The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image Paperback – June 1, 1993

I've read numerous books on the topic of ancient goddesses and goddess-centered religions, and this book is one of my favorites. Because it's so lengthy, it covers a great deal of ground, and it's unusual in that it covers the Judeo-Christian religions. I wish it had a sequel that covered other cultures and mythologies. This book is well-researched and superbly written (and edited). The photos (although only black and white) are great, and include many that I have never seen before.Aside from discussing ancient goddesses, this book also talks a great deal about how we humans no longer see all of nature as part of the divine. I'm actually an atheist, but I believe that embracing nature in religious beliefs and practices can only help us (and the earth). It's sad that so many religions lost this connection.My copy of this book has highlighted and notated sections on almost every page. I could not put it down! Even though I already know a bit about this topic, I learned so much more from this important book. Don't let the size of this book intimidate you; if you are interested in the ancient past, when god was imagined as a woman and women held more important roles in the religions of the day, you must get this book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Goddess studies, mythology, or psychology. It is a well written, scholarly work with extensive bibliography, helpful for those looking for other quality material to read. Though scholarly, it is by no means dry. The writing style is engaging, pictures of artifacts are included for reference, and hymns and poems to some of the goddesses. Excellent chapter on Crete.This book is immense, which may deter some, but shouldn't, as it's well worth the read. Think of it as getting 3 books in one. I enjoyed it so much that I have ordered other books from these two authors.

A remarkable book that every woman should read .It will help you to understand that there was something other in human history besides conquest , war, and various forms of domination of the weak by the strong. Before the Patriarchy there was a period of 25 thousand years of much progress and development without huge wars.I gained an understanding of what has happened to our idea of ourselves and the way it has shaped our actions.The book is not a polemic like this review , it is a wonderfully written , considered history of the Godess archtype . It`s profusely illustrated and documented . A great bibliography is provided for further reading

I never realized, until recently, how important it is to understand the 'story' of religion. The West is suffering from a black void of silence stemming from an over abundance of monotheistic, fundamentalist pigeonholing that has done a very good job of putting a blanket over the history of humans and their relationships to the gods they create. I've found books like this one to be an exquisite appeal to the realization that God - in the ideal sense - or whatever power we imagine exists, took the image of a woman.Of course there are things that I (personally) disagree with. The concept of a goddess, or THE Goddess, appears to be a reaction to the Christian Father-God and it's debatable whether the Venus Figurines, for example, represent a supernatural feminine being or an animistic force seen in the feminine form. Unlike some literature on female deity, the authors do approach these conundrums with a tact and grace missing from other works.The book is thick and juicy. What I liked the most is the fact that they include the Virgin Mary and the Gnostic Sophia as apart of the 'goddess' chain. Far too many works, for some reason, either ignore Mary completely or sort of gloss over her while focusing heavily on much older female figurines which, while beautiful, perhaps cannot connect with us in our technological age, where their symbols and desires are no longer experienced or, cannot be because of cultural implications.What is really beautiful about this book is not what it says but what it doesn't say - what it leaves behind in the reader. As someone who straddles the edge of the atheist cliff while also craving a solution to my rocky religious upbringing, 'belief' only has started to make sense for me when I see it now, not as the complete destruction of pagan gods and demons but the growth of myth as it flows, naturally, through time and space. I have hope that in the future we will begin to understand more, the creative impulse interpreted through a feminine lens as we have the masculine. These books are not perfect, are flawed in some ways but highly precious in many others.

This is a book, which transcends generations. The fact of it is that there are many truths in it. It transcends generations. It should be an eyeopener to any Fundalmentalist reader, as it takes you to a quite literally lost time and place and shows us the import of good research and staying grounded. It was the cornerstone work for my Ancient History class, not Graves, not Gimbutas and not Merlin Stone. FANTASTIC work. All other books on the Goddess from prehistory pale in this books wake.

On the whole, this is a very good book. It is mostly insightful and allows readers of almost any level to make connections between different goddess stories and icons from the Palaeolithic into the early Christian world. The discussion of Crete as an isolated point connecting the Neolithic goddess to later civilisations is quite engaging. The study of the Hebrew culture and the misogyny of the Old Testament is also quite enlightening. The only fault, and the reason for four stars instead of five, is the tendencies to over-romanticise the Nelothic world as peaceful paradise of perfect gender equality. There is certainly a case to be made that large-scale warfare was uncommon at the time, but weapons did exists, and it was not all that and a bag of crisps as Cashford implies. Still, this is a good and necessary book, and well worth a read.