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| Contents | Goddess
Traditions Instructor Beverly Moon Institution Fordham University Course Level and Type Upper-level lecture course Hours of Instruction 3 hours a week /17 weeks Enrolment and Last Year Taught Spring 1998: 20 students |
This course is designed to emphasize the many different kinds of goddesses that are found in the history of religions. Our sources fall into three basic categories: images, sacred stories and other literary expressions, and secondary scholarship. We will begin by looking at feminine symbolism found in the archeological finds of prehistoric Europe. Then we shall look at goddesses worshiped in numerous cultures of the historical period. Finally, we shall examine the survival of goddess symbolism in the world religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism.
Your grade will be based on four factors: participation (25%); term paper (25%); two written exams (50%).
Participation means being in class on time and prepared. In addition to the required readings, there will be homework assignments, including a written report on a site visit to a temple where goddess worship takes place. Guidelines for the report will be provided. Attendance is required. After 2 unexcused absences, your grade will be affected; 5 absences (unexcused or not) will mean an automatic "F."
Each student will be required to write a term paper on a goddess known from the historical religions. Students will present oral reports on the research in progress.
Exams will include identifications, short-answer questions, and essay questions. Review at the beginning of each class will be designed to help focus on material that will appear in the exams.
Marija Gimbutas. The Language of the Goddess: Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization. HarperSan Francisco: San Francisco,1995.
Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. Harper & Row: New York, 1983.
David R. Kinsley. Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition. University of California Press: Berkeley, 1988.
Christine Downing. The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine. Crossroad: New York, 1981.
Campus Course Pak for Goddess Traditions [articles, out-of-print material, etc.]
January14
Goddesses: Feminine Images of the Divine [introductions, including a slide presentation of
different kinds of goddesses from all over the world]
FEMININE SYMBOLISM IN PREHISTORIC ART
January 21
Gimbutas, pp. 1-137
January 28
Gimbutas, pp. 138-321
GODDESSES KNOWN FROM HISTORY
February 4
Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth
February 11
Hindu Goddesses, pp. 1-94
February 18
Hindu Goddesses, pp. 95-211
February 25
Greek Goddesses
(read all of The Goddess by Downing)
March 4
Midterm Examination
March 11
Readings from Course Pak
March 18
No Class/Spring Recess
March 25
FIELD TRIP: meet 6:30 at Metropolitan Museum of Art to view numerous goddesses in the
Southeast Asian Gallery
April 1
Discussion: site visits and class field trip
April 8
Readings from Course Pak
April 15
Term papers due: reports on research.
GODDESS SYMBOLISM IN WORLD RELIGIONS
April 22
Judaism [Course Pak]
April 29
Christianity & Buddhism [Course Pak]
May6
Final Examination
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