The role of Divine Goddess

The Divine Goddess

The Structuralist approach is a structure that sees each god functioning together that works cohesively and well as one group. There are parallel through the main pantheon that centrally stabilises the group of gods. It important to notes that in simple terms for every male job there seems to be a female equivalent to the same role or a male and female god share a realm in which is set as an example for the Greek to follow. For example there is

Zeus and Hera- The prototype marriage couple, which many Greek would have used to establish the importance of the institute of marriage.   Athena and Hephaestus- Both are associated with war; Hephaestus makes the weapon for wars, whereas Athena acts as the brains and strategy in war.  Ares and Aphrodite- Love and war simply they are married after Aphrodite leaves Hephaestus, they balance and complement each other well. Dionysos (I have decided to include Dionysus as one of the 12 in the pantheon instead of Hestia as he sometimes takes her place and I will be discussing him later on in this blog) and Demeter- the Eleusian cult was dedicated to both these gods, particularly Demeter but both deal with crops and replenishing the earth with food. Apollo and Artemis are brother and sister sun and moon both had cults which initiated children into adulthood.  To round up Poseidon was the god of the sea and Hermes was the god of travel and outside the home.  There is also who I Hestia the goddess of inside the home but I excluded her at this time to make space for Dionysus was also important.

The structuralist approach enables us to see the pantheon working cohesively as one, but unfortunately lack any overlapping which is how problems are caused when

But what is a goddess’s role?

In an article written by Nicola Loraux, she proposes two hypotheses: ‘Either “goddess” is nothing other than the grammatical feminine of the word “god” and in the goddess the feminine is an essential characteristic. Or a goddess is something other than a god…her femininity is essential, but it may be either a femininity of the same kind found in mortal women or of a different, more intense kind.

Athena and Dionysos

Both these gods are worshipped in Athens. Even though Athena is patron of Athens the cult of Dionysos was very prominent in the city. Characteristically speaking Dionysos is seen as very feminine whereas Athena seen often seen as very masculine, however both have men and women in their cults, although it must be said more women followed Dionysos as he started his cult with followers known as the maenads.  I have decided to look at these two gods together as they were both born from Zeus, lacking in a maternal figure in their lives. They both have ‘mothers’ they are just not born from them.

In this passage from Hesiod it gives a portrayal of the birth of Athena. It highlights the powers that she will inherit from her mother and the extreme measure that Zeus would go to, to stop the prophecy of a more powerful child than him be born.

‘Zeus, the king of gods and men, made Metis, she who knows most things amongst gods and men, his wife first, but when she was about to give birth to the goddess Glaukopis Athena, he craftily deceived her with cunning words and put her down in his belly, on the advice of Gaia and starry Ouranos, who advised him thus in order that no other should hold royal honour over the eternal gods in place of Zeus, for it was decreed that resourceful children were to be born from her, first the daughter Glaukopis Tritogeneia who had equal fierceness and shrewdness to her father, but next she was to bring forth a son, the king of gods and men who possessed an overbearing (huperbios) heart. 

But Zeus beforehand put her down in his belly, so that the goddess might warn him about both good and evil’ (Hesiod, Theogony 886-900)

Zeus had to stop Metis giving not only could a more powerful child than him be born but the so-called child was female.

Dionysos