Was Medea dethroned as the Great goddess as patriarchal religions overtook matriarchal cultures? One example supporting this hypothesis of dethroning may be illustrated by the murder of Medea’s children. There are several versions of Medea’s life over a wide and culturally diverse spectrum of time. The murder of her children in the classical story may be the echoes of human sacrifice practiced during the earlier matriarchal cultures. Later patriarchal cultures viewed human sacrifice as barbaric, and Medea, reduced from goddess to sorceress, took the fall to explain the foul deed. Medea was written in as the revengeful and lusty killer! Is La Llorona also a victim of the same cultural framing?
The image is Jason and Medea in Hecate's Garden by Gustave Moreau
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