Classical Mythology, 7th Edition - obinfonet: dia logou

34 THE MYTHS OF CREATION: THE GODS
ICONOGRAPHY, RELIGION, AND
FEMINIST INTERPRETATIONS
Dexter, Miriam Robbins. Whence the Goddesses: A Source Book. Elmsford, N.Y.: Pergamon
Press, 1990. A history of goddesses through a comparison of the iconography with
the literary tradition.
Ehrenberg, Margaret. Women in Prehistory. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.
The role of women from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age, with a consideration of matriarchy
in Minoan Crete.
Eller, Cynthia. The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Won't Give Women
a Future. New York: Beacon Press, 2000. An argument against the validity of interpretations
of feminists such as Marija Gimbutas, who imagine in a time of goddess
worship a gynocentric golden age before the onslaught of patriarchy.
Gimbutas, Marija. Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, 7000-3500 B.C.: Myths and Cult Images.
New and updated ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. A study
of figurines, which includes analysis of "Mistresses of Waters," "The Great Goddess
of Life," "Death and Regeneration," and the "Year God."
. The Language of the Goddesses. Foreword by Joseph Campbell. New York: Harper
& Row, 1989. An analysis of the symbols in the archaeological evidence under the
major categories of "Life-Giving," "The Renewing and Eternal Earth," "Death and
Regeneration," and "Energy and Unfolding."
THE GODS, RELIGION, AND THE OCCULT
See the Select Bibliography at the end of Chapter 6.
NOTES
1. See the bibliography for this chapter.
2. G. S. Kirk, The Nature of Greek Myths (Harmondsworth and Baltimore: Penguin Books,
1974), p. 27. Kirk identifies a "traditional tale" as a myth that has "succeeded in becoming
traditional . . . [and is] important enough to be passed from generation to
generation."
3. See especially H. J. Rose, A Handbook of Classical Mythology, 6th ed. (London: Methuen,
1958), pp. 12-14, for his designations of myth, saga, and folktale.
4. Legend may be used as a general term like myth in its broadest sense. Often, however,
it is defined as equivalent to saga and made to refer to stories inspired by actual persons
and events. Thus for us legend and saga are one and the same. Many prefer the
German word Mdrchen for the designation of folktales because of the pioneering work
of the brothers Grimm (1857) in collecting and collating variations of oral tales and
publishing their own versions.
5. Graham Anderson, Fairytales in the Ancient World (London and New York: Routledge,
2000), p. 1. He has identified several motifs from familiar fairytales in Greek and Roman
stories (e.g., those of Cinderella, Snow White, Red Riding Hood, and Bluebeard,
among many others) and offers a comparison of Cupid and Psyche and Beauty and the
Beast.