Ancient Goddesses in New York

 

Why are there so many goddesses that are not called goddesses in New York?

 

 

Once you begin to think about the goddess you will find her all over New York.

 

She may be in a museum or historical site. She could be represented in monuments or public statues. You may see her carved into a building, standing on the dome of a roof, or blessing a public space such as a college campus, a park, or a historical building.

 

The reason museums are filled with goddess statues, art, and ritual symbols is that the divine feminine was actively worshiped for thousands and years by thousands of different cultures.

Over time, many goddesses were reduced to being called mythological figures, archetypes, and allegories. Some historians believe their powers were watered down and reassigned to the male divine.  Yet the goddess has been a consistent model and inspiration for the latter-day statues and art that represent certain qualities and characteristics— like Liberty, Justice, Charity, and Integrity, as well as seasons, elements, and continents. Yet we see some goddesses have lived on in modern times under their original names and aegis. Athena, Nike, and Diana are the popular virgin goddesses who still grace the world and New York.

 

You may be lucky enough to see her glorious ancient form in a temple statue that is eons old or in art or artifacts from her culture of origin. You may feel compelled to bow to her, honor her in some way, or thank her for being here. You may also want to thank the country she hails from and the devotees who may have lost her or had her taken so that she could be in New York.  Or perhaps you have a chance to meet the goddess in art that hangs on the walls of museums, historical places, or private homes. Or through a more modern 18th or 19th interpretation of an ancient goddess, such as Diana at The Metropolitan Museum of Art of Nike leading Geral Sherman to victory just outside Central Park.

 

Not every goddess in town is addressed as a goddess, although she may be noted for her divine attributes and history. Sometimes she exists in the nooks and crannies of New York City— and beyond— in the form of statues that are known by a particular quality, such as Liberty, Justice, Integrity, or Charity. She may be seen in one of the seasons or continents, or as the personification of the humanities. She may be a mythological or allegorical figure, or she may be an expression of a virtue (such as Temperance) personified in female form.

 

In the book A History of Women: From Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints, contributor Nicole Loruax tackles the question "What is a Goddess?" Her painstaking dive through ancient history leads her to contend that there may not be a surefire way to define the divine feminine. She mentions the concept of "divinized distractions" as a category for "discreet goddesses whose nature is generally summed up by names denoting some human virtue." Loraux gave examples such as Eunomia (good government), Dike (justice), Eirene (peace), Nike (victory), and Hubris (harmful excess-yes there are dark goddesses, too). She says that these divine females seem able to communicate with one another but share a common trait of having very little biographical information. She wonders if they are goddesses in concept only. She also mentions Renown, who is a historical variant of Nike; and she points out that Pindar, the ancient Greek lyric poet, contended "she too is a goddess." Loraux grapples with that statement as she weighs the idea that some of these goddesses do not have a full-bodied history or mythology like Hera or Athena, yet she surmises that they do have a presence related to "female powers" and thus may be goddesses in the eyes of some.

 

It could be said that some goddesses are easier to accept as divine females because they have come through the test of time and have landed in more modern eras as a part of more recent United States history. In The Secret Life of Lady Liberty: A Goddess in the New World, authors Robert Hieronimus, PhD, and Laura E. Cortner, offer many insights into goddesses in New York. They track certain divine females through art and sculptures. They point to the emergence of Minerva-Athena as a favorite during and leading up to the revolution. "Minerva herself ran a distant second to Libertas as the most popular goddess in patriotic artwork," they write. "Usually Minerva is seen guiding Libertas or Columbia with her wise counsel. The Revolutionary generation was under the influence of the age of wisdom, and thus Minerva, as the clearheaded goddess of wisdom, was the obvious choice for much of the new insignia."

 

But it did not stop with the insignia. In Greco-Roman myths, Minerva-Athena was a strategist and battlefield advisor to gods and heroes. This skill transferred well to monuments and war memorials and this can explain why New York loves Athena-Minerva so much. She can be found everywhere, including huge statues, and monuments, and in her own Athens Park park.

 

In Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form, Marina Warner contends that the divine females of ancient times lost their status as subjects of worship but they were nonetheless blended into countless public statues. Athena, Diana, and Nike are among the most popular and she believes this is because they are all virgins and were as safe as the Virgin Mary as public-facing representatives of the sacred feminine. Warner looked back to Victorian England as a turning point for Athena's secured place in public history. Given the patriarchal ideas and attitudes, she was a safe bet because, well, she was more like a man. The male-dominated world was not threatened by her power or sexuality (which was non-existent). Warner says she demonstrated certain qualities that made her an acceptable statuary choice to represent towns and areas because of: "Her semi-masculine appearance, her eager participation in battle, her surrender of this interior and secret womb to the external and open control of society" and because of "her armor in general and her aegis above all represented the legitimacy of authority administered by males, invested in her as a symbolic fountainhead of the city's identity." This was not the same as the ancient worship, where people would visit her temple in the Parthenon on the hill in Greece and bring her offerings. But it is a way that she survived as a goddess with a recognizable story and detailed ancient history, around the world and right here in New York. She transcended her Greek and Roman beginnings to become the star of national and local monuments.

 

The divine status of goddesses may have been reduced over time to non-spiritual, non-threatening forms as a way to reduce the power of women. Rachel S. McCoppin is a professor of literature at the University of Minnesota Crookston. In her book, Goddess Lost: How the Downfall of Female Deities Degraded Women's Status in World Cultures, she suggests that "goddesses were purposefully devalued during the rise of patriarchal civilizations, thus restricting the social importance of earthly women and their accompanying rights." In devaluing the divine female, and human women, divine heroines were watered down and placed in categories that did not challenge the status quo.

 

McChoppin points out, "One such instance can be found in Greek mythology's Gaia: once revered as a dominant earth mother, she was replaced by a division of less-powerful figures with more socially acceptable feminine roles, such as Aphrodite, the goddess of love (typically held up as an object of male lust); Hera, the goddess of marriage and childbirth (often portrayed as obsessed with jealousy over the extramarital exploits of her husband); and the mostly silent goddess of the hearth, Hestia. The devaluing of once revered goddesses appeared in quite distinct ways across different cultures." McChoppin writes about the impact this has had on women and goddesses in different global regions, including Europe, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, India, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania.

 

Sometimes we meet the goddess through her Folk legends and cultural heritage stories. These legends are sometimes brought to life in murals on walls, mosaics in historic places, or art that offers a mythological narrative, such as some of the buildings in the Rockefeller Center Complex.  McChoppin shares additional insights in The Legacy of the Goddess: Heroines, Warriors, and Witches from World Mythology to Folktales and Fairy Tales. 

 

She points out that the ancient goddesses remain alive in global folktales and fairytales. "The rich legacy of female goddesses, shamans, queens, and priestesses is in fact preserved and celebrated through these more modern representations ..." In her book, she aims to offer a revised analysis of female characters so that readers can see that, "the goddesses of old have never truly been forgotten."

 

For this exhibit, I was guided by the question: Is a goddess a goddess if she is not identified by a familiar, classical, or known religious name?

I have concluded this about New York's goddesses and goddess-like figures: If she is sitting on a throne, standing above a fountain, flying high above a court or municipal building, or depicted in Art Deco on the side of a classic building she was likely modeled after a divine female in history. If she is dressed like a goddess, positioned like a divine being, or appears to be a goddess, then she's a goddess.

 

She may have had her name changed. She may have been stripped of her goddess history. She may have been neutralized or reinterpreted to fit into the comfort zone of our society. But if you dig down a bit deeper than the surface appearance you will find the many female figures in statues and art have an ancient narrative, affiliation, or inspiration. 

 

The goddesses are alive and well in New York. Enjoy the journey to meet some of them!