Women of Power Compared in the Celtic and Slavic Traditions
Dean Miller
University of Rochester
Abstract
This will be a brief and tentative effort at comparison that may begin with thematic resemblances, but will attempt to move past these parallels to find deeper ideological (in the Dumézilian sense) roots. That is, I will try to find and found my comparands in an Indo-European patterning matrix or common ancestry, despite the obvious geographical or spatial separation (at least at the present time) of the two cultural-linguistic traditions we have in primary view. To take up “women of power” in the Celtic and the Slavic contexts also confronts a pseudo-historical cliché with some historically factual backing: that is, the essentially “patriarchal” conformation (or essential character) of the I-E socio-political order, where male rulers and warriors are said to dominate, worshiping, aided by or associated with potent (male) deities. This view is, I think, much too simplistic or at least un-nuanced.