Al-Uzza, along with Allat and Manat, was a chief goddess for the Arabian peoples in pre-Islamic times. They were known as the three daughters of Allah. In fact, the statue to this idol was destroyed on the orders of the Prophet Mohammed. It was discovered in the place that is now the sacred Kaaba for the Islamic peoples, along with close to 360 other "idols". In other words, the Arabian people were at one time, goddess-based.
So were the Nabatean people (and of course, the Greeks and Romans). On the treasury in Petra you can also see the face of Al-Uzza, who is venerated as Isis, and sometimes as Aphrodite. I bought a pendant (below) at the foot of the treasury.
When we traveled into the desert to spent the night in a desert camp with the Bedouin, I saw the following image in the stones on the border between Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and it bore a striking resemblance to the Al-Uzza image in Petra.
How ironic! Had patriarchy not held sway so violently, the cultural and social landscape may have unfolded much differently.
And yet, these goddesses were warrior queens as well. Al-Uzza is graven into the frontispiece of the treasury of Petra alongside those female mythical warriors, the Amazons. And in Jerash, Jordan, at the famous Roman ruins, the Temple of Artemis looms higher and grander than that of Zeus, whose temple is of a lower elevation. Artemis, or Diana, was the protector of the city.
Clearly they were not goddesses that tilled the hearth and hid behind the grandeur of their male counterparts. They stood beside them, and in some cases, without them at all.
So were the Nabatean people (and of course, the Greeks and Romans). On the treasury in Petra you can also see the face of Al-Uzza, who is venerated as Isis, and sometimes as Aphrodite. I bought a pendant (below) at the foot of the treasury.
When we traveled into the desert to spent the night in a desert camp with the Bedouin, I saw the following image in the stones on the border between Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and it bore a striking resemblance to the Al-Uzza image in Petra.
How ironic! Had patriarchy not held sway so violently, the cultural and social landscape may have unfolded much differently.
And yet, these goddesses were warrior queens as well. Al-Uzza is graven into the frontispiece of the treasury of Petra alongside those female mythical warriors, the Amazons. And in Jerash, Jordan, at the famous Roman ruins, the Temple of Artemis looms higher and grander than that of Zeus, whose temple is of a lower elevation. Artemis, or Diana, was the protector of the city.
Clearly they were not goddesses that tilled the hearth and hid behind the grandeur of their male counterparts. They stood beside them, and in some cases, without them at all.