The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype (Princeton Classics) by Erich Neumann

Author:Erich Neumann [Neumann, Erich]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2015-05-04T04:00:00+00:00

FIG. 44. THE OLD GODDESS IXCHEL DESTROYING THE WORLD BY WATER

Mayan, from a codex

Blood sacrifice and dismemberment belong to the fertility ritual of the Great Mother. Both fecundate the womb of the earth, as can be seen from a number of rites in which the pieces of the victim—whether man or animal—are solemnly spread over the fields. The Greek Thesmophoria, in which little pigs, symbolizing the children of the earth sow, and phallic symbols are thrown into a ravine supposed to be swarming with snakes, also belongs to this context.46 The ravine is the womb of the earth; taken together, snake and ravine here again represent the fertility of the earth. The decayed flesh of the sacrifices was later recovered from the ravine and distributed over the fields as fertility magic.

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