In search of the lost feminine : decoding the myths that radically reshaped civilization / / Craig S. Barnes.

• Author: ProQuest (Firm); Barnes, Craig S.
• TeilnehmendeR: ProQuest (Firm)
• Year of Publication: 2006
• Language: English
• Physical Description: xv, 286 p., [8] p. of plates :; ill. (some col.), maps.

Table of Contents

Introduction : rewriting the story of western civilization -- Minoan artifacts challenge the inevitability of patriarchy -- The mystery of Minoan civilization -- An expectation of rebirth or immortality -- Time as a circle rather than a line -- The troubling question of war -- Crete and the issue of female sexuality -- The ecstatic and the divine as inseperable -- Five values dramatically at odds with patriarchy -- The collapse of the Minoan world -- The invasions of 1600 BCE : a war culture emerges -- The Theran explosion : the loss of faith in Mother Earth -- The growth of trade : the diminishment of daughters -- The great civil war over marriage : the end of women-centered culture in the eastern Mediterranean -- A warrior civilization emerges -- Four hundred years of chaos sets the stage -- Values shaped by storytellers -- An exaggerated feminine is made monstrous -- Mother Earth is overthrown -- Jason resists the many shapes of seductive women -- Odysseus rejects Calypso -- Homer poses the choice between love and property -- Clytemnestra is sacrificed on the altar of marriage -- Marriage destroys the mother-daughter bond -- Daughters die for civic good -- A multitude of myths to tame, punish, and disparage women -- Oedipus, the lost son -- A glorious monument enshrining the subordination of women -- Biblical patriarchs match the Greek story -- Objections to the warrior civilization -- Jesus carries forward the Eleusian symbolism of grain and wine -- Jesus takes on the threat of military destruction -- Ancient beliefs spring up among the Celts -- A short-lived Islamic challenge -- The metaphor of the holy grail -- Devil talk and witch burnings -- Closing the book on the patriarchy -- History as a choice of stories -- Women coming home to dignity -- The declining utility of war -- Another story all along.