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The Best Gods are Female

Heyo

Veteran Member
Humans have deified or anthropomorphized abstract concepts for ages.
And except for some misogynistic goat herders women have been associated
with the more noble concepts through different cultures.

Goddess of Wisdom: Athena
1200px-Mattei_Athena_Louvre_Ma530.jpg


Goddess of Beauty and Love: Aphrodite/Venus
00756401.jpg


Concept of Justice:
file-20170620-32329-qvf3j6.jpg


Concept of Liberty:
Statue-of-liberty.jpg


Goddess of Time, Creation, Destruction and Power: Kali
Kali-Maa.jpg


Even Death looks good when she's female:
1120788-sandman-wallpaper-1920x1080-screen.jpg


Do you agree?
Have more examples?
Object?
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Just a few i find worthy of mentioning

Juno, queen of goddesses

Minerva, goddess of wisdom, poetry and warfare among other sidelines

Vesta, Virgin Goddess of Family, home, and the hearth

Diana, goddess of the hunt and the moon (i have a second century clay oil lamp with the impression of Diana carved in it. The maker left his thumbprint in the handle before it was fired)

Hera, goddess of women, marriage, family and childbirth

Venus, Goddess of Love, Desire, Sex,

Cybele, goddess of wild nature, fertility and protection in time of war.

And to add a bit of humour

Anoia, goddess of things that get stuck in drawers, she finds objects that roll under other objects and things stuck in sofa cushions.
 

Deeje

Avid Bible Student
Premium Member
Women are better at everything apparently....:D even mythological ones....:p
 

epronovost

Well-Known Member
It's amuzing to me that many of those deities are goddesses specifically because the society that established them were mysogynistic. Athena, Justicia, Nike, Aphrodite were all goddesses because those traits are qualities are those aspired too by men and men desire above all to possess women, thus the deities incarnating those virtues are women. Note that so many of them have special status like virgnity which sets them appart from all other adult women who were expected to have children and a lot of them by that.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
It's amuzing to me that many of those deities are goddesses specifically because the society that established them were mysogynistic. Athena, Justicia, Nike, Aphrodite were all goddesses because those traits are qualities are those aspired too by men and men desire above all to possess women, thus the deities incarnating those virtues are women. Note that so many of them have special status like virgnity which sets them appart from all other adult women who were expected to have children and a lot of them by that.
Every society is misogynistic by our standards, including ours. The Greeks were no moreso than anyone else at that time. I have no idea where you're getting the notion that the deities of those attributes are women because men want to possess women. What?

Athena and Artemis are the only virgin Goddesses of the Olympians, and "virgin" really just meant unmarried. Athena is a Goddess of the intellect and crafts. As a deity of the mind, she doesn't really have anything to do with the carnal aspect of life. Artemis is a Goddess of hunting and the wilds. She is not a part of human society and didn't get married because she wanted to be free in the woods. Some of those deities were inherited from other cultures. It's not like cultures were purposefully making up deities.
 




Anywho! I don't like "female goddesses", or "male goddesses" for that matter (though I like them more than female goddesses. I don't like the word Goddesseseseses either.

Here is why:
Male and Female I've understood as being related mainly to the biological features of creatures, and in humans, to the sexual features that develop based on hormones and genetics and whatever, put more simply, a dicky and a pussypuss (pardon my Greek).

Dicks and Pussypusses (kind of reminds me of the word Godessessesses), can relate to things besides themselves, and be used as examples or references to lots of ideas, but when it comes down to it, they are animal reproductive organs, and animals don't appear to me to be very powerful or important in the overall scope of things, there are far more "dickless atoms" as I call them, than there are dick endowed entities, or quite frankly dicks, and pussypussesses as well. Not that population necessarily counts or means much, but I just find that these sexual organs by themselves are not that significant overall, and that is the only thing really distinguishing a male from a female for the most part, throughout human history (besides other hormonal features and genetic tendencies that differentiated them in some humans and animals).

I don't really subscribe much to the idea of "gender" as very "real", but more of a fluctuating cultural trope or stereotype, which may be based again in these hormones and chemicals and genetic biological trends and tendencies which have built up, and things that resulted from them which became cultural tropes. I'm also not that fond of people over-subscribing to these gender stereotypes or "girls are like this and do this, guys are like this and do this", and I find that in my experience of girls, they are very, very similar to guys, or I'm just like a girl maybe, but whatever the case, they seem to be largely the same, except that I'm the more horny and predatory usually, which I credit to the hormones and the way they work sometimes and other factors.

So, that being said, I don't think the "Sun" has a real gender or biological sex. I don't think the "wind" does either. I don't think "Honor" does either. I think if anyone literally thinks they do, they might not be too sharp in my opinion, because, uh, what? It would need some proper justification, and could only at best (by my standards) be that, such and such might be a tendency seen with males or females because of their hormones or cultural associations through time or some kind of excuse, but overally I find the whole notion to be misleading and mostly a bad idea.

I dislike Goddesses more than "Gods" because they seem to pinpoint or make it seem more the case that a sex difference is being made, where as male seeming deities are quite often seeming to be the most "general" or "basic" in the language used of them and imagery made of them (since females can also look male-like, but males generally don't typically have breasts, but of course they can at times). The Goddesses seems to make the case much more that "This is a female, there is a Sex Difference, Lets Talk Biology" compared to the standard and perhaps more frequent "male", which seems to be able to stand for both "female and male" personalities (since in my view they differ very little in actuality).

I already dislike anthropomorphic imagery and symbolism a great deal, but even more do I dislike what sorts of things have typically been associated with the female as a stereotype, such as the notion of "passive reception" which I don't think is appropriate for God really, which does not appear to me as passive ever in any real sense or receiving anything, the Unconditioned is not Acted Upon, but Acts Upon.

Luckily, the majority of associations made with females in the past, was to depict the feminine linked more to "untamed" and "wild", even "violent" behavior, as compared to the tropes of the "Gentle" and "Loving" "Mother" that people might think of Mary with for example and was not at all like the long history of "female" being a code word for "nutjob" basically, possibly due to the hormones and wild phases in female animals or animals defending their young or in heat and pre-menstrual agitation and whatever else, so that if someone wanted to talk about the "Wild and Untamed" version of something, they might talk about it as "Female" whereas the more Tamed and Civilized or Calm version might be linked more to some sort of "Male" imagery. Anything which tended towards the "Female" was quite often "emotional, erratic, unstable". Ergi, as some called it, much later on, though the idea seemed very common throughout history and all over the world.

Anyway, females figures were quite frequently villainized and demonized and turned into monsters or deadly beings quite frequently as well (and still are), though it was also common for people to love and respect their mothers, most of the "divine" feminine associations were frequently disturbing in some way, either part of some disturbing story, or directly part of executing acts of violence or chaos or generating monsters or being part of some controversies. It is also more than likely that a great many of the names associated with female entities were considered pretty negative, and only a minority were not put (at some point) in the category of "terrible / terrifying".

The names of these entities, and what they tended to refer to by their names, epithets, or attributes and symbols, seem to not have generally ever really been things with genitalia, actual biological features, or sensibly any genders, as the things being mentioned were not things typically understood to actually have such features in their apparent forms.

Female figures or figures that would become "feminized" quite regularly would become the dominant figure in some cults, all around the world.

I believe in Athena and that Athena is real even and refers to something that is actual and can be explained, but that the symbols pertaining to Athena are just referential, like the word itself, and do not represent "the actual Athena" or "Athena's actual appearance", which is no appearance at all really, as I don't believe Athena is a physical, material being or organism, but is God and God's attribute of "God's Wisdom" for example, and also representing and encompassing a great many other themes as well, but primarily seems to have been associated with Wisdom and Strategy and Wit and even proper action. Hera may have represented the proper Order and Conduct and Tradition, and many of these traits can be seen repeatedly through the actions and statements where they act as the representative archetype for whatever themes they represent, in stories like the Iliad for example, or Plays and various things like that.

We all depend on Athena daily, and when Athena takes away our sensibility, and leaves us with impropriety and senseless madness or uncontrolled actions, we may find ourselves lost and uncivilized seeming, or otherwise mad and transgressive. Those who don't call upon and use their Athena, basically don't honor Athena, and may lose their Athena, and in doing so, be the losers overall!
 
It's amuzing to me that many of those deities are goddesses specifically because the society that established them were mysogynistic. Athena, Justicia, Nike, Aphrodite were all goddesses because those traits are qualities are those aspired too by men and men desire above all to possess women, thus the deities incarnating those virtues are women. Note that so many of them have special status like virgnity which sets them appart from all other adult women who were expected to have children and a lot of them by that.

That is an interesting thesis or idea, that "men chose to depict desirable things as female goddesses" but I think that there are frequent examples which might demonstrate that this is not likely to be the case, but the idea is very cool nonetheless that "men desired intelligence or wisdom, so depicted intelligence or wisdom as a woman, which they also desire", but maybe the Greeks might have preferred making everything little bent over boys then? lol that is a joke, sorry Long-Dead-Ancient-Greeks.
 

epronovost

Well-Known Member
The Greeks were no moreso than anyone else at that time.

They were actually the most mysoginistic society of their region. Few cultures were more sexist than them. Tracians, Illyrians, Scythians and Phoenicians were all much less sexist. Even in Egypt and Mesopotamia, women had more rights than in Greece. Only Epeiros Greeks were less sexist and only because of llyrian cultural pressure and intermarriages.

Athena and Artemis are the only virgin Goddesses of the Olympians, and "virgin" really just meant unmarried. Athena is a Goddess of the intellect and crafts.

Hera is reclaiming virgnity every year by bathing in a sacred pound (which is also a source of her power), Nike and Hestia are also virgins. Also Athena's beauty, and dare I say vanity toward her personnal appearence just as Artemis similar attributes are a core part of their mythology. They are actively desired and many tried seduce them with terrible consequences.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
They were actually the most mysoginistic society of their region. Few cultures were more sexist than them. Tracians, Illyrians, Scythians and Phoenicians were all much less sexist. Even in Egypt and Mesopotamia, women had more rights than in Greece. Only Epeiros Greeks were less sexist and only because of llyrian cultural pressure and intermarriages.



Hera is reclaiming virgnity every year by bathing in a sacred pound (which is also a source of her power), Nike and Hestia are also virgins. Also Athena's beauty, and dare I say vanity toward her personnal appearence just as Artemis similar attributes are a core part of their mythology. They are actively desired and many tried seduce them with terrible consequences.
If there were terrible consequences for them seducing those Goddesses, I don't see how your theory makes sense.
 

epronovost

Well-Known Member
If there were terrible consequences for them seducing those Goddesses, I don't see how your theory makes sense.

Nobody can claim wisdom, beauty or victory all to themselves. You cannot own those concepts anymore than you can own those deities as you would own any other women.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
They were actually the most mysoginistic society of their region. Few cultures were more sexist than them. Tracians, Illyrians, Scythians and Phoenicians were all much less sexist. Even in Egypt and Mesopotamia, women had more rights than in Greece. Only Epeiros Greeks were less sexist and only because of llyrian cultural pressure and intermarriages.
Depends on the time and how far you "region" draw. The Romans were not more egalitarian than the Greek (but they adapted the Greek pantheon non-the-less).
 
If the people were bad or good, I think the concepts that were represented through the various Gods and Goddesses are still viable today, even for Atheistic people as well.

So one can still adore "The Gods" or acknowledge them and benefit from them potentially, even as an Atheist, a Polytheist, Henotheist, or Monotheist.

I'm Monotheistic but I consider all these "Gods" to be various non-literal, symbolic representations of real forces and manifestations of One Power.

There are also non-literalist Polytheists to literalist Polytheists, a whole scale can be made.

Some people even take these to be either real physical entities, and others as real non physical entities, which they don't consider Gods but consider more like Angels and Spirits (I am not of this view, which seemed to even exist in Late Antiquity in some cases and beyond).

I definitely don't think the Great Goddesses and, more importantly to me, what they seem to represent and in what forms and symbols they may manifest or be represented by or through, should be neglected at all, but remembered, and whatever good can be extracted from keeping these things in mind, should be how they are honored first of all. I think that thinking good things and doing good things related to these concepts can be a great (and pretty neutral and safe, non-offensive to anyone really hopefully) way to sort of "worship" and remember the Divine in this case.
 

Estro Felino

Believer in free will
Premium Member
It's amuzing to me that many of those deities are goddesses specifically because the society that established them were mysogynistic. Athena, Justicia, Nike, Aphrodite were all goddesses because those traits are qualities are those aspired too by men and men desire above all to possess women, thus the deities incarnating those virtues are women. Note that so many of them have special status like virgnity which sets them appart from all other adult women who were expected to have children and a lot of them by that.

No...there was also the Goddess Mother, who was anything but virgin.
The Goddess Mother was the most worshiped...it was identified with Hera, Zeus' wife or Cybele, a goddess from Phrygia. Or Demeter...the goddess of cereals.
They were all sexually active ...;)
 
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