THE COURAGE OF TURTLES - Central Washington University

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Eisler 26 cycle of birth, death, and regeneration, embodied in the feminine principle, a Mother Creatrix. The Kurgan ideology, as known from comparative Indo-European mythology, exalted virile, heroic warrior gods of the shining and thunderous sky. Weapons are nonexistent in Old European imagery; whereas the dagger and battle-axe are dominant symbols of the Kurgans, who, like all historically known Indo-Europeans, glorified the lethal power of the sharp blade. 12 So while we are still commonly taught that it was to Indo-European invadersCsuch as the Achaean warriors, celebrated by Homer, who eventually sacked TroyCthat we owe our Western heritage, we now know that they in fact did not bring us civilization. Rather, they destroyed, degraded, and brutalized a civilization already highly advanced along wholly different lines. And, just as the factuality of how these truly savage peoples demoted both women and goddesses to the subservient status of consort or wife has now been established, the fact [that] they brought in warfare with them is also confirmed. Once again, as when Heinrich Schliemann defied the archeological establishment and proved that the city of Troy was not Homeric fantasy but prehistoric fact, new archeological findings verify ancient legends and myths. For instance, the Greek poet Hesiod, who wrote about the same time as Homer, tells us of a Agolden race,@ who lived in Apeaceful ease@ in a time when Athe fruitful earth poured forth her fruits.@ And he laments how they were eventually replaced by Aa race of bronze@ who Aate not grain@ (in other words, were not farmers) and instead specialized in warfare (Athe all-lamented 13 sinful works of Ares were their chief care@). Perhaps one of the most fascinating legends of ancient times is, of course, that of the lost civilization of Atlantis. And here again, as with the once only legendary city of Troy, archeological findings illuminate our true past. For what new findings suggest is what the eminent Greek scholar Spyridon Martinatos already suspected in 1939: that the legend of a great civilization which sank into the Atlantic is actually the garbled folk memory of the Minoan civilization of Crete and surrounding Mediterranean islands, 12 M. Gimbutas, AThe First Wave of Eurasian Steppe Pastoralists in Copper Age Europe,@ Journal of lndo-European Studies, 1977, p. 281. [Au.] 13 13 Hesiod, quoted in J. M. Robinson, An Introduction to Early Greek Philosophy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968), pp. 12-14. [Au.]
Eisler 27 portions of which did indeed disappear into the sea after unprecedented volcanic 14 eruptions sometime after 1500 B.C.E. First discovered at the turn of this century, the once unknown Bronze Age civilization of ancient Crete has now been far more extensively excavated. As Nicolas Platon, former superintendent of antiquities in Crete and director of the Acropolis Museum, who excavated the island for over thirty years, writes, Minoan civilization was Aan astonishing achievement.@ It reflected Aa highly sophisticated art and way of life,@ indeed producing some of the most beautiful art the world has ever seen. Also in this remarkable societyCthe only place where the worship of the goddess and the influence women in the public sphere survived into historic times, where Athe whole of life was pervaded by an ardent faith in the goddess Nature, the source of all creation and harmony@Cthere was still Aa love of peace, a horror of tyranny, and a respect for the law.@ And once again, it was not men=s discovery of their biological role in paternity that led to the toppling of the goddess. It was another, final Indo-European invasion: the onslaught of the Dorians, who, with their weapons of iron, as Hesiod writes, brought 16 death and destruction in their wake. So the revolution in norms that literally stood reality on its headCthat established this seemingly fundamental and sacrosanct idea that we are the creations of a Divine Father, who all by Himself brought forth all forms of lifeCwas in fact a relatively late event in the history of human culture. Moreover, this drastic change in direction of cultural evolution, which set us on the social course that in our nuclear age threatens to destroy all life, was certainly not predetermined or, by any stretch of the imagination, inevitable. Rather than being some mystical mystery, it was the substitution of a force-based model of social organization for one in which both the female and male halves of humanity viewed the supreme power in the universe not as the Amasculine@ power to destroy but rather as the Afeminine@ power to give and nurture life. Another popular old idea about this change was that it was the replacement of matriarchy with patriarchy. But my research of many years shows that matriarchy is simply the flip side of the coin to the dominator model of society, based upon the dominance of men over women that we call patriarchy. The real alternative to patriarchy, already foreshadowed by the original direction of human civilization, is what 14 Au.] 15 16 S. Martinatos, AThe Volcanic Destruction of Minoan Crete,@ Antiquity, 939,13:425-439. N. Platon, Crete (Geneva: Nagel, 1966), pp. 48, 148. [Au.] Hesiod, see note 13. [Au.]
Page 1 and 2: Hoagland 1 EDWARD HOAGLAND THE COUR
Page 3 and 4: Hoagland 3 Turtles cough, burp, whi
Page 5 and 6: Hoagland 5 when she rides over the
Page 7 and 8: Orwell 7 GEORGE ORWELL POLITICS AND
Page 9 and 10: Orwell 9 Professor Lancelot Hogben
Page 11 and 12: Orwell 11 brought to a satisfactory
Page 13 and 14: Orwell 13 This is a parody, but not
Page 15 and 16: Orwell 15 one utters the responses
Page 17 and 18: Orwell 17 attempt to make written E
Page 19 and 20: Didion 19 JOAN DIDION ON GOING HOME
Page 21 and 22: Didion 21 It is time for the baby's
Page 23 and 24: Eisler 23 sites is that they were s
Page 25: Eisler 25 goddesses as Demeter, Art
Page 29 and 30: Unger 29 RUSTY UNGER OH, GODDESS! R
Page 31 and 32: Unger 31 Despite these nuances, the
Page 33 and 34: Unger 33 Christopher Hatton, anothe
Page 35 and 36: Unger 35 matching bandanna and exot
Page 37 and 38: Unger 37 growing as a religion and

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