This book provides a complete historical overview of the Mother Goddess and her influence. All of the major female goddesses found throughout history are covered.

"In The cult of the mother-goddess, E.O. James brings together the evidence that is now available concerning the unique position occupied by the Goddess Cult in myth and ritual, especially in the Ancient Near East, India and the eastern Mediterranean, and has subjected it to critical examination. James first inquires into the antecedents of the Cult from its earliest manifestations in the sculptured female statuettes commonly called "Venuses," to its subsequent modes of expression in Neolithic and Bronze Age sites. The association of the unmarried Mother, personifying the divine principle of maternity, with a male partner in the guise of the Young God as her son or spouse, is next considered as the Cult developed in Mesopotamia and Egypt, in Syria and Anatolia, in Iran and India, and in Crete and the Aegean. Against this background is set the syncretistic figure of the Magna Mater in Phrygia and the Greco-Oriental world, together with her mysteries as a dominant feature in the Hellenistic Age and the Roman Empire. Finally, the interpretation of the Cult in Christendom is examined in its mystical and theological content in relation to the Church as the Mater Ecclesia and to the Theotokos as the Madonna. The importance of the Cult is becoming increasingly recognized not only by archaeologists, but also in a number of related disciplines; there can be no doubt that a theme of such permanent significance demands the serious and objective treatment it has received in this volume"--Dust jacket flaps.

This is the first thorough account of the nature and the spread of the cult of Cybele, the Great Mother, and the first to present her worship soberly as a religion rather than sensationally as an orgiastic celebration of self-castrated priest-attendants.

Worshiped throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, the "Mother of the Gods" was known by a variety of names. Among peoples of Asia Minor, where her cult first began, she often shared the names of local mountains. The Greeks commonly called her Cybele, the name given to her by the Phrygians of Asia Minor, and identified her with their own mother goddesses Rhea, Gaia, and Demeter. The Romans adopted her worship at the end of the Second Punic War and called her Mater Magna, Great Mother. Her cult became one of the three most important mystery cults in the Roman Empire, along with those of Mithras and Isis. And as Christianity took hold in the Roman world, ritual elements of her cult were incorporated into the burgeoning cult of the Virgin Mary. In Mother of the Gods, Philippe Borgeaud traces the journey of this divine figure through Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome between the sixth century B.C. and the fourth century A.D. He examines how the Mother of the Gods was integrated into specific cultures, what she represented to those who worshiped her, and how she was used as a symbol in art, myth, and even politics. The Mother of the Gods was often seen as a dualistic figure: ancestral and foreign, aristocratic and disreputable, nurturing and dangerous. Borgeaud's challenging and nuanced portrait opens new windows on the ancient world's sophisticated religious beliefs and shifting cultural identities.

Presents The Theology, Historical Evolution, Manifestations And Shrines Of The Divine Mother. 7 Chapters-Theology, Down The Ages, Manifestations, Shrines Guide To Devi Temples, Glossary. Bibliography And Index.