Divine women – in many guises – have featured in every world faith from deep history until the present day, inspiring people and cultures across the world. In a cross-cultural and global approach, this book discusses Eve alongside Inanna, Radha, and Aphrodite in the context of sex and desire, while in the chapter on evil, witches and Hecate are compared with other deities, like Lamashtu and the Cihuateotl, as well as monstrous women such as Taraka, Medusa, Rangda, and Lilith. Ideas of justice and defense are explored in the figures of Athena, Sekhmet, and Kali, and the final chapter on compassion and salvation uncovers links between Isis, Mary, Tara, and Guanyin. The publication concludes with a discussion of contemporary art and modern interpretations of goddesses.

Until the mid-twentieth century, the disciplines of theology, archaeology, and history were heavily dominated by male academics, resulting in the under-representation of women’s experience and fewer studies on female divinity. This timely book written by the exhibition Lead Curator, Belinda Crerar, is packed with fascinating insights into different cultures and beliefs, seeks to redress that balance.

This book accompanies an exhibition by the same name at The British Museum.

Belinda Crerar is the lead curator of Feminine Power: the divine to the demonic. A curator in the British Museum’s International Engagement Department, her work is focused on generating cross-collection exhibitions using an inter-disciplinary approach. Since joining the British Museum in 2012 she has also managed the collection of Romano-British antiquities as well as being a lead member of the major cross-collection research project Empires of Faith. She has a particular interest in religious iconography and the art and archaeology of the Roman Empire after completing her doctorate on the subject at the University of Cambridge.