fellow historians, fun fact seekers, scholars of ancient religious, etc gather round!
i’ve noticed a common trend in ancient polytheistic religions: war goddesses.
Aphrodite
Al-lat
Ishtar
Athena
Kali
Freya
Morrigan
those are just some i can name off the top of my head, but it’s very interesting to me that pre the rise of abrahamic religions, war (specifically strategy in war) was typically assigned to female deities. why do we think that is? could it be the more matriarchal dominate cultures of the time, before the rise of a single male deity and the patriarchal shift it brought with it? if you think about it wisdom in the bible is personified as a woman as well, referenced as “her” and “she” multiple times throughout- was this left over influence from goddesses that centered war, strategy, and wisdom? let’s discuss!
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“ The etymology of the name being examined, M. Pictet proceeds to illustrate the character of the Badb, and her position in Irish fairy mythology, by the help of a few brief and scarcely intelligible references from the printed books, the only materials accessible to him, but finds himself unable to complete his task, “for want of sufficient details,” as he observes more than once. The printed references, not one of which has escaped M. Pictet’s industry are no doubt few, but the ancient tracts, romances, and battle pieces preserved in our Irish MSS. teem with details respecting this Badb-catha and her so-called sisters, Neman, Macha, and Morrigan or Morrigu (for the name is written in a double form), who are generally depicted as furies, witches, or sorceresses, able to confound whole armies, even in the assumed form of a bird.“
(THE SIMILARITIES TO NORSE HEATHEN GODDESSES ASSOCIATED WITH WAR AS WELL AS OTHER ATTRIBUTES ARE FIRM HERE. FREYJA, FOR EXAMPLE, WHO HAS FIRST PICK OF THE SLAIN OF THE BATTLEFIELD, AND WHO ALSO BOASTS A CLOAK OF HAWK FEATHERS WHICH ALLOWS HER TO TRANSFORM INTO A BIRD, ALTHOUGH SOMETIMES THE CLOAK IS OFTEN WORN BY FRIGGA ...PERSONAL OPINION ONLY HERE, BUT IT MAKES SENSE THAT IN ANCIENT TIMES, SINCE WOMEN BIRTHED FOLKS INTO LIFE, IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN BELIEVED WOMEN IN THE FORM OF DEITIES ALSO BIRTHED FOLKS INTO THE AFTERLIFE. AFTER ALL, YOU ALSO HAVE THE GREEK FATES, AND THE NORSE NORNS, ALL FEMALE. AND IT’S THEY WHO CUT THE THREAD OF OUR LIFESPAN, SO...*SHRUG*. I PERSONALLY HAVE NO PROB WITH WHO (SHOULD THAT BE “WHOM” THERE? ) TAKES ME OUT, BUT I’D REALLY PREFER IT TO BE PAINLESS. TO HEL WI’ THON FOLKS WHO BELIEVE SUFFERING PAIN IS A VIRTUE OR THING OF BRAVERY. PAIN HURTS. CHRONIC PAIN HURTS MORE. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE HERE. SO IF IT’S THE NORNS CUTTING MY THREAD, PLEASE PICK THE PART OF MY LIFE TAPESTRY WHERE I’M HAVING A GOOD DAY OF IT, AND MAKE IT QUICK AND PAINLESS. JUST ASKING.)
Bowdlerizing ancient stories and statues is just as wrong as trying to turn a Battle Goddess into a pinup queen. But sexy Morrigan pictures and statues are mostly inauthentic and they’re a distraction from my work for the Great Queen.
I thought I'd post this even though it doesn't quite touch up on what I would if I had the writing chops to do more than an FB post on it. Not only am I annoyed by the objectification of War Goddesses, especially the Morrigan, I am sick of the lack of muscle. On WAR GODDESSES! The Dryad Design, such as the one in the photo here and the wall plaque show some hint of muscle, at least sturdiness in the arms. But two depictions that do are not enough and I'd like to see a bit more. This is why I actually use action figures with muscle on my shrine, not because I worship a modern fictional character but because they embody a modern concept of the War Goddesses to me far more than some half-naked (half-naked is far more sexualized than all naked sometimes is, this statue here is naked but far from objectified), thin but with large breasts, and a weak and sexualized position. Of course, I also envision the Goddesses in modern clothing and weaponry at least some of the time. Yes, they can wear what they want, so it doesn't mean they need to stick to either realistic nor fantasy concepts of "ancient" garb.
I'm posting this here because if we're training to serve such Goddesses, it would be great to have depictions which help motivate and inspire us in our training. I hope some artists start to pick up on this! I wouldn't mind suddenly finding myself with artistic ability, but that seems more than I can hope for. lol
Rating: sign me the fuck up 👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀 good shit go౦ԁ shit👌 thats ✔ some good👌👌shit right👌👌th 👌 ere👌👌👌 right✔there ✔✔if i do saү so my selｆ 💯 i say so 💯 thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mmmmmᎷм💯 👌👌 👌нo0оଠｏooｏoоଠଠooooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ👌 👌👌 👌 💯 👌 👀 👀 👀 👌👌good shit
Domain: War, sex.
Region: Sumer/Mesopotamia
So up front, the author has to admit some biases: the author has Inanna’s symbol taped to her door and tattooed on her back. The author thinks Inanna is the best. The author will expound in detail on this conclusion to everyone who shows even a little bit of interest.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way.
The job of the Sumerian pantheon was to uphold the laws of nature. Said laws and powers were reified in the form of the me (pronounced “may”,) tablets that would give the holder power over a certain domain: the god that holds the me of rivers becomes the river god, the god that holds the me of the holy tavern becomes the god of the holy tavern, et cetera.
Inanna got her me, her power, in the most time-honored way: she stole them.
In this story, Enki is Inanna’s father-- though she is usually the daughter of hte moon couple, Ningal and Nanna. She goes to visit him, and there come some of the most moving lines of poetry ever written:
Inanna and Enki drank beer together.
They drank more beer together.
They drank more and more beer together. (Wolkstein)
Enki then drunkenly gives her most of his me—including, but not limited to, the aforementioned tavern, prostitution, the kissing of the phallus, the dagger, black clothes, colorful clothes, kingship, heroics, plundering cities, and kindness. Inanna puts them all on her boat and immediately sets sail for her home in Uruk. When Enki sobers up, he asks his minion in charge, Izimud, what has happened to all of his tablets. Isimud explains that he had given them away.
Enraged, Enki sends windstorms after her, but Inanna’s bestie Ninshubur is able to fend them off, letting Inanna arrive safely in Uruk with her new treasures.
In most circumstances, such a move could have created a bitter rivalry between the two deities. Enki, however, sort of nodded and said “Well played.” (Actually, he said “Let the me you have taken with you remain in the holy shrine of your city, let the children of Uruk rejoice,” but same difference, really.) He then becomes her ally in some of her later adventures, most notably her Descent into the Underworld.
For the most part, he and Ninshubur tend to be her only allies—a recurring theme in Inanna’s stories is the other gods’ failure to help out when she asks, and she learns that she doesn’t need them anyway. One of the most obvious examples of this is in the story of Inanna and Mount Ebih, written by the high priestess Enheduanna (one of the oldest known poets.)
In this tale, a mountain shows up with paradise-like properties: shepherdless sheep, fruits all year round, everything is awesome. Inanna is miffed that it is breaking the rules, but when she confronts it, it refuses to bow to her, to “wipe its nose on the ground,” or show fear in any way.
This pisses her off.
She goes to An, the king of the gods, and asks for help. An goes on record declaring “Oh, yeah. Ebih. That mountain. Yeah. That mountain is super powerful and is breaking all the laws of nature and is kind of freaking the rest of us out, so you’re on your own, kiddo.”
This also pisses her off.
She proceeds to channel her frustration into smashing the holy hell out of Mount Ebih. With style.
Enheduanna wisely ends the poem with a testament to her greatness as the primary goddess of ancient Sumer. Inanna also made it to Babylon under the name Ishtar, and may have influenced Anat and Astarte who in turn may have been earlier versions of Aphrodite and Athena. Like Aphrodite, Inanna was associated with the planet Venus, whose movement was accounted for in the Descent into the Underworld.
Anat (Anath) doesn’t have the same name recognition as does her brother Baal: I like to think that this is because the writers of the Hebrew Bible were afraid of bad-mouthing her, lest they incur her dramatic and gory wrath. Ugaritic literature (from the city Ugarit in Western Syria, now called Ras Shamra) describes Anat (a.k.a. “Mistress of Dominion,”) as a “fierce, invincible warrior” who could be found “wading knee-deep in the blood and guts of those she has slain.” Though not always her first response, violence had a habit of being her last.
In the first saga of “Anat Solves Baal’s Problems”, Baal (the storm god) feels that he has not gotten enough swag from their father, El, and deserves more land/wealth/power/whatever. Anat storms up to El and threatens to brutally murder him (“make his gray hair run with blood and his gray beard with gore,” if you want to be specific) unless he has a new palace built for her favorite brother.
There are debates as to whether or not the relationship between Baal and Anat was sexual. Many older sources assume that that it was, but some recently have pointed out that nowhere in the literature is she shown being sexually active: indeed, she’s often described as ‘maiden’ and ‘virgin,’ and unlike many goddesses of the time, she was never shown naked. (She also mourns Baal “like the heart of a cow for her calf, like the heart of a ewe for her lamb,” which implies either a purely familiar bond or some creepy kinky Oedipus shit.) Either way, she is never subservient to a man, and lives in her own palace. Presumably, if she was having sex, she did it the way she did everything else: exactly how and when she wanted to. After all, Anat is the reason why Waldo is hiding. And Death once had a near-Anat experience.
No, really.
Mot (god of death and the dry season) had made the mistake of killing Baal—Anat Solves Ball’s Problems, book two— in a move that suggests a drought. Anat’s response to this was diplomatic and practical: she pulverized Mot, tore him into pieces, ground his bones into dust, and fed him to the birds. Due to some sound myth-logic, this brought Baal back from the dead, and served as an explanation for the change in seasons (although unlike Dumuzi and Persephone, there is no mention of Baal having to spend time in the Underworld.)
She’s also been connected to Athena by writers in Cyprus. (Which is interesting—her response to a mortal who wouldn’t give her a really awesome bow and implied that women couldn’t shoot anyway was to kill him, which is more of an Artemis move.) Though the height of Anat’s cult worship was during the Bronze Age, she later made it over to Egypt where she was favored by Ramses II—eventually she blurred into Hathor.
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hey, I'm trying to find a name for one of my OC's in a mmo I'm playing, and I'm wondering if you know any good mythological figures (females if possible) who represent war/destruction etc...? Not the "famous" ones like Athena or Enyo if I can call them like that? :)
I definitely do, often “not famous” mythological figures come from lesser known mythologies & war goddesses from lesser known mythologies are my specialty
Ishtar, Mesopotamian goddess of love, war and sexuality (the same goddess is worshipped as Astarte in Assyria & Innana in Sumeria if you like those names better)
Sekhmet, Egyptian lion-headed goddess of war
Bastet, Egyptian goddess of warfare in Lower Egypt
Eris, Greek goddess of chaos, strife & discord
The Hysminai were the descendants of Eris, personifications of battle
Nike, Greek goddess of victory
Bia, Greek personification of force & energy
Ixtab, Mayan goddess of suicide
Kali, Hindu goddess off all-destroying time
Tlazoltéotl, Aztec goddess of filth, sin & purification
Dzovinar, Armenian goddess of sea, water & rain; her fury was known to cause extreme storms or drought & she was likely the mother of the war god Vahagn
