This lecture looks at a series of divine female figures in the ancient world from the Middle East to Western Europe: Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, Aphrodite and Venus. What they have in common, is that to varying degrees they all combined the personae of deities of sexual love and of war.
It brings out the special characteristics of each, traces the relationships between them, and shows how each in the sequence, influenced the development of the next.
This lecture was recorded by Professor Ronald Hutton on 20 September 2023 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ancient-goddesses
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Late third century bc😊 I am sure he means millennium. I like his lectures and he probably did think he said millennium. For some reason it is endearing. He said millennium later.
Yesss! Been waiting for this talk ever since Prof. Hutton mentioned it. Always great to see Prof. Hutton. Please have him on again❤
Unfortunately, not a single thing he said about Inana / Ishtar was accurate or showed any awareness of any Assyriological scholarship from the past 50 years … I expected better.
I received Anne Baring's and Jules Cashford's book today on "The Myth of the Goddess – Evolution of an Image" from 1991 and ch. 5 is on Inanna / Ishtar, what a nice coincidence! Thank you very much for this very interesting lecture.
Amazing every time!Thank you Professor Hutton.
Brilliant as always. 😀👍
So much needed in praise of Ma Kali and her yoginis and dakinis 🎉🎉🎉
So much needed in praise of Ma Kali and her yoginis and dakinis 🎉🎉🎉
"The Epic of Gilgamesh is a buddy movie gone wrong". For that alone, never mind the exposition of how the Great Goddess got to take her kit off, please accept, Professor, this presentation internet, which you have won.
This scholar made me notice an immense postmodern irony.
We Westerners consider ourselves heirs of Greek culture. Some not only neurotically reject Eastern culture, but also maintain the existence of a war between West and East. They believe that a relationship between Aphrodite and Inanna is impossible because this would establish a zone of contact and common belonging that would destroy the essence of their ideology.
At this point I must make a technological digression. In recent months, Artificial Intelligence has been treated and worshiped as a kind of deity. Not only is she used to empower weapons, she is also being used as a virtual lover by several lonely men. Some believe that AI will enrich people as if it were an ancient beneficent agricultural deity. Others fear its potential to disrupt society.
By virtue of its characteristics, AI (especially as seen in its Western version) can be a double, avatar or virtual embodiment of Inanna and not Aphrodite. With AI, the West delves into Eastern mythology and this seems extremely ironic to me, because many who worship the exuberance of Western technology hate everything that comes from the East.
Very interesting, though I'm very surprised that the Egyptian goddess Isis was not mentioned.
Any connection with the veneration of "Mother Mary?"
Prof hutton makes history so interesting with Memorable lectures.
Magical yarn. Ancient Greece and Rome are notorious fot it's hypersexuality, wantoness, lawless and sumptuous life. Philosophically, it gave birth to brand new understanding of woman virtues, transforming idea of femine appearance into sort of cult, when certain rituals and sacrifices atributed, created an air of arrogant, thriving, promising culture. Still, woman in ancient socity played inferior roles. But through the art and poetry dedicated to patronesses, muses, goddesses we are able to trace the utmost uniquenesess of household life in Athens. From my viewpoint, this question is dissected perfectly. We praise the classics.
time travel does exist
Always great hearing Prof. Hutton. Great lecture, thank you! I will have to watch it again.
cool
Respectable effort
Everyone, make sure you clear your browser history after viewing.
Bruno's hymn recited by Hutton was a separate liturgy.
It is worth noting that the "Venus" avatar of this goddess was the center of the first state registered religious group that openly worshipped a pre-Christian deity, the Church of Aphrodite (1938 – 1969). Gleb Botkin the Russian founder of the church who lived in America for the most part of his life, saw Aphrodite as the cosmic deity of "Love, Beuty and Harmony", the creator of the cosmos and actually the only deity there is. Having survived revolution in Russia that killed his father, the doctor to the last Romanovs, Botkin was a pacifist and a moralist, who envisioned a process of cosmic evolution towards a world of heaven on earth, seeing his religion of Aphrodite as a means to this end. Botkin didn't have a big influence on the Pagan scene of the Anglophone countries when it came about, but he was routinely mentioned in Pagan histories (see Margot Adler or Chas Clifton) alongside Frederic Adams of Feraferia and the Zells of the Church of All Worlds.
Is that why there is sturdiness of the foundation.
I could listen to Dr. Hutton all day and all night for years and never tire of his amazing lessons. Thank you for this.
That is the most engaging and entertaining lecture on classical mythology, that I have heard since I studied with Dr. Matthew Evans, in San Francisco 50 years ago. Thank you, Professor Hutton…jt