(Scroll down for a list of each goddess archetype and their description, and click here for male archetypes in Greek gods)
A few years ago I lectured a course on women in Ancient Rome and together with my class, undertook a brief survey of goddesses in Ancient Greece in order to better understand the position of women in the ancient world. The study of mythological goddesses formed in an actual patriarchy (Greece being a far harder place for women than Rome) captivated both the students and I. It proved to be the perfect foil for the study of women such as Cornelia, Hortensia, Livia and Julia Domna — women diverse in character and proximity to political power, but each one rather formidable in her own right. The Cambridge classicist, Mary Beard in a rather magnificent lecture (reproduced in both the London Review of Books and in Women and Power) says:
“More often than we may realise, and in sometimes quite shocking ways, we are still using Greek idioms to represent the idea of women in, and out of power.”
This is an indication that myth and stories are not just valuable when studying women in history, but may in fact illuminate our understanding of women in contemporary politics. However, it is not the study of women and the realm of power that I focus my attention to in this article. Instead…