(Viviane Nonato/)
illustrates Viviane Nonato
edition Felipe van Deursen
The most powerful goddesses of ancient civilizations are those capable of ending the world – and they are not few. The first records about them appeared in Europe and the Middle East between 7000 and 5000 BC, when female characters had the same weight as male ones (mythologies, in general, became more masculinized from 1000 BC).
The figure of Mother Earth, for example, was present in almost all civilizations that depended on agriculture, from Asia to America. This is the case of Gaia, mother goddess of the Greeks, and of Isis, creator of nature in Egyptian mythology.
SOURCES Books Godsby Joseph Campbell The Inner Goddessby Jennifer Barker and Roger Woolger, and Greek mythologyby Junito de Souza