"... On Jul 17, 1:51 pm, rigsy03 <[email protected]> wrote: ..."

> Christianity was as much a political-social movement against the pagan
> Roman Empire as anything else. It gave the masses a new daydream. Mary
> symbolized sacrifice and silence- bearing all woes with grace- and did
> have an impact on women's behavior, whether Catholic or not. All the
> myths and rituals were in place for the early Church to choose from
> with a bit of editing and touch-up. The Greek women were also
> suppressed- the Roman matron, less so.

I think that the degree to which one society suppressed women over
another is a trifle compared to the fact that in virtually all
societies and religions throughout time women have been suppressed,
disenfranchised, and seen as despoilers of men.  I think Lederer
presents the best argument I've seen to date as to why our species
have split so radically.  For those feelings to have been so strongly
implemented in virtually all of humankinds groupings implies something
primal and archetypal.

Don't misjudge my motives.  I'm not a champion of women's rights.  I'm
a champion of human rights.  I know beyond all doubt that a species so
radically split against themselves is going to have a great deal of
difficulty with most of what they attempt to accomplish, and most
especially raising their children.   Given the enormity of that task,
I feel grateful for what we have accomplished to date.

> What women (Pandora?) let out of the bag (womb?) was a stark reminder
> of mortality, i.e. a new generation to overcome the parents- Freud>
> killing of the father and it also plays out between mothers and
> daughters. So within the joy there is sorrow and recognition in
> tension. A grasp towards immortality would be inheritance and
> succession.

According to legend, the box was entrusted to Pandora's safekeeping
with a warning never to open it.  Pandora's sin was curiosity.  When
she opened the box all the ills of the world escaped.  However, it
probably still works the same way as you describe.

However, the playout between mother, father, daughter and son is
complex and has been riddled with the same primal and archetypal
urges, instincts and tendencies again and again.  The nuclear family
is the ultimate stage upon which the tragicomedy of life is played
out.  Shakespeare had it cynically right: Life is but a poor shadow
who struts and frets his last hour upon the stage and then is heard no
more.  It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.

That said, your carryover from parent to child is more than symbolic.
Is there a young girl who has not fallen in love with daddy and at one
point or another sworn to marry him.   It's the same between mother
and son.  There is, in most families, a time when the child has a full
blown love crush on the parent.  I suspect this is also the source of
a lot of incestuous pedophilia.

> As for depictions in art, most of the later art was little more than
> porn prior to the camera.

I do believe we have semantically crossed swords here.  I suspect what
you call porn I would label as erotic art, erotica, eros, sensuality
and even humor (if you've ever seen any erotic art from India.)

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