About the Author

Patricia Monaghan, PhD (1946–2012), was a leader in the contemporary women’s spirituality movement as well as an award-winning poet, scholar, activist, and mentor. In 1979, she published the first encyclopedia of female divinities, a book that has remained in print since then in various formats and that she later expanded into the current volume.

Reviews

“This beautiful volume—akin to Athena’s gift of weaving to the Greeks—provides a tapestry of glimmering threads of goddess figures from the world’s mythologies. This is an important introductory reference volume crafted with scholarship both deep and wide.”
—Safron Rossi, PhD, editor of Joseph Campbell’s Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine

“Something deep within every woman is healed and validated when she learns the rich feminine history of goddesses and heroines through history and their importance in all the world’s cultures. And it’s all here in this magnificent work.”
—Christiane Northrup, MD, ob/gyn physician and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Wisdom of Menopause and Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom

“It’s really valuable to have a book describing all goddesses and heroines. I’m sure many artists will find it inspiring.”
—Erica Jong, author of Fear of Flying

“For almost thirty-five years, generations of students and scholars have used editions of Patricia Monaghan’s rich and detailed encyclopedias describing thousands of goddesses and heroines. This wonderful new edition contains an introduction to bring the book up-to-date, discussing the most recent finds of female figures. This will be a superb addition to anyone’s library.”
—Miriam Robbins Dexter, author of Whence the Goddesses: A Source Book