Max Dashu talks about themes in her new book, including cosmogonies of the pre-Olympian goddesses, with photos of women's dance and ceremony before Classical times, and the Libyan Connection in Geometric-era ceramic paintings (African influences, and also Phoenician). Lady of the Animals, and other overlapping goddess motifs; Serpent-belted Gorgons and the Snake Knot; Athena of the Snakes and Gorgons, and her eventual antagonistic relationship to Medusa.
Also war, the taking of female captives—"the prize of my spear"—and the origins of rape culture as represented in the Epic Cycle and Greek literature, vase paintings and sculpture. Antidoted by images of the huntress and warrior Atalanta (who survived exposure as a female infant). She was sometimes represented as an Amazon, as were Medea and Andromeda.
The visual presentation is followed by reading of an excerpt from Chapter 1, on Nyx ("Night") as a parthenogenetic progenitrix, mother of the stars and of Ge / Gaia / Earth, as well as an oracular fount of wisdom. A fragmentary text from Parmenides shows her as teaching him about the true nature of reality, What Is.
The book is 392 pages, with 270 illustrations, and available only from Veleda Press. [ Ссылка ] On this page you can also view the Table of Contents, Commentaries, and a Glossary. The Endnotes and Bibliography are also linked.
