여신 숭배를 통해본 지중해 지역의 여성상 - 남성중심 사회 내의 여신 숭배의 잔재를 통해본 여성성에의 욕구 -

Abstract

There were many goddesses who were worshipped as Mother-Goddess in the Mediterranean areas in antiquity. Not only were there many so called 'Venus'es from the Palaeolithic Age, but also Isis in Egypt, Kybele in Asia Minor, Tanit in Phoenicia, and Gaia, the first divinity in Greek Mythology. This paper does not intend to solve the colossal question why the worship for the Goddesses was stronger in the Mediterranean areas than any other areas, but to figure out the chronological transition of their roles and of the practice of worship of them. The Goddesses who had been initially enjoying independent position as divinities came to be subordinate to Male-Gods, as the patriarchal social system developed. In Greece, for example, the Goddesses of Olympus were destined to be subject to those Male- Gods like as Zeus or other gods. And afterwards, with Christianity as monotheism began to dominate, the Goddesses as well as various Male-Gods disappeared. Nevertheless, the worship of Goddesses in the Mediterranean areas survived in disguise. When Christianity had fallen under an ideology of a kind of patriarchism, the desire for femininity had been oppressed. It seems, it was transformed into the worship of the Virgin Mary, in the Middle Ages on, and for Marianne in the epoch of the French Revolution in the Modern Age. In this, we could trace a continuity beyond the ages in the structure of human mentality and feeling.