This presentation is an exploration of how the Greek classical arts and its mythology appropriated the feminine intuitive abilities from the sacred universal Mother Goddess and her daughters, both in the heavens and here on Earth. It charts how the patriarchal system became an institution that still plagues Humanity today with its Male Dominated ideologies adopted from many Greek philosophers and how they viewed women.

1. ThePhilosophical
Demotionofthe
SacredFeminine
ForminClassicalArt
By Net-Hetep Ta’Nesert
Academy of Art University
LA 327 OL 1: Art Of The Classical World
Professor Cheryl Barton
Edwards, Eric. 2013. "The Cult Of The Mother Goddess". Eric
Edwards Collected Works.

2. Introduction
”Inthebeginning…Whatif
theLord’sprayerbegan
with-OurMotherwhichart
inheaveninsteadof Our
Father”?1 (Campbelland
Moyers1988)
Themainobjectiveofthis
essayistoexaminethe
literaryandvisual,
“PhilosophicalDemotionof
theSacredFeminineFormin
ClassicalArt.
What was Lucy? {First Australopithecus afarensis}
National Geographic 2006
Migrations out of Africa into the
Paleolithic Era

3. The First Gods of the Paleolithic
Era
 (1) Willendorf’s Venus (Rhine/Danube), (2) Lespugue Venus
(Pyrenees/Aquitaine), (3) Laussel Venus (Pyrenees/Aquitaine),
(4) Dolní Věstonice Venus (Rhine/Danube), (5) Gagarino no. 4
Venus (Russia), (6) Venus (Rhine/Danube), (7) Kostenki 1.
Statuette no. 3 (Russia), (8) Grimaldi nVenus (Italy), (9)
Chiozza di Scandiano Venus (Italy), (10) Petrkovice Venus
(Rhine/Danube), (11) Modern sculpture (N. America), (12)
Eleesivitchi Venus (Russia); (13) Savignano Venus (Italy), (14)
The so-called “Brassempouy Venus” (Pyrenees/Aquitaine), (15)
Hohle Fels Venus (SW Germany).

4. Palaios+Lithos=Paleolithic
orOldStoneAge
 The Pleistocene period was distinctively the longest period of pre-human
history where sequential developments of pre-classical cultures provides
clarity when tracing the ontology of the One Global Great Mother Goddess
concept. It is from this era where most of the Venus figurines are still being
discovered. These discoveries pre-date the rise of Patriarchal societies and
their male dominated philosophical and mythological ideologies.
The Woman With A Horn from
Laussel, ca 25,000-20,000 years ago

5. PaleolithicEra: Pre-Historic
EgalitarianSocietiesand
TheirBeliefs
 Archaeological evidence suggests that due to the
abundant discoveries of the Venus statuettes, the first
pre-historic egalitarian humans, spiritual , religious and
cultural beliefs (they believed in the equality of all people,
not gender) centered on concepts of a chthonic deity
worshipped in her earliest forms, as snakes, birds, and
bulls. Pre-classical cultures included, Mesopotamia, Crete,
Egypt, Greece, the Aegean, and southern Europe where
her sacred feminine form was artistically expressed in
total nudity. In the heavens and on earth she had
supernatural powers as the giver of all life forms. The
continuity of her quintessential essence was believed to
manifest as a personification of the earth.. (“The Cult Of
The Mother Goddess” 1992) Later, in the Ancient Greek
pantheon, she was celebrated as the Mother Goddess or
Great Goddess.
2018. Alchetron.Com.
https://alchetron.com/Paleolithic.

6. Honoring the Sexual Reproduction
Attributes of the Sacred Mother
Goddess
The ‘Seated Mother Goddess’ of
Çatal Hüyük, Central Turkey, ca
6000 BC, Clay figurine, 16.5 cm
(without head), Neolithic,
Museum of Anatolian
Civilizations, Ankara, Turkey
(Photo by Frank Kovalchek)
The Oldest Known ‘Venus Figurine’,
‘Goddess of Willendorf’, ca 28,000-25,000
BCE, Oolitic Limestone. Discovered by
Josef Szombathy, August 7, 1908 near
Willendorf. Present location,
Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna,
Austria.

7. 4 Female Nudity Body Types
1. The Mother-The breast are for
nurturing
2. The Seductress- Who lifts her breast
with both hands to attract the Male
Gaze, which symbolizes availability
and fertility for sexual reproduction
3. The Passive and Active Sexual
Partner who holds her breast with
one hand while exposing her labia to
symbolize both fertility and
availability for sexual reproduction
4. The Entertainer or Sacred Prostitute
whose main attribute is to satisfy the
sexual desires of men
Pre-Classical Mesopotamian
Philosophies and their Ideologies
Associated with Female Nudity
This may have initiated the literary,
philosophical as well as the visual
demotion of the Sacred Feminine’s
position associated with the
importance of the depiction of her
form.

8. Figure 3. Babylonian relief plaque
terracotta, c. 1700 BC. Iraq Museum,
Baghdad. (Photograph: from L.
Legrain, Terra Cottas from Nippur
(Philadelphia, 1930) fig. 38)
The Mother suckling a child. She is
still seen as youthful and beautiful.
The focus is not reducing her to be a
reproductive conduit. Here it is still
about pleasure and desire to allure
the male gaze
Fig 4. Syrian Style,
Ivory figure, 8th
Century BC, Iraq
Museum, Baghdad
(Photography:
Invernizzi, fig.
174) The Seductress in
an active sexual
partner pose. She lifts
her breasts with both
hands, firmly holding
suggesting fertility.
Pre-Classical
Mesopotamia
Philosophical Ideologies
and Views of the Four
Feminine Body Types
Fig 5. Babylonian Relief Plaque,
terracotta, c 1800 BC, Louvre
Museum, Paris. (Photograph:
from M.T. Barrelet Figurines et
Reliefs en Terre Cuite (Paris,
1968) fig. 801
The Passive, yet seductive pose
with both hands underneath
her breasts. The Greeks viewed
this as confrontational to
attract the male gaze.
Figure 6. Babylonian figurine,
terracotta, late fourth-early
third Century BC. Iraq
Museum, Baghdad.
(Photograph: from Van Ingen,
fig. 14.)
This would be the entertainer
or sacred prostitute pose. The
article on the Hellenization of
Ishtar, et. Al. suggests that
this is the sacred prostitute
pose yet is also problematic in
its interpretation as Ishtar in
her fertility or mother goddess
attribute. The article advises
that caution must be
entertained because these
images appeared around the
19-18th centuries BC and
lasted through to the first
millennium BC.

9. Hesiod(ca750-650BCE)TheGreatEighth
CenturyGreekPoet
UsingGreekMythologytoDemotethe
SacredFeminineForminClassicalArt
As timelines shifted from prehistory to history, so would
further development of hierarchy and gender roles.
(Ariadne 2015) The Great Mother-God would by historic
times come to represent Greek Goddesses such as Cybele,
Artemis, and Venus. These associations shared with
earlier Venus figurines is an ongoing controversial debate
among scholars who cannot conclusively agree on how
these associations came into existence. How could the
earlier Upper Paleolithic female nude figurines mirror the
sacred feminine form of Greek Goddesses whose demoted
forms were controlled by male dominated societies? The
egalitarian ideologies and philosophies clashed violently
with Greece most famous philosophers-Hesiod and later
Aristotle. The rhetoric living inside of these historically
acclaimed Greek Philosophers would set in motion the
generational demotion and abduction of the earliest sacred
feminine nude forms. In the Greek culture the Great
Mother-God concept was demoted immediately to
subservient positions to the male gods. Her unrestricted
naturally naked feminine form and procreative powers
would become heavily shrouded in philosophical
mysticism. Her sacred femininity would serve as a
constant threat to male hierarchy. What were her most
powerful macro-cosmic and microcosmic, iconographic
attributes that they wanted ‘re-appropriate from her?

10. Hesiod’s Theogony and the Re-Appropriation of
Mêtis (Speech-The Word)-
Greek Mythology-Genesis
In the beginning was ‘The Word’ embodied
in the Sacred Feminine Form as the Great
Mother Goddess-In Heaven and on Earth.
Who was he . . .
• Lived around 700 BCE
• Farmer in Boeotia, area in Central Greece
• Little is known about him
• Compared to Homer
Works and Compositions
Works and Days contains 800 verses “Labor is the Universal Lot of Man”
This body of work includes the 5 Ages of Man
1. Golden Age –Cronos as Ruler
2. Silver Age-Zeus as Ruler
3. Bronze Age of Wars
4. Heroic Age-The Trojan War
5. Iron Age-Current Corrupt Age of Man
Theogony-The Genesis of Greek Mythology
• Concepts of Cosmogony/Origins of the World
• The Theogony and Genealogies of the Greeks
• Humans descended from the parthogenic Goddesses Chaos
and Earth (“Hesiod” 2017)
Catalogue of Women (The Great Eoiae translates as Or like Her)
“Immortals would seed the mortal race through the women they seduced”
Hesiod’s attempt to trace the genealogies of Greek Families traceable through
the mitochondrial genes carried only by the Mothers and not the Fathers. ("The
Great Eoiae-Catalogue Of Women By Hesiod" 2017)
Hesiod (ca 750-
650 BCE)
Eighth
Century Greek
Poet, Farmer,
and Rhapsody
("HESIOD - GREEK
MYTHOLOGY -
ANCIENT GREECE -
Classical Literature"
2019)

11. (“Theogony-Hesiod | Summary & Analysis | Classical
Literature” 2019) In the beginning of the poem, he describes
his initiation by 3 Muses who represent in Greek thought
‘truth’ and ‘deception’ through the power of speech. He
claims they gifted him with the same abilities. Did man not
possess these abilities in the beginning?
The First Demotion and
Abduction of The Word
Embodied in the Classical
Sacred Feminine Form-The
Muses ("Muse - Ancient
Greek Vase Painting" 2017)
Late Classical: ca Fourth Century
360-340 BC
Paestan Red Figure, Lekanis Lid,
Attributed to Asteas, Museum
Collection Musée du Louvre, Paris
K20 1A: Muse playing a cithara
from a painting depicting the
musical contest of Apollo and the
Satyr Marsyas. She is wearing a
traditional Greek Paplos. It
appears that her himation is
draped around her waist while
the rest of it lays across a stone.
Her is curly with a headband
around it and a hair ornament.
On her wrist she wears a
bracelet. Around her neck she is
adorned with pearls to enhance
her beauty, which makes her
attractive for the male gaze.
K20 1B: Muse holding a box and
wreath from a painting depicting the
musical contest of Apollo and the
Satyr Marsyas. She is wearing a
traditional Greek Peplos with two
rows of dark buttons from the top,
passed her waistline. The buttons
appear to seductively lead down to
her vaginal area. Her himation is
drawn up towards her hair that is
pulled up into a bun. Both wrists are
adorned with white bracelets as well.
She is also wearing traditional Greek
leather, between the toe scandals
that showoff her beautiful feet. All of
these are accessories for attracting
the male gaze.
K20 1C: Muse holding a
barbiton from a painting
depicting the musical
contest of Apollo and the
Satyr Marsyas. She is
wearing a traditional
Greek Chiton, which is
semi-transparent. Her
hair is curly, and the
curls outline the sides of
her face. The rest of hair
is tied up. She wears
white bracelets around
her wrist. Around her
neck are white pearls.
There are many drapery-
like folds accentuating
her feminine form. Her
breast are firm and
round. All of this will
attract the male gaze.

12. Classical Depictions of the Sexual

13. Semi-Nude GreekStyle
 Aphrodite and Eros
 Artist Unknown Dated: ca 120
BC, Culture is Greek (Myrina)
It’s a terracotta sculpture with
traces of pigment (appx.
34.93x16x9.53 cm), located in
the Virginia Museum of Fine
Arts

14. MythologiesClassicalGreeceandThePhilosophiesofAristotle
 After the Pleistocene era ended,
our pre-historic ancestors also
experienced a rise in agriculture
along with the domestication of
animals. The exact events that
took place thousands of years later
dreadfully gave birth to
hierarches, and social
classification according to genders.
(Lerner 1986) Additionally, the
Great Mother-Goddess decline in
popularity during the Archaic,
Early and Late Classical, and
Hellenic Eras, the male dominated
societies within these periods
unleashed the heinous
mythological ideologies of
goddesses being born from various
anatomical parts of male gods.
By unknown ancient Rome artist, photo
of Stephen Haynes -
Fresco from Pompei, Casa di Venus, 1st century AD. Dug out in
1960. It is supposed that this fresco could be the Roman copy of
famous portrait of Campaspe, mistress of Alexander the Great

15. (Zeusgivingbirthto
AthenabyRudolph
Tegner,(1873-1950))
The Birth of Athena
from the head of Zeus-
British Museum
Two-handled jar (amphora)
depicting the birth of Athena
Group E
Greek
Archaic Period
about 540 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece,
Attica, Athens

16.  The Greek philosopher, and scientist, Aristole (c 384-322 BC) was educated in a
Platonic Academy, ca 367 BC. One of his demoralizing philosophies about women
that greatly influenced the epistemology of women being second to the position of
men who by nature are more important was his belief that if any imperfection
exists in the world it is due largely to the cold-blooded nature of women. He
continued to promote this belief further by implying that women’s cold-blooded
natures kept them from evolving into men. This baseless ideology from one of
Greek’s great thinkers has solidified the ongoing generational rift and belief that
men are superior to women. Like a haunting plague, his poisonous philosophies
against women continued to be supported arrogantly through religious and
political autorcratic laws designating men as the rulers of their families. This
greatly contributed to women having experiencing fewer social freedoms and full
entitlement to owning resources. (Lerner 1986)

17. SummaryandConclusion
 In summary, based upon historical studies, artistic depictions sanctioned by
ruling Patriarchy, scholarly explanations, along with examples and imagery
from excavated sites associated with each pre-Classical era, the foundations
for the development and survival of male dominated societies continues to
have its ostracizing philosophies deeply rooted in hierarchical gender-based
propaganda that men are superior to women.
 Conclusively, the author of this paper has objectively in her approach did
her best to clearly provide a short witnessing of how classical propaganda
continues to go unpunished its pursuits of ”The Ongoing Molestation of the
Sacred Feminine Form Portrayed in Classical Art”.

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