ATHENE PARTHENIA: RECLAIMING THE FEMININE STANDARD

ATHENE PARTHENIA:

RECLAIMING THE FEMININE STANDARD

I was nine when I discovered the world of Myth, starting with the myths of Greece. The first Goddess with whom I felt an affinity was Athene. At  a time when the role of woman was measured against her usefulness to man, I was impressed with the story of Athene’s birth, that she sprang from Zeus’s head, fully grown and wearing a suit of armor,  after  causing him an incurable headache.  That must have given him something to think about! 

     Her name, Parthenia, means "I have come from myself," while the meaning of Athene has been lost in antiquity. Her stories have been traced to Mycenaea, Northern Africa including Egypt, Anatolia and the Minoan culture. Originally she represented the bond existent among family members, symbolized by hearth and home. Her tools were those implements associated with domesticity: the spindle, loom and cooking utensils. Her realm grew to include not only individual family units but finally the entire community and it was thus that she became known as the Goddess of civilization.

GODDESS OF CIVILIZATION

According to Robert Graves, Athene also invented the flute and the trumpet, and agricultural implements such as the plough and rake. Her gift to humanity extended to the realm of

mathematics, the Arts and, of course, the "womanly arts"  of spinning, weaving and needlework. She introduced more sophisticated means of transportation by inventing the ship, chariot and bridle for horses.

Classical Greek myth tells us that Athene sprang, fully grown, from the head of her "father" Zeus wearing full battle regalia. She became known as a Goddess of war, although her stories suggest that she was more a strategist and negotiator than an actual warrior. Her reputation as a warrior may have arisen from her identification with the Amazons, women who lived in communities independent of men save for the purposes of procreation, and who fought against the Achaean invadersintent upon conquering their lands and destroying their culture.

    

In the patriarchal myths which gave her name to the city of Athens, the women of that city-state lost their rights to vote, to citizenship and to pass their names on to their children, rendering them solely the property of their husbands, because they had outnumbered the men by one. All the women voted on behalf of their own Goddess, who offered them the multi-purpose olive tree,  while the men had cast their vote in favor of the god of the changeful sea, Poseidon, he who usurped the realms of  the more ancient ocean Goddess, Tethys, an indication that this is yet another myth which documents the spread of a male-dominant worldview.

Despite the patrification of her story casting Athene as a champion of the Masculine value system, her reputation as a virgin (meaning "complete unto herself") Goddess was retained at a time when all Goddesses were either being "raped" or "married" to conquering invader-gods. Even the story of Athene's "mother," Metis, (Athene's aspect as Goddess of wisdom), portrayed her as the unwilling bride of Zeus who, upon learning that he would be deposed by her off-spring, swallowed Metis to prevent the birth of her child. The "birth" of Athene from Zeus' head suggests the re-thinking or re-fashioning of a preceeding concept of deity rooted in Feminine values, such as the sovereignty of women and the care of the community, in contrast to the Masculine values which stressed hierarchy, slavery, women as chattel and territorial expansion.

PALLAS ATHENE

Often referred to as Pallas Athene, there are several stories recounting how she came to bear this name. One myth tells us that Athene took the name Pallas upon the inadvertent death of her friend by that name during a sparring match. Pallas was a pre-Hellenic Goddess whose name means "great maiden." Another Pallas, a tribal protector-Goddess of Greek origin, was introduced to the indigenous followers of Athene, and the two concepts of the Goddess became fused together, indicating the emergence of a new society. Other sources suggest that Pallas was a phallic god whom Athene took as a lover but did not marry.  However, "Pallas" may derive from "Palladium," a statue of the Goddess purported to have fallen from the sky and which was paraded through the city streets to the water's edge where it was bathed and thus "renewed" during her yearly festivals.

Athene is said to have taken Pan, god of uncultivated Nature, as a lover,  an intimation of her possible early association with corporeal wisdom. She was once assaulted by Hephaestos, the lame son of Zeus, husband of Aphrodite and god of the metal forge. Though she was triumphant in her resistance, the smith-god managed to ejaculate upon her leg. Athene wiped his semen from her with a bit of fleece and flung it upon the Earth, which thereupon became fertilized and birthed the serpent Erichthonius. Athene took responsibility for the serpent and hisimage was finally placed in the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga).     

The serpent, however, has long been associated with both feminine wisdom and the life force itself, chi (China) or Kundalini (India), most often represented as a serpent coiled at the base of the human spinal column but which can rise either spontaneously or through disciplined meditation to the energy centre located above the individual's physical head, hence bestowing enlightenment. The serpent and the owl are two of the totem animals affiliated with the concept of wisdom and both appear with representations of Athene as her familiars.

MEDUSA THE GORGON 

 No examination of Athene can be endeavored without consideration of the Gorgon Medusa, the roots of whose story lie in the myths of the Sun Goddesses of pre-Hellenic Anatolia,Africa, Assyria, Crete and the Sumero-Akkadian cultures (21st century, B.C.E.). 

 Medusa is most familiar to us from the Classical Greek story of the beautiful woman who took Poseidon (whose name means "husband of earth") as a lover and offended Athene by engaging him in intercourse within the precinct of one of the Goddess's temples.

Enraged, Athene turned Medusa's hair into snakes and cursed  her with a gaze which could turn humans to stone should they chance to look upon her.  She then banished Medusa to the end of  the world, there to live with the two other Gorgons until the  Achaean hero Perseus, equipped with a mirror-like shield from Athene herself, beheaded Medusa. Upon her death, the winged horse Pegasus and the boy-child Chryasoar were born from the blood of her severed head.

Perseus quickly put Medusa's head in a bag and brought it back to the Goddess.  Thereafter, Athene wore Medusa's snake-haired head upon her shield.

Myths of the dismemberment of female deities, called "demons" by the conquering patriarchs, abound. These are a testament of the often brutal subjugation of earlier female-based or egalitarian cultures by the "heroes" of the incoming hierarchic social order, and hence, the psychological paradigm whereby the feminine aspect is violently repressed within the masculine psyche.

Etymologically, Medusa's name comes from the same root as Medea and simply means "to know." It is interesting to note that some of the oldest representations of Medusa picture her not as a severed head with snaky locks but rather as a "head" surrounded with wavy lines like those indicative of heat waves or the corona of the sun. Perhaps it was not the head of Zeus from which proud Athene sprang forth, but the solar head of Gorgon Medusa herself, representative of intellectual prowess and enlightenment, and example of the rebirth of the Self. Or perhaps Medusa is the third aspect of a Triple Goddess pantheon,  maiden/mother/crone: Athene as the youthful maiden, the brilliant and energetic guardian, Metis as the wisdom-bearer and birther of civilizations and Medusa as the crone, her "light" spreading generously over all the world and from whom her maiden Self emerges again and again at the winter solstice. Athene, surviving the age of the Patriarch, brings them all together under her aegis.

THE GODDESS IS ALIVE

In the late twentieth century we experience Athene's manifestation in the Women's Movement, in feminist theory and the visibility of women in all sectors of public life. The growing WomanSpirit Movement is an affirmation of her perennial existence: the Divine is immanent and all life is sacred as an expression of Divinity. Her multicultural roots serve to remind us of the varieties of Feminine experience and the necessity for us to honor our diversity, for therein lies one of the keys to our human perpetuity.

Athene is also the Motherground upon which we are rediscovering a Feminine standard and by which we will redefine ourselves in Feminine terms, honoring our unique needs and concerns.  It is only when we know who we are as women, when we come to understand our own "completeness unto ourselves," that we can freely embrace the "dialogue of the sacrament of marriage," co-creatively transforming society in partnership, for without  true self-knowledge we may be doomed to repeat the failings of our mutual recent patriarchal history. 

As the influence of Athene grows, Feminine values will be re-instated; every one of us will come to recognize her own  personal integrity, sovereignty, creativity, respect for the family bond and care for our community, which is the world.

Ultimately the work of women as builders and preservers of true civilization will be recognized for that which it is: part of the creative expressions of Gaia, planet Earth.

© 2003, 2013, Jessica North-O’Connell

 

Hagia Sophia, Holy Wisdom

HAGIA SOPHIA, HOLY WISDOM*

 “...for the dwelling place of the Divine Bride is in Creation...”

She is called the "wisdom of God," though in fact she is far older than monotheism; she is the feminine dimension of the Divine, almost invisible in the myths of Judaeo-Christianity.

It is said of her that she is the Holy Spirit, the feminine portion of the Trinity which includes the Father and Son. Guide of the human soul, she is both sister and Mother to the Christ, he who is "one with the Father." The Gnostic Christians called her an "Aeon," a facet of female power from which all things originated. The Soul of the World, Anima Mundi, was created from her smile; her orgasm created the Universe and also, parthenogenetically (1), her daughter, Sophia Akhamoth, the Aeon who brought Wisdom to the Etheric plane, that level of manifestation closest to the physical plane of existence. Named Zoe ("Life"), she animated the first man of clay, Adam, by giving him a soul. Her Symbol is the dove, bird of sexual passion.

As Wisdom personified, Sophia, so named by the Eastern Europeans, is the compassionate mother, intervening with the Heavens on humanity's behalf. She softens the  harshness of the biblical Yahweh's rule, as the Shekinah, his female soul and heavenly bride, echoing the South Asian Shakti as the feminine counterpart of the masculine Shiva. Her Hebrew name is Hokhmah, "Wisdom." She is the Greek Metis, mother of Athene and first wife of Zeus.

To the Romans she was known as the Goddess Sapientia, Lady Wisdom, who arose from the sea, breasts spouting red and white wines of enlightenment. Her Egyptian counterparts were Ma'at, who weighed the Human "heart" of the dead against a feather to determine its purity, and later, Isis, the Mother Goddess whose European worship rivalled Christianity for four hundred years. Her sacred number is seven, tying her to the lunar mythologies (seven days being 1/4 of the lunar cycle), and to traditions stretching back to Sumerian times: the gates to the Underworld, the seven sacred planets of the Ancients, the seven colors of the rainbow, the seven energy centres in the body called variously the chakras (Sanskrit), the Asherah or Tree of Life (Semitic), and the Seven Heavens, her dwelling place being the Eighth Heaven (Gnosticism).The biblical House of Wisdom is supported by seven pillars.

           

True to the lunar fashion, Sophia shows herself with both a light and a dark face. Despite Christianity's attempts to eradicate her, she is still present in the two Marys - she who birthed the Christ and she who was his beloved, her female power intact, whom we call Mary Magdalene. Mother Mary has been presented to us as purveyor of the light, while the Magdalene is erroneously interpreted as a "fallen" woman, in part because she had knowledge of the Dark.

In the Wisdom literature of Babylon and Israel, Sophia's dual aspects (her "light" aspect being Wisdom, and her "dark" aspect Folly) impose trials upon humanity in her attempt to lead humans to her path; she is the Law of Life, blending knowledge and love,  thus bringing  us both joy and suffering. She is concurrently transcendent, existing beyond our limitations, and immanent, indwelling in all Nature as its very foundation.   

“Wisdom went forth to make her dwelling

Among the children of men,

And found no dwelling place;

Wisdom returned to her place

And took her seat among the angels.”

Book of Enoch, 1:42

With the evolution of the sky-god concept, and the subsequent loss of status of the Feminine aspect, we lost Sophia as a tangible force. Rather, she became an abstraction, ironically in opposition to her realm of flesh and substance. With this polarization we also lost our respect for the physical realm, our world, and our innate corporeal intelligence, the body-wisdom which is her gift to us. As women, we lost the ecstatic celebration of female sexuality.

Yet whether she is observed as manifest or abstract, Wisdom exists in the all-pervasive silence, in contrast to her masculine counterpart, Logos, the Word. In today's popular psychological terms she can be compared to intuitive right brain functions, accessed through dreams and creative insight, existent in the subtle undercurrent which informs all life, the ground upon which we stand. We are now in a time of re-membering, of awakening to that which we once knew in our profound innocence. We re-member Sophia by reaching back into the depths of our ancient brain; the seat of our emotional responses, memory functions and the master-controller of the autonomic body systems. Our conscious recognition of Sophia awakens within us an erotic response to life, not merely sexual but rather "engaged." Our lives become a sacred dance of Wisdom and Folly in its most exalted expression, that of the Holy Fool.

"The way of Sophia is the way of personal experience. It takes us into areas...[which are] those creative realms to which ordinary mortals are called by right of their vocational and creative skills."  - Caitlin Matthews

                                   

When we venture into the Unknown, into the Dreamtime, into the Void, we approach the sacred realm of the Black or Dark Goddess, who is none other than "veiled" Sophia. In the Western world, we have been taught to fear the Dark, and the reclaiming of the Dark as a place of creative power has been slow to gain recognition again. Therefore, we are likely to look upon the Black/Dark Goddess aspect with some trepidation. Yet there are always those among us who, despite fear or perhaps because of it, are ready to venture into the unknown, and it is these attempts to reach beyond the veil, to expose this "secret" who is Life, which ultimately leads us to the most intimate contact with our own souls. Through the experience of Life's adventures we come to know the Dark Goddess in all her terror and glory. The more engaged we are in the living of our own lives, the more potent, the more rewarding is the knowledge which then, like fruit left on the vine, can ripen into wisdom and truth. We become Priestesses of the Sacred Dance, daughters of Sophia, dancing upon a sacred Earth. We become infused with wisdom, awesome in our potency, in our ability to create, for the world is the product of the creator.

Re-membering Sophia, we become agents of healing, as we recognize the unity that we are, rather than the duality which has been thrust upon us by the divisive and mal-comprehended philosophies we have inherited from our forbears. The dark and light are interdependent; one does not exist without the other, because they create Wholeness.

Copyright, August, 1998, 2003,  Jessica North-O’Connell

*This article originally appeared in Trans-dimension Vista

Bibliography:

Anne Baring & Jules Cashford: The Myth of the Goddess

Janet & Stewart Farrar: The Witches’ Goddess

Susan Haskins: Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor

Caitlin Matthews: Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom

Barbara G. Walker: The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths & Secrets; The Secrets of the Tarot

Notes:

1) parthenogenesis: to give birth without the aid of a second gender; “virgin birth”