The Sacred Whore and The Bearded One

 By armida books / March 22, 2012 / Armida's books, books

An article by Colette Ni Reamonn Ioannidou, author of the two short story collections “To Live or not to Live” and “To Die or not to Die”, Armida Publications, Nicosia 2011.

 Armida Publications recently presented the world with a book called “The Bearded Goddess” written by a lady from Sweden, Marie-Louise Winbladh, who has a strong interest in and knowledge of the archeology of Cyprus. As Armida’s blurb states, most of us associate Aphrodite (Venus) with love, beauty and fertility. How many folk out there think of her as having a beard? Spoils the image a tad, yes? Yet the content of the book is fascinating. It deals with what appears to be a hermaphrodite figure. And, importantly for those of us who see ourselves as modern-minded and educated in the tolerance of individual sex-related choices (or understanding of natural irregularities…for want of a better way to express it) over and above what most regard as ‘normal’, it is satisfying to think that this cult figure that embodied both sexes was really big medicine in old, very old, Cyprus. Two, in fact, for the price of one! The nice thing about this compact book is that it offers insights to this complex god/goddess and the cults surrounding it in the kind of language lay people can read with ease.