Aphrodite

Throughout the ancient world, one is everywhere confronted

by the numen of the mother goddess. Intimately associated
with a seemingly endless array of phenomena -- love, birth,
death, fertility, war, weaving, magic, kingship, marriage,
maidenhood, mourning, etc. -- the goddess was invoked at
most of the principal rituals and functions that characterize
culture. Her titles, befitting her many areas of influence, are
legion: Queen of Heaven, Warrior, Kore, Harlot, Mother
Earth, Queen of the Underworld, etc. If her cult is no longer
as all-pervasive as it once was, it is still very much alive,
having been gradually sublimated and assimilated into
countless niches of modern religious experience. It is wellknown, for example, that various aspects of the mother
goddess' cult have been absorbed by the worship of the
Virgin Mary.1 Robert Graves was surely right when he
wrote of the mother goddess that she is "deeply fixed in the
racial memory of the European countryman and impossible
to exorcize."2
Among the ancient cultures, it is the Greeks who have

preserved some of the most compelling portraits of the

goddess. Mere mention of the names Aphrodite, Medea,
Scylla, Hecate, Ariadne, and Athena is enough to evoke
images of archetypal significance. Each of these figures
represents, as it were, a face from the ancient gallery of the
mother goddess, offering respectively a crystallized view of
the goddess as Queen of Heaven, sorceress, harpy, witch,
captive maiden, and warrior.
At first glance, the aforementioned figures would appear to
have little in common. Indeed, it is the extraordinary
diversity in the mother goddess' cult which militates against
the prospect that a common denominator can be found
which will satisfactorily define the goddess in each of her
numerous manifestations. Such diversity notwithstanding,
there have been various attempts to explain the goddess' cult
via a common denominator, different hypotheses viewing
the goddess as a personification of the Moon3, the earth4, a
prehistoric tribe of Amazons5, the unconscious6, etc. Yet
none of these theories has gained general acceptance,
primarily because none can account for more than a select
handful of the goddess' various functions and attributes,
much less explain the myriad of peculiar details attending
her myth and cult.
In our opinion, it is the goddess' identification with the
planet Venus -- attested in numerous cultures from the
ancient Near East, but also among aboriginal peoples of the
New World -- which offers the elusive common
denominator necessary to achieve a comprehensive
understanding of the goddess' mythical attributes. In this
series of essays, we intend to show that the majority of
symbolic images and mythological themes associated with
the mother goddess -- including the various forms of the
goddess personified by the Greek figures enumerated above
-- have their origin in ancient conceptions associated with
the planet Venus.
If indeed the cult of the mother goddess traces to the

ancients' experience of the planet Venus -- its appearance,

behavior, and participation in a series of spectacular
cataclysms -- the possibility presents itself that the various
faces of the goddess reflect significant phases or episodes in
that planet's history. It is demonstrable, for example, that
Venus experienced a series of metamorphoses in appearance
during the period of its association with the polar
configuration, including several changes in color and shape
as well as significant mutations in its orbit, the shape of its
atmosphere, and rate of spin. Inasmuch as the respective
phases in the evolutionary history of Venus can be
delineated and reconstructed, they can be shown to be
responsible for the origin and development of specific
archetypal images of the goddess.
Aphrodite Urania
Even today, the name Aphrodite evokes images of alluring
beauty, sensuality, and passion. The goddess is best known,
perhaps, as a divine matchmaker and agent provocateur of
sensual desire and infatuation, whose magical charms were
enough to entice even the gods into acts of lust and illicit
love. In the Iliad, for example, Aphrodite's zone is said to
arouse immediate desire in the eyes of its beholder.7 As
Burkert points out, verbs formed from the goddess' name
denote the act of love, a tendency found already in Homer.8
Aphrodite is famous for her liaisons with various heroes and
gods. Aphrodite's adulterous dalliance with Ares was the
source of much amusement to the gods of Olympus, and
was most likely a subject of ancient cult as as well.9 Her
torrid love affair with Adonis ended tragically. According to
one version of the myth, the goddess is said to have leapt off
the Leucadian rock in grief for the beautiful youth.10 Her
romance with Anchises, finally, is one of the most ancient
traditions surrounding the goddess.11 Gantz summarizes
Aphrodite's role in myth as follows: "Aside from Homer and
these (relatively few) amatory encounters, Aphrodite's role

in myth is limited to isolated instances of aiding lovers or

punishing those who reject love."12
No doubt it is difficult to discern the action of a planet
behind such accounts. As Harrison pointed out long ago,
however, there is a noticeable tendency in Greek myth for
originally
multifaceted
goddesses
to
become
compartmentalized through time. Such a specialization in
function appears to have occurred in the case of Aphrodite:
"Another note of her late coming into Greece proper is
that she is in Homer a departmental goddess, having for
her sphere one human passion. The earlier forms of
divinities are of larger import, they tend to be gods of
all work. When the fusion of tribes and the influence of
literature conjointly bring together a number of local
divinities, perforce, if they are to hold together, they
divide functions and attributes, i.e., become
departmental."13
More profound words regarding the historical origins of
Greek religion it would be difficult to find.
As to the antiquity of Aphrodite's cult in ancient Greece,
there is some debate. While the goddess is already securely
attested in the earliest epic literature, her name is absent
from the Mycenaean religion as known from the Linear B
tablets. Most probably the cult of the goddess came to
Greece in the period between 1200 BCE and 800.14 Burkert,
upon surveying the evidence, confesses: "Aphrodite's origin
remains as obscure as her name."15
Whence, then, did Aphrodite arrive on Greek shores? For
Homer, Hesiod, and other early writers, the goddess was
intimately linked to Cyprus. The Odyssey lists Paphos as the
goddess' homeland, while the Iliad makes Kypris her most
common epithet.16 Hesiod calls her both Kyprogene and
Kythereia.

Our search for Aphrodite's origins does not stop in Cyprus, a

well-known melting pot of Oriental religious conceptions.
Among leading scholars, there is something of a consensus
that the cult of Aphrodite originally came to Greece from
the ancient Near East: "Behind the figure of Aphrodite there
clearly stands the ancient Semitic goddess of love, IshtarAstarte, divine consort of the king, queen of heaven, and
hetaera in one."17 This view receives strong support from
the Greeks themselves. Pausanias, for example, offered the
following opinion: "The Assyrians were the first of the
human race to worship the heavenly one [Aphrodite
Urania]; then the people of Paphos in Cyprus, and of
Phoenician Askalon in Palestine, and the people of Kythera,
who learnt her worship from the Phoenicians."18
Burkert points out that Aphrodite has numerous
characteristics in common with Ishtar. Both are depicted as
goddesses of love and associated with rites of prostitution,
for example.19 Aphrodite, like Ishtar, was represented as
armed and invoked to guarantee victory. Aphrodite's beard
recalls that elsewhere ascribed to Ishtar.
In his comprehensive survey of Aphrodite's cult, Burkert
never once mentions the planet Venus. Here the renowned
scholar is presumably but following the prevailing view,
which does not recognize an early connection between the
goddess and the planet.20 Yet inasmuch as the Semitic Ishtar
was specifically identified with that planet, it stands to
reason that the Greek goddess shared this characteristic as
well. And, in fact, a few scholars have suspected this to be
the case: "As the Greek descendant of the Semitic fertilitygoddess Istar, Aphrodite has inherited as her astral symbol
the planet of Istar, better known to us as Venus."21 In the
Greek sources themselves, Plato is our earliest authority for
this identification.22 A decisive question for the historian of
religions is whether Aphrodite's identification with Venus is
relatively late in origin, as per the view of Burkert and the
vast majority of scholars, or whether it has a foundation in

the goddess' aboriginal cult?

Here the goddess' epithet Urania offers a valuable clue. As
Farnell points out23, Urania -- "the celestial one" -- was a
Greek translation of the Semitic title malkat ha-ssamayim,
"the queen of the heavens," long understood as having
reference to Venus.24 Yet almost unbelievably, Farnell
questions whether Aphrodite's epithet betrays an astral
component. Such an opinion ignores the plain fact that this
epithet finds precise parallels in the cults of other Venusgoddesses throughout the ancient world. Thus, a Sumerian
hymn invokes Inanna as follows:
"To the great Queen of Heaven, Inanna, I want to
address my greeting. To her who fills the sky with her
pure blaze, to the luminous one, to Inanna, as bright as
the sun... "25
That Inanna was identified with the planet Venus in early
Sumerian times is well-known.26
The Akkadian Ishtar shares the same epithet. Witness the
following hymn:
"To the pure flame that fills the heavens, to the light of
Heaven, Ishtar, who shines like the sun, to the mighty
Queen of Heaven, Ishtar."27
How is it possible to understand these early hymns to Inanna
and Ishtar apart from reference to a celestial body? In
complete agreement with the religious literature, Babylonian
astronomical tablets include the Sumerian phrase
dnin.dar.an.na, "the bright, or vari-coloured, queen of
heavens" among the various names for the planet Venus.28
The Canaanite goddess Anat, whose fundamental affinity
with Inanna and Ishtar is well-known, was likewise deemed
the "Queen of Heaven" in Egyptian sources.29 And she too

has been identified with the planet Venus.30

The celestial goddess figures prominently among the pagan
gods mentioned in the Old Testament, and no doubt there
was much truth in the Israelite's admission that the people
had long burnt incense to the Queen of Heaven.31 Although
Jeremiah does not name the goddess in question, Astarte
seems the most likely candidate.32 Astarte's identification
with the planet Venus is commonly acknowledged33, as is
her affinity with Aphrodite. Indeed, a late inscription, c. 160
BC, identifies Astarte and Aphrodite Urania.34
Given this evidence, there seems to be little justification for
Farnell's view that Aphrodite's epithet Urania did not have a
celestial component.
Star of Lamentation
If the cult of Aphrodite reflects ancient conceptions
associated with the planet Venus, it must be expected that
knowledge of that planet's mythology will help explain
specific details in the goddess' cult. Consider, for example,
Aphrodite's important role as a lamenting goddess, most
obvious in the traditions surrounding Adonis, a god whose
rituals featured ceremonial wailing and the singing of
dirges.35 As we have seen, Aphrodite is said to have leapt
from the rocks of Leukas in anguish over the death of
Adonis. Gregory Nagy, one of the foremost scholars of
Greek myth, would explain Aphrodite's leap in terms of
Venus' stereotypical movements in the sky: "By diving from
the White Rock, she [Sappho] does what Aphrodite does in
the form of Evening Star, diving after the sunken Sun in
order to retrieve him the next morning in the form of
Morning Star."36
That Aphrodite's lamentations have some reference to Venus
receives support from Babylon, where Ishtar/Venus was
known as the "star of lamentation."37 This is indeed a

puzzling epithet: What possible relation could there be

between a distant planet and ancient mourning rites?
A survey of ancient Venus-goddesses will show that most
were represented as great mourners. Inanna's lamentations in
the wake of Dumuzi's death, as we will see, are said to have
shaken the foundations of heaven. In Canaanite tradition,
Anat's lamentations on behalf of Baal were proverbial and
much celebrated in ancient cult and literature.38 Witness the
following passage:
"Then Anat went to and fro and scoured every mountain
to the heart of the earth... She came upon Baal, fallen to
earth. She covered her loins with sackcloth;... she
scraped (her) skin with a stone... She gashed her cheeks
and chin."39
In Egyptian tradition, Isis is said to have wandered the
world disconsolate looking for the remains of Osiris: "She
sought him without wearying; full of mourning she
traversed the land, and took no rest until she found him."40
Similar traditions surround the Norse goddess Freya,
commonly identified with Venus. As Briffault recognized
many years ago, Freya's lamentations conform to a universal
archetype:
"Freya was expressly a wanderer. Like Isis in search of
Osiris, like Io and innumerable other goddesses, she
wanders disconsolate in search of Odhr, or Odin."41
The same idea is apparent in the New World, where the
goddess Itzpapalotl (otherwise known as Obsidian Knife
Butterfly) is said to have "wandered off -- combing her hair,
painting her face, and lamenting the loss of Arrow Fish."42
The Phrygian Cybele offers a classic example of the goddess
as mourner. According to Diodorus, the goddess wandered

the world with disheveled hair while lamenting the death of

Attis.43 Significantly, Cybele was identified with
Aphrodite.44
There is good reason to think that Diodorus' account
preserves archetypal motifs of great significance, as the
mourning goddess' habit of wandering around with flowing
hair forms a recurring feature in ancient myth. The Greek
Electra, for example, is said to have loosed her hair and
streamed across heaven as a comet while lamenting the
destruction of Troy. Electra's plight is recounted as follows:
"But after the conquest of Troy and the annihilation of
its descendants,... overwhelmed by pain she separated
from her sisters and settled in the circle named artic,
and over long periods she would be seen lamenting, her
hair streaming. That brought her the name of comet."45
As Carl Sagan observed, a goddess with flowing hair is a
perfectly natural interpretation of a comet: "When we see a
picture of a comet some of us are immediately reminded of
a woman with long, straight hair being blown back behind
her, the reason, as we have said, for the very name comet,
derived from the Greek word for hair."46
In the account of Bion, a Greek poet of c. 100 BC,
Aphrodite herself is said to have unbound her hair and
embarked upon a period of wandering in the wake of
Adonis' death:
"And Aphrodite unbinds her locks and goes wandering
through the woodlands, distraught, unkempt, and
barefoot. The thorns tear her as she goes, and gather her
holy blood, but she sweeps through the long glades,
shrieking aloud and calling on the lad, her Assyrian
lord'."47
Indeed, it is our opinion that Hyginus' report offers the

decisive clue to understanding these ancient traditions of

lamenting goddesses -- the goddess' lamentations occurred
in the sky and had reference to a comet-like apparition. Here
we would point to a passage from a Sumerian hymn,
"Dumuzi's Dream," wherein the hero's sister Geshtinanna
announces in the wake of his death that "my hair will whirl
in heaven for you."48 That this image had reference to
something actually seen in the sky is supported by a
subsequent passage in the same hymn:
"Gestinanna cried toward heaven, cried toward earth.
(Her) cries covered the horizon completely like a cloth
and were spread out like linen."49
The goddess' comet-like form left a trace in ancient ritual as
well. Thus, various early Christian authors described a
Phoenician ritual at Aphaca associated with Astarte in which
the goddess was represented as a falling star. Astour
summarized this ritual as follows: "It was believed that once
a year the goddess descended into the pool as a fiery falling
star, or that on solemn feast days, when people assembled in
the shrine, a fire-globe was lit in the vicinity of the temple
and probably rolled into the pool."50
Here a passage from Philo warrants mention: "The
Phoenicians say that Astarte is Aphrodite."51
As the "star of lamentation" was judged to be of female
form, we find that mourning rites were typically the special
province of females: "Those rites and 'lamentations' are
thoughout the primitive society performed by women."52
Nor is it without interest to note that mourning rites around
the globe feature women whose hair is purposefully
loosened in order to appear disheveled and flow with the
wind. Arab mourners, for example, are described as follows
by one scholar: "Then our women bewail (the dead) with
voices, hoarse with weeping... with dishevelled hair."53 In
the Mahabharata, women wearing their hair loose is a sign

of mourning.54 Ancient Egyptian monuments likewise show

women mourners with disheveled hair.55 Given this practice
and the general belief that disheveled hair was a token of
mourning, it is doubtless no accident that various words for
"mourning" in the Egyptian hieroglyphic language have the
hair-sign as a determinative -- P. 56
The same visual effect, of course, could be produced by
tearing at the hair or by leaving it uncombed or otherwise
uncared for. Women upon the islands of Leti, Moa and
Lakor are expressly forbidden from combing their hair
during the period of mourning, in order to appear all that
more dishevelled.57 During the same time, they dress in old,
black clothes. Similar practices prevailed in ancient Greece:
"In Greece, as elsewhere, the dirge was sung and
accompanied with an ecstatic dance in which women beat
their breasts and tore their hair."58
Lion of Heaven
In the same hymn in which she is described as a "star of
lamentation," Ishtar is compared to a raging lion: "Irninitum
[an epithet of Ishtar], raging lion, may your heart be
calmed."59 That the planet Venus was the object of this
imagery is confirmed by various lines of evidence, not the
least of which is that Inanna (as Venus) is explicitly
described as a lion in heaven. Thus one hymn invokes
Inanna as the "lion who shines in the sky."60 In another
early hymn, Inanna and Ebih, the goddess is invoked as
follows:
"Lordly Queen of the awesome me, garbed in fear...
Who storm about in great battles, who step upon
shields, Who initiate the flood-storm... Like a lion you
roared in heaven and earth, you smote the flesh of the
people... Like an awesome lion you annihilated with
your venom the hostile and the disobedient."61

Again and again, the planet-goddess is compared to a lion

raging in heaven: "Inanna, great brightness, celestial lion... "
Here the signs translated as "great brightness" -- U4-gal -are elsewhere used to signify "hurricane, or raging storm" a
startling extension of meaning. Several questions present
themselves at this point. What is there about a lion that
would make it an appropriate symbol for a planet-goddess
located in heaven? And if Inanna-Venus was described as a
"raging lion," is it not possible that the expression U4-gal
should be translated as "raging storm"? Support for this
interpretation comes from the various hymns in which
Inanna is described in conjunction with storm-like imagery.
Witness the following passage:
"Devastatrix of the lands, you are lent wings by the
storm... you fly about the nation. At the sound of you
the lands bow down. Propelled on your own wings you
peck away at the land. With a roaring storm you roar;
with Thunder you continually thunder."62
Now I ask: Would anyone viewing the planet Venus in its
current manifestations ever be moved to describe it in such
terms? It is also noteworthy that storm-like imagery attaches
to the mourning goddess' hair. Witness the passage from
Dumuzi's Dream describing Geshinanna's lamentations,
quoted here in full: "My hair will whirl around in heaven for
you like a hurricane."63
To return to the "Prayer of Lamentation to Ishtar," the word
rendered "lioness" is Labbatu. Interestingly enough,
however, the epithet Labbatu likewise signifies a goddess of
lamentation:
"A name of Istar in god lists and an epithet in texts. The
special reference of this name of the goddess is given as
'of lamentation' (sa lal-la-ra-te) in CT 24, 41, 83, but the
basis of this interpretation is not clear."64
If we recall that Venus was elsewhere described as a "long-

haired" star65, or as the star with "disheveled hair,"66 the

possibility arises that it was the planet's abundant "hair"
which provided the necessary link between Ishtar's role as
star of lamentation and lion of heaven. The Latin scholar
Varro, in a discussion of the planet Venus, noted that it was
called Iubar "because it is iubata 'maned'."67 Varro
elsewhere compares the light of Venus to a lion's mane:
"The morning-star is called iubar, because it has at the top a
diffused light, just as a lion has on his head a iuba 'mane.'"68
Nor is it without interest to our discussion of the lamenting
goddess that various Greek and Latin authors used the word
iubar to describe a comet.69
In the sacred iconography surrounding Ishtar, lions are
conspicuous.70 A popular motif finds lions being marked
with a "hair-star" on their bodies, various authorities noting
of the star that "the motive was a token of possession
marking... animals [with it] as the property of Ishtar."71 (See
figure one) The "hair-star," of course, is a common term for
"comet" throughout the ancient world. That the "hair-star"
would appear among the religious iconography associated
with Ishtar/Venus makes perfect sense if that planet-goddess
once presented the appearance of a comet-like body.
Aphrodite Areia
In ancient Greece, especially in Sparta, Aphrodite was
worshipped as a warrior, as attested by the epithet Areia. As
Graz has pointed out, this cult was considered strange by the
Greeks themselves: "The armed Aphrodite of Sparta
challenged the wits of Hellenistic epigrammists and Roman
students of rhetoric: for both, she was a puzzling
paradox."72 Yet the Spartan cult finds a parallel on the
island of Cythera, where Aphrodite Urania was represented
as armed. And this cult, it will be remembered, was
esteemed the oldest cult of the goddess. Farnell's conclusion
seems perfectly warranted: "We may believe that the cult of
the armed Aphrodite belongs to the first period of her

worship in Greece."73
How are we to understand Aphrodite's role as a warrior?
Here the Greek evidence is of little help, being relatively
scarce, due in no small part to the fact that by the time of
our earliest Greek testimony the goddess had become
"civilized." As always, our surest guide is comparative
mythology.
As we have elsewhere argued, the lamenting goddess is
closely related to the warrior-goddess. If, in one text, Inanna
is described as a great warrior whose "raging" threatens to
destroy heaven and earth, another text describes her as a
mourner whose lamentations shake the foundations of the
world:
"She of lament, she of lament, struck up a lament. The
hierodule, she of lament, she of lament struck up a
lament. The hierodule of heaven, Inanna, the devastatrix
of the mountain, the lady of Hursagkalama, she who
causes the heavens to rumble, the lady of the
Eturkalama, she who shakes the earth... she of lament,
she of lament (struck up a lament)."74
Inanna's celestial war-mongering, in fact, is directly related
to her "troubled heart" and otherworldly dirge:
"You make the heavens tremble and the earth quake.
Great Priestess, who can soothe your troubled heart?
You flash like lightning over the highlands; you throw
your firebrands across the earth. Your deafening
command... splits apart great mountains."75
"Devastatrix of the lands, you are lent wings by the
storm... you fly about the nation. At the sound of you
the lands bow down. Propelled on your own wings you
peck away at the land. With a roaring storm you roar;
with Thunder you continually thunder... To (the
accompaniment of) the harp of sighs you give vent to a

dirge."76
Why Inanna would be represented as a raging warriorgoddess receives scant attention from scholars. Jacobsen, in
introducing Inanna's warrior aspect, remarks: "In the process
of humanization, gods of rain and thunderstorms tended... to
be envisaged as warriors riding their chariots into battle."77
Why this should be the case is not addressed. Another
leading scholar offered the following explanation of Ishtar's
role as warrior: "Since in early nomadic society the young
women egged on the young warriors in battle with praise
and taunts, she could also be seen as the personification of
the rage of battle."78
The ad hoc nature of such hypotheses is readily apparent:
Not only is the specific imagery surrounding the goddess'
warring rampage ignored, so too is its cosmological setting.
The fact that Inanna is explicitly identified with the planet
Venus but also as a warrior already at the dawn of history is
likewise ignored.79 That scholars have been motivated to
divorce the goddess' warrior-aspect from the planet Venus
stands to reason, for what could such imagery have to do
with the planet known to modern astronomers, which
typically presents a beautiful, tranquil appearance and never
ever rages, storms, laments, wars, or otherwise offers a
threatening apparition? Indeed, it is the incongruity between
Inanna's dual appearance as Venus and as a warrior which,
in part, has led scholars to speak of a "coalescence" of
originally disparate cults under the name of Inanna.80
Incongruous or not, goddesses everywhere are represented
as warriors. In addition to Inanna and Aphrodite, Hathor,
Anat, Astarte, and Freya81 are all represented as warriors.
The traditions surrounding Ishtar are exemplary here. The
destruction wrought by the raging lioness knew no bounds,
extending to the sacred domain of the gods as well:
"O splendid lioness of the Igigi-gods, who renders

furious gods submissive... great is your valor, O valiant

Ishtar, Shining torch of heaven and earth, brilliance of
all inhabited lands. Furious in irresistible onslaught,
hero to the fight, Fiery glow that blazes against the
enemy, who wreaks destruction on the fierce, Dancing
one, Ishtar... Irninitum, raging lion, may your heart be
calmed."82
Other hymns confirm that it was the goddess' cries which
shook the world:
"I rain battle down like flames in the fighting, I make
heaven and earth shake with my cries, ... I, Ishtar, am
queen of heaven and earth. I am the queen... I constantly
traverse heaven, then (?) I trample the earth, I destroy
what remains of the inhabited world."83
Ancient India presents the scholar with several examples of
the warrior-goddess, the most interesting of which is DurgaKali, who shares numerous characteristics with Ishtar.
Witness the following hymn:
"Her anger grew so terrible that she transformed herself,
grew smaller and black and left her lion mount and
starting walking on foot. Her name then became Kali.
With tongue lolling and dripping with blood, she then
went on a blind destructive rampage, killing everything
and everyone in sight, regardless of who they were."84
Although Kali is occasionally described as beautiful, it is
more common to find her presented in repulsive terms:
"Hindu texts referring to the goddess are nearly
unanimous in describing her as terrible in appearance
and as offensive and destructive in her habits. Her hair
is disheveled, her eyes red and fierce, she has fangs and
a long lolling tongue, her lips are often smeared with
blood, her breasts are long and pendulous, her stomach
is sunken, and her figure is generally gaunt. She is

naked but for several characteristic ornaments: a

necklace of skulls or freshly cut heads, a girdle of
severed arms, and infant corpses as earrings."85
As battle was described as the "dance" of Ishtar86, so too
does Kali dance during battle:
"Ever art you dancing in battle, Mother. Never was
beauty like thine, as with thy hair flowing about thee,
thou dost ever dance, a naked warrior on the breast of
Shiva."87
Kali's dancing, moreover, like that of Ishtar, threatens the
foundations of the world:
"The dread mother dances naked in the battlefield, Her
lolling tongue burns like a red flame of fire, Her dark
tresses, fly in the sky, sweeping away sun and stars, Red
streams of blood run from her cloud-black limbs, And
the world trembles and cracks under her tread."88
As this last passage indicates, Kali's disheveled hair was
explicitly linked to a period of great catastrophe threatening
the world. According to Hiltebeitel, the goddess' "disheveled
hair is thus itself an image of Kalaratri, the Night of Time,
the night of the dissolution (pralaya) of the universe."89
There is a recurring emphasis in the Hindu texts on the
disheveled hair of the warring goddess. Indeed, an epithet of
the goddess -- Muktakesi -- commemorates her loosened and
disheveled hair.90 When it is reported that Kali's "streaming
tresses hang in vast disorder,"91 or that her disheveled hair
blackens the skies, "sweeping away sun and stars," is it not
apparent that the imagery of the comet is once more upon
us?
As repulsive as Kali appears to the Western reader, her cult
continues to exert a strange fascination over the people of

India. Thus Zimmer describes her as "today the most

cherished and widespread of the personalizations of Indian
cult."92
Kali's monstrous form, bizarre as it is, can be shown to have
striking parallels throughout the ancient world. Consider the
example provided by the Aztec mourning goddess
Itzpapalotl, who was commonly represented as a warrior:
"Obsidian Knife Butterfly is a wholly Chichimec
goddess and her only office was war. She is depicted
with a defleshed face and talons for feet and hands; she
is winged and is often shown sweeping down from the
heavens like a ghastly tzitzimitl. We are not shocked to
see her in this form, but it comes as something of a
shock to see her also cast in mythology as a double of
Precious Flower [i.e., Xochiquetzal, the Aztec
Aphrodite]... This is an outstanding example of the
interpenetrability of the forms of the Great Mother."93
What, then, is a Tzitzimitl? According to Brundage, the
demonic creature in question "is an eerie goddess in the
night sky... [whose] hair is madly disheveled."94 A picture
of a Tzitzimitl is shown in figure two. Notice the necklace
of hearts and hands. Notice the grotesquely protruding
tongue. The resemblance to Kali is apparent.
In Aztec myth, Itzpapalotl was said to have been thrown
from heaven for sinning against the gods. This tradition
finds a close parallel in ancient Babylon, where Lamashtu -an avatar of Inanna/Ishtar95 -- was said to have been thrown
from heaven, whereupon she displayed wildly disheveled
hair. An Assyrian incantation alludes to this theme:
"She is a haunt, she is malicious, Offspring of a god,
daughter of Anu. For her malevolent will, her base
counsel, Anu her father dashed her down from heaven
to earth, For her malevolent will, her inflammatory

counsel. Her hair is askew, her loincloth is torn away."96

The image of Ishtar-Lamashtu being hurled from heaven
with disheveled hair once again recalls cometary imagery,
comets having long been compared to women with
streaming or disheveled hair.97 Lamashtu's disheveled hair
and tattered clothes, likewise, recalls the appearance and
attire traditionally accorded mourners.
A witch-like goddess renowned for her chimeric form and
ogre-like appetites, Lamashtu was said to have the head of a
lion:
"Great is the daughter of Anu... She is cruel, raging,
wrathful, rapacious... Her head is the head of a lion."98
Significantly, one hymn compares the goddess to a lion with
disheveled hair:
"She is furious, she is fierce, she is uncanny, she has an
awful glamor... the daughter of Anu!... The face of a
ravening lion is her face. She came up from the reed
bed, her hair askew... "99
As Budge pointed out, Lamashtu eventually became
demonized to the point at which her original identification
with Inanna/Ishtar is difficult to recognize:
"Among all the devils and fiends of which the
Mesopotamians lived in terror, the one that seems to
have been the most dreaded was [Lamashtu], a shedevil, and the daughter of the great god Anu... The
goddess Lamashtu was a violent, raging devil of
terrifying aspect... With her hair tossed about wildly,
and her breasts uncovered she burst out of the cane
brakes like a whirlwind... "100
The fact that the image of the warrior-goddess with
disheveled hair can be found in both the Old World and New

strongly suggests that the imagery originated as a direct

result of common experience, presumably being inspired by
a particularly memorable comet-like apparition. Yet as the
example provided by Ishtar-Lamashtu attests, there is also
an indissoluble connection with the planet Venus. Here, too,
New World traditions provide a remarkable correspondence.
Thus, an Inca name for Venus was chasca coyllur,
signifying the "star (coyllur) with tangled or disheveled
hair."101 The modern descendents of the Inca, moreover,
continue to observe "the day of disheveled hair,"
presumably because of its cosmological import: "In the
Andes, the modern lexicographer Lara has noted a Quechua
neologism, ch'askachau -- literally 'the day of disheveled
hair' -- meaning viernes, the Spanish word for Venus's
day."102
The conclusion seems inescapable: It was the planet Venus
itself, explicitly identified with the mother goddess, which
once displayed disheveled hair while participating in a
spectacular cataclysm shaking the very foundations of
heaven and earth, recalled as Inanna's lamentations, Ishtar's
battle dance, or Kali's terrible "night of the dissolution of the
universe."103
Aphrodite Melaina
Prominent in the accounts of Kali and Lamashtu is an
emphasis upon the goddess' disheveled appearance and
black color. Kali's name, in fact, signifies the "black one."
Here, too, it can be shown that the goddess' dark form
belongs to the most archaic stratum of myth. In the New
World, for example, the Aztecs celebrated a mother goddess
known as Coatlicue, "Serpent Skirt," who was described as
"black, dirty, disheveled, and of shocking ugliness."104
Figure three shows a statue of the goddess in the National
Museum of Mexico. Brundage offered the following
commentary with regard to this monument:

"The skirt of writhing snakes and the necklace of hands

and hearts from which dangles the skull pendant -- these
form the goddess' accouterments and strike the viewer
first. But even more uncompromising is her form, the
bared and flaccid breasts, the clutched hands that are
really serpent heads, and the great taloned feet whose
thumping tread we can almost hear."105
Here, once again, it is impossible not to notice the striking
parallels with the iconography and literature surrounding the
Hindu Kali and Canaanite Anat. More than likely, Coatlicue
was the Aztec counterpart of the Chicamec Itzpapalotl.
Aphrodite's epithet Melaina is of interest here.106 Signifying
"the black one," this name hardly seems appropriate for an
Indo-European goddess of love and beauty. The epithet
Skotia, "dark one," is of similar import.
No doubt it will be objected here that this is hardly a fitting
epithet for the brilliant planet Venus. And this is quite true,
at least with respect to the present Venus. Once again,
however, there is compelling testimony that Venus once
assumed a dark color. Witness the following tradition of the
Zinacantecans, heirs to the Maya, in which the planet Venus
is compared to an ugly black form when sweeping a path for
the sun:
"The great star is a Chamula girl... The awful ugly black
Chamula, And isn't that star beautiful, It has rays of
light."107
Aphrodite's black form and warrior-aspect are best
understood as vestiges of her one-time role as a terrrible
goddess, long since suppressed in her popular cult. Both
features would appear to reflect the goddess' original
identification with the planet Venus.
Aphrodite Comaetho

One of the most famous myths associated with Durga-Kali

finds her slaying Mahisa, a would-be lover of bovine form.
There the goddess can be found threatening her victim as
follows: "I will take away your life's breath."108 It is
possible, perhaps, to recognize here a widespread theme
whereby the mother goddess steals the life-breath, soul, or
heart of a great king.
The classic example of this mythological genre is that of
Scylla, who secures the death of her father Nisus by stealing
the purple lock of hair upon which his life and kingdom
depended.109 As various scholars have recognized, the myth
of Scylla represents a variation upon the widespread theme
of the external soul.110
A similar deed is elsewhere attributed to one Camaetho, who
is said to have brought about the demise of Pterelaus by
stealing the golden lock of hair wherein resided his soul. 111
Yet the name Comaetho, signifying "fiery-haired,112 is
otherwise attested as an epithet of Aphrodite.113
Here it is important to remember the widespread tradition
which recognizes comets as the "souls" of great kings or
heroes.114 Comets were also expressly compared to "locks"
of hair and said to portend the fall of kingdoms. The
following report from an Italian writer of the first century
reflects what appears to be a universal belief: "Many a
comet with bright tresses, destroyer of kingdoms, gleamed
red and deadly.115 Such traditions raise the possibility that
behind the epithet Comaetho we should recognize Aphrodite
as the planet Venus while displaying a comet-like phase.
Ovid's account of Scylla, upon further scrutiny, seems to
preserve more than a trace of that harpie's cometary nature.
Thus it is that, after stealing Nisus' lock, Scylla is said to
have become "enraged," whereupon she appeared with
"streaming hair.116 Scylla's end is worth quoting at length:

"She reached the stern of Minos' Cretan ship where like

a hated spirit she held fast... She seemed to fall, then
sway, hovering in the air as if she was a feather. Scylla
became a bird that some called Ciris, a name that brings
to mind clipped locks of hair.117
Ovid's comparison of Scylla to a "hated spirit," quite
possibly, preserves archetypal elements of the goddess' cult.
In Greek tradition, the departing soul of a human being was
compared to an angry Erinys.118 Yet the Erinys was
elsewhere personified as a goddess of wrath and rage,
having a black form and bloodthirsty appetite. Indeed, the
name itself is thought to commemorate the goddess'
wrath.119 Aphrodite herself, moreover, was likened to an
Erinys. Thus, Farnell refers to a puzzling passage in
Hesychius in which an Erinys "is explained as an infernal
power or as an eidolon of Aphrodite; eidolon in this context
must either mean 'phantom' or 'image'.120
Aphrodite's role as an Erinys, like her role as Comaetho,
confirms her intimate relation to the soul, a role which is
crucial to understanding the ultimate significance of the
terrible goddess, for it is as a departing "soul" that the
goddess assumes her terrible aspect while threatening the
world with destruction. Once again, one can point to a
parallel in the cult of Ishtar, where the goddess' name came
to signify the external soul (istaru).121
Witch-Star
In the compelling image of Comaetho escaping with the
life-soul of Pterelaus it is possible to recognize the
archetypal witch. From time immemorial, in both the Old
World and New, witches have been blamed for the theft of
hearts or souls (in ancient symbology, hearts are typically
synonymous with "souls").122 Hultkrantz offered the
following summary of Pueblo conceptions of the heart-soul:

"In Pueblo ideology the heart is the life, and

considerable attention is directed ritually and in tales to
the heart... Witches steal the heart... Here we find the
association
between
life-soul,
life-force
and
supernatural power in the heart, which is so typical in
the imaginative world of the Pueblo peoples.123
And, one might add, in peoples from distant areas of the
globe.
A seldom noticed fact is how often the great mother
goddesses are described in terms otherwise befitting a witch.
Ishtar-Lamashtu, as we have seen, was presented as a witchlike demon, swooping down from the sky and making off
with children. The Norse Freya, similarly, was described as
a witch as well as a warrior and mourner.124
While witch-like characteristics can be found within the
cults of most great goddesses, they are particularly
prominent in the cults of the Norse Holda and Greek Hecate.
Grimm described Holda's transformation into a witch as
follows:
"Hulda, instead of her divine shape, assumes the
appearance of an ugly old woman, long-nosed, big
toothed, with bristling and thick-matted hair. 'He's had a
jaunt with Holle', they say of a man whose hair sticks
up in tangled disorder; so children are frightened with
her or her equally hideous train.125
Holle-riding, "to ride with Holle," was equivalent to the
nocturnal ride of witches, the latter being accompanied by
departed souls.126
The patron-goddess of witches and sorceresses, Hecate was
described as having serpentine hair and brandishing torches
whilst riding through the air on flying serpents.127 Like
Holda, Hecate was intimately associated with a train of

souls and ghost-like beings, the latter said to accompany the

goddess on her nocturnal jaunts: "Queen of the spirits of the
dead, she was active at night, accompanied by a retinue of
dogs and ghosts of suicides or those who had died a violent
death.128 This tradition recalls the Medieval belief that the
souls of children and barking dogs accompanied the
nocturnal haunts of witches.
That Rose, among other scholars, has called attention to the
fundamental affinity of Hecate with Aphrodite is baffling at
first sight, for what could the goddess of love have to do
with a witch goddess? Yet Aphrodite's affinity to Hecate
makes perfect sense in light of her intimate relationship to
Erinys and Comaetho, both of whom share witch-like
attributes.129
If indeed the witch-like characteristics associated with the
cult of the mother goddesses reflect their identification with
the planet Venus, one would expect to see an explicit
connection between that planet and witchcraft. Once again,
the ancient sources will not disappoint -- the planet Venus
was equated with the "witch-star" (kakkab kassaptu) in
ancient Babylonian astronomical texts.130 The same planet
was compared to a witch in ancient Norse lore as well.131
It is precisely these terrible or "negative" images of the
goddess which have proven difficult to understand or
discover in the natural world.132 Not surprisingly,
investigators have had little recourse but to attempt an
explanation in terms of subjective psychological factors.
Erich Neumann's analysis is typical in this regard:
"The symbolism of the Terrible Mother draws its
images predominantly from the 'inside'; that is to say,
the negative elementary character of the Feminine
expresses itself in fantastic and chimerical images that
do not originate in the outside world. The reason for this
is that the Terrible Female is a symbol for the

unconscious. And the dark side of the Terrible Mother

takes the form of monsters... In the myths and tales of
all peoples, ages, and countries -- and even in the
nightmares of our own nights -- witches and vampires,
ghouls and specters, assail us, all terrifyingly alike.133
Our hypothesis turns that of Neumann on its head: The
archetypal images of the terrible goddess -- Kali, Lamashtu,
raging lioness, Scylla, witch -- have an objective basis in
historical fact, being directly traceable to the ancient
appearance of the planet Venus while displaying a cometlike phase.134 In order to understand the terrible aspect of
the various Venus-goddesses, all that is required is to allow
for the possibility that Venus hasn't always presented such a
beautiful face. To date, only Velikovsky dared to ask the
question whether the cataclysmic imagery apparent in the
cults of Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte and others had its original
reference in atypical behavior associated with the planet
Venus. On this score, Velikovsky stands vindicated.
Conclusion
As indicated by her title Urania, Aphrodite is to be
identified with the planet Venus, known throughout the
ancient Near East as the "Queen of Heaven." In this celestial
identification the Greek goddess conforms to what amounts
to a universal rule. Thus, a systematic analysis of the various
mother goddesses will reveal an indissoluble connection
with the planet Venus. Virtually every aspect of the mother
goddess' cult, rightly understood, will trace to the Cytherean
planet. As the mourning goddess is described as wandering
the world with disheveled hair, so too is Venus described in
no uncertain terms as the "star of lamentation" and as "the
star with disheveled hair." As the mother goddess is
commonly regarded as a great warrior, whose dance
threatened the very foundations of the world, so too have
various cultures around the world described Venus as an
agent of war especially linked to apocalyptic disaster. As the
warrior goddess is compared to a raging lioness, so too is

the planet Venus described as the "lion of heaven." As the

raging goddess is described as having assumed a black form,
so too is the planet Venus. As mother goddesses everywhere
are described with witch-like attributes, so too is Venus
likened to a "witch-star." And so it is with countless other
mythical motifs surrounding the mother goddess.
Considered in isolation and with reference to the current
skies, there is no conceivable reason to link the planet Venus
to rites of lamentation, disheveled "comet-like" hair, leonine
imagery, war, the color black, or witches. Such associations
would be puzzling enough were they confined to one region
of the world alone, yet they are to be found in the New
World as well as the Old. Only the Saturn thesis, and the
Saturn thesis alone, I dare say, can explain these peculiar
traditions surrounding Venus. As Talbott and I have
documented, a key to understanding these traditions is that
Venus formed the celestial prototype for the heart-soul of
the ancient sun-god (Saturn), the escape or theft of which
constituted a great cataclysm associated with the kingdom of
that planet-god. During a spectacular series of events, Venus
took on the appearance of a comet-like apparition, its long
disheveled "hair" spanning the heavens and obscuring the
sun while throwing the cosmos into darkness and chaos.
During this disturbance of the polar configuration, Venus
circled about the polar axis for an indeterminant period of
time, ostensibly looking for her lost consort and lamenting
his loss. Only with the realignment of the polar
configuration was the terrible goddess pacified and order
restored.
If true, our thesis allows for the ready understanding of the
various universal traditions surrounding comets, none of
which makes any sense otherwise: (1) the comparison of
comets to the souls of great kings; (2) the association of the
appearance of comets with the death of kings and the fall of
great kingdoms; (3) the association of comets with great
eclipses or with the end of an age. It is because of Venus'
specific role within the evolving polar configuration that

that planet and comets came to share numerous attributes

and terminology in common.
Footnotes
1. See here R. Briffault, The Mothers (New York, 1963), pp. 378, 429; R.
Graves, The White Goddess (New York, 1948), pp. 393-397; and H.
Hislop, The Two Babylons (Neptune, N.J., 1959).
2. R. Graves, The White Goddess (New York, 1948), p. 482.
3. Ibid.
4. R. Briffault, The Mothers (New York, 1963).
5. W. Helck, Betrachtungen zur Grossen Gttin (Munich, 1971)
6. E. Neumann, The Great Mother (Princeton, 1974), p. 6.
7. Iliad 14:216.
8. W. Burkert, Greek Religion (Cambridge, 1985), p. 152. Odyssey
22:444.
9. Odyssey 8:266-364.
10. See the discussion in L. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, Vol. II
(New Rochelle, 1977), p. 650.
11. Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, 53ff.
12. T. Gantz, Early Greek Myth (Baltimore, 1993), p. 104.
13. J. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (New York,
1975), p. 308.
14. C. Penglase, Greek Myths and Mesopotamia (London, 1994), pp.
176ff.
15. W. Burkert, op. cit., p. 153.
16. Ibid., p. 153. According to C. Penglase, op. cit., p. 176, "The earliest
evidence for Aphrodite in the Greek and Mycenaean area is the temple in
Paphos."
17. W. Burkert, op. cit., p. 152. Burkert goes so far as to suggest that the
goddesses' name derives from that of Ashtoreth: "It is possible that the

name Aphrodite itself is a Greek form of western Semitic Ashtorith, who

in turn is identical with Ishtar." See W. Burkert, The Orientalizing
Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in Early Archaic
Age (Cambridge, 1992), p. 98. Carl Kerenyi, F. Hommel, and others
anticipated this derivation many years previously. See The Gods of the
Greeks (London, 1981), p. 67.
18. Book I:14:7.
19. C. Penglase, op. cit., p. 163, citing Strabo 378 for Corinthian cults of
prostitution associated with Aphrodite. Notice also the epithet Porne.
20. W. Heimpel, "A Catalog of Near Eastern Venus Deities," SyroMesopotamian Studies 4:3 (1982), p. 22, writes that "Originally,
Aphrodite was not connected with Venus."
21. G. Nagy, "The White Rock of Leukas," Harvard Studies in Classical
Philology 77 (1973), p. 174.
22. Epinomis 986e-987a.
23. L. Farnell, op. cit., p. 629.
24. See L. Bobrova & A. Militarev, "From Mesopotamia to Greece: to
the Origin of Semitic and Greek Star Names," ed. by H. Galter, Die Rolle
der Astronomie in den Kulturen Mesopotamiens (Graz, 1993), p. 315.
25. F. Bruschweiler, Innana. La desse triomphante et vaincue dans la
cosmologie sumrienne (Leuwen, 1988), p. 105. Translation of the
French text by Birgit Liesching.
26. W. Heimpel, op. cit., pp. 9-13.
27. S. Langdon, "Semitic Mythology," in The Mythology of All Races, ed.
L. Gray (New York, 1964), p. 25.
28. P. Gssman, Planetarium Babylonicum (Rome, 1950), p. 35. See also
L. Bobrova & A. Militarev, "From Mesopotamia to Greece: to the Origin
of Semitic and Greek Star Names," ed. by H. Galter, Die Rolle der
Astronomie in den Kulturen Mesopotamiens (Graz, 1993), p. 315.
29. On Anat's identification with the Queen of Heaven, see L. Handy,
Among the Host of Heaven (Winona Lake, 1997), p. 103. A. Eaton, The
Goddess Anat: The History of Her Cult, Her Mythology and Her
Iconography (New Haven, 1964), dissertation, pp. 99 and 125, notes that
the same epithet was possibly associated with the goddess in Ugarit,
where she was also called "Lady of the High Heavens."

30. On Anat's identification with Venus, see M. Astour, Hellenosemitica

(Leiden, 1967), p. 261.
31. Jeremiah 44:17-25.
32. W. Heimpel, op. cit., p. 21.
33. J. Henninger, "Zum Problem der Venussterngottheit bei den
Semiten," Anthropos 71 (1976), pp. 153ff. See also M. Astour, op. cit., p.
116.
34. W. Heimpel, op. cit., p. 21.
35. L. Farnell, op. cit., p. 637, adds: "We meet also with ceremonies of
mourning and sadness in the worship of Leucothea at Thebes, and
perhaps in Crete, as we find them elsewhere in the worship of
Aphrodite."
36. G. Nagy, "The White Rock of Leukas," Harvard Studies in Classical
Philology 77 (1973), p. 175.
37. F. Stephens, "Prayer of Lamentation to Ishtar," in J. Pritchard ed.,
Ancient Near Eastern Texts (Princeton, 1969), p. 384.
38. N. Walls, The Goddess Anat in Ugaritic Cult (Atlanta, 1992), p. 67.
39. Ibid., pp. 68-69.
40. A. Erman, A Handbook of Egyptian Religion (London, 1907), p. 33.
41. R. Briffault, The Mothers, Vol. 3 (New York, 1927), p. 66.
42. B. Brundage, The Fifth Sun: Aztec Gods, Aztec World (Austin, 1983),
p. 171.
43. Library 3:59:1-2.
44. L. Farnell, op. cit., pp. 633, 641.
45. De Astronomia, as translated by Milad Doueihi in C. Sagan & A.
Druyan, Comet (New York, 1985), p. 18.
46. C. Sagan & A. Druyan, op. cit., p. 122.
47. T. Gaster, Thespis (New York, 1961), p. 214.
48. B. Alster, Dumuzi's Dream (Copenhagen, 1972), p. 61.
49. Ibid., p. 81.

50. M. Astour, Hellenosemitica (Leiden, 1967), pp. 115-116, citing

Sozomenos, II:5; Zosimos, I:58.
51. Fragment 2, D32. See here H. Attridge & R. Oden, "Philo of Byblos:
The Phoenician History," in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 9 (1981), p.
55.
52. R. Briffault, op. cit., p. 173.
53. A. Wensinck, Some Semitic Rites of Mourning and Religion: Studies
on Their Origin and Mutual Relation (Amsterdam, 1917), p. 50.
54. 2.71.18-20
55. In a death scene from a tomb at Saqqara, for example. See the
discussion in A. Burton, Diodorus Siculus: Book One, A Commentary
(Leiden, 1972), pp. 211, 261.
56. W. W. "Trauer," in Reallexikon der gyptologie, Vol. V (Berlin,
1977), p. 744.
57. A. Wensinck, op. cit., p. 51.
58. R. Willetts, Cretan Cults and Festivals (New York, 1962), p. 189.
59. B. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature,
Vol. 1 (Bethesda, 1993), p. 512.
60. F. Bruschweiler, op. cit., p. 150.
61. Quoted from N. Walls, op. cit., p. 43.
62. W. Hallo & J. van Dyk, Exaltation of Inanna (New Haven, 1968), pp.
17-19.
63. Translation in B. Alster, "The Mythology of Mourning," Acta
Sumerologica 5 (1983), p. 6.
64. W. Lambert, "Labbatu" in E. Ebeling & B. Meissner, eds.,
Reallexikon der Assyriologie, Vol. 6 (Berlin, 1980-1983), p. 411.
65. I. Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision (New York, 1950), pp. 174-176.
See the discussion in D. Talbott, "The Comet Venus," Aeon 3:5 (1994),
pp. 18-21.
66. The Inca described Venus as follows: "The morning star, Chasca
(The Disheveled One), dispensed stores of freshness and loveliness upon
flowers, princesses, and virgins below. She was the deity of the rosy

cloud rack of morning, and when she shook out her long hair she
scattered the dew upon the earth." See B. C. Brundage, Empire of the
Inca (Norman, Oklahoma, 1963), p. 50.
67. De lingua latina VI:6. See here J. Sammer, "An Ancient Latin Name
for Venus," Kronos 6:2 (Winter 1981), p. 61.
68. Ibid., 7:76.
69. Pliny, Natural History 2:90 reads: "Up to now it has happened once
that a comet in the form of a mane [iubae] has changed into one in the
form of a spear." See also R. Onians, The Origins of European Thought
(Cambridge, 1954), pp. 164-166.
70. I. Cornelius, "The Lion in the Art of the Ancient Near East: A Study
of Selected Motifs," Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages XV (1989),
pp. 59-63.
71. E. van Buren, "An Additional Note on the Hair-Whirl," JNES IX
(1950), p. 55. That the symbol was indeed connected to Ishtar has been
doubted, but the fact that rosettes and 8-pointed stars are also placed on
lion's shoulders -- both of which are sacred to Ishtar -- would appear to
dispel such doubts. Rightly understood, the rosette, 8-pointed star, and
"hair-star" each alike serve as sacred symbols of the planet associated
with the great goddess.
72. F. Graz, "Women, War, and Warlike Divinities," in W. Eck et al eds.
Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 55, 1984, p. 250.
73. L. Farnell, op. cit., p. 653.
74. M. Cohen, Sumerian Hymnology (Cincinnati, 1981), p. 148.
75. D. Wolkstein & S. Kramer, Inanna (New York, 1983), p. 95.
76. W. Hallo & J. van Dyk, Exaltation of Inanna (New Haven, 1968), pp.
17-19.
77. T. Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness (New Haven, 1976), p. 137.
78. J. Roberts, The Earliest Semitic Pantheon (Baltimore, 1972), p. 40.
79. Thus, Edzard notes that the astral aspect of Inanna/Ishtar is frequently
expressed together with the warlike aspect of the goddess. See D. O.
Edzard, "Mesopotamien: Die Mythologie der Sumerer und Akkader," in
Wrterbuch der Mythologie, ed. by H. Haussig (Stuttgart, 1962), p. 85.
See also the discussion in H. Balz-Cochois, Inanna (Gutersloh, 1992), p.
46.

80. T. Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness (New Haven, 1976), p. 135,

writes as follows: "Actually Inanna has a good many more aspects than
those which characterize her in her relations with Dumuzi, so many
different ones in fact that one is inclined to wonder whether several,
originally different deities have not here coalesced into one, the manyfaceted goddess Inanna."
81. E.O. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North (New York,
1964), p. 177.
82. B. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature,
Vol. 1 (Bethesda, 1993), p. 512.
83. Ibid., p. 74.
84. J. Kripal, "Kali's Tongue and Ramakrishna," History of Religions, p.
161.
85. D. Kinsley, "Blood and Death Out of Place: Reflections on the
Goddess Kali," in J. Hawley and D. Wulff, eds. The Divine Consort
(Berkeley, 1982), pp. 144-145.
86. T. Jacobsen, op. cit., p. 137.
87. D. Kinsley, op. cit., p. 144.
88. R. Tagore, Sacrifice and Other Plays (Bombay, 1917), p. 109.
89. A. Hiltebeitel, "Draupadi's Hair," in M. Biardeau ed., Autour de la
desse Hindoue (Paris, 1981), p. 207.
90. See J. Dowson, A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and
Religion (London, 1961), p. 87.
91. D. Kinsley, The Sword and the Flute (Berkeley, 1975), p. 120.
92. H. Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization
(Princeton, 1972), p. 215.
93. B. Brundage, The Fifth Sun: Aztec Gods, Aztec World (Austin, 1983),
p. 173.
94. Ibid., p. 62.
95. W. Fauth, "Istar als Lwingottin und die lwenkpfige Lamastu," Die
Welt des Orients 12 (1981), pp. 33-34.
96. B. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature

(Bethesda, 1993), p. 59.

97. As Carl Sagan remarked in Comet (New York, 1985), p. 14, "A comet
suggests flowing tresses." See also the discussion in W. Gundel,
"Kometen," RE, col. 1175-1176.
98. B. Foster, op. cit., p. 865.
99. Ibid., p. 864.
100. E. Budge, Amulets and Talismans (New York, 1968), pp. 104-109.
101. W. Sullivan, The Secret of the Incas (New York, 1996), p. 87, citing
Diego Holguin's Vocabulario de la lengua general de todo el Peru
llamada lengua Quichua o del Inca.
102. Ibid., p. 88.
103. D. Kinsley, The Sword and the Flute (Berkeley, 1975), p. 87.
104. B. Brundage, The Fifth Sun: Aztec Gods, Aztec World (Austin,
1983), p. 166.
105. Ibid., p. 167.
106. Pausanias 2.2.4, 8.6.5, 9.27.5.
107. E. Vogt, Zinacantan (Cambridge, 1969), p. 317.
108. N. Walls, The Goddess Anat in Ugaritic Cult (Atlanta, 1992), p. 35.
109. Ovid, Metamorphoses 8:1-100. The story is first related in
Aeschylus, Choephoroi, 613-622.
110. J. Frazer, Folklore in the Old Testament (New York, 1988), p. 274.
111. Apollodorus, Library 2.4.5-8.
112. H. Liddell & R. Scott, Greek-English Lexicon (New York, 1897), p.
827.
113. A. Room, Room's Classical Dictionary (London, ), p. 320.
114. See the discussion in E. Cochrane, "On Comets and Kings," Aeon
2:2 (1989), pp. 56-58.
115. Silius Italicus 8.636-7.
116. Ovid, Metamorphoses 8:105ff.

117. Ovid, The Metamorphoses (New York, 1958), p. 218.

118. J. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (New York,
1975), pp. 214-215.
119. Ibid., p. 214.
120. L. Farnell, op. cit., p. 651.
121. A. Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia (Chicago, 1964), pp. 205-206.
122. For such traditions in Europe, see J. Grimm, op. cit., Vol. 3, pp.
1077-1081. Thus, T. Gaster, Thespis (New York, 1977), p. 264, reports:
"In many cultures, the heart is believed to be the seat of the 'soul' or vital
essence." For analogous traditions in the New World, see A. Hultkrantz,
Conceptions of the Soul Among North American Indians (Stockholm,
1953), pp. 168-172.
123. A. Hultkrantz, op. cit., p. 172. As Hultkrantz notes, pp. 168-172,
various American Indian tribes identified the heart with the soul.
124. E. Turville, op. cit., pp. 158-159.
125. J. Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, Vol. 1 (Gloucester, 1976), p. 269.
126. Ibid., p. 269.
127. L. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States (New Rochele, 1977), Vol.
2, p. 505.
128. V. Newall, The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Magic (New York,
1974), p. 94.
129. H. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Mythology (New York, 1959), p.
122.
130. P. Gssmann, Planetarium Babylonicum (Rome, 1950), p. 62.
131. See J. Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, Vol. II (Gloucester, 1976), p.
723.
132. In a discussion of Anat's furor, A. Eaton, The Goddess Anat: The
History of Her Cult, Her Mythology and Her Iconography (New Haven,
1964), dissertation, p. 88 remarks: "How the same goddess came to have
not only associations with the idea of maternal care and protectiveness,
but with the idea of force and violence as well, is difficult to understand.
These aspects of the divine personality seem so completely
contradictory."

133. E. Neumann, op. cit., pp. 148-149.

134. This said, there is no denying the truth of Neumann's observation -arrived at upon the basis of clinical findings -- that many of the terrifying
images of the mother goddess became imprinted upon the psyche of
mankind, where they linger and continue to haunt.

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