How women's wisdom was lost

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/26/women-wisdom-papyrus-female-belief-ancient-geopolitics

How women's wisdom was lost
Papyrus shreds reveal there was a time when female deities were fundamental to popular belief. Yet ancient geopolitics caused them to be sidelined
by Bettany Hughes
The Guardian, Sunday 26 January 2014

A mummified crocodile in the back streets of Oxford might not be an obvious guardian for one of life's great mysteries. But some 2,000-year-old treacle brown remains made up of recycled scraps of Egyptian papyrus, torn up to encase the reptile, hide hard evidence of a substantial historical cover-up. Now stored in 100-year-old kerosene cans and Huntley & Palmers biscuit tins, the ancient fragments were originally dumped as rubbish in ancient Oxyrhynchus (the town of the sharp-nosed fish). Their salvation, by two British archaeologists from 1896, who heard that locals were using the papyri fragments as organic fertiliser, was a godsend: these unpromising shreds rewrite history.

So far just 5% of the million or so fragments have been translated; but they embody the concerns and priorities of the man (and woman) on the street from the first century BC to the fourth century AD. Here is an unofficial snapshot of life at the birth of the modern world. Crucially, this was a time and place where Woman Wisdom, Sophia in ancient Greek, walked the streets. We find her name again and again in Jewish, Christian and pagan papyrus texts. Sophia – a mystical female presence whose appearance is only fleeting in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament – was clearly once a household name and a fixture in everyday lives.

Today we talk a great deal about the perilous place that female opinion and understanding has on the world's stage. The Oxyrhynchus papyri suggest there was a time when female wisdom was foundational to popular belief. Yet Sophia became a casualty of geopolitics. When Christianity developed as the dominant religion of the new Roman Empire under Constantine I in the fourth century AD, it needed "tidying up". Suddenly Christians didn't have just a faith, but a territory of their own. A muscular military structure protected the (extensive) domains of the One True God, and a burgeoning population of (male) scribes and clerics set out to protect the new Christian canon from heresy.

Womanly wisdom, it was decided, needed to recognise her limits – a point succinctly made by orthodox Christian writers: "… she stretched herself forward … until she encountered the Power that sustains and preserves all things, called 'the Limit'…".... MORE

[ismnotwasm]

1. Ever check out this site?

It's very very cool

http://www.suppressedhistories.net

[theHandpuppet]

2. Very cool indeed!

Thanks for the link -- I will very much enjoy reading through the articles.

[libodem]

4. Cool link

Very awesome!

[libodem]

3. I loved, The Second Sex

And,When God Was A Woman, both books had a super strong impact on my quirky brand of Feminism. Glad to see it being shared here. Very cool. Bookmarked. K&R.

[libodem]

5. It was lost like this:

[img][/img]

[ismnotwasm]

9. You've never heard of eggs and hares in fertility religions

And you've studied them extensively? Or at least Mesopotamia? Hmm

[uppityperson]

11. The graphic do not say her symbol was a bunny. It says her symbols were fertility and sex

symbols. like bunnies and eggs are. Not "they were bunnies and eggs".

[ismnotwasm]

12. Who would you like to discuss, specifically

And I'm waiting for the response on how bloodthirsty ancient pagan goddesses really could be, not exactly your Virgin Mary"

[ismnotwasm]

8. That's is patently not correct

Battle goddesses were everywhere, as was blood sacrifice. The fact that Christianity came and softened the rougher aspects of ancient goddesses is very relevant.

Inducing miscarriages? I believe you are talking about abortion-- which is as old as pregnancy. And before you dismiss ancient women's 'cures' I suggest you take a look at what they were replaced with.

[libodem]

13. Wow

I missed the storm. Glad you had my back. Thanks.