Lost Goddesses of Early Greece
by Charlene Spretnak
ABOUT THE BOOK
Lost Goddesses of Early Greece
For thousands of years before the classical myths were recorded by Hesiod and Homer, the Goddess was the focus of religion and culture. In Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, Charlene Spretnak researches and recreates the pre-Olympian, goddess-centered myths and illuminates the contemporary emergence of a spirituality based on our embeddedness in nature.
Praise for Lost Goddesses of Early Greece
“Charlene Spretnak has succeeded extremely well in presenting pure characterizations of the Old European goddesses as they were revered for millennia, long before the Indo-European elements were imposed to create Olympian mythology.”
— Marija Gimbutas, author of The Language of the Goddess
“Charlene Spretnak rediscovers the goddesses’ early significance and in fascinating portraits restores them to their original glory.”
— Publishers Weekly
“The book is essential . . . both academically accurate and a personal medium of passage.”
— CoEvolution Quarterly
“A basic text of the goddess movement that has spread through feminist and ecological circles for a decade.”
— Boston Globe
Book Details
Publisher
Women’s Spirituality Studies Press
Publication Date
September 29, 2026
Pages
144
Format
Ebook Edition
Language
English
Subject
Goddess Studies, Cultural History, History of Religion
About the Author
Charlene Spretnak
Professor Emerita,
California Institute of Integral Studies
Charlene Spretnak is the author of several books that proposed a “map of the terrain” and an engagement with various emergent social movements, intellectual orientations, and largely unexplored subjects. She has helped to create an eco-social frame of reference and vision in the areas of social criticism, cultural history, philosophy, and religion and spirituality.
Full Biography
About the Author
Charlene Spretnak
Charlene Spretnak, MA, is a foremother of the Women’s Spirituality movement and of ecofeminism. Her first book, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece (1978), and her anthology, The Politics of Women’s Spirituality (1982), were foundational works of the emerging movement. Other relevant books include States of Grace (1991); Missing Mary (2004); and The Spiritual Dynamic in Modern Art, 1800 to the Present (2014). Her most recent article in this field is “Goddess Time,” The Brooklyn Rail, February 2025.