Why did sexist cultures worship goddesses?

Author: Castin

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Castin
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Okay there haven't been enough new threads in here in too long and I'm finally bored enough to start making some. D'you see what y'all've driven me to. Gawd.

Let us take, for instance, the example of ancient Athens. Aristotle writes, "the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the male ruler and the female subject." He writes that her intellect can never have authority or participation in politics. Naturally, women were not allowed in philosophical schools or pursuits.

Pretty standard thinking for the day. My question is this: why was Athens' divine concept of wisdom female? Why didn't they conceptualize that deity as male? In fact, Athena was also the goddess of battle and civilization -- all things it seems Athenians should see as pretty masculine.


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@Castin
It has to do with the the kabbalah.

The left side is the feminine and the right side is masculine. 

Men would have wisdom of a merciful kind, where as the feminine side would have wisdom without mercy. So technically the wisdom of women is more true in that sense. 

However as for the feminine personification of wisdom, I have a story because this hints at a story that predates history and yet is remembered in bits and pieces through various religions. 

This much older religion which survives by attaching itself to other religions is called gnosticism.

First there was God and nothing but God. He was both masculine and feminine. He created a type of reflection of himself and in doing so created another God. This God decided to create a famine God named Sophia (wisdom)

Sophia then created but did not involve the masculine. She created by herself, so she created a son who is Yaldabaoth but we know him as the Jewish God. 

Yaldabaoth did not come out as perfect as his mother sophia/wisdom. He was imperfect and jealous and thought of himself as the only God. 

He created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. He wanted worshippers. He created his own realm in this way and this world is known as the demiurge. 

Anyway Sophia snuck in. She is mentioned as a serpant in the Garden of Eden. Yaldabaoth created these entities that are almost robotic. We know them as angels and demons. 

They act in ways we cannot see, but their goal is the same as the goal of the machines in the Matrix, to keep you plugged in. 

Sophia will not destroy her son because she loves him, but she leaves her thumbprint and offers us a way out. We think of wisdom as feminine because of Sophia's hidden hand. 

She is wisdom and she can provide "Gnosis" . A type of awakening to the fictional world surrounding you. 
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@Castin
You can think women are inferior while worshipping Arachne, Artemis, Skadi, Amaterasu, Neith... and plenty of other "female" Gods.

Simply put, "women" and "Goddesses" arent same category. Thus, one can be superior, one inferior.
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@WyIted
The Ancient Greek word sophía (σοφία) is the abstract noun of σοφός (sophós), which variously translates to "clever, skillful, intelligent, wise". The noun σοφία as "skill in handicraft and art" is Homeric and in Pindar is used to describe both Hephaestos and Athena.
Before Plato, the term for "sound judgment, intelligence, practical wisdom" and so on—such qualities as are ascribed to the Seven Sages of Greece—was phrónēsis (φρόνησις), from phrēn (φρήν, lit. 'mind'), while sophía referred to technical skill.[citation needed]
The term philosophía (φιλοσοφία, lit. 'love of wisdom') was primarily used after the time of Plato, following his teacher Socrates, though it has been said that Pythagoras was the first to call himself a philosopher.[citation needed] This understanding of philosophía permeates Plato's dialogues, especially the Republic. In that work, the leaders of the proposed utopia are to be philosopher kings: rulers who are lovers of wisdom. According to Plato in Apology, Socrates himself was dubbed "the wisest [σοφώτατος, sophṓtatos] man of Greece" by the Pythian Oracle. Socrates defends this verdict in Apology to the effect that he, at least, knows that he knows nothing. Socratic skepticism is contrasted with the approach of the sophists, who are attacked in Gorgias for relying merely on eloquenceCicero in De Oratore later criticized Plato for his separation of wisdom from eloquence.[1] Sophía is named as one of the four cardinal virtues (in place of phrónēsis) in Plato's Protagoras.
Philo, a Hellenized Jew writing in Alexandria, attempted to harmonize Platonic philosophy and Jewish scripture. Also influenced by Stoic philosophical concepts, he used the Koine term lógos (λόγος) for the role and function of Wisdom, a concept later adapted by the author of the Gospel of John in its opening verses and applied to Jesus as the Word (Logos) of God the Father.[2]
In Gnosticism, Sophia is a feminine figure, analogous to the soul, but also simultaneously one of the emanations of the Monad. Gnostics held that she was the syzygy of Jesus (i.e. the Bride of Christ) and was the Holy Spirit of the Trinity.
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@Castin
Okay there haven't been enough new threads in here in too long

 I did a few myself ,  with just a few takers.. and  I haven't a clue why that was the case....... too challenging perhaps? 


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@Castin
Okay there haven't been enough new threads in here in too long and I'm finally bored enough to start making some. D'you see what y'all've driven me to. Gawd.

Let us take, for instance, the example of ancient Athens. Aristotle writes, "the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the male ruler and the female subject." He writes that her intellect can never have authority or participation in politics. Naturally, women were not allowed in philosophical schools or pursuits.

Pretty standard thinking for the day. My question is this: why was Athens' divine concept of wisdom female? Why didn't they conceptualize that deity as male? In fact, Athena was also the goddess of battle and civilization -- all things it seems Athenians should see as pretty masculine.

Historically, I think that there were a lot of matriarchal societies that predated the patriarchal societies, over time the more egalitarian, matrilineal societies got displaced by more hierarchical patriarchal systems.  Matriarchal societies were characterized by earth mother goddesses, and I think the idea of wisdom being personified as female is a tradition the ancient Greeks inherited from the past.  The actual word for wisdom is grammatically feminine. I think the Greek origin story for Athena reflected that historical development, because Zeus swallowed Metis, the Goddess of wisdom and cunning, Athena came forth from his forehead. 

Plus, I think, just like today, from the very beginning of humanity, men have thought more with their dicks than their brain, nobody would associate the way we think with the word “wisdom”, if there was a Greek God of dumbass, he would definitely be masculine, but wisdom, no way.


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@Castin
Let us take, for instance, the example of ancient Athens. Aristotle writes, "the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the male ruler and the female subject." He writes that her intellect can never have authority or participation in politics. Naturally, women were not allowed in philosophical schools or pursuits.

Did the ancient Greeks, especially in Athens, see any contradiction in their city be dedicated to the goddess of wisdom, but women in their city weren't able to vote and go to schools? How they justified that, or to them, simply there wasn't a problem?

Today it strikes me as an odd set of circumstances that the greeks had several goddesses that participated in male-dominated activities, but still were severely discriminative and dismissal of women in most cities states. Is there some sort of explanation for that?

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Thoughts 1
I don't know, they 'did have other Gods including male Gods for wisdom of a sort I think.
Women were still priestesses and oracles.
Many women still took care of the household actions and chores I'd think,
Many men maybe took counsel from their wives in private.
Maybe different types of war and wisdom,
Weaving for example, seems a more womanly type of invention (Historically due to norms at the time)

Greek mythology
"Apollo, god of oracles, knowledge, civilization, music, healing, education, and youth
Athena, Olympian goddess of wisdom, civilization, weaving, and war strategy
Coeus, Titan of the inquisitive mind, his name meaning "query" or "questioning". He is the grandfather of Apollo.
Metis, the Titan associated most closely with wisdom and the mother of Athena, whose name in Ancient Greek described a combination of wisdom and cunning.[12][13]
Mnemosyne, Titan of memory, and one of the deities worshipped by the Cult of Asclepius in hopes that she would help supplicants remember visions[14]"

Greek god of war and courage.
Sounds a bit more Masculine violence killing rage kind of guy,
Than thinking and planning war, Feminine?

Thoughts 2
Gods are supposed to be mighty and all, Goddesses would be the same, maybe not deities you'd want to make angry, even if they were women.

Maybe Athena a bit of an exception, masculine woman.

Guys back then didn't really go for guys,
But feminine guys more open season for some people,
Exceptions.

Thoughts 3
I read some Wikipedia's about Athens, talked a lot about women staying in the house avoiding men.
Article also argued such might have been more common to the upper class nobles, than the lower class working people.
And nobles being the ones writing more about their lifestyles.
Like thinking all Americans live like their 1%.


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@Lemming
You presented three thoughts. But none of them answer why 
Why did sexist cultures worship goddesses?