were expropriated and given to a male deity. Rape appeared in
myths for the first time, and myths arose in which the male heroes
slew serpents—symbols of the Great Goddess. And, as reflected in
Greek mythology, the attributes, symbols, and power that once were
invested in one Great Goddess were divided among many goddesses.
Mythologist Jane Harrison notes that the Great Mother goddess be-
came fragmented into many lesser goddesses, each receiving attrib-
utes that once belonged to her: Hera got the ritual of the sacred
marriage, Demeter her mysteries, Athena her snakes, Aphrodite her
doves, and Artemis her function as “Lady of the Wild Things”
(wildlife).^6
According to Merlin Stone, author of When God Was a Woman, the
disenthronement of the Great Goddess, begun by the Indo-European
invaders, was finally accomplished by the Hebrew, Christian, and
Moslem religions that arose later. The male deity took the prominent
place. The female goddesses faded into the background, and women
in society followed suit. Stone notes, “We may find ourselves won-
dering to what degree the suppression of women’s rites has actually
been the suppression of women’s rights.”^7
HISTORICAL GODDESSES AND ARCHETYPES
The Great Goddess was worshipped as the Creator and the Des-
troyer of Life, responsible for the fertility and destructiveness of
nature. And the Great Goddess still exists as an archetype in the
collective unconscious. I have often felt the presence of the awesome
Great Goddess in my patients. One of my postpartum patients
identified with the Great Goddess—in her terrible aspect. Gwen was
a young mother who had become psychotic after her baby was born.
Convinced that she had consumed the world, she was hallucinating
and depressed. She paced the dayroom of the hospital, wretched in
her guilt and sorrow. When I fell in step to keep her company, she
used to tell me that she had “gobbled up and destroyed the world.”
During her pregnancy, she had identified with the Great Goddess
in her positive aspect as the Creator of Life. Now, after the delivery,
she felt herself to be the Great Goddess who had the power to destroy
what she created—and
Goddesses as Inner Images