and how it was destructive to her. She could see that she needed to
confront her husband with his behavior and face the marital prob-
lems between them, rather than turn into vengeful Hera.
Then a woman colleague unexpectedly spoke out against the Equal
Rights Amendment, which I was supporting. In the midst of the
anger and hurt I felt, I suddenly had an “Aha!” insight into the
situation. It was a clash of types based on the goddesses in our re-
spective psyches. At that moment, over this subject, I was acting
and feeling like Artemis, archetypal Big Sister, protector of women.
My opponent, in contrast, was like Athena, the daughter who had
sprung full grown from Zeus’s head, and was thereafter the goddess-
patron of heroes, defender of the patriarchy, very much “her father’s
daughter.”
On another occasion I was reading about the kidnapping of Patty
Hearst. I realized that the myth of Persephone, the maiden who was
abducted, raped, and held captive by Hades, Lord of the Under-
world, was being played out once more, this time in newspaper
headlines. At the time, Hearst was a student at the University of
California, a sheltered daughter of two modern-day affluent
Olympians. She was kidnapped—taken into the underworld by the
leader of the Symbionese Liberation Army—imprisoned in a dark
closet, and repeatedly raped.
Soon I was seeing the “Goddesses in Everywoman.” I found that
knowing which “goddess” was present deepened my understanding
of everyday occurrences as well as of more dramatic events. For in-
stance: which goddess might be showing her influence when a wo-
man prepares meals and does housework?
I realized that there was a simple test: when a woman’s husband
goes away for a week, what does she do about meals for herself, and
what happens to the house? When a Hera woman (shorthand for
“this particular goddess is the dominant influence”) or an Aphrodite
woman has a solitary dinner, it is likely a sorry and dismal affair:
cottage cheese out of the carton, perhaps. Whatever is in the refriger-
ator or cupboard is good enough for her when she’s alone, in marked
contrast to the elaborate or good meals she provides when her hus-
band is home. She cooks meals for him. She makes what he likes, of
Goddesses in Everywoman