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Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood: A Treasury of Goddess and Heroine Lore from Around the World
This collection of ancient images of women as goddesses and heroines brings together legends, rituals, and prayers from China, Celtic Europe, South America, Africa, India, North America, Scandinavia, Japan, and elsewhere.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
15 people are currently reading
2112 people want to read
About the author
Merlin Stone
39 books122 followersMerlin Stone is a sculptor and professor of art and art history, perhaps best-known for her feminist book, When God Was a Woman.
Biography
Merlin Stone became interested in archaeology and ancient religions from her study of ancient art. She taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo. From 1958 to 1967 she worked as a sculptor, exhibiting widely and executing numerous commissions. (According to the author's information on the 1976 Harcourt edition of When God Was a Woman).
She spent a decade on research before writing the book published in the UK as The Paradise Papers and then in the U.S. as When God Was a Woman (1976). It describes her theory of how the Hebrews suppressed allegedly goddess-based religions practiced in Canaan and how their reaction to what she asserts as being the existing matriarchial and matrilineal societal structures shaped Judaism and, thus, Christianity.
Her other major work, Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood collects stories, myths, and prayers involving goddess-figures from a wide variety of world religions, ancient and otherwise. Stone's hypotheses are radical and challenging to the accepted views of antiquity, and as such they remain controversial. She is the author of numerous short stories, book reviews, and essays, including 3,000 Years of Racism.
She passed away on the 25th of February 2011 in Daytona Beach after a long painful illness.
Biography
Merlin Stone became interested in archaeology and ancient religions from her study of ancient art. She taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo. From 1958 to 1967 she worked as a sculptor, exhibiting widely and executing numerous commissions. (According to the author's information on the 1976 Harcourt edition of When God Was a Woman).
She spent a decade on research before writing the book published in the UK as The Paradise Papers and then in the U.S. as When God Was a Woman (1976). It describes her theory of how the Hebrews suppressed allegedly goddess-based religions practiced in Canaan and how their reaction to what she asserts as being the existing matriarchial and matrilineal societal structures shaped Judaism and, thus, Christianity.
Her other major work, Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood collects stories, myths, and prayers involving goddess-figures from a wide variety of world religions, ancient and otherwise. Stone's hypotheses are radical and challenging to the accepted views of antiquity, and as such they remain controversial. She is the author of numerous short stories, book reviews, and essays, including 3,000 Years of Racism.
She passed away on the 25th of February 2011 in Daytona Beach after a long painful illness.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 14, 2008
I really like this book, but that might surprise people who know me well. That's because I studied Classics and ancient Greek goddesses, and this book does not provide a balanced academic portrayal of the deities. Which is not to say its not well researched, but neither is that the book's point, I suspect. What it does, and does quite well, is offer an image of the goddesses that a contemporary woman could be proud to worship. It retells stories, not to get into what the ancient Greeks really thought (or at least the men who set the myths to page), but to offer an empowering sacred perspective in a world that rarely offers such portrayals of women.
It takes itself pretty seriously, I'd say, but I still expect to read it to my kids.
It takes itself pretty seriously, I'd say, but I still expect to read it to my kids.
July 23, 2025
An important work to read about myths and stories of goddesses and heroines around the world. Many published works on goddesses on GoodReads suffer from a reviewer with a bone to pick against feminism, and I'm glad that those reviews were not the first that I scanned while looking at Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood.
Divided into 14 sections, 14 regions, this book provides a short anthropological introduction into each region before sharing information about goddesses, heroines, and extraordinary women. Each region is vast, covering large time periods. The downside to this is that it could easily lead to generalization about a culture. The upside to this is that you really do see the breadth of stories across time among a group of people.
If there is one thing, I would have wanted to know more as to why and how Stone chose to include stories. Overall, Stone speaks passionately about wanting to provide us with positive female role models, that we can see our own humanity reflected back to us. I think this is achieved, but sometimes it can get lost. I often found myself getting stuck. Each story comes with a short preface that is meant to clear up matters, but makes it sometimes more confusing. This goddess shares similar names to this goddess, at this site and at this general time period. I will be honest that a lot of it went over my head.
This book is interested in evoking wonder of these goddesses, as well as their power. I was expecting something like a book of linear narratives, similar to fairy tales. However, more often than not, what I got were translations of fragments found at archaeological sites. I felt lost in the footnotes, and while I appreciate that Stone backed up her work, I want that and also more of her voice and perspective.
Women Who Run With Wolves is likely the golden standard of taking women's stories, describing them in a storyteller's fashion, and then adding the necessary commentary to make explicit what the story suggests.
Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood reminds me a lot of another work I read this year that focused on a lot of anthropological research. I wished to hear more of Stone's interpretations of these stories, not just the research surrounding it.
Divided into 14 sections, 14 regions, this book provides a short anthropological introduction into each region before sharing information about goddesses, heroines, and extraordinary women. Each region is vast, covering large time periods. The downside to this is that it could easily lead to generalization about a culture. The upside to this is that you really do see the breadth of stories across time among a group of people.
If there is one thing, I would have wanted to know more as to why and how Stone chose to include stories. Overall, Stone speaks passionately about wanting to provide us with positive female role models, that we can see our own humanity reflected back to us. I think this is achieved, but sometimes it can get lost. I often found myself getting stuck. Each story comes with a short preface that is meant to clear up matters, but makes it sometimes more confusing. This goddess shares similar names to this goddess, at this site and at this general time period. I will be honest that a lot of it went over my head.
This book is interested in evoking wonder of these goddesses, as well as their power. I was expecting something like a book of linear narratives, similar to fairy tales. However, more often than not, what I got were translations of fragments found at archaeological sites. I felt lost in the footnotes, and while I appreciate that Stone backed up her work, I want that and also more of her voice and perspective.
Women Who Run With Wolves is likely the golden standard of taking women's stories, describing them in a storyteller's fashion, and then adding the necessary commentary to make explicit what the story suggests.
Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood reminds me a lot of another work I read this year that focused on a lot of anthropological research. I wished to hear more of Stone's interpretations of these stories, not just the research surrounding it.
October 17, 2021
Over the years I have read many books related to mythology. I would rank this collection along with Frazer's "Golden Bough" and Joseph Campbell's epic series "The Masks of God." Although they are all quite different from one another, Dr. Stone's work here, like the others mentioned, is a fascinating and detailed record of the vastness of human imagination. While her work, as she admits, merely scratches the surface of records of ancient religious beliefs, that in itself is a testament to how profoundly imaginative humans are when it comes to telling a good story, explaining traditions and justifying rituals. What it also reveals by their absence are the myths of ancient societies that never came to light in our times. Those lost, as Campbell says, "in the deep well of the past" probably number far more than humanity has recorded since archeologists began uncovering the vast records of beliefs such as described by Dr. Stone. What makes her work unique is her focus on the role of women in mythology. Another attraction of this book is that it does relate goddess mythology from a vast array of cultures. I think that feature alone would make this collection unique.
As Doireann Ni Ghriofa says in her novel "A Ghost in the Throat", "this is a female text." When reading Dr. Stone's collection it became clear that in ancient times women took on all the roles that modern times try to speak of as the dominion of men. It is clear that the current patriarchal view of "women's roles" is of relatively recent creation. This thought is only reinforced by Dr. Stone's other powerful work, "When God Was a Woman."
If you enjoy learning about the rich heritage of mythology of humanity I recommend these two books. They certainly are interesting and confirm in my mind my belief that in an effort to explain the world around them and to lend authority to their rituals and traditions, humanity went to great lengths to create gods. We this in our modern god creation, because as someone dear to me once asked, "How has money succeeded where gods and kings have failed."
As Doireann Ni Ghriofa says in her novel "A Ghost in the Throat", "this is a female text." When reading Dr. Stone's collection it became clear that in ancient times women took on all the roles that modern times try to speak of as the dominion of men. It is clear that the current patriarchal view of "women's roles" is of relatively recent creation. This thought is only reinforced by Dr. Stone's other powerful work, "When God Was a Woman."
If you enjoy learning about the rich heritage of mythology of humanity I recommend these two books. They certainly are interesting and confirm in my mind my belief that in an effort to explain the world around them and to lend authority to their rituals and traditions, humanity went to great lengths to create gods. We this in our modern god creation, because as someone dear to me once asked, "How has money succeeded where gods and kings have failed."
March 21, 2012
Wonderfully written and highly inspirational. Merlin Stone's final account of Athena touched my soul, it was so beautiful. Highly recommended!
November 1, 2025
So it is that the three stand together in the darkening field and when Nsomeka says that they must sing—three voices sing in chorus. Hardly has the evening star arrived, when from between the notches of Nsomeka’s teeth come cattle, come chickens, come pigs, come goats. The three continue to sing. Great fruit trees pass through the notches and root in the ground before them. The three continue to sing. Large reed houses, tied well and strong, fly out through Nsomeka’s teeth, landing near the trees that will shade them from the hot daytime sun—sweet voiced Nsomeka, perfect voiced Nsomeka.
In the morning when the sleeping villagers awake, they can not believe what they see with their eyes. Hearing that this great wealth has come from Nsomeka, the men begin to beat their wives for not having brought them such riches, but Nsomeka calls to the crying women, beckoning them to join her.
In the morning when the sleeping villagers awake, they can not believe what they see with their eyes. Hearing that this great wealth has come from Nsomeka, the men begin to beat their wives for not having brought them such riches, but Nsomeka calls to the crying women, beckoning them to join her.
May 16, 2019
A fascinating and inspiring anthology!
February 20, 2016
Not as good as When God was a Woman. I realize that both of Stone's books were written under using scholarship of another era, but I wish someone would go through her work and footnote or endnote her references so it would be easier to retrace her bibliography. Her research is fascinating, but its presentation is obfuscated by a lengthy bibliography that lives in isolation from its in-text references.
July 29, 2009
A story for every goddess in the world. Easy to put down and pick up again whenever, no need to read in order. Good for your daily dose of woman-power!
October 19, 2021
This is an amazing reference to myths and religious creation stories the world over which feature Goddesses and legendary female heroines. This will remain in my library as an important resource for cultural origin stories and for rediscovering the majesty that is feminine divine. The stories which have been erased and burned and conquered by patriarchal societies throughout history.
March 1, 2021
long & detailed. Oh my sweet Goddess, what a read!
July 27, 2011
Una compilación de mitolgía del mundo, bajo la muy personal mirada del autor. Algunos mitos estan muy trastocados, incluso dotando a los personajes masculinos de una actitud negativa frente a las diosas que jamás tuvieron.
Curioso e interesante, no pasa de ser eso, curioso. Pero ni aclara posturas de género, ni es buen compilatorio mitico, sencillamente se basta en ser un puñado de materiales sueltos y poco conexos publicados a posteriori y como resaca del ya mitico "When God was a woman"
Mucho me temo que muchos mitos hayan sido trastocados para entrar claramente en las hipotesis de la autora. Y no puedo recomendarlo para dar a conocer las figuras femeninas de la mitología universal. Es más, recomiendo el estudio preciso y apurado de cada figura mitica por separado antes de aventurarse a una compilación de este estilo.
Recomendado solamente a aquellos buscadores de la Diosa que concuerden al ciento por ciento con la autora.
Curioso e interesante, no pasa de ser eso, curioso. Pero ni aclara posturas de género, ni es buen compilatorio mitico, sencillamente se basta en ser un puñado de materiales sueltos y poco conexos publicados a posteriori y como resaca del ya mitico "When God was a woman"
Mucho me temo que muchos mitos hayan sido trastocados para entrar claramente en las hipotesis de la autora. Y no puedo recomendarlo para dar a conocer las figuras femeninas de la mitología universal. Es más, recomiendo el estudio preciso y apurado de cada figura mitica por separado antes de aventurarse a una compilación de este estilo.
Recomendado solamente a aquellos buscadores de la Diosa que concuerden al ciento por ciento con la autora.
May 22, 2009
If you want to know about the Goddess, her history and impact on the cultures of the world this is a great place to start. She covers it all minor, major, the known and unknown this book overflows with insight on all of them. Just full of powerful and moving information. The title realy does say it all.
March 22, 2013
There are some really great stories collected here. With Merlin Stone's permission I wrote an adaptation from her accounting of Mella, an ancient African Queen. It has always been a popular story in my repertoire. I included it in the book "Dreamscape." The collection of stories is a gold mine of ideas and inspiration.
August 5, 2007
This author hates men and the primary religions of the world (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam). Her prosaic writing style is incredibly forced and tedious. It was absolute misery reading the entire book.
July 28, 2011
Great, great book..
November 6, 2016
I really enjoyed reading this book - a survey of Goddess images around the world
April 16, 2017
A really interesting exploration of the history of goddess spirituality and the rise of patriarchal dominance.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews