The Great Goddess

November 1, 1999
%% This is a multi-book review: SEE also the title "The Great Goddesses of Egypt." %% Two new books on the divine feminine, as the subtitle of one of them styles it, are differently focused.Lesko, an Egyptologist, concentrates, naturally enough, on a single land. Egypt's pantheon includes many powerful goddesses. To limn them, Lesko assembles the songs and rituals of their cults and descriptions of cult artifacts and of archaeological findings. Encompassing the sunny love goddess Hathor, the winged goddess Isis, who mourned the loss of her lover-brother Osiris, and lesser-known figures, such as the cobra-headed Wadjet, Lesko's coverage presents substantial and complex material clearly and satisfactorily. Although academic in intention, the book, neither forbidding nor obscure, is a good, approachable general text on Egypt's female deities.Markale, a French scholar known for his interpretations of Celtic myth, provides a breathtakingly sweeping overview of the divine feminine, which, he argues, has been a primary focus of human reverence since the Paleolithic era. He conducts us through the goddess shrines of Europe, vividly depicting the sanctuaries and their resident divinities. He traces recurrent images and themes, such as the vulval cave, the serpent of rebirth, and the lunar crescent, and shows how they transmitted the same spiritual meanings over eons of time. Most fascinating is his presentation of evidence that images and legends of the Christian Mother of God are deeply based in ancient goddess symbology. Written with fervor and panache, Markale's very readable book is an extraordinary and challenging treatment of the subject. ((Reviewed November 1, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)