Customer Reviews

Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture (Midland Book)

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I am interested in world mythology, and Slavic is one of my favorites. It is a shame that there is so few good books in English on the subject, so when I saw this one I was very excited. However, I am on page 30 right now, and already I noticed some glaring mythological errors. Among them was a statement that Thor hung from Yggdrasil on p.19 (it was Odin, not Thor, that hung from Yggdrasil), that Dazhdbog is Svarog's father on p.17 (it is the other way around!), and that Adonis is Cybele's lover on p.29 (Cybele's lover was Attis, and though the story of Aphrodite & Adonis is similar to that of Cybele & Attis, they come from different cultures and feature different characters).

At first I wondered if she was writing about some obscure versions of these myths that I never encountered, then I thought perhaps the errors about Mediterranean and Norse mythology could be due to her specialty in Slavic myth, but when she got even Slavic myth wrong I could not come up with any excuses. Because of this I am not sure how reliable the rest of her information is. Nevertheless it is a valuable resource since there are few books on Slavic myth out there - just read with a grain of salt...

I got this book to learn about the pagan cults of Russia prior to the Christian conversion. While the basic information is interesting-- who the gods were and what their associations were, the book is filled with opinions that are not substantiated with any footnotes to back them up. (She does have some footnotes, but a LOT of conjecture.) She has a clear feminist slant, which is not particularly a bad thing, but it seems ahistorical particularly in the context of the 10th century-- can we really say that at the time the chuch was seen as misogynistic when we consider how society was set up? That seems like a modern construct being written into history...
It is often unclear if she is referring to medieval or modern concepts or rituals with certain gods/ goddesses and her discussion of the Vladimir Icon is erronious: the Vladimir Icon is NOT the same as the Kazanskaja for starters.
This all being said, take it with a grain of salt and only read it for the absolute basics. Anything beyond that is probably unsubstantiated opinion or ahistorical re-writing of history.

I found Joanna Hubb's text to be very informative and enlightening. Its contents are academic, prolific and detailed down to the definitions of Russian origins. The chapter on Baba Yaga has the greatest, most factual collection of resources available on the subject. Anyone interested in Russian mythology, the foundation of the Russian goddess religions, and the critical analysis of the female divinities, this is a must for your collection.

This was a required text for my Russian Lit and Culture class. It's not bad, but I don't know that I would have purchased or sought it out by myself. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 4 as it addressed the issue of Byzantine Christianity attempting to overtake the role of mother in the home. It would be useful to feminist anthropological studies.