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From: petrich@netcom.com (Loren Petrich)
Subject: Re: Do Zeus and Jupiter derive from `light' ?
Message-ID: <petrichDCIqyx.BDF@netcom.com>
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References: <3ukael$3db@gazette.tandem.com> <DCA8n8.9ME@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 1995 07:47:20 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.lang:41688 sci.classics:8373

In article <DCA8n8.9ME@midway.uchicago.edu>,
Daniel von Brighoff <deb5@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote:
>In article <3ukael$3db@gazette.tandem.com>,
>Matthew Rabuzzi <rabuzzi@patch.tandem.com> wrote:

>>I suspect it'll be a bootless contest to find the earliest deity,
>>but if you're into it why not go back another 15000 years to the
>>Venus of Willendorf and her sisters?

>Because we have no proof that these represent deities.  Whose to say
>they aren't children's toys or representations of the sculptor's
>True Love? ...

	Ms. Willendorf and some of the others look like they are pregnant 
-- to some people, at least.

	Toys? Maybe too fancy or fragile to give to a little kid, unless
they were much more gentle with their toys back then. 

	Here are some others that I find a bit more convincing:

	Pregnancy charms -- they would be made in hopes of a successful 
pregnancy. Something like a gestational version of hunting magic (a 
hypothesis for what all those drawings of animals are).

	Representations of legendary clan ancestors. If one traces clan 
membership though one's female relatives, then the appropriate legendary 
ancestor would be female.

	A universal Mother Goddess? I wouldn't bet on *that* one (too big
a leap), and that sort of hypothesis tends to have the inflammatory effect
on many that consideration of Proto-World does. 

-- 
Loren Petrich, the Master Blaster	Happiness is a fast Macintosh
petrich@netcom.com			And a fast train
Visit ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/pe/petrich
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