The White Goddess by Robert Graves
December 6th 2006 09:59
Before reading The White Goddess, I had only read Robert Graves I, Claudius novels and was vaguely aware of his interpretations of Greek mythology. His novels I did not particularly admire and I was mildly antogonistic towards his attitude toward mythology in my subconscious, though I'd reserved my opinion till I read his books.
Now that I've picked up The White Goddess. In the editor, Grevel Lindop's words, the main argument of The White Goddess is that "in late prehistoric times, throughout Europe and the Middle east, matriarchal cultures, worshipping a supreme goddess and recognising male gods only as her son, consort or sacrificial victim, were subordinated by aggresive proponenents of patriarchy who deposed women from their positions of authority, elevated the goddess' male consorts into positions of divine supremacy and reconstructed myths and rituals to conceal what had taken place."
God! Or should I say, Goddess! This particular argument was everywhere. I had read a dozen works of fantasy and at least am familiar with some whacky theories in serious disciplines like anthropology which are all based on this idea. I did not know it came from Graves.
The White Goddess takes on where The Golden Bough leaves off. If "The Golden Bough demonstrated that a wide range of primitive religions were centred on a divine king." Graves's contribution was to sugges that the god-king was important not for his own sake, but because he married the goddess-queen; and that while kings come and go, the queen or goddes endured."
For Graves, it did not stop with the fact that the Goddess was worshipped in prehistory. For him, poetry ,even the poetry that survives today is a function of her worship and is used to invoke her. As he developed on this idea, Graves himself became so infatuated with it that he began to translate the idea into posturing. Apparently, he began to have an affair with "four muses" in his later day.
No wonder a work of this sort should have lasting impact on the "flower children" but how seriously can we take it? Wiki is more helpful with this one than with The Golden Bough and the answer is not much.
Graves work is rooted in Celtic mythology and wherever he starts, he comes back to it. I am not so interested in it as I am into the mythologies of, say, Greece, Rome, Egypt, India and Near East. That's why I had hard time finishing the book.
Graves writes in a dense, sophisticated manner but once you get used to his style you can see through his arguments. But, I must say, that the idea is striking and if Graves had not been fixated with sticking a certain gender so much, he could have developed a more coherent theory of religion. An ideal reading despite it flaws.
Now that I've picked up The White Goddess. In the editor, Grevel Lindop's words, the main argument of The White Goddess is that "in late prehistoric times, throughout Europe and the Middle east, matriarchal cultures, worshipping a supreme goddess and recognising male gods only as her son, consort or sacrificial victim, were subordinated by aggresive proponenents of patriarchy who deposed women from their positions of authority, elevated the goddess' male consorts into positions of divine supremacy and reconstructed myths and rituals to conceal what had taken place."
God! Or should I say, Goddess! This particular argument was everywhere. I had read a dozen works of fantasy and at least am familiar with some whacky theories in serious disciplines like anthropology which are all based on this idea. I did not know it came from Graves.
The White Goddess takes on where The Golden Bough leaves off. If "The Golden Bough demonstrated that a wide range of primitive religions were centred on a divine king." Graves's contribution was to sugges that the god-king was important not for his own sake, but because he married the goddess-queen; and that while kings come and go, the queen or goddes endured."
For Graves, it did not stop with the fact that the Goddess was worshipped in prehistory. For him, poetry ,even the poetry that survives today is a function of her worship and is used to invoke her. As he developed on this idea, Graves himself became so infatuated with it that he began to translate the idea into posturing. Apparently, he began to have an affair with "four muses" in his later day.
No wonder a work of this sort should have lasting impact on the "flower children" but how seriously can we take it? Wiki is more helpful with this one than with The Golden Bough and the answer is not much.
Graves work is rooted in Celtic mythology and wherever he starts, he comes back to it. I am not so interested in it as I am into the mythologies of, say, Greece, Rome, Egypt, India and Near East. That's why I had hard time finishing the book.
Graves writes in a dense, sophisticated manner but once you get used to his style you can see through his arguments. But, I must say, that the idea is striking and if Graves had not been fixated with sticking a certain gender so much, he could have developed a more coherent theory of religion. An ideal reading despite it flaws.
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