WOMEN’S IMAGE IN WESTERN AND EASTERN MITOLOGIES: GODDESS

Abstract

This study focuses on the image of the “Goddess”, one of the main heroes of mythological discourses, which play an important role in the transmission of the historical collective memory of societies. The goddess image represents the "woman" genus in mythological accounts and fills the definition of “womanhood” in today's dominant gender culture. In this context, the aim of this study is to open up the dominant goddess characters of Western and Eastern mythologies to a discussion with a gender perspective, to highlight the similarities and differences between dominant gender and sex roles in women's culture. Although mythological discourse has already been studied in the literature of women-related social sciences, the originality of this work allows for the comparison of Western and Eastern mythologies together.