Summary of Functions and Images of the Neolithic Great Goddess
A. LIFE-GIVING, DEATH-WIELDING, REGENERATION
(lunar: rising, dying, self-renewing)
  1. “Giver of All”:
  2. Death Wielder
  3. Regeneratrix

Giver of life and health, foreteller of Spring, increaser (or decreaser) of material goods, and protectress of human and animal life and household

  1. Birth-Giver
    1. Anthropomorphic giver of birth
    2. Primeval Mother in the shape of bear, deer-doe, or elk-doe
  2. Giver of Life Water and Health
    1. Standing stone (menhir) as epiphany of the Goddess, guardian of life water
    2. Vessel: anthropomorphic or bird-shaped Aquatic images (“parallel line square Goddess” and others)
  3. Spring and Future Foreteller
    1. Young (Artemis type) Goddess
    2. Spring birds: cuckoo, oriole, swallow, lark, dove
  4. Increaser (or Decreaser) of Material Goods and Happiness
    1. Water-fowl/woman hybrid
    2. Epiphanies: duck, goose, crane, swan, stork, snake
    3. Sacred animal: ram
  5. Embodiment of Life Energy, Healer and Regenerator, Protector of Household
    1. Serpent-woman
    2. Crowned or horned snakee
    3. Genii or penates of household, humans, and animals in the shape of snakes or phallic men
  6. Protectress of Young Lifeld
    1. Nurse (carrying pouch), hunchback figurines
    2. B. Madonna (holding baby), both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic (bird, snake, bear)

Giver of life and health, foreteller of Spring, increaser (or decreaser) of material goods, and protectress of human and animal life and household

  1. Death Foreboder and Killer
    1. Vulture-woman, owl-woman, snake-woman
    2. Epiphanies: owl, raven, crow, other birds of prey; boar, white dog, poisonous snake
  2. Death Goddess
    1. Bone (bone phalange with or without owl eyes)
    2. Anthropomorphic Stiff Nude “White Lady,” sometimes with bird of prey or snake features
    3. Frightening mask (with features of a poisonous snake), antecedent of the Gorgon head

Giver of life and health, foreteller of Spring, increaser (or decreaser) of material goods, and protectress of human and animal life and household

  1. As Regenerative Vulva
    1. oval or seed-shaped
    2. triangle
    3. axe
  2. Anthropomorphized as
    1. triangle with breasts
    2. hourglass-shaped with vulture’s/owl’s feet for hands
  3. As Regenerative Uterus
    1. zoomorphic shape; bucranium, fish, frog, toad, hedgehog, turtle, lizard, hare
    2. anthropomorphized as fish-woman, frog-woman, hedgehog-woman
  4. As Transformed Into:
    1. bee, butterfly, or moth, usually portrayed rising from the head or between the horns of the bull
    2. anthropomorphized bee, butterfly, and other insects
  5. As Life Column In the shape of aquatic column (wavy lines, concentric arches,) vertically rising snakes, phallus, or tree associated with or flanked by symbols of becoming (uteri, horns, spirals, crescents, a moon cycle, dogs, she-goats, ithyphallic men)
A. FERTILITY, MULTIPLICATION, REWEWAL
(chthonic: seasonal rising, growing, fattening, and dying))
  1. Giver of Seasonal Earth Fertility
  2. Mother of the Dead
  1. Giver of Seasonal earth Fertility
    1. Anthropomorphic pregnant
    2. Sacred animal: sow
    3. Metaphors of pregnant belly: hill, stone, oven, protuberance on stone or female body
  2. Rising in the Spring
    1. Young with upraised arms
    2. Hill with an omphalos or snake
  3. Ripe pregnant, old pregnant, and androgynous
  4. Double Goddess:
    1. Mother/Daughter, summer/winter metaphor
  1. Cave
  2. Grave in the shape of an egg, vagina and uterus, pregnant belly, or whole body of the Goddess; in this aspect inseparable from the Regeneratrix
A. Summary of Functions and Images of Male Gods
  1. Male Guardian/Owner of Wild Animals and Forests
  2. Household Protector
  3. Male God of Rising and Dying Vegetation
  1. Anthropomorphic, bearded
  2. Enthroned, holding a book
  1. Male snake/phallus
  2. Ithyphallic anthropomorphic
  1. Anthropomorphic, young, epiphanies: bull, he-goat
  2. Old, sorrowful