Among others. There is absolutely nothing in the original myths that supports Maiden, Mother, Crone. Nor is it evident that all goddesses are really just aspects of a single goddess. In Greek Mythology, you have Aphrodite and Persephone (both of whom would probably fit the "maiden" personality archetype) fighting over a single mortal man (one version even says that Persephone orchestrated said mortal's death so he would be her's forever). Then you have Hera brutally beating Artemis over the head with her own bow (and calling her a hussy before doing it) in The Iliad. I'm sure that I could find more examples from other pantheons if I had the time. If all of these ladies were really the same goddess than why would she be this self-destructive?
First of all, you can not expect everyone to have read the same books that you have. Second, Apuleius studied Platonist philosophy and was involved with a handful of mystery cults. Both groups tended to believe different things in the population at large.
Marilyn, I agree with your points about the Triple Goddess but also see truth in Graves and Frazier.
When you have a chance take a look at the info on Gebekli Tepe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobekli_Tepe This is the oldest structure in the world. So far. The archaeologist who discovered it tends towards seeing it as a temple but I think there is strong evidence for regarding it as an observatory where the images represent the Zodiac.
Tim Stephany has a nice bit on this at:
http://timothystephany.com/gobekli.html What I am driving at is that sometimes we try to assign modern concepts of religion to ancient, pre-writing cultural artifacts.
Take the so-called "Venus" statues from 20,000 years ago. Do they represent a goddess? The men (!) who first assigned the name to them thought so, but were they truly religious in nature? Darned if I know.
In Mesoamerica and Classical Greece, games were religious; a concept foreign to us now.
What we don't know would fill a book.
I'm a fan of Inanna. She had no trouble having sex with Damuzi and is, IMHO, the perfect goddess.
She was a regular girl with all the pluses and minuses of any human female.
What do you think of the "Red Book"; "Inanna: Queen of heaven and Earth"?
I am enthralled by the way Wolkstein used her poetic sensibility to bring the Sumerian hymns to life.
Arne
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