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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1670491" data-attributes="member: 3146">Female dominated priesthoods and female deities (which people actually believed to grant real powers and blessings) don't seem to correlate to what we now call female empowerment in real-world history. As I understand it, the temple of Artemis at Ephesus was extremely important to the city, featured a female dominated clergy, and honored a goddess but didn't change the fact that the greek culture, there like most everywhere else was male-dominated. In fact, the female clergy (temple prostitutes) would probably be considered to reinforce the male dominance of the society. The (often female IIRC) oracle of Apollo at Delphi didn't do anything to change matters either. Nor did the worship of Athena as the goddess of Athens nor the worship of Aphrodite as the goddess of Corinth. In Rome, the godess Vesta was honored with a prominent temple and a priesthood of virgins (well, at least they're not temple prostitutes), but Rome was about as male-dominated as societies come.The ancient middle east with their worship of Astaroth exhibited a similar dynamic. Lots of temple prostitutes who represented their goddess, a goddess central to the lives of the people, and not the slightest trace of anything non-patriarchal.Similarly, my understanding of traditional Hindu beliefs places a lot of significance in godesses who are supposed to have power every bit as real as the clerics of D&D. Even with all that though, they managed to have a culture where high caste women were burned alive on their husbands' pires.There is little to no historical support for the idea that the worship of goddesses or the presence of female clergy prevents male-dominated societies.</blockquote>

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