The Great Mother manifests itself in mythology as a host of archaic images. Commonly conceived of as a nature goddess, the recurrent theme of nature and motherly care go hand in hand. As the prominent feature of many early societies related to Proto-Indo-European society, the mother archetype manifests itself in a host of deities and symbolism (independent and therein).

One highly defined occurrence of a mother goddess is with the Celts, and their predecessors. The goddess Danu was an archaic character and was the namesake for the Celtic pantheon of gods, the Tuatha Dé Danann (People of the Goddess Danu in Old Irish). The mother goddess will consistently be associated with, if not in direct control of, nature, particularly the earth (see Earth Mother). There is a multitude of reasons for this, most plausible is the seemingly divine nature of life, the mother's ability to beget it, and the nature that obviously is the host of all of it. Many ancient, particularly matrilineal, societies associated the earth with a mother as they believed it was the source of all life.

Many aspects of the mother goddess become deified in their own right, usually as a fertility goddess or a goddess of war or destruction. This latter aspect is seen vividly in the Indian goddess Kali. The general contention behind this is that nature is both the giver and destroyer of life. In Celtic mythology this is manifested in the character of Queen Medb. Medb is an example of remnants of a war goddess with her general military prowess, and with her leading role in the Cattle Raid of Cooley. She shows the qualities of a euhemerized fertility goddess as she constantly negotiates with her 'friendly thighs', and is renowned for being promiscuous.

She appears in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, during Mercutio's monologue concerning dreams. He draws out the role of Medb as a fairy of sorts, and being responsible for maidens becoming impregnated. This is important in how she is associated with a small being and pregnancy. In more than one place in Celtic myth, a small being who is swallowed is shown as a method of becoming pregnant. This would show that her qualities as a fertility goddess were more pronounced and emphasized as she endured time. Typically the Mother Goddess is referenced in archaic and distant terms and rarely occurs in the present of the myths. The main feature that survives with the Mother Goddess is her connection to nature; this will occur as independent symbolism, either directly connected to the goddess or as the trait of another character.

See also

• Mother goddess

Reference

• Neumann, Erich. (1991). The Great Mother. Bollingen; Repr/7th edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. ISBN 0691017808.

Goddesses