing which deities in the Celtic/Greek/etc pantheons were of possible non-Indo-European origin relies on Dumézil's trifunctional hypothesis. Dumézil believed that proto-Indo-European society was structured around a caste system of warriors, priests and farmers with the religion having one patron deity for each of the three castes. Deities that were difficult to match with a particular social class, or whose name appeared to be of non-Proto-Indo-European origin (eg Pan and Hyacinthos), Gimbutas theorised were first worshipped by the Neolithic Farmers whom the PIEs subjugated. One thing that Gimbutas does prove conclusively in here is that the identification of certain goddesses with the number three (eg the Norns in Norse mythology and the Fates in Greek mythology) was already in place during the Neolithic, before being incorporated into the invading Proto-Indo-Europeans' religions.
More of the new information in here concerns Gimbutas bringing up indigenous Siberian cultures and prehistoric human societies of East Asia. In the process of doing this, she demonstrates how these cultural spheres might have been influenced by the same palaeolithic hunter-gatherers who later ended up in Europe. Going far back in the archaeological record, she documents religious artwork found across Eurasia depicting eerily similar practices revolving around veneration of deer and bears as totem animals.
As usual for Gimbutas much of the speculation is hard to confirm one way or the other, but as the above mentioned examples demonstrate it is inaccurate to accuse her of completely making stuff up. At the very least ”Language of the Goddess” is worth reading just for the even more expansive selection of gorgeous ancient artwork found in here than in "Goddesses and Gods", as well as a lengthy list of literature and maps of where all the artifacts shown were found.
February 26, 2021
I really admire Gimbutas's lifetime of work, and this book shows many fascinating clues about Old European culture, and whole notion of "cultures of the goddess" seems extremely helpful to consider. But in explaining the patterns of meaning behind the images or symbols found in ancient artwork, I feel like she has to be speculating. Each assertion seems quite plausible but her eagerness to put it all together, find the code, and accomplish her life's work goes a step beyond her previous professionalism.
March 18, 2014
I have read this book 2 times before this visit. I went back to look for particular symbols and found them.
The narratives were wonderful, again!
If you are looking for material on the Divine Feminine, this is one of the books you should read.
The narratives were wonderful, again!
If you are looking for material on the Divine Feminine, this is one of the books you should read.
December 28, 2008
Brava for Marija Gimbutas. Her scholarly writing is so readable, her work was all fresh and new, and she added a voice to the literature that is totally feminist. One day her critics will eat the goddess's sacred raptors.
February 24, 2020
I enjoyed the audio book of this. I love books that help me put history's pieces in today's prospective.
August 25, 2021
Itt látható Marija Gimbutas litván származású régészprofesszor életművének grandiózus összefoglalása. (Pontosabban az összefoglalásként írt kötetek közül az első.) Mindent, de tényleg mindent összeszed benne, amit csak addigi hosszú életében kiásott a föld alól, amit kollégák munkájában vagy múzeumokban látott, amiről csak egyetlen fényképe/adata is volt, szóval az égegyvilágon mindent – és mint a puzzle darabjait, egyenként szépen beleilleszti őket egyetlen rendszerbe. Egy őskori nyelvbe, amelyet úgy kellett megfejtenie, hogy írásbelisége nem volt. Hiszen attól őskori. Na, ezt csinálja utána Champollion.
Részletek a blogon:
https://gyujtogeto-alkoto.blog.hu/202...
Részletek a blogon:
https://gyujtogeto-alkoto.blog.hu/202...
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August 28, 2013
Gimbutas was a powerhouse of excellent research and commitment to her area of study. A fundamental resource text.
June 30, 2020
İçindeki görseller muhteşem. Yazar arkeolojik tanrıca kalıplarını ve süslemelerini çeşitli kategorilere arkeolojik buluntu fotoğraf ve çizimleriyle vermiş.
Kitap dört bölümden oluşuyor
1. Hayat Verme (Life-Giving)
bu bölümün altında
- zigzag (chevron), ve V şeklinin Kuş Tanrıça olarak kullanımı
- zigzag ve M şekli
- kıvrımlar ve su kuşları
- kuş tanrıçanın memeleri
- dalgalar
- tanrıçanın gözleri
- tanrıçanın açık ağzı
- el sanatları veren tanrıça: dokuma, eğirme, metal işçiliği ve müzik aletleri
- ağ motifi
- 3 çizgi, 3ün güçü
- vulva ve doğum
- geyik, ayı ve ilkel motifler
- yılan
2. Yenilenme ve sonsuz dünya
- dünya ana
- ikinin güçü
- erkek tanrılar ve iblisler
3. Ölüm ve yeniden doğum
- ölüm sembolleri
- yumurta
- hayatın direkleri
- yeniden yaratıcı vulva: üçgen, kum saati, kuşun pençeleri
- yenilenme gemisi
- kurbağa, kirpi ve balık
- boğa, arı ve kelebek
4. Enerji ve açılan şekiller
- spiral, lunar döngü, kıvrılmış yılan, kanca ve balta
- karşıt spiraller, dalgalar, taraklar, fırçalar, dönen hayvanlar
- tanrıçanın elleri ve ayakları
- dikili taşlar ve yuvarlaklar
Bence kitabın sorunu oldukça geniş bir alanda, oldukça geniş bir dönemdeki buluntuları yazarın ağzından birleştirmesi. Anadolu'dan Bulgaristan'a, oradan Ukrayna'ya, oradan Baltık ülkelerine, oradan İtalya'ya, oradan Yunanistana.. Dönem olarak neolitik, paleolithik, biraz bronz çağı, milattan önce 8 ve 3. bin yıl arası bir dönem.
Kitabın görsel yönünü beğenmeme rağmen, ara bağlantı hikayeleri, mitoloji kısmını da beğendim, ama bir çok yerde bunlar bu şekillerle ilgili "sadece" yazarın yorumu diye düşünmeden edemedim. Veya daha genel bir sembolizm kitaba, konuya yapıştırılmış gibi geldi.
Yine de kütüphanemde olsun isteyeceğim, fakat baskısını bulamadığım bir kitap..
Kitap dört bölümden oluşuyor
1. Hayat Verme (Life-Giving)
bu bölümün altında
- zigzag (chevron), ve V şeklinin Kuş Tanrıça olarak kullanımı
- zigzag ve M şekli
- kıvrımlar ve su kuşları
- kuş tanrıçanın memeleri
- dalgalar
- tanrıçanın gözleri
- tanrıçanın açık ağzı
- el sanatları veren tanrıça: dokuma, eğirme, metal işçiliği ve müzik aletleri
- ağ motifi
- 3 çizgi, 3ün güçü
- vulva ve doğum
- geyik, ayı ve ilkel motifler
- yılan
2. Yenilenme ve sonsuz dünya
- dünya ana
- ikinin güçü
- erkek tanrılar ve iblisler
3. Ölüm ve yeniden doğum
- ölüm sembolleri
- yumurta
- hayatın direkleri
- yeniden yaratıcı vulva: üçgen, kum saati, kuşun pençeleri
- yenilenme gemisi
- kurbağa, kirpi ve balık
- boğa, arı ve kelebek
4. Enerji ve açılan şekiller
- spiral, lunar döngü, kıvrılmış yılan, kanca ve balta
- karşıt spiraller, dalgalar, taraklar, fırçalar, dönen hayvanlar
- tanrıçanın elleri ve ayakları
- dikili taşlar ve yuvarlaklar
Bence kitabın sorunu oldukça geniş bir alanda, oldukça geniş bir dönemdeki buluntuları yazarın ağzından birleştirmesi. Anadolu'dan Bulgaristan'a, oradan Ukrayna'ya, oradan Baltık ülkelerine, oradan İtalya'ya, oradan Yunanistana.. Dönem olarak neolitik, paleolithik, biraz bronz çağı, milattan önce 8 ve 3. bin yıl arası bir dönem.
Kitabın görsel yönünü beğenmeme rağmen, ara bağlantı hikayeleri, mitoloji kısmını da beğendim, ama bir çok yerde bunlar bu şekillerle ilgili "sadece" yazarın yorumu diye düşünmeden edemedim. Veya daha genel bir sembolizm kitaba, konuya yapıştırılmış gibi geldi.
Yine de kütüphanemde olsun isteyeceğim, fakat baskısını bulamadığım bir kitap..
September 23, 2018
Continuación ampliada de Diosas y dioses de la Vieja Europa, este libro bien documentado pero que establece teorías acerca de la Gran Diosa de forma categórica prosigue su investigación sobre los rasgos definitorios de la diosa, extendiéndose en el espacio por toda Europa, y no sólo su sureste, y por un periodo más amplio que llega al Paleolítico.
February 12, 2021
Riportiamo le dee ovunque, per favore.
November 11, 2012
Questo libro è un lascito preziosissimo della grandissima Gimbutas. Su pochissime cose mi sono trovata in disaccordo con quanto ha scritto e non sto a citarle perché non interferiscono assolutamente col tema centrale dell’opera.
Prima dell’arrivo della cultura indoeuropea, il mondo era donna. La Grande Dea era la figura che dava un volto, un aspetto a tutto ciò che è la vita: un ciclo eterno di nascita, morte e rigenerazione, dove non esiste la distinzione tra ciò che è buono e ciò che è cattivo, semplicemente perché la Natura è fatta così. Questa visione del mondo e questa spiritualità venivano codificate in una serie di immagini, di forme e di simboli che costituiscono il linguaggio della Dea e che gli antichi riportavano sulle pareti di templi, di grotte, di tombe e su oggetti rituali, ma anche su utensili usati nella vita di tutti i giorni. “Si circondavano” della Dea anche nella quotidianità, a dimostrazione del fatto che il microcosmo della casa e della città era lo specchio del macrocosmo dell’universo, dove la Dea permea ogni cosa. La Gimbutas ha descritto e spiegato l’essenza e il significato del linguaggio della Dea (con interessantissimi riferimenti alle tradizioni derivate e sopravvissute, compresa quella cristiana) non sottoforma di saggio, ma attraverso l’analisi iconologica e iconografica di moltissimi manufatti. La studiosa li ha suddivisi in categorie corrispondenti ai capitoli, in base ai segni e alle figure presenti su di essi (spirali, cerchi, coppelle, animali ecc.). Tutti questi simboli sono ricondotti, a loro volta, ai tre volti principali della Dea: la “datrice-di-vita”, la “reggitrice-di-morte” e la “rigeneratrice”.
Quando subentrò la cultura patriarcale, il linguaggio della Dea venne assimilato gradualmente dai nuovi arrivati e la divinità femminile finì subordinata agli dei maschili. L’essenza originaria si disgregò in tante dee, ognuna delle quali rappresentava uno dei tanti aspetti della Grande Madre. Fu la cultura patriarcale a erotizzare le nuove dee, poiché esse diventarono mogli, madri e figlie del Dio. Il fatto che gli antichi andassero in giro con un piccolo fallo appeso al collo non aveva nulla a che vedere con la visione morbosa e maliziosa che ha il sesso oggi.
La Dea rimase, comunque, sempre nella storia umana, come una sorta di cultura sotterranea. Ieri si esprimeva nei culti misterici, oggi la ritroviamo nella figura della Madonna come nelle fiabe. La Dea riuscì a sopravvivere anche alla sua demonizzazione in epoca cristiana. Freud e Jung la “riportarono alla luce” quando dissero che il principio femminino gioca un ruolo importante nel mondo subconscio del sogno e della fantasia. La Gimbutas le ha restituito il suo posto legittimo nella storia dell’uomo.
Prima dell’arrivo della cultura indoeuropea, il mondo era donna. La Grande Dea era la figura che dava un volto, un aspetto a tutto ciò che è la vita: un ciclo eterno di nascita, morte e rigenerazione, dove non esiste la distinzione tra ciò che è buono e ciò che è cattivo, semplicemente perché la Natura è fatta così. Questa visione del mondo e questa spiritualità venivano codificate in una serie di immagini, di forme e di simboli che costituiscono il linguaggio della Dea e che gli antichi riportavano sulle pareti di templi, di grotte, di tombe e su oggetti rituali, ma anche su utensili usati nella vita di tutti i giorni. “Si circondavano” della Dea anche nella quotidianità, a dimostrazione del fatto che il microcosmo della casa e della città era lo specchio del macrocosmo dell’universo, dove la Dea permea ogni cosa. La Gimbutas ha descritto e spiegato l’essenza e il significato del linguaggio della Dea (con interessantissimi riferimenti alle tradizioni derivate e sopravvissute, compresa quella cristiana) non sottoforma di saggio, ma attraverso l’analisi iconologica e iconografica di moltissimi manufatti. La studiosa li ha suddivisi in categorie corrispondenti ai capitoli, in base ai segni e alle figure presenti su di essi (spirali, cerchi, coppelle, animali ecc.). Tutti questi simboli sono ricondotti, a loro volta, ai tre volti principali della Dea: la “datrice-di-vita”, la “reggitrice-di-morte” e la “rigeneratrice”.
Quando subentrò la cultura patriarcale, il linguaggio della Dea venne assimilato gradualmente dai nuovi arrivati e la divinità femminile finì subordinata agli dei maschili. L’essenza originaria si disgregò in tante dee, ognuna delle quali rappresentava uno dei tanti aspetti della Grande Madre. Fu la cultura patriarcale a erotizzare le nuove dee, poiché esse diventarono mogli, madri e figlie del Dio. Il fatto che gli antichi andassero in giro con un piccolo fallo appeso al collo non aveva nulla a che vedere con la visione morbosa e maliziosa che ha il sesso oggi.
La Dea rimase, comunque, sempre nella storia umana, come una sorta di cultura sotterranea. Ieri si esprimeva nei culti misterici, oggi la ritroviamo nella figura della Madonna come nelle fiabe. La Dea riuscì a sopravvivere anche alla sua demonizzazione in epoca cristiana. Freud e Jung la “riportarono alla luce” quando dissero che il principio femminino gioca un ruolo importante nel mondo subconscio del sogno e della fantasia. La Gimbutas le ha restituito il suo posto legittimo nella storia dell’uomo.
September 30, 2019
“I believe that in earlier times, obscenity as a concept surrounding either the male or female body did not exist.”
“The reason for the great number and variety of Old European images lies in the fact that this symbolism is lunar and chthonic, built around the understanding that life on earth is in eternal transformation, in constant and rhythmic change between creation and destruction, birth and death.” (316)
“Let us note here that fertility is only one among the Goddess’s many functions. It is inaccurate to call Paleolithic and Neolithic images ‘fertility goddesses,’ as is still done in archaeological literature. Earth fertility became a prominent concern only in the food-producing era; hence it is not a primary function of the Goddess and has nothing to do with sexuality.” (316)
“Hence, for the prehistoric period, I prefer the term “Great Goddess” as best describing her absolute rule, her creative, destructive, and regenerative powers.” (316)
“Each protuberance in nature, be it a mound, a hill, on a menhir or on a female body—belly, buttocks, breasts, knees—was sacred.” (317)
SNAKE—”Life force; transfunctional symbol; coil, cosmic life source, with a meaning similar to the divine eye, sun energy, and full moon.”
V—”The Bird Goddess’s emblem from Upper Paleolithic times, derived from a triangle (i.e. pubic triangle, vulva). A main sign in the sacred script of Old Europe.” (325)
“The reason for the great number and variety of Old European images lies in the fact that this symbolism is lunar and chthonic, built around the understanding that life on earth is in eternal transformation, in constant and rhythmic change between creation and destruction, birth and death.” (316)
“Let us note here that fertility is only one among the Goddess’s many functions. It is inaccurate to call Paleolithic and Neolithic images ‘fertility goddesses,’ as is still done in archaeological literature. Earth fertility became a prominent concern only in the food-producing era; hence it is not a primary function of the Goddess and has nothing to do with sexuality.” (316)
“Hence, for the prehistoric period, I prefer the term “Great Goddess” as best describing her absolute rule, her creative, destructive, and regenerative powers.” (316)
“Each protuberance in nature, be it a mound, a hill, on a menhir or on a female body—belly, buttocks, breasts, knees—was sacred.” (317)
SNAKE—”Life force; transfunctional symbol; coil, cosmic life source, with a meaning similar to the divine eye, sun energy, and full moon.”
V—”The Bird Goddess’s emblem from Upper Paleolithic times, derived from a triangle (i.e. pubic triangle, vulva). A main sign in the sacred script of Old Europe.” (325)
April 26, 2021
ᴘɪᴇᴛʀᴀ ᴍɪʟɪᴀʀᴇ ᴅᴇʟʟ'ᴀʀᴄʜᴇᴏᴍɪᴛᴏʟᴏɢɪᴀ ᴄʜᴇ ʀɪᴘᴏʀᴛᴀ ᴀʟʟᴀ ʟᴜᴄᴇ ʟᴀ ᴄɪᴠɪʟᴛÀ ᴘᴀᴄɪꜰɪᴄᴀ ᴅᴇʟʟ’ᴇᴜʀᴏᴘᴀ ᴀɴᴛɪᴄᴀ ᴇ ꜱɪᴍʙᴏʟɪ ᴅᴇʟʟᴀ ᴅᴇᴀ, ᴘʀɪᴍᴀ ᴅᴇʟʟᴀ ɴᴀꜱᴄɪᴛᴀ ᴅᴇʟʟᴇ ʀᴇʟɪɢɪᴏɴɪ ᴘᴀᴛʀɪᴀʀᴄᴀʟɪ
Se dovessi scrivere ogni cosa che ho trovato, scusate, AMATO, dei libri dell’archeologa lituana, credo che ne uscirebbero 10 pagine su word.
Preferisco focalizzarmi su dei singoli punti e trattarli bene, ma invito tutti a leggere i libri di Marija Gimbutas, non solo per una passione verso l’archologia e l’antropologia, ma riuscireste a capire i “Misteri” dietro la figura di cristo e la Maddalena.
SO che è un argomento succoso e appassiona tutti il tema biblico, inestricabile dalla nostra cultura negli ultimi 500 anni.
Gimbutas analizza vari simboli, facendo di questo libro una sorta di dizionario impreziosito in ogni dettaglio: l’uovo, losanghe, simboli zigzagati, verri, bucrani, uccelli e interpretazioni di donne “cicciottelle” che non hanno la prerogativa di bellezza ideale come si è pensato nella prima fase dell’archeologia negli anni ’70.
Oggi però voglio analizzare una figura molto discussa dalla mitologia cristiano cattolica: Maria Maddalena.
Si sentono spesso molte versioni sulla relazione tra l’apostola e Gesù di Nazareth: amanti, sposi con una discendenza oppure tra le più studiate vede Magda come sacerdotessa di un altro culto che coesisteva con la religione patriarcale ebraica in Palestina all’epoca, facendone una donna istruita, non occupata a contare le galline del proprio pollaio ma anche le stelle nel cielo.
Un tempo si credeva che la forza ora identificata come “Dio” fosse donna, per la precisione un’androgina: facendo scaturire da sé tutti i principi non escludendone nessuno: maschile, femminile, ermafrodita e tutto ciò che non sia cisgender in sé.
Questa divinità era donna, era la Dea, schiacciata nel corso dei secoli dal patriarcato originato dalle popolazioni del Kurgan (odierna Russia Orientale). Ogni aspetto della Dea venne demonizzato: dagli aspetti più canditi, stereotipandoli nel tempo, fino ad oggi, agli aspetti più terrifici, presentando la dea e le donne in sé come “sporche” e “non degne di alcun che”, demonizzando seguentemente anche i suoi simboli nel tempo: il gatto, la rana, l’avvoltoio, il cuculo, il facocero, il toro e la capra.
La Dea era gentile in primavera, ma senza scrupoli e terrifica nelle stagioni fredde, protettrice dei bambini e delle nascite e spietata nel togliere la vita.
Questa entità in latino è chiamata 𝒖𝒏𝒂 𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒂, cioè una figura che ha in sé tre aspetti: la fanciulla, la donna gravida e la chrone (l’anziana).
È proprio l’anziana delle tre che ha dei poteri nefasti sulla vita: la morte, ma anche la rigenerazione.
In lituania la dea fu “spezzettata” esptremizzando vari aspetti di sé in singole divinità: Ragana, Sveruna, Austeja, Baba Yaga, Zemina, Laima, Marsha e Marha.
Una variante di “Marha” è “Marina” , “Maria” o “Magda”.
Ebbene il mito del Dio a cui ruotano a torno le tre Maria, ricorda molto oltre alle fasi lunari anche i tre aspetti della Dea: Maria Vergine, Maria di Cleofa (cognata di Maria Vergine e madre dell’apostolo Giacomo, quindi concepito col “peccato”) e Maria Maddalena/ Maria di Magdala.
Quest’ultima incarna tutti gli aspetti terrifici del femmineo: peccatrice, “prostituta” in alcune versioni, ma Maria di Magdala è colei che oltre all’aspetto terrifico quindi alla sventura e alla morte, è anche colei che ha visto Gesù resuscitare.
Quindi Magda è l’aspetto uno et trino della Chrone, cioè della morte e rigenerazione della Dea, adattato in un substrato sociale patriarcale, sminuito e denigrato nel tempo.
Vi invito a leggere col tutto il cuore la bibliografia di Marija Gimbutas, così da comprendere che ogni religione, anche attuale porta in sé delle degenerazioni di dottrine precedenti, ma ribadendo sempre la stessa metafora e messaggio: tutto muore, tutto si rigenera.
-Astarte
November 6, 2015
A wonderful book to read and re-read. Marija Gimbutas is an appreciated lithuanian archaeologist who created the word "archaeomythology", a new multidisciplinary research field where deep studies of archeology and mythology-ancient people cultures studies are connected in order to understand ancient world on an intersting and useful level. She directed for all her life a lot of archeological european digs where she found meaningful artifacts, she also spoke many languages and this also helped studying human cultures knowing the origin of words, and she was a folklore expert. Her research about matriarchal societies (also known as gilanic societies, as the anthropologist Rian Esler named them) in ancient neolithic Europe and her "Kurgan" historic theory (so the origin and transfromation of european people) were rivolutionary in the academic word and currently considered very important contribute to the developement of knowledge, also a strong base for carry on and repurpuse the idea of cooperation and pacifism, nowadays we still need a lot.
March 17, 2015
The Language of the Goddess is a visual exploration of Goddess art throughout European history. It is an essential read to anyone wanting to know more about the Goddess cultures, specifically regarding figures and symbols. For me, the information regarding the birds, bulls, and river were essential touchstone pieces. I highly recommend this book.
February 23, 2016
Very nice collection of the artifacts from early Indo-European excavations in the 60's. Gimbutas arranges the material masterfully so that the reader has a glimpse into the ritual symbols and markings and what their significance may have meant to ancient peoples.
Read
June 2, 2007very good book raises some interesting thoughts and questions about the rise and fall of the "godess cultures".
October 6, 2013
Great for helping me see archaeological connections to myths and legends.
August 11, 2014
Universal patterns to understand how Nature works, our eco-planetary system, and us, who we are, as conscious human beings.
November 12, 2024
Pasak Gimbutienės, Didžiosios Deivės / Motinos Žemės mitas pradėjo nykti maždaug nuo IV–III tūkstantmečio pr. Kr., kai į Europą ėmė skverbtis patriarchalinės, karingesnės indoeuropiečių kultūros, kilusios iš Eurazijos stepių.
Pamažu nuo altoriaus išstumta deivė traukėsi į miškų gelmes ar kalnų viršūnes, kurių pasakojimuose ir tikėjimuose iki šiol gyvena. Deivė su visomis savo apraiškomis buvo gamtos vienybės simbolis. Ją garbinusiems žmonėms nereikėjo gaminti mirtinų ginklų ar konstruoti fortų neprieinamose vietose taip, kaip darė jų įpėdiniai.
Nepaisant Motiną Žemę išstūmusių patriarchalinių figūrų, deivės religija ir jos simbolika išliko ir veikė tarsi povandeninė srovė – daugelis jos simbolių vis dar egzistuoja šiuolaikiniame mene ir literatūroje. Pasak Marijos Gimbutienės, mes vis dar gyvename agresyvios vyrų invazijos įtakoje ir tik pradedame atrasti mūsų susvetimėjusios Europos paveldą – nesmurtinę, į žemę orientuotą kultūrą.
Gražus, vertingas ir prasmingas skaitinys :).
Pamažu nuo altoriaus išstumta deivė traukėsi į miškų gelmes ar kalnų viršūnes, kurių pasakojimuose ir tikėjimuose iki šiol gyvena. Deivė su visomis savo apraiškomis buvo gamtos vienybės simbolis. Ją garbinusiems žmonėms nereikėjo gaminti mirtinų ginklų ar konstruoti fortų neprieinamose vietose taip, kaip darė jų įpėdiniai.
Nepaisant Motiną Žemę išstūmusių patriarchalinių figūrų, deivės religija ir jos simbolika išliko ir veikė tarsi povandeninė srovė – daugelis jos simbolių vis dar egzistuoja šiuolaikiniame mene ir literatūroje. Pasak Marijos Gimbutienės, mes vis dar gyvename agresyvios vyrų invazijos įtakoje ir tik pradedame atrasti mūsų susvetimėjusios Europos paveldą – nesmurtinę, į žemę orientuotą kultūrą.
Gražus, vertingas ir prasmingas skaitinys :).
August 2, 2022
As groundbreaking as the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics. This is how ethnography should be done. A classical study of synthesizing symbols and figures found in relation to temples, myth, linguistics, pottery, stonework to develop and validate meaning of artifacts in the Neolithic.
March 4, 2021
Ever SO long, rich in illustrations and detail. Completely worth the investment of time to learn of the history of the Goddess and women's strength.
April 27, 2021
Beautiful big gook. Honestly, I did not read it all. Looked at all the pictures.
March 22, 2023
World-changing. One of the most important books I've ever read/seen/absorbed. Soul-upending. Stunningly beautiful. A sacred text.
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