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Goddess 2

Sif, wife of Thor, or Indrani, wife of Indra, both emblems of conjugal fidelity; Hera, Zeus’ sometimes nagging wife: with these faces of Goddess 2 we may be familiar. But many second stage goddesses come in triple form as well. Hera was feted at three separate festivals as maid, matron and ‘married woman living apart from her husband.’ Athena was not only virgin and wise woman but city ruler with turreted crown.
Of the three forms, Goddess 2 appears most rarely in art: more rarely even than her husband, since even in sacred marriage scenes she is sometimes shown in her maiden guise. And if it is the triumph over the wild beast that makes her husband an authority figure, it is her marriage and its emblems (ring, crown, girdle) which do the same for her. Nevertheless she is not merely a wife: Juno was not only patroness of marriage but guardian of the state.
That she is sometimes nag as well as wife, among the Indians of the southwest as in Greece and Rome, is curious; perhaps it has to do with her husband’s frequent infidelities in his God 1 role. Also curious is the ract that she never appears with her children. The ‘motherly’ role, for reasons which will shortly be discussed, is solely the province of Goddess 3.


Hera as judge, throned, with crown and necklace, from a vase painting now in the British Museum. Note the bulls’ heads (bull frequently in the west and near east animal of God 2) and the circle-disc or “thunderbolt” in the background. Like King Harold in the previous section, however, she still carries over a flowery sceptre from her earlier stage.


Fresco from the palace at Mycenae. The figure on the right is very similar to the Cretan goddess with a single-layered tiara, and is probably Goddess 1. The dancing figures in the center suggest festival, and a third goddess in a hat appears below the scene, beside the altar it backs. The tall left hand figure, then, is probably Goddess 2: note her crown, regal appearance, and the orb on the sword she holds.

Goddess, from a bronze cauldron found in a bog at Rynklby, Sweden. The cauldron was probably made by Celtic artisans in central Europe about the first century BC. Note her gold torc, a certain sign of rank; moreover the cauldron also bgears the bulls’ heads found in the Hera portrait. Copenhagen Museum.

An early Greek ‘comic strip’ with the story running from bottom to top. In the lower register of this vase by Python, Cadmus kills the dragon. Above his future wife, Harmonia, admires her crown and necklace in the mirror which symbolizes transition. Note, however, that the mirror has been shaped into a cross-circle, like the circular sun behind her.

This Cretan ring has been interpreted by Sir Arthur Evans as passage of the goddess by boat from one shrine to another, with the upper figure as a male ‘attendant’ bringing her fruit from the sacred tree and the maiden on the right as a ‘minister’ also bringing fruits. This seems to me esthetically an unsatisfactory interpretation. The whole sweep of the design is a circle from left to right and back again, and does not suggest servants darting to and fro; and there are three shrines here, not two--four, if you count the double shrine on the boat.
To me, this seems rather a portrayal of a sacred year cycle. Goddess 1 in joyful nudity to the right becomes, after a water transition, Goddess 2 enthroned on the Horns of Consecration, girdled, necklaced and possibly crowned (the ring is worn.) The figure which flies off above is not in any way marked as male, and can perfectly well by Goddess 3 with the pitcher which is her constant emblem. Her frequent bird companion is on the rocks below.

Perhaps the earliest portrayal we have of Goddess 2 in Europe. This carved stone menhir from Avceyron, France, now in the Musee des Antiquites Nationales, St. Germain-en-Laye, has been interpreted as a goddess in necklace and belt. She is also certainly wearing some kind of headdress, perhaps a crown.

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