Customer Reviews

The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have read most of the books available which blend psychology and mythology -- and have written in the field of myself -- and after 15 years still believe Goddess by Downing belongs in the TOP FIVE of all time - perhaps it deserves #1. This is the most outstanding in-depth portrayal of the goddesses and their psychological meanings that I have encountered; in comparison, Bolen's work and other contemporary interpretations of the goddeses appear superficial. Over and over again, I return to GODDESS and find new meanings continually unfolding for me within it. Although the scholarship in the book is outstanding, its strength is how it relates the myths to the deeply personal. DON'T MISS THIS BOOK! Get it while it's still in print.

The book covers 7 Greek Goddesses: Persephone, Ariadne, Hera, Athene, Gaia, Artemis and Aphrodite. The writing is beautiful but I am not sure I can relate to the author. It is like her voice is from a different age--being 28 years old, her view of "the Feminine" is foreign to me.The book assumes the reader is familiar with Greek mythology--I would say that I have a moderate amount of exposure to the Greek myths, and to Homer and not much knowledge at all of the tragedies and I understood the book pretty well. But if you know nothing of Greek myth--you might be a little lost.There were two things about this book that disturbed me. The first was that in the chapter on Persephone, the author states that the rape needed to happen. This may be true on a psychological/mythological level--but the author did nothing to say that actual physical rape is a horribly scaring violation. Perhaps she imagined her readers to be her peers and does not think a young rape victem would have exposure to this book--but I find it hurtful to not take into account the feelings of real women.The other thing that disturbed me was the autobiographical portions of the book. To read about the author's affair while married, and it's devasting effect on her lover's wife--clouded the whole book for me. She speaks of affairs as if they are something natural. I found myself not liking the author and doubting everything she wrote and questioning whether it had any meaning for me. Because the author's morals are so different from my own, her credibility as a guide to the Greek Goddesses was lost to me.I do think this is a very good book--but my feelings are mixed. Read it and decide for yourself.

THE GODDESS was originally titled THE GODDESS PAPERS because it grew out of a series of explorations into the nature of the Greek Goddesses that author Christine Downing did over a series of months during a crucial transition point in her life. Part of the reason for these explorations was a need to explore the shadow aspects both of her own psyche and of the larger mythological figures with whom she was dealing in scholarly and imaginal ways. Perhaps this is the reason that this book, far from being a dry exercise in strictly academic concerns, still has the power to shock--as is evidenced by the review from the 28-year old woman, above, who was so upset by the personal revelations that she had a hard time even completing the reading of the book!

To my mind, the book does us a great service by these confessions and by the larger theme they serve: to make it clear how powerfully the images of myth speak to the wholeness of our humanity, and how much they continue to illuminate those aspects of ourselves with which we are always struggling to come to terms. In doing so, she makes us understand aspects of Artemis or of Aphrodite or of Hera or even of Athena which it is very easy to overlook when dealing with these divine figures through the rose-colored lenses of most treatments of them for the general public, which often bear a kind of Disneyfied glow entirely untrue to the reality of their natures, or to the rituals and stories through which they were born. For example, it is no accident, as Downing shows, that Athena has the head of the Gorgon Medusa on her breastplate, or that Aphrodite has mythic links with the chthonic Underworld Goddesses

I not only recommend this book (or any book by Christine Downing) most highly, I consider it essential to our modern understanding of the Ancient Greeks and to our understanding of contemporary feminist re-visionings of them. The fact that is being re-issued some thirty years after its original generation is indicative of the fact that I am not alone in this assessment.

As someone who is employed in the psychological field and interested in depth psychology, I found this book to be a unique contribution. As other reviewers mention, it blends mythology and psychology combining feminist, Jungian and personal perspectives. It is also a very deep exploration of each of the goddesses mentioned in other reviews including both dark and light aspects. In all cases, the author explores the each goddess as she is commonly understood and then dives deeper for earlier understandings. Each of the goddesses is also contextualized in relation to the great mother archetype and the evolution of consciousness over time.

A plus or a minus of the book depending upon how you look at it is an almost spiritual autobiography of the author's own relation to each of these goddesses from an interior subjective perspective. For me, I think there was a bit too much of this, but it does add depth and show how the archetypes can be used to create personal meaning.

There is some repetition in the book and a fair amount of meandering. However, it is overall a very creative work dense with meaning. For the average person, it may be more than they wanted to know. However, for folks with an interest in mythology, Jungian psychology or an archetypal understanding of feminism, it is just right. It is fairly heavy, but very accessible to most people with a minimum understanding of psychology, archetypes and how they are expressed personally and culturally.

My rating of a 4 might indicate a personal bias toward more organization, less personal content and avoidance of repetion. After all this is a book about female archetypal figures and according to Jung himself, the emergence of the feminine involves a symbolic death of the masculine principle as expressed in the meandering motif which is ubiquitous in art and in Jung and others writing on the nature of the feminine psyche. As such, it is in alignment with the topic and indeed resembles Jung's own meandering style of writing.

With respect to feeling tone, this book is intimate and vulnerable. One gets a sense of knowing the author in a deep way that took a lot of courage. The personal material is sometimes a strong "value add" and occasionally a distraction. However, there are many gems in the personal material and I think the book would be less innovative and much less worthwhile if this information was removed.

Some of the other reviewers compare this book to Bolen's classic, "The Goddesses in Everywoman." I see this as deeper than that book, but less accessible and with a narrower scope in some ways. In other ways, it has a broader scope bringing in earlier conceptions of female goddesses and tying them to the rise of agriculture and the evolution of patriarchy. While some of this material is personal opinion, I can relate to the vast majority of it and it represents an informed opinion. In short, I don't see the two books at odds, but rather as complimentary. If you have an interest in this area, I would get them both and read Bolen's first.

It is difficult to remember that when Christine first wrote and published this book in 1981, there were few books about women's spirituality and connection to the ancient Goddesses. Chris Downing is a foundational person in feminist religious studies. This book blends strong scholarly research with personal reflections to create a deep psychological and spiritual offering. It is a classic, a book that anyone interested in the Goddess movement should own.

This book takes the archetypes presented in the myths of the Great Greek Goddesses and relates them to the lives of women today. The author lookes at the characters in these myths and what they mean to her. This may seem totally self-centered but the themes examined, like the loss of innocence and sexual awakening of Persephone, are central to the lives of all women.

Each chapter takes on one Goddess and looks at several quotes from ancient Greek texts, the central myths, and overall impression of the Goddess to fully explore what she means to us as women. My one complaint is that she expects us to know the outline of each myth first, and examines only the parts she thinks are important so I did have to look elsewhere on one occasion for the full myth in sequential order. Not hard to find though.

The Goddesses covered are;

Persephone, Aridne, Hera, Athene, Gaia, Artemis, Aphrodite.

I only wish I had a book like this for every pantheon I use.