http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ mirrored file
For complete access to all the files of this collection
	see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php 
==========================================================

Tenacity in religion, myth, and folklore: the neolithic Goddess of
Old Europe preserved in a non-Indo-European setting

Michael Everson

/This paper was given at the Second Conference on the Transformation of
European and Anatolian Culture 4500-2500 B.C., Dublin, 15-19 September
1989, and published in the Journal of Indo-European Studies 17 Numbers 3
& 4, Fall/Winter 1989, pp. 277-95./
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The interpretation of neolithic art, monumental architecture, and
settlement paraphernalia has rested chiefly upon the evidence
offered by documented Indo-European mythologies and of the
European folklore found especially in peripheral areas. The
evidence for a pervasive neolithic goddess cult throughout Europe
is striking, and it is significant that Basque mythology features
a goddess who displays characteristics both non-Christian and
non-Indo-European, and who has much in common with the neolithic
European goddess as reconstructed from the archaeological and
mythological record. Mari's associations with the sacred and
secret places in the geography of the Basque country, her
association with the activities such as spinning, and her
attendant spirits associated with megalithic monuments mark her as
a unique preservation into contemporary Europe, who has much to
show us in the way of furthering our reconstruction of ancient
European religion.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Studies of prehistoric European religion interpret the testimony of
archaeological evidence as reflected in the abundance of neolithic art,
monumental architecture, and settlement paraphernalia discovered and
described especially in the past twenty years. The interpretation of
these mute materials has rested chiefly upon the evidence offered by
documented Indo-European mythologies and those folkways and the
folktales associated with them which are preserved throughout Europe,
especially in peripheral areas. The folkloristic and mythological
evidence for a pervasive neolithic goddess cult throughout Europe is in
itself so striking that the burden of disproof lies on the critics of
this interpretation, and a heavy burden it would be even if things
remained as they are at present. But we have as well a treasure house of
supporting and corroborating evidence available to us from the folklore
of the one indigenous European people which was able to remain isolated
and apart from the relentless influence of Indo-European culture which
came to dominate Europe in every sphere: language, religion, social
organization, economy, and attitude toward the world -- the
/Euskaldunak/, the Basques of the Pyrenees. This paper will offer an
introduction to the Basque goddess, her forms, habits, and attributes,
and will demonstrate that, despite even the influence of Christianity in
most recent times, the Great Goddess has never yet left the landscape of
Europe. While in some areas of Europe she was transformed and absorbed
into Indo-European mythologies, in the Basque country she only retreated
into those places in which her power and mystery had always been great:
into the caves, wells, and mountains of the high Pyrenees.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
A systematic description of the nature of the indigenous religion of
neolithic Europe was offered first over two decades ago by Marija
Gimbutas, and since that time our discipline has seen her work and the
work of others elaborate a schema both elegant and convincing.[1] <#ft1>
Today we may characterize Old European religion as a labyrinth of
conceptually-related symbols emphasizing a dialectic of /formation,
destruction/, and /reformation/. Growth, withering, and regeneration are
the realities of agricultural economy, and it is not surprising that the
relation of early farmers to their livelihood found expression in their
religion: and so they would understand life to be cyclical, in the
pattern of birth, death, and rebirth. One might suggest that such a
symbolic system could simply be a methaphor for the patterns of
day-to-day neolithic (or palaeolithic!) life, and, as has been suggested
in the past, that the images and symbols found throughout the
prehistoric period were a form of "sympathetic magic". But early human
symbolic systems are no less subtle (and indeed may sometimes be more
subtle) than our own; the distinction between "primitive" and "modern"
is a notion which should have been discredited and discarded long ago. A
symbolic system of the complexity of the Old European type is not a
simple metaphor responding to the patterns of early agricultural life --
such a suggestion is needlessly utilitarian -- though it should
certainly find its roots in such patterns. But there is in their
religion a great subtlety of symbol, and I maintain that, for these
prosperous, successful, and creative people, the dynamic and vital Old
European symbols /reflected a living, generative metaphor/, a set of
archetypes which informed their lives and their perceptions of their
lives: not as a credo of belief, but as a grammar of spirituality.

In order to understand the religious and symbolic systems of prehistory
effectively, we must approach them diachronically, to see them as the
dynamic and living entities they were. Scholars of the present day who
concern themselves with the thorns and the flowers of human spirituality
are used to the relative ease of discussing recent, text-based,
religions; we have become accustomed to thinking of our documents in
terms of synchronic, momentary, and even personal religious
experience.[2] <#ft2> The analysis of individual archaeological sites
and objects and the analysis of mythological and folkloric materials can
give us the kind of diachronic overview of the situation from which we
may extrapolate a coherent picture of the spiritual emphasis both of
individual cult sites (such as Lepenski Vir) and of larger cultural
groups (such as the temple builders on Malta or the Megalithic cultures
of the Atlantic coast).

If our purpose is to come to a genuine understanding of the lives of our
ancestors and the cultural and spiritual legacy left us by them, we may
find it necessary to reevaluate our understanding of the terms
/religion, myth/, and /folklore./ These terms define a model which can
be visualized as a spherical continuum, the center of which any people
would call simply, "our way", "the way things are", or "dharma". Such a
Way is composed of the totality of symbolic, habitual, individual,
collective, and environmental concerns which make up what we call
/culture/; where these concerns touch upon questions of Being and the
place of humans in the Cosmos, they make up what we call /spirituality/.
It is /we/ who determine that an element which deals with what we call
the Transcendent belongs to the one of the three zones of the sphere
called "religious", while something that has to do with some "mundane"
utility such as herbal healing or morality tales should be placed into
the zone called "folkloric".[3] <#ft3> In what follows if I speak of Old
European /religion/ it is because that term appears to encompass the
most with the least sense of belittlement[4] <#ft4>; but still I am not
happy with the term. To be sure, we must call it something. But
/thought/ is not /symbolic system/ is not /religion/ is not /belief/ is
not /belief system/ is not /mythology/ is not /dharma/ (etc.). It seems
to me that we must unlearn the inherited habits of our imprecise use of
such terms. What our scholarship is about, in my view, is the simple and
straightforward attempt to understand how our ancestors looked at things
and lived their lives, in order to see how we got where we are, and to
see if they have anything to teach us. I think it is pretty clear that
they do, and that we have quite a lot of work ahead of us working our
way through the labyrinth of reconstruction and comparison.

We will not find Old European religion to be always and everywhere
uniform in its treatment of sacred space, time, action, or motif; it
spans a continent and many millennia. The archaeological record suggests
that an emphasis on tradition and continuity could well characterize the
Old European complex at its core, prior to the Indo-European incursions.
To describe, as we do, a labyrinth of conceptually-related symbols
emphasizing a dialectic of formation, destruction, and reformation is
not to describe a single culture or cultural complex. Rather, returning
to the notion of the /generative metaphor/, we find instead in Old
Europe a cultural /multiplex/ built and building around these cyclical
entities.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now in the Basque country we have a situation unique on the European
scene: a test case against which to measure our present interpretations,
and with which to assist in shaping our work in future. In Euskaleri we
have what to all appearances is an indigenous community which preserves
many cultural elements of a non-Indo-European character. We should hope
for the Basque material to function as evidence to confirm or deny our
beliefs about the nature of Old European religion and its pervasiveness
in ancient Europe. Looking at the Basques, we must remember that they
are now a modern people, far removed from the Neolithic and Bronze Age
peoples we study; yet what we discover in so looking is that what they
do seem to preserve is astonishingly familiar.

The name by which the primary deity in Basque mythology is chiefly known
is /Mari/.[5] <#ft5> She is chief of many spirits -- most of whom are
female -- found throughout the mythology. /Mari/ is both a proper name
and a generic title (that is, "Mari" /vs./ "the Mari"). It is
accompanied by the name of the place with which she is associated. In
Amézqueta, /Txindokiko Marie/ is 'the Mari (or Mistress) of Txindoki'.
She is known by many other names: /Marie Labako/ 'Mari of the Oven' (in
Ispáster), /Marije Kobako/ 'Mari of the Cave' (in Marquina), /Andre Mari
Munoko/ 'Madam Mari of Muno' (in Oyarzun), /Muruko Damea/ 'the Lady of
Muru' (in Atáun), /Anbotoko Dama/ 'Lady of Anboto' (in Zarauz),
/Anbotoko Sorgiña/ 'the witch of Anboto' (in Durango), /Aketegiko
Sorgiñe / 'the witch of Aketegi' (in Cegama), and so on.[6] <#ft6>
Numerous places are named after her: /Marizulo/ 'Mari's cavern' (on the
mountain of Larrunarri above Amézqueta), /Marijenkobia/ 'Mari's cave'
(in Anboto), and /Marikutx/ 'Mari's tomb' (a dolmen in Izarraitz) are
examples.[7] <#ft7> Her husband, /Maju/, also bears the names /Sugaar/
and /Sugoi/, which mean 'snake'. He often appears as a sickle or
half-moon of fire; his passage is said to forebode a storm. Maju visits
Mari each Friday to comb her hair, according to legend in Zarauz.[8] <#ft8>

Although Mari's name is reminiscent of the Christian name /María/, we
might easily consider the syncretism to be at least partly coincidental;
for there are resonances within the native Basque in other contexts.
José Miguel de Barandiarán, the foremost scholar of Basque folklore and
mythology, remarked that

es posible que el nombre /Mari/ deba su origen al cristiano
/María/, pero tampoco cabe descartar otra procedencia. Podría
tener alguna relación con los nombres /Mairi, Maide/, y/ Maindi/
con que son designados otros personajes legendarios de la
mitología vasca, si bien los temas vinculados a éstos son
diferentes. Los /Mairi/ son los constructores de los dólmenes; los
/Maide/ son genios de los montes, de sexo masculino, constructores
de los cronlechs, mientras que sus correspondientes de sexo
femenino son las /Lamin/ o genios de las fuentes, de los ríos y de
las cuevas; las /Maindi /son quizá las almas de antepasados que de
noche visitan sus antiguos hogares....[9] <#ft9>

The activities of these minor beings support the claim that the
functions of the goddess Mari must predate the Christian era. Both the
Mairi and Maide are associated with megalithic structures; such
structures are known elsewhere in Europe to be ritual centers associated
with the principle of death and regeneration. The carrion-eating bird of
prey (appearing as vulture, owl, eagle, or raven) was symbolic of this
Bird Goddess in the mode of Wielder of Death[10] <#ft10>; we shall see
below that Mari can often be connected with such birds. The Bird Goddess
is associated with megalithic monuments both in art and grave goods
throughout western Europe. For example, of some 725 identifiable bird
bones excavated in a chambered tomb at Isbister in Orkney, 90% of them
represented the white-tailed eagle /Haliaetus albicilla/, and belonged
to the 800-year period of the tomb's use (/ca. /3200-2400 B.C.).[11]
<#ft11> Images from Brittany and western Iberia are decorated with the
eye-and-eyebrow indicative of the Goddess as an owl, and often with
enlarged vulvas, sometimes schematized simply as a single pubic triangle
or as multiple triangles and chevrons.[12] <#ft12> The impressive rock
engraving from Luffang in Brittany is also highly schematized: the eyes
are surmounted by a fierce, angular chevron indicative of the eyebrows
and beak seen elsewhere, and the large vulva below emphasizes the
Goddess' regenerative aspect.[13] <#ft13>

If we can connect Mari with the Mairi and Maide, we may hypothesize the
transformation of history into myth: the sacred places once known to
have been built /for/ the Goddess now appear to have been built /by/ her
and her minions. That the Maindi are ancestor spirits is not
insignificant. It seems clear that the connection of the symbols of
bird-of-prey and vulva in the Goddess is evocative of the cycle of
formation, destruction, and reformation.

Basque folklore is full of references to a type of creature called the
/lamiñak/, who, as we have seen, are the female counterparts of the
cromlech-building Maide. The lamiñak are beings with human form but the
feet of a chicken, duck, or goat. There are any number of caves,
caverns, and wells named after the lamiñak, who are said to live chiefly
in such places. Some place-names of note: /Laminen-ziluak /'caverns of
the lamiñak', /Lamiarrieta/ 'place of the stones of the lamiñak',
/Lamiñosin/ 'well of the lamiñak', /Lamiñen-eskaatza/ 'the kitchen of
the lamiñak', and so on.[14] <#ft14>

The lamiñak act in many ways like the little folk throughout European
folklore: the brownies of England and Scotland, the Russian /domovye/,
the /kaukai /of Lithuania, the Scandinavian /nisser/, and other
mostly-benevolent house goblins of Europe are known to help with the
chores if fed but make life difficult if ignored; but perhaps the most
interesting difference here is that these other spirits are almost
universally male, while the Basque lamiñak are female.

Lamiñak possess combs of gold, and many of the mythological poems and
songs in the Basque country tell a story in which a woman (and only
rarely a man) has stolen this comb; at night the lamiñak approaches the
home of that person, demanding the stolen comb back and threatening
punishment of various kinds:

/Emoiten esposu artzie ta orrasie,
//Nik kenduko deutzut Torrontegi'ko mintegie.
/Si no me das la aventadora y el peine,
yo te quitaré el vivero de Torróntegui.
/
//Emaidezu orrazie,
//Espabe kenduko dotzut bizie.
/Dame el peine,
si no, te quitaré la vida.

/Lanbreabe'ko etzanderea,
//Ekasu nire orrasie;
//Espabe egingo dot sure askasie.
/Señora de Lambreabe,
dame mi peine;
si no, haré tu descendencia.
/
//Intxus'ko eratziye,
//Ekazu neure orrasiye.
//Espabare kendukotzut
//Kortako bei nagosiye.
/Pariente (?) de Inchus,
dame mi peine;
si no, quitaré
la vaca mayor de la cuadra.

/Ozten ezpona neure orrazija,
//Galduko deunat eure azi-orrazi guztija.
/Si no me das mi peine,
destruiré toda tu descendencia.
/
//Matxine'ko nesakmea,
//Ekatzu nere orrazea
//Bestela emango dinat
//Ere biziko ezurretako onazea.
/Criada de Machine,
dame mi peine;
si no, te dare dolor
de huesos para toda la vida.[15] <#ft15>

Numerous stories are told about rewards given to humans who help lamiñak
through labor pains; often the human midwife is given a spindle and
distaff of gold.[16] <#ft16>

Mari's own manifestations support our connection of her with the
Goddess' death-bringing and regenerative functions. Like her servants
the lamiñak, she appears as a woman with the feet of a bird (according
to belief in Garagarza); she has been seen of the form of a crow (in
Cegama); she and her companions have appeared in the form of vultures in
the great cave of Supelegor on the mountain of Itziñe (in Oñate). She is
a woman mounted on a ram (in Cegama and Oñate); she has the shape of a
male goat (in the cave of Auza in Baztán); she takes the form of a horse
(in Arano) or of a heifer (in Oñate); she has the feet of a goat
(according to Count don Pedro de Barcellos' 14th-century /Livro dos
Linhagens/). She appears as a tree that looks like a woman or a tree
emitting flames (in Oñate). She is a gust of wind (in Escoriaza), a
white cloud or rainbow (in Durango and Ispáster), or a ball of fire in
the air (in Oñate, Segura, and Orozco). Mari's symbol is the sickle,
especially the sickle of fire, as which she appears crossing the sky (in
Atáun, Cegama, and Zuazo de Gamboa). She has been seen as a woman
emitting flames (in Zaldivia); she is seen seated in a chariot pulled by
four horses moving through the air, (in Amézqueta); she has been seen
enveloped in fire, lying down horizontally, moving through the air (in
Bedoña). In the grotto of Zelharburu (in Bidarray) she is represented by
an anthropomorphic stalagmite.[17] <#ft17> Mari is related to the moon:
in Azcoita she was seen as a woman whose head is encircled by the full
moon; in Escoriaza, she appeared in the figure of the full moon emitting
flames.[18] <#ft18> Mari has zoomorphic and energy (flame/light)
radiating forms.

Mari's many forms remind us at once of the myriad of forms we know the
Goddess to take elsewhere in Old Europe. Like the Goddess, whose forms
and emblems vary according to her functions, the forms which Mari takes
depend on the realm in which she manifests. According to Barandiarán,

/Mari/ toma generalmente figuras zoomórficas en sus moradas
subterráneas; las otras formas, en la superficie de la tierra y
cuando atraviesa los aires.

Las figuras de animales como la de toro, de carnero, de macho
cabrío, de caballo, de serpiente, de buitre, etc., de que hacen
referencia los relatos míticos relativos al mundo subterráneo,
representan, pues, a /Mari/ y a sus subordinados, es decir, a los
genios terrestres o fuerzas telúricas a las que el pueblo atribuye
los fenómenos del mundo. Los cambios de figura, mencionados en
diverson mitos, confirman esta idea.[19] <#ft19>

The variations in Mari's manifestations find their roots in the complex
symbols and metaphors related to the birth-death-rebirth cycle which was
at the heart of Old European religion as we can the reconstruct it. The
Bird Goddess presided over the realm of birth and fate in the form of
ducks, swans, storks, and other waterfowl; as a Wielder of Death, she
found expression in the birds of prey; a Source of Life and
Regeneration, she was associated with eggs, and with non-avian forms
such as the snake. Coiled and serpentine spirals denote the energetic,
life-giving aspect of the Goddess; such spirals are sometimes found as
birds' eyes, and can be seen in the horns of a ram, which animal is
therefore sacred to her. We should not be surprised, then, to see the
Goddess Mari appear as a ram or as a related animal such as the billy
goat; nor should we be surprised to find that her consort is Sugaar, the
snake. Mari's manifestations as such animals offer us further
confirmation of the proposed reconstruction of the Goddess' habits
elsewhere in Old Europe.

There are a number of "rules" for approaching and dealing with Mari
which are preserved in Basque lore and which may be helpful in
reconstructing Old European ritual and religion. For example, one must
only use the /familiar/ form of the pronoun and verb with her. Yet one
never sits in her presence. One must leave her cavern in the same way in
which one entered; that is, if you entered facing inward, you must back
out, also facing inward. This is the same condition to be observed,
according to Basque tradition, when the soul of a dead person appears;
one must never turn one's back to it.[20] <#ft20>

Mari condemns lies, thievery, pride, and boasting, the nonfulfillment of
one's given word, the failure to respect others, and the failure to give
help to others. Those who transgress will usually be stripped of
whatever it was that they lied about, or boasted about, or stole, and so
on. If they are shepherds, she will take one of their rams.[21] <#ft21>
It is said that Mari bestows her dispensation on those who deny what is
and affirm what is not; Mari lives /ezagaz eta baiagaz/ 'from the yes
and the no'. In this same way mutual assistance is given between the
human world and the otherworld: if one has twenty eggs but claims only
sixteen, the four that are left undeclared are said to feed the lamiñak.

One must never damage Mari's habitation, never enter it without
invitation, and never take from it; for punishment in such situations is
swift and definite.[22] <#ft22> The story is told of woman who stole a
golden comb from Mari's cave; that same night a valuable piece of arable
land belonging to her was covered completely with stones.[23] <#ft23>

Mari's habitations are by and large subterranean. The Basque country is
mountainous and wild, replete with caves and chasms. It is generally
believed that Mari's habitations are richly adorned with gold and
precious stones. In Cegama it is said that in the cave of Aketegi there
are beds of gold. A legend of Cenaruzza tells that Mari gave to one of
her Captives a piece of coal, which, later, when taken from the cave,
was transformed into purist gold. On the other hand, in Zarauz it is
said that in the cave of Anboto there are many objects which appear to
be of gold; but when taken outside, they become rotten pieces of
wood.[24] <#ft24> Here the Goddess is shown with the power to give or
withhold abundance. Her power is both of herself, and of her realm, the
Earth. The Basques tell that the Earth is immensely vast and limitless,
a plane extending in all directions. The surface of the Earth is alive,
and mountains are believed to grow just as living beings do. Inside of
the Earth there are immense districts, with flowing rivers of milk.
These regions are inaccessible to humans while they live on the surface;
but at certain wells or shafts, chasms, and caverns, there is access to
this domain. The shaft of Urbión, the chasm at Okina and at Albi, and
the caves of Anboto, of Muru, and of Txindoki are known to be such
portals. Certain atmospheric phenomena -- chiefly storm clouds and
hurricane winds -- proceed from such subterranean regions.[25] <#ft25>
Mari is the deviser of many storms. She destroys many trees by lightning
at Muru, according to belief in Albístur. In Carain it is said that her
appearance at Aketegi causes days of storms. In Cegama, it is believed
that Mari hurls storms from the cave at Aketegi or from the one at
Murimendi.[26] <#ft26>

In Cegama, it is said that many times Mari can be seen seated by the
fire in her kitchen, arranging her long hair. She has been seen spinning
at Oñate. Others have seen her combing herself, seated in the sun at the
threshold of the cave of Murumendi. In Albístur, she has been seen
combing her hair while mounted on a ram. In Goyaz, she spins thread
outside her habitation at Muru, especially when it is sunny and there
are storm clouds about. In Zuazo de Gamboa, they say that Mari makes
skeins of golden thread in her cave of Anboto, gathering the hanks on
the horns of a ram, which serve as her bobbins. She spins thread with a
golden spindle, in Zarauz and Amézqueta.[27] <#ft27> As we have seen,
the motifs of combing and spinning as sacred work of the Goddess echo
these same motifs found throughout Europe. Combs and spindle-whorls from
the Vinca, Tisza, Gumelnita, Starcevo, and Karanovo cultures are
decorated with images of the Goddess or are miniatures of the Goddess
herself[28] <#ft28>; fate goddesses weave the tapestries of human life
from Scandinavia and the Baltic to Greece.[29] <#ft29>

One thing must be said about the status of Basque mythology in
present-day Basque culture: the Basques themselves give it an ambiguous
importance. For example: the lamiñak, according to Barandiarán, are
spoken of today

como de seres imaginarios de otro tiempo. Hay, sin embargo,
personas que, al plantear la cuestión de la existencia de tales
seres, recuerdan esta frase o sentencia tradicional en neustro
pueblo: /izena duan guztla omen da /'cuanto tiene nombre existe'.
Tal sentencia y la cristiana que le es opuesta, han dado lugar a
una actitud de compromiso que aparece en muchos relatos populares,
y que se halla estereotipado en la siguiente frase que alude a
seres o genios míticos: /direnik ez da sinistu bear; ez direla ez
da esan bear/ 'no se debe creer que existen; no hay que decir que
no existen'.[30] <#ft30>

It is interesting to note Barandiarán's mention of the opposition of
Christianity and the belief in Mari. In fact, the Basque goddess herself
takes a rather adversarial stance against Christianity and its
proponents; she does not tolerate the intrusion of Christian elements
into her domain. There are a number of tales in which a Christian fares
rather poorly when he encounters Mari; a representative one, recounted
in 1922 to Barandiarán by Manuel de Ugariza of Orozco, tells how the
Lady of Anboto and her companions dealt with a shepherd who offended her:

Un pastor construyó su choza cerca de la cueva de /Supelaur/.
Temiendo la mala vecindad de Mari, fijó cruces y cera bendita a
ambos lados de la boca de la cueva. Mas luego le vino una banda de
buitres, y posándose en el techo de su choza, decían al pastor que
quitase de la cueva los objetos benditos. No cesaron en su
intento, hasta que el pastor, temiendo alguna venganza, accedió a
sus exigencias.[31] <#ft31>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
The system of symbolization in Old European religion has been found to
be extremely dynamic, flexible, and inventive. It seems that the Old
Europeans sought and saw in their world its great patterns: they
celebrated the connections between things, and were perhaps not
concerned, as we have been, with the differentiation of things one from
the other. We should expect to find Old European taxonomies to have much
more in common structurally with Navajo taxonomies that with Linnaean
ones.[32] <#ft32> It may be that the Old Europeans looked for unity in
the things of their world, for the commonality uniting their lives one
to another and with the Source of Life itself. The most successful
methodology to deal with the reconstruction of the kind of data we have
from prehistoric Europe will be found to take not only archaeology and
linguistics into account, but anthropology and poetry, and the study of
archetypes in mythology, mysticism, and religion. A certain amount of
considered intuition is therefore vital.

We know from their art that the Old Europeans worked with an elegant
sense of the interconnectedness of symbols and the balance of forms; our
reconstruction must be no less elegant and balanced to be convincing. We
would do well to look for the subtle to understand these subtle people.
It is not /safe/ to attempt to be both seer and scholar, poet and
historian -- but we find that a proper archaeomythology must make
explicit use of the once-suspect tools of /intuition/ and /feeling/.
This is a heretical notion to many historians of religion -- and
doubtless to many archaeologists and linguists -- but recognizing that
we have made use of these tools in our reconstruction is, at the very
least, honest. Valid connections between Basque folklore collected in
the late 2nd millennium A.D. and neolithic artifacts dated to the 4th
millennium B.C. /can/ reasonably be made -- and I trust that I have
suggested this convincingly -- but it remains true that in some measure
those connections have less to do with "algorithms" than with "leaps of
faith". Unsubstantiated theory and musing /are/ practices which our
Romanticist predecessors have taught us not to employ; but statistical
analyses of grave goods and arguments about glottalic phonemes -- though
pursuits both noble and necessary -- are not enough either. The great
synthesis of Indo-European and Old European studies is yet to be born.
As synthesists working between disciplines, we must learn to be poets,
and look with our hearts as well as our heads. We know that this is not
easy to do -- but our efforts will surely continue to bear fruit.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is one final word which may serve to remind us of the importance
of the Goddess in prehistory as a legacy and heritage in our own
mythology. It is a word which is fitting in the most literal sense: for
it could fit easily into the folklore of any European culture of the
present day, be it Basque, Greek, Celtic, Germanic, or Slavic. Fittingly
too, it is the word of a woman, the word of our own Mother Goose:

/There was an old woman
//Lived under a hill;
//And if she's not gone,
//She lives there still./[33] <#ft33>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes

[1] /See especially/ Marija Gimbutas 1982 and 1989.Back to text. <#1>
[2] Our intimacy with the individual affects us whether the work we are
reading is anonymous or not. /Cf./, as examples,/ /the /Madhupindika
sutta/ and the /Revelations/ of Julian of Norwich; their textuality, as
might go without saying, gives us the immediacy of personality
unavailable to us in textless traditions. It seems to me that it is this
immediacy which we seek even as we endeavor to make sense of this
textless material -- but that we must be aware that what we bring to the
material from within makes as much difference to our interpretations as
the evidence which comes to us from without. This is what makes
speculation about prehistory so difficult and so rewarding. Back to
text. <#2>
[3] Western post-Romantic scholastic categories like these do not seem
to fit real human culture -- even that of Western post-Romantic scholars
-- very well. Many traditions do not endeavor to make the distinction
between the "secular" and the "religious" that Western intellectual
tradition does, or believes that it is able to do. All traditions
understand in some sense the notion of Transcendence, but the interface
between that Transcendence and "the sacred", "the mundane", and "the
profane" is rarely as neat as our categories imply and lead us to
believe. Back to text. <#3>
[4] /Superstition/ was a category advanced by wily medieval Christian
missionaries and other prescriptivists with axes to sharpen, and its
legacy -- throughout much of the lay and the scholastic worlds of the
present day -- has given a connotation of "ignorant gullibility" to the
terms /mythology/ and /folklore/ (/see /"Superstition" in the /Oxford
English Dictionary/).Unfortunately, despite the work of profound
observers of humanity like Joseph Campbell, notions of "primitiveness"
still pervade the assumptions which many mythologists, folklorists, and
students of religion -- as well as other scientists -- bring to the
study of ancient cultures. As I hope to suggest, this sad situation may
be only for want of a little imagination. Back to text. <#4>
[5] José María Satrústegui 1980:110. Back to text. <#5>
[6] José Miguel de Barandiarán 1972:157. Back to text. <#6>
[7] Barandiarán 1973:419. Back to text. <#7>
[8] Barandiarán 1972:155, 220-21. Back to text. <#8>
[9] Barandiarán 1972:158. 'It is possible that the name /Mari/ owes its
origin to the Christian /María/, but other precedent cannot be
discounted. There might be some relation with the names /Mairi, Maide/,
and /Maindi/ with which other legendary personages of Basque mythology
are designated, even if the themes associated with these are different.
The /Mairi/ are the builders of the dolmens; the /Maide/ are mountain
spirits, of male sex, builders of the cromlechs, while their female
counterparts are the /Lamiñak/ or spirits of fountains, rivers, and
caves; the /Maindi/ are perhaps the souls of ancestors which at night
visit their old hearths....' (My translation here and below.) Back to
text. <#9>
[10] Gimbutas 1982:158-63, 1989:187-95. Back to text. <#10>
[11] Hedges 1983:78-79, 145-147. Back to text. <#11>
[12] /See /figures 1-5. Back to text. <#12>
[13] Gimbutas 1986:11. Back to text. <#13>
[14] Barandiarán 1972:138-40. Back to text. <#14>
[15] Barandiarán 1973:431-32. 'If you do not give me the winnowing fork
and the comb, I will take the nursery of Torrontegi from you.' 'Give me
my comb for if not, I will kill you.' 'Give me the comb; if not, I will
take your life.' 'Lady of Lanbreabe, give me my comb; if not, I will
have your descendents.' 'Kinsman (?) of Intxus, give me my comb; if not,
I will take the largest cow in your stable.' 'If you don't give me my
comb, I will destroy all your descendents.' 'Maidservant of Matxine,
give me my comb; if not, I will give you pain in your bones all of your
life.' Back to text. <#15>
[16] Barandiarán 1973:448. Back to text. <#16>
[17] Barandiarán 1979:102-04. Back to text. <#17>
[18] Barandiarán 1972:158. Back to text. <#18>
[19] Barandiarán 1972:159. '/Mari/ generally takes on zoomorphic shapes
in her subterranean abodes; she takes the other forms when she is on the
surface of the earth or when she crosses the air.
'The animal shapes like that of the bull, ram, billy goat, horse,
serpent, vulture, etc., referred to in the mythical tales about the
underworld, represent, therefore, /Mari/ and her subordinates, that is,
the terrestrial spirits or telluric forces to which the people attribute
earthly phenomena. The shape-changing mentioned in various myths
confirms this idea.' Back to text. <#19>
[20] Barandiarán 1973:417. Back to text. <#20>
[21] Barandiarán 1973:417-18. Back to text. <#21>
[22] Some may be tempted to appeal for the canonization of Mari as
patroness of archæologists. Back to text. <#22>
[23] Barandiarán 1973:418. Back to text. <#23>
[24] Barandiarán 1972:160. Back to text. <#24>
[25] Barandiarán 1979:51-54. Back to text. <#25>
[26] Barandiarán 1972:163. Back to text. <#26>
[27] Barandiarán 1979:160, 163. Back to text. <#27>
[28] Gimbutas 1989: figs. 104-08. Back to text. <#28>
[29] Elizabeth Barber, whose /Wörter-und-Sachen/ investigations into the
development of textile-culture in prehistoric Europe are paradigmatic
for their interpretative incisiveness, has suggested to me that there is
a distinction made between spinning and weaving where divinities are
concerned. The goddess who spins is in a real sense a /maker:/ for she
creates,/ ex nihilo vel ex ipsa/. The goddess who weaves, rather, is a
/shaper:/ for she takes what is and imposes form onto it. There is a
difference in the connotation of power between she weaver of the
tapestry of fate and the spinner of the stuff (that is, /Stoff)/ out of
which such fate is woven. It is significant, perhaps, to our
comprehension of Mari's place and power in the Basque world, that she
Spins, rather than Weaves. Back to text. <#29>
[30] Barandiarán 1972:140. 'as imaginary beings of another time. There
are, nonetheless, people who, in response to a question about the
existence of such beings, remember this traditional Basque phrase or
sentence: /Izena duan guztla omen da/ "Whatever has a name exists". Such
a notion, and the Christianity which is opposed to it, has given place
to an attitude of compromise which appears in many popular stories, and
which is found stereotyped in the following phrase, alluding to mythical
beings or spirits: /Direnik ez da sinistu bear: ez direla ez da esan
bear/ "You don't have to believe that they exist; you don't have to say
that they don't exist."'
Barandiarán gives another version of this story in 1973:423; his
70-year-old informant Catalina Erri-Eyerabide related that her father,
as a child on the way to catechism, had seen the lamiñak on the road,
passing by a river. Later, when he mentioned it to the priest, the
priest told him: /Todos (los seres) que se habla existen; pero guarda
para tí el secreto, no hay que decir que existen/ 'All (the beings)
which are named exist; but keep the secret to yourself -- it isn't
necessary to say that they exist.' Back to text. <#30>
[31] Barandiarán 1972:290. 'A shepherd built his hut near the cave of
Supelegor. Fearing the evil of his neighbor Mari, he fixed crosses and
blessed candles on either side of the mouth of the cave. But then a
flock of vultures came to him, and alighting on the roof of his hut,
they told the shepherd to remove the blessed objects from the cave. They
kept insisting until the shepherd, fearing some act of vengeance, gave
in to their demands.' Back to text. <#31>
[32] Gladys A. Reichert's trenchant analysis of the web-matrices making
up Navajo religion may serve as a template for further investigation
into the nature of Old European conceptual matrices; /see/ Reichert
1983. Back to text. <#32>
[33] Mother Goose 1978:13. It is worthwhile to make one last comment
regarding the tenacity of folk tradition. When Blanche Fisher Wright
illustrated this collection of Mother Goose rhymes in 1916, she chose to
watercolor a woman seated outside of her cave /in the act of darning/
(/see/ figure 6). (This happy happenstance /cannot/ in all probability
be reasonably connected to Basque folklore.)
Nursery-rhyme scholarship is not particularly revealing as to the
content of this particular poem. Iona and Peter Opie cite its appearance
in /Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book/, ca. 1744, "the earliest known book
of nursery rhymes" (Opie and Opie 1951:432, plate VII [facing p. 154]).
Their comment that "'the self-evident proposition, which is the very
Essence of Truth' appealed to the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
minds" (1951:432), is, if taken to have anything to do with the rhyme's
origins, fairly weak and not particularly convincing in light of the
tenaciousness of goddess belief in Europe. A delight in self-evident
drollery may have preserved the rhyme through the 17th and 18th
centuries, but I suggest that the rhyme itself has a more profound
ancestry, not unlike that of the ambiguous Basque sentiments about the
existence of named beings /(Izena duan guztla omen da; direnik ez da
sinistu bear: ez direla ez da esan bear)/ mentioned above (/cf./ note 30
<#ft30>). /Somebody/ first spoke these sentiments aloud, and we may not
be wrong to suppose that it may have been someone who saw the
encroachment of a new religion onto their own. That, after all, is the
kind of explication for transformational process which the members of
the 1989 conference sought.
The personage of Mother Goose herself does not extend back into deep
antiquity, but rather about three hundred years: Gloria T. Delamar cites
a French collection of fairy tales, published in 1696 or 1697 by Charles
Perrault, a member of the Académie Française, and entitled "/Histoires
ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités/ (Histories and Tales of
Long Ago, with Morals). The frontispiece showed an old woman spinning
and telling tales, with a placard on the page which bore the words
/Contes de ma Mère l'Oye/ (Tales of My Mother the Goose)" [Delamar
1987:2-5]. Doubtless we may think that a connection between a spinning
or darning grandmother and the telling of folk tales and rhymes was made
independently by both Perrault and Fisher Wright. Back to text. <#33>
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Figures

Owl-beaked goddess with breasts and necklace
Figure 1: Owl-beaked goddess with human breasts and necklace, 60 cm
tall, engraved on the wall of an antechamber in Hypogeum 23, ca.
3000-2500 B.C., of the Razet cemetery at Coizard, south of Épernay
(Marne) in north-central France (after Gimbutas 1989:192 [fig. 295]).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goddess with beaked eyebrows and vulva
Figure 2: Goddess depicted with beaked eyebrows above and prominent
vulva below, 180 cm tall, engraved on stone slab in an angled passage
tomb, ca. 3000 B.C., near Luffang on the river Crac'h, south of Auray
(Morbihan) in southwestern Brittany (after Gimbutas 1989:193 [fig.
298]). The placement of this powerful abstract image along the passage
into the tomb (Shee Twohig 1981:181 [fig. 139]) must have been awesome
to those who took part in ritual there. Certainly that placement makes
it clear that she was meant to be seen (O'Sullivan 1986:81).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Owl-faced figure with hands at pubis
Figure 3: Owl-faced figure with hands at the pubis, engraved on a stone
plaque and found in a megalithic passage grave, ca. 3500 B.C., from
Montemor-o-Novo, west of Évora (Alto Alentejo) in west-central Portugal
(after Almagro Gorbea 1973:219 [fig. 202]). The goddess' hands often
meet at the pubic triangle or lie across her belly (cf. Gimbutas 1989
figs. 307, 309, 320, etc., and figs. 4 and 5 below).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beaked figure with large eyes, wing-like arms, and chevrons
Figure 4: Beaked figure with large eyes, wing-like arms, and "energetic"
chevrons, 7.2 cm high, engraved on a schist plaque and found in a
megalithic passage grave, ca. 3500 B.C, from Horta Velha do Reguengos by
Barbacena, southwest of Monforte (Alto Alentejo) in central Portugal
(after Leisner & Leisner 1959:57-58 [Taf. 34.10]).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beaked goddess with hands touching the pubic triangle
Figure 5: Beaked goddess with hands touching the pubic triangle,
engraved on a light sanddtone plaque found in Dolmen 1, ca. 3500 B.C.,
at Vega del Guadancil, southeast of Garrovillas de Alcometar (Cáceres)
in west-central Spain (after Leisner & Leisner 1959:323 [Taf. 55.1]).
Angular zigzags on side and back may be connected symbolically with the
regenerative energy of the vulva and of this goddess.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Old Woman under a Hill
Figure 6: The Old Woman Under A Hill, seated before her subterranean
habitation, engaged in typical creative activity (after Mother Goose
1978:13).

------------------------------------------------------------------------

References

*Almagro Gorbea, María José*. 1973. /Los idolos del Bronce I Hispano./
(Bibliotheca Praehistorica Hispana; 12) Madrid: Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Cientificas.
*Barandiarán, José Miguel de*. 1972. /Diccionario ilustrado de mitología
vasca y algunas de sus fuentes,/ vol. 1 of his /Obras completas./
Bilbao: Editorial la Gran Enciclopedia Vasca.
*Barandiarán, José Miguel de*. 1973. /Eusko-Folklore,/ vol. 2 of his
/Obras completas./ Bilbao: Editorial la Gran Enciclopedia Vasca.
*Barandiarán, José Miguel de*. 1979. /Mitología vasca./ San Sebastián:
Editorial Txertoa.
*Delamar, Gloria T.* 1987. /Mother Goose: from nursery to literature./
Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company.
*Gimbutas, Marija*. 1982. /The goddesses and gods of Old Europe,
6500-3500 B.C.: myths and cult images./ 2nd edition. Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press.
*Gimbutas, Marija*. 1986. "Birds, animals, amphibians, and insects of
the Old European Goddess of Death and Regeneration", in /Cultural
attitudes to animals including birds, fish, and invertebrates/, volume
2, The World Archaeological Congress, 1-7 September 1986, Southampton
and London: 1-45.
*Gimbutas, Marija*. 1989. /The language of the goddess: unearthing the
hidden symbols of western civilization./ San Francisco: Harper & Row;/
/London: Thames and Hudson.
Hedges, John W.
*Hedges, John W.* 1983. /Tomb of the eagles: a window on stone-age
tribal Britain./ London: John Murray.
*Leisner, Georg and Vera*. 1959. /Die Megalithgräber der iberischen
Halbinsel: der Westen./ 2. Lieferung, Textband und Tafelband (Madrider
Forschungen; 1) Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
*Mother Goose*. 1978. "The old woman under a hill", in /The real Mother
Goose./ Illus. by Blanche Fisher Wright. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co.
[Reprint of 1916 edition]
*Opie, Iona and Peter*. 1951. /The Oxford dictionary of nursery rhymes./
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
*O'Sullivan, Muiris*. 1986. "Approaches to passage-tomb art", in /The
Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland./ 116, pp. 68-83.
*Reichert, Gladys A.* 1983. /Navaho religion: a study of symbolism./
Tucson: University of Arizona Press. [Reprint of Princeton University
Press edition, 1974]
*Satrústegui, José María*. 1980. /Mitos y creencias./ San Sebastián:
Editorial Txertoa.
*Shee Twohig, Elizabeth*. 1981. /The megalithic art of western Europe./
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From *The Journal of Indo-European Studies* Volume 17, nos. 3 & 4,
Fall/Winter 1989, pp. 277-295.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Everson <mailto:everson at evertype.com>, Evertype
<http://www.evertype.com>, Cathair na Mart, 2001-09-21