Article April 15, 1922 Issue

Two Women with Wings

ELEANORA BURDETT CARR

The improved status of women, as seen in the world of to-day, can legitimately be deemed a great improvement after the centuries of widely fluctuating thought about them; and an interesting study may be made in tracing their gradual emancipation from bondage to a greater freedom of thought and action. It may, however, be asked whether sufficient consideration has been given to an aspect of the subject which seems from very early times to have had an influence in determining the position of dependence in which women were held,—the fact that to the ancients woman on the one hand stood for the greatest good, and on the other hand was supposed to represent unlimited power for evil, power which it was believed she both could and did use. The result of this dual conception of woman's nature very naturally bred in men a definite fear of the evil genius, which reflected itself in their treatment of women for untold centuries.

These two aspects of the ancient belief in goddesses have been preserved in the mythology of almost every race since the dawn of the world's history. The Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Phœnicians, Canaanites, Sidonians, and Moabites, all bowed down to their female deity under different names; the Ashtaroth of the Old Testament, who was continually leading the Jews astray from worshiping the one God, is the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the great naturegoddess of fertility, reproduction, and immortality; other names for Ishtar are, Astarte, Ashtar, Ascalon, and Atargatas. In later times, the worship of the goddess appeared in the cult of the Oriental-Greek-Roman Cybele, becoming in her turn Artemis, Aphrodite, Diana, Juno, and Venus, bringing not only the earth, its fruits and creatures, but the heavens, sun, moon, and stars, under her influence. Under all these guises the goddess had two aspects: she was supposed to bring forth every joy of nature, clothing the earth with gladness; but she could also refuse her smile, and then the earth withered into barrenness. This was the grim goddess, cruel and destructive, the goddess of war, conflict, and the chase, showing herself not only as the life-giving but also as the life-depriving power.

It is, of course, unnecessary to emphasize the fact that the faithful Jews utterly disclaimed this idolatry under any name or guise, although they were familiar with its presentation in every form. They were in fact surrounded, tempted, haunted, by its lure; and the Old Testament is full of the temptations and frequent falls of the Jews and their rulers, including their great king Solomon, to the worship of the Babylonish goddess, Ashtaroth. The rites, myths, and astrology connected with this cult are described therein again and again; and, while recognizing that the element of protection always enters into the Easterner's treatment of women, we may yet surmise whether the above-mentioned aggressive cult of the dual-natured goddess may not have also contributed an influence of which the Jews were almost unconscious.

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