Voice of the Goddess [Hardcover]

Judith Hand (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"A remarkable book! A moving love story, in a unique and beautifully-imagined setting that recreates the ancient Goddess culture of Crete, but something more besides--an unusual look at the dual nature of humanity, and the warring forces that form our soul."

--Diana Gabaldon
Author of the Outlander Series

"In the vein of Mary Renault: masterfully written, fast-paced, meticulously researched.

--Robert Lawrence Holt
Author of NY Times best-seller Good Friday

"Superb historical drama! The first novel ever to bring readers into the utterly alien reality of the Minoan world . . . I wasn't able to put the book down. For me it was right up there with James Michner's The Source. . . Judith Hand allows us actually to taste and feel a lost world whose people were already dust and myth when Plato and Athens were young."

--Charles Pellegrino.
Author of Unearthing Atlantis

"What a breath of fresh air. The time period is unique. The characters are believable and empathetic."

--Barclay Sterling Award

"Wonderful sensuality...This proves that ... so-called "hard-to-sell" time periods can be made fascinating in the hands of a skilled author."

--Ohio's Ignite the Flame Contest

About the Author

Judith Hand earned her Ph.D. from UCLA. She spent a year as a Smithsonian post-doctoral fellow and then returned to UCLA as a research associate and lecturer. To research Voice of the Goddess, she worked at the archeological museum on Crete and visited temple sites at Knossos, Phaestos, and Gournia. She interviewed the principal investigator of the Minoan excavation on Santorini (Thera) and visited museum and goddess sites in Turkey. An avid camper, classical music fan, and birdwatcher, she currently lives and writes in Rancho Bernardo, California

Product Details

• Hardcover: 381 pages
• Publisher: Pacific Rim Pr (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930926269
• ISBN-13: 978-0930926267
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,376,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A strongly crafted novel rooted in historical construct, January 20, 2001

By 

Barry Friedman (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voice of the Goddess (Hardcover)

This strongly crafted novel is a compelling love story etched on a lush canvas of competing Mediterranean cultures as the early civilizations clashed on land and at sea¾a conflicted world restless with military adventurism. At the crossroads of contending tyrants, gods, philosophies, religions, and economies stands the serene culture of ancient Crete. Judith Hand invites us there to experience that society's struggle to survive. Her heroes and heroines are rooted in historical construct. In pursuit of their aspirations, they make mistakes, ones that could topple one of the loftiest of ancient cultures. Who then might survive the carnage to carry their examples of harmony and coexistence to following generations?

Confessing a personal bias, as a retired military officer, I enjoyed the shrill authentic ring of gnashing swords, the battered groaning shields, splintered oars and shattered masts so vivid in her battle scenes. War is not pretty. Killing is not a game. To her credit, Judith Hand did not write those scenes as entertainments. The human fear, sweat, blood, exhaustion, revulsion and tears weren't omitted.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cautionary Tale from across the Wine- Dark Sea, September 30, 2005

By 

Diana F. Von Behren "reneofc" (Kenner, LA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Voice of the Goddess (Hardcover)

Judith Hand's well-planned novel, successfully recounts the last days of the sea people of Ancient Keftiu (Crete). Called by Sir Arthur Evans, the Minoans, little is known about this ancient yet advanced society who as far back as 1680 BC actually had such modern innovations as the first drainage system with flush toilets. More importantly, these people had created a system of non-aggressive egalitarianism with religious and sexual freedom that has yet to be rivaled in our so-called modern age of equal rights and tolerance.


Although the writings of these sea people have not as yet been deciphered by historians, Hand makes good use of the religious interpretation of scholars with regard to the meanings behind the pottery, frescoes and other artifacts that have been unearthed on Crete and its satellite island of Santorini to reconstruct the lives of these first civilians of Western Civilization. She weaves a rather intricate cautionary tale of a peaceful weapon-free society challenged by its more aggressive and bellicose mainland neighbors who under the guise of religious differences covet the Keftian's wealth.


Epitomizing the almost stubborn reluctance to change the Law of the land in order to halt the encroachment of the Achean mainlanders is Leesander, a maiden/wannabe temple priestess whose sensitive telepathy with the maternal Goddess figure enables her to hear the sacred voice of the Great Mother that leads her to a life in the great temple at Knossos. By her side is Alektrion, seafarer, childhood friend and eventual lover who wisely believes that only through military attack can Keftiu be saved. Through their concurrent narratives, Leesander and Alek plunge the reader into their separate realms; we participate in the intense training Leesander undergoes as a temple priestess from her initiation into the ancient women's mysteries, to the significance of the Cretan bull dance, and to the inner sanctum of the Mother's womb, where like the Pythia of Delphi, the Goddess speaks under the haze of the poppy. Alektrion's vital masculinity and questionable half-breed status allows us to roam the wine dark seas with the more objective eyes of one confused of his status and place in a society unwilling to convince itself of its own imminent demise.


The love story between the two is secondary; Hand neatly builds up to their happenstance re-acquaintance at a good moment in the story although the use of the cave in the rain may be perceived by those a bit jaded as typical romance genre tedium. The real genius of this tale is the recreation of an ancient world of both the male and the feminine essences and its almost metaphorical leaning towards the history being constructed today.



For although perhaps not intended, Hand's sorry story of envy and cultural distrust can be seen in the wake of 9-11 as a metaphor for impending disaster if the lessons of such a history are not heeded in our more modern world. The natural disasters of 1680 BC depicted in the novel, when the island of Kalliste (Santorini) exploded, causing earthquakes, days of black rain and a tsunami the size of which Southeast Asia recently experienced in all its fury, can certainly be appreciated by those of us living in the Gulf where the devestation wreaked by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will hopefully cause those in authority to reevaluate their proud, stubborn and out-moded fiefdoms of power to better protect the infrastructure of such no-brainer staples as communication and safety that must support the people in the future.


Recommended to all who enjoy dreaming of ancient lands with an eye to understanding the present and to anyone who just likes a good story built from a foundation of good references.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You won't want this advenure to end, September 6, 2001

By 

Arline Curtiss (Escondido, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Voice of the Goddess (Hardcover)

In a way this wonderful book reminds me of The Mists of Avalon. It is more fantasy novel than historical novel and seen through the eyes of a heroine rather than a hero. What are the forbidden secrets of the priestesshood? How are young girls prepared and trained sexually and romantically to take their place in this paradise of a society. How does a woman thus trained rise to become an actual goddess to her people and deal with the cataclysmic natural disaster that threatens to doom them all? Will she have to give up her true love to save her people? You will be surprised how this dynamic and clever heroine Leeshandra contrives to keep her honor but "have it all."