Goddesses Background 
 
What do we mean when we identify a female deity as a mother goddess?

Does mother mean in the sense, a mother who nurture and protect the young? Is she goddess of childbirth? Is she a creator goddess or the earth goddess (usually known as Earth Mother)? Does it mean that she is fertility goddess or was she the goddess of nature?

What does it mean by "fertility"?

Mother goddess could mean fertility, but the term "fertility", is in itself rather vague, and could mean a number of different things. Fertility could mean the earth itself, eg. fertility of the land; or could be the growing of crops or other plant life. It could also mean fertility of the animals, as well as that of human, by the mean of mating or sexual intercourse. As you can see, fertility is not good definition to use.

The mother goddess may also have many different roles. The mother goddess can be distinguished from the Earth Mother (earth goddess), but sometimes the two are confused and their roles tends to blur, as it is the case with Gaea. Gaea was both an Earth Mother and a mother goddess.

The Earth Mother can be seen as the primal force and the source of all life. She does not necessarily have a maternal or nurturing nature.

The mother goddess is often a protectress of the young. Sometimes, the mother goddess was the mother of ruling tribe of gods, as in the case with Rhea being the mother of Olympian deities.

See also Gaea and her Daughters.

The mother goddess is also seen with the divine consort of mortal or even divine ruler, whom she must periodically mate with, as in the case of Cybele and her consort Attis.

The mother goddess may even have more than one attribute, as it was the case, with Demeter, the goddess of corn. Demeter was also the mother goddess and goddess of fertility. See also Demeter and Persephone.

So far I have only mentioned goddesses what we know of, through literature and mythology after the Dorian invasion. I have not mentioned the goddesses of the Bronze Age Aegean civilisations. Most of the authors we read, set all mythological events before the arrival of the Dorians; thus in the Bronze Age.

However, the only writings about the deities in Bronze Age had only mentioned their names on the Linear B tablets in Knossos and Pylos, and nothing else. There were no literature on mythology; there are no details about their cultures, beliefs and their history. See Linear B in the Greek World page (Facts and Figures).

Only some of the names that appeared in these tablets survived in classical periods. The rest of the names were unrecognisable, or perhaps they were probably local deities.

In Pylos, there are Linear B tablets, which mentioned the name, MA-TE-RE TE-I-JA, or Mater theia, which actually means "Mother Goddess". Who this goddess was, we can only guess.

Since the Linear B tablets provided very little understanding about any deities during the Bronze Age, we have to rely mostly in artwork that has survived.

However, none of these figures that appear in the artwork provide us with any names, so we can only relied on the interpretations of experts. But with many artworks, it is hard to determine if each female figure was portraying a goddess, a priestess or a female ruler.

Judging by the number of icons that have survived, there is a strong belief that the female deities were more predominant than the male deities. It is generally believed now that the goddesses they worshipped were mostly the mother goddesses.

Some experts believed that the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations worshipped not a number of goddesses, but one, powerful goddess, just like the Israelites worshipped the One God. The worship of the Mother Goddess has existed as far back as the Neolithic period.

In Crete, the Minoan civilisation had only worshipped goddesses, judging by the number of arts dedicated to them. Though, the Linear B, in the palace of Knossos showed the names of some gods, such as Zeus, Poseidon and Ares, the dating of these writing showed that they were written after the Mycenaeans have invaded and occupied Crete, around 1450 BC.

Until we one day deciphered the Linear A texts, which was clearly invented by the Cretans, we will never know if the Minoans had only worshipped goddesses or not, or if any of the male deities exist in the Minoan society.

With the arrival of the Dorians and other Hellenic-speaking tribes, they brought with them their own pantheon of deities, where the gods were dominant, with Zeus ruling supreme over all.

We can only speculate how many pre-Hellenic goddesses survived the transition from Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The new people have tried either to suppress the worship of the goddesses or to reduce their roles.
   Related Information 
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Gaea, Rhea, Demeter, Cybele, Attis.

Demeter and Persephone.