Lady of the Beasts: The Goddess and Her Sacred Animals

by Buffie Johnson

This vivid and provocative book provides an unparelleled overview of the Goddess as she was defined by the ancient societies whose people worshiped her. The author spent more than four decades studying Goddess images--statues, religious artifacts, and art--from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and other parts of the world. With more than 400 magnificent illustrations and photographs (many in color) of historic and prehistoric objects, this book provides a diverse display of stunning images that focus on the Goddess in relation to her sacred animals.

Genres: Mythology, Spirituality, Religion, History, Nonfiction, Goddess, Art

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Inara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title in German:
Die große Mutter in ihren Tieren

Buffie Johnson describes in this book the sacred animals of various goddesses around the world. The book is arranged according to animals: bird, lion, dog, snake, butterfly, sheep and ram, spider, deer, fish, sow, cow and bull, scorpion and bear.
Many pictures and illustrations show the goddesses and their animals in all their forms of expression. An extensive bibliography is also included at the end of the book for everybody who is interested in further reading. A very interesting and recommendable book if you like to learn about ancient goddesses and their sacred animals.

[Sarah Adler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, unapologetic, informative, daring; a wonderfully rich book that remains a great foundational work until this day.

[Luca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked up this book thinking it would be about the various goddesses of different mythologies and their connections with various animals. Turns out it's actually about the animal imagery of the "Great Goddess," a theory I don't subscribe to but was willing to give a chance. Here's the thing about this book, though - Johnson was a painter, not a historian, art historian, anthropologist or folklorist. And it shows.
Many of the arguments she makes are flimsy, and some of her claims are just blatantly incorrect. For example, she claims that the Greek goddess Aphrodite was not associated with, and even shunned, patriarchal monogamous marriage. However, ancient art heavily suggests that she was, in fact associated with marriage, with many depictions of her being present within marriage scenes, not to mention the simple fact that as goddess of love and unification between lovers, ancient Greeks may have very well associated her with marriage along with its formal goddess Hera.
All of that about Aphrodite to say that it's evident to me that Johnson did not research enough or properly, or even omitted facts that disproved her claims.
Another blatant error is her identifying of the Burney Relief as the "goddess Lilith." Evidence for Lilith as a Sumerian deity is flimsy in and of itself, and even more so is the identification of this relief as Lilith. The much more accepted and evidence-supported theory is that this relief depicts the goddess Inanna (also known as Ishtar). The most substantial scholarly work about this was published in 1987, a year before this book - Johnson doesn't have an excuse for ignoring it.
There were a multitude of other claims made in this book that I was skeptical of and curious what the sources supporting them were, only to find that there were no supporting sources. That's just poor academic work.
TLDR - Poorly researched, flimsy arguments. Not worth your time (unless you're one of those "goddess movement" neopagans who is also fine with misinformation, I guess).