« Des dieux et des déesses : le genre et la représentation du divin en Grèce ancienne »

As Nicole Loraux wrote, « a goddess is not a woman ». In the Greek polytheistic system “gods” are not “persons”, but “divine powers”. Consequently, not only the status of theos goes beyond the gender, but the functions attributed to each deity are not systematically determined by the division of the pantheon into gods and goddesses. In the world of theoi, the male / female relation is less a rigid polarity than a manifold tool used to “decline” the divine being, articulating the sophisticated architecture of the divine world.