Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 015696158X, Paperback)
Here, archaeologically documented,is the story of the religion of the Goddess. Under her, women’s roles were far more prominent than in patriarchal Judeo-Christian cultures. Stone describes this ancient system and, with its disintegration, the decline in women’s status. Index; maps and illustrations.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:10 -0400)
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The highlight for me is Chapter Ten--"Unraveling the Myth of Adam and Eve". Starting with 'Innana, the Divine Mother who reveals the Laws', at the threshhold of the earliest Sumerian period. She was a Serpent Goddess! Interpreter of dreams of an unrevealed future. Then Ishtar of Babylon, through the Pythias, and krait-bitten seers. Then the most important symbol in the story, the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil drawn from the golden rolling apple tree of Hera (Egyptian Hathor - Eye of Wisdom/Serpent Lady, to eat of her flesh is to share communion) about which the serpent Ladon coiled. Despite the warnings of the Levite priests--who had to keep re-asserting the warnings for a thousand years--Jewish women continued to participate in what were essentially Sumerian Goddess rituals surrounding procreation. A male priesthood denigrating a religion with female priests/zonah=meaning both "prostitute" and "prophetess".