The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: child archetype, severed genitals, New York, James Hillman, Great Mother (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In a series of chapters each focusing on a different goddess or mythical woman, Christine Downing traces her own path of individuation from maiden-daughter to mature woman. A therapist, university professor of religion, and former president of the American Academy of Religion, she writes what is essentially an autobiography with an inner focus on her dreams and fantasies, and their meanings to her. She writes in a direct and intimate way, using to great bit effortless effect her deep culture and wide learning.

—The Journal of Analytical Psychology

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Christine Downing, emeritus professor of religious studies at San Diego State University, currently teaches at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. Her many other books include Gods in Our Midst, Women’s Mysteries, Myths and Mysteries of Same-Sex Love, The Luxury of Afterwards, Preludes, and Gleanings.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826409172
• ISBN-13: 978-0826409171
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,357,068 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I have mixed feelings about this book., June 15, 2001

By	sheelanagig (Staten Island, NY United States) - See all my reviews

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.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional psychological mythology!, October 8, 2000

By	Tracy Marks (Arlington, MA USA) - See all my reviews

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Goddess Reigns Supreme, September 12, 2007

By	David S. Cohen "Co-founder & Director, Grass ... (San Diego, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine (Paperback)

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.