Religions of the Goddess in Old Europe In ancient civilizations, the primordial deity of the Great Mother that is Gaia of the Greeks, Tellus Mater of the Romans, Isis of the Egyptians, etc. was a descendent of the powerful Goddess venerated during the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of Old Europe. Drawing from “archeological data, linguistics, mythology, and early historical data,� Marija Gimbutas finds that: In fact there are no images that have been found of a Father God throughout the prehistoric record. Paleolithic and Neolithic symbols and images cluster around a self-generating Goddess and her basic functions as Giver-of-Life, Wielder-ofDeath, and as Regeneratrix. This symbolic system represents cyclical nonlinear, mythical time.4
Though previously denigrated by historians as fertility cults, religions of the Goddess were fully-expressed systems and formed the backbone to a variety of matrilineal, egalitarian, peaceful, and flourishing societies. 5 4. Gimbutas, Civilization of the Goddess, viii. 5. See Gimbutas, Civilization of the Goddess; and Eisler, Chalice and the Blade.
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