Lucy Goodison (born 1945) is a writer who has combined work as an archaeologist of the prehistoric Aegean with involvement in the practice and teaching of body psychotherapy and engagement with issues of social justice. [1] She has focused on actively challenging the mind/body split and bridging the divide between thinking and feeling that is basic to the western world view. [2] Her books include: Death, Women and the Sun: Symbolism of Regeneration in Early Aegean Religion; Moving Heaven and Earth: Sexuality, Spirituality and Social Change; and Holy Trees and Other Ecological Surprises.
Lucy Goodison was educated at Bushey Grammar School [3] and Newnham College, Cambridge, [4] where she graduated in Classics and Modern & Medieval Languages. [5] [6] She obtained a PhD in Classical Archaeology from University College, London. [7] She has been an Honorary Research Fellow of University College, London; a Leverhulme Research Fellow; [8] and a Phyllis and Eileen Gibbs Travelling Research Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. [9]
She started work in the media, as staff scriptwriter for the BBC World Service, then as writer and director of historical and archaeological documentaries for ‘Chronicle’ on BBC-TV. She retained an interest in film and the arts, but her subsequent career followed three main concurrent and intertwined trajectories: as an independent scholar specializing in prehistoric Aegean and early Greek religion; as a practitioner, workshop leader and trainer in body therapies; and as an activist in community campaigns, especially around health, mental health and disability. [10] These different strands of activity have informed her writings, which range from academic texts to journalism and books for the lay reader on self-help therapy and on symbolic, somatic and social issues. [11]
Her earliest archaeological work, the monograph Death Women and the Sun: Symbolism of Regeneration in Early Aegean Religion, presented an innovative synthesis of evidence for the importance of the sun in Aegean religion; [12] she is also concerned with investigation of other physical aspects of prehistoric religion, especially in funerary rituals at the Mesara-type tombs of Minoan Crete. [13] She has been an advocate of integrating sensory, spiritual and social awareness in the consideration of ancient lives, [14] and has published numerous academic papers on various aspects of early Aegean religion. From 1990—1997 she was an occasional Lecturer for the British Museum (Education Service); [15] 2001—2004 she taught Modern Greek in Adult Education; and she has lectured nationally [16] and internationally [17] on the iconography and embodied/performative ritual practices of prehistoric Crete.
Concurrently she trained in, and ran a 25-year private practice in, therapeutic massage; [18] has been a practitioner and teacher of bodywork therapies; and has campaigned around special education, self-help therapy and the National Health Service. Work in these fields has included 1977—1988 as a Workshop Leader at The Women’s Therapy Centre in London; 1988—1991 as Information Worker for Mencap in London; 1997—2001 as a Dance Therapist (currently a Registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist) in the Drug Addiction Unit at Holloway Prison, London; [19] and 1979—2003 as occasional tutor of self-help therapy, massage, dance, dreamwork and disability issues in Adult Education, including at the Mary Ward Centre, The Open Centre, Shoreditch Health Centre and Westminster Pastoral Foundation in London, and the Dorset Adult Education Service. In this field she has authored several books and a number of articles, including for The Guardian, Social Work Today, Open Mind, Psychotherapy and Politics International and Health Service Journal. Her 1981 book In Our Own Hands: A Book of Self-help Therapy (co-authored with Sheila Ernst) clarified the possibilities for choice and autonomy for those undertaking therapy, [20] and became a Time Out and City Limits Alternative Bestseller; [21] [22] [23] her writings on disability and special education were used as teaching materials by the Open University. [24]
An ongoing interest in iconography, literature and performance in the field of the contemporary arts has been reflected in occasional work, including at Inter-Action Community Arts Trust 1970—1972; as Co-Director and Administrator of Reportage Photo Library 1991—1994; a continuing involvement in writing and performing in community dance and topical street theatre; and work since 2010 as a Co-ordinator of the non-profit imprint Just Press, publishing alternative titles ranging from studies of early documentary photographers to histories of radical theatre. [25]
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Holy Trees and Other Ecological Surprises, Just Press 2010.
Ancient Goddesses: The Myths and the Evidence, British Museum Press 1998, co-edited with Christine E. Morris.
Moving Heaven and Earth: Sexuality, Spirituality and Social Change, The Women's Press 1990.
Death, Women and the Sun: Symbolism of Regeneration in Early Aegean Religion, Institute of Classical Studies 1989.
'“Seeing” Stars… or Suns?' in Aegaeum 44 (Neoteros) 2020, 169—179.
‘Journeys with Death: Spatial Analysis of the Mesara-type Tombs of Prehistoric Crete’, in Unlocking Sacred Landscapes: Spatial Analysis of Ritual and Cult in the Mediterranean, edited by G Papantoniou, C E Morris and A K Vionis, Åström Editions 2019, 121—138.
‘Thoughts about Light and Water at the Oval House of Chamaizi’, in Von Kreta nach Kuba: Gedenkschrift zu Ehren des Berliner Archäologen Veit Stürmer, edited by K Müller, B Schiller and Der Fachschaftsrat des Winkelmann-Instituts der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH 2018, 101—119.
‘Sunlight, Divination, and the Dead in Aegean Ritual Tradition’, in The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology, edited by C Papadopoulos and H Moyes, Oxford University Press 2017 (online), 1—25.
‘Where did the Mesara-type Tombs Travel From?’ in Proceedings of 12th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Heraklion 21st—25th September 2016 (online), 1—15.
‘Goddesses in Prehistory’, in A Companion to Gender Prehistory, edited by D Bolger, John Wiley and Sons 2013, 265—287, with Christine Morris.
‘“Nature”, the Minoans and Embodied Spiritualities’, in Archaeology of Spiritualities, edited by K Rountree, C Morris and A A D Peatfield, Springer 2012, 207—225.
‘At Death’s Door: New Evidence and New Narratives from the Mesara-type Tombs’, in Proceedings of the 11th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Rethymnon, 21st—27th October 2011, 277—293.
‘“Why All this About Oak or Stone?”: Trees and Boulders in Minoan Religion’, in Archaeologies of Cult: Essays on Ritual and Cult in Crete in Honor of Geraldine C Gesell, edited by A L D’Agata and A Van de Moortel, American School of Classical Studies at Athens 2009, 51—57.
‘Gender, Body and the Minoans: Contemporary and Prehistoric Perceptions’, in Aegaeum 30 (Fylo) 2009, 233—241.
‘Horizon and Body: Some Aspects of Cycladic Symbolism’, in Orizon: A Colloquium on the Prehistory of the Cyclades, edited by N Brodie, J Doole, G Gavalas and C Renfrew, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2008, 417—431.
‘Wearing Wings and Falling: Ikaros in Archaeology?’, in Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Chania, 1–8 October 2006, 579—596.
‘Beyond Feasting: Activities with Animals at the Mesara-type Tombs’, in Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Chania, 1–8 October 2006, 179— 195.
‘A New Catalogue of the Mesara-type Tombs’, in Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici 47 2005, 171—212, with Carlos Guarita.
‘From Tholos Tomb to Throne Room: Some considerations of Dawn Light and Directionality in Minoan Buildings’, in Knossos: Palace, City, State, edited by G Cadogan, E Hatzaki and A Vasilakis, British School at Athens 2004, 339—350.
‘Helen Waterhouse and her “Priest-Kings?” paper', in Cretan Studies Vol.7 2002, 89—96, with Helen Hughes-Brock.
‘Divination with Water: A Diachronic Perspective’, in Proceedings of the 9th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Elounda, 1—6 October 2001, 369—383.
‘Re-constructing Dialogues with the Dead’, in Proceedings of the 9th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Elounda, 1—6 October 2001, 325—340.
‘From Tholos Tomb to Throne Room: Perceptions of the Sun in Minoan Ritual’ in Aegaeum 22 (Potnia) 2001, 77—88.
‘Theatre of the Sun’ with photographs by Carlos Guarita, in The Independent on Sunday April 2000.
‘A Female Sun Deity in the Bronze Age Aegean?’ in Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 35 1988, 168—173.
A Darker Side of Dorset: Haunting Stories, Avenue Words and Turnpike 2014, co-edited with Anne Denham.
The Dreams of Women: Exploring and Interpreting Women’s Dreams, The Women’s Press 1995; W W Norton & Co. 1996.
Moving Heaven and Earth: Sexuality, Spirituality and Social Change, The Women’s Press 1990; (abridged) Pandora 1992.
Understanding Mental Handicap, MIND Publications pamphlet 1991, with Jane Armitage.
Public & Private Parts: Songs and Tales of the War Years 1941—81 by Keith Horn, Community Press 1981, co-edited with Deborah Daly.
In Our Own Hands: A Book of Self-Help Therapy, The Women’s Press 1981, with Sheila Ernst.
Divide and Rule — Never! anti-racist booklet for schools, The Newsreel Collective 1979.
‘Narcissism: Fragile Bodies in a Fragile World’, in Psychotherapy and Politics International 7(2) 2009, 81—94, with Sue Cowan-Jensson.
‘Celebrity and the Flight from Mortality’, in Free Associations: Psychoanalysis Groups Politics Culture 11(4) No.60 2004, 465—476, with Sue Cowan-Jenssen.
‘A Dance to the Music of Time’ on dance therapy work in HMP Holloway, in Health Service Journal October 1999, with Helen Schafer-Cohen.
‘While you were sleeping’, in New Woman (Australia) 1997.
‘Portrayal or Betrayal?’ on public images of people with special needs or in mental distress, in OPENMIND, journal of MIND June/July 1992, with Jane Armitage.
‘Snapshots of a Revolution’, obituary of photographer Osvaldo Salas, in The Guardian May 1992.
‘The Story of the Jar’, in Sacred Space, edited by Marsha Rowe, Serpent’s Tail 1992, 173—191.
‘Home and Away’ on parents from ethnic minority groups who have children with special needs, in Social Work Today November 1991, with Jane Armitage.
‘The Common Touch’ on the healing effects of massage, in OPENMIND, journal of MIND August/September 1990.
‘Friends and Neighbours’ on befriending schemes for people in mental distress, in OPENMIND journal of MIND April/May 1990.
‘Integration — Whose Ideal?’ on special education, in New Society July 1987.
‘Special Effects’ on special education, in The Guardian January 1987.
‘Only They Know How it Feels: Self-help therapy for parents of handicapped children’, in MINDOUT, journal of MIND September 1981.
‘Self-help Therapy: What does it offer you?’ in MINDOUT, journal of MIND March 1981.
‘With a Little Help from your Friends’ on self-help therapy, in The Observer February 1981, with Sheila Ernst.
Speaking with Sinclair, interview with archaeologist Sinclair Hood 2020, with Carlos Guarita.
Breaking Point, Kestrel Films (for Mental Health Film Council) 1975, assistant director.
Growing Together, Kestrel Films (for the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus) 1974, assistant director.
The Fastest Con in the West, the mythologizing and reality of the Wild West, BBC-2 1971, writer/director.
Marx Was Here, BBC-2 1970, writer/director.
The Alexandrians, BBC-2 1970, writer/director.
This is the Wonderful Year, the story of Sabbati Zevi, BBC-2 1968, writer/director.
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, Pasiphaë was a queen of Crete, and was often referred to as goddess of witchcraft and sorcery. The daughter of Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse, Pasiphaë is notable as the mother of the Minotaur. She conceived the Minotaur after mating with the Cretan Bull while hidden within a hollow cow that the Athenian inventor Daedalus built for her, after Poseidon cursed her to fall in love with the bull, due to her husband, Minos, failing to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon as he had promised.
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from c. 3500 BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000 BC, and then declining from c. 1450 BC until it ended around 1100 BC, during the early Greek Dark Ages, part of a wider bronze age collapse around the Mediterranean. It represents the first advanced civilization in Europe, leaving behind a number of massive building complexes, sophisticated art, and writing systems. Its economy benefited from a network of trade around much of the Mediterranean.
Phaistos, also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Latin Phaestus, is a Bronze Age archaeological site at modern Faistos, a municipality in south central Crete. Ancient Phaistos was located about 5.6 km (3.5 mi) east of the Mediterranean Sea and 62 km (39 mi) south of Heraklion, the second largest city of Minoan Crete. The name Phaistos survives from ancient Greek references to a city in Crete of that name at or near the current ruins.
Pyrgos is an archaeological site of the Minoan civilization near Myrtos in the municipality of Ierapetra on the south coast of Crete. Pyrgos provides evidence of settlements along the southern Ierapetra Isthmus. This site has had a long history due to its valuable location and geography. It is located close to the Myrtos valley and has a harbor with a nearby mountain range providing its protection. The settlement includes a courtyard, many rooms, a country house and a tomb.
Gournia is the site of a Minoan palace complex on the island of Crete, Greece, excavated in the early 20th century by the American archaeologist, Harriet Boyd-Hawes. The original name for the site is unknown. The modern name comes from the abundant hollow vessels found all over the site. Gournia lies in the municipality of Ierapetra in the prefecture of Lasithi.
Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. The Mycenaeans were mainland Greek peoples who were likely stimulated by their contact with insular Minoan Crete and other Mediterranean cultures to develop a more sophisticated sociopolitical culture of their own. The most prominent site was Mycenae, after which the culture of this era is named. Other centers of power that emerged included Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the south-west coast of Asia Minor, Cyprus, while Mycenaean-influenced settlements appeared in the Levant, and Italy.
The Goddess movement includes spiritual beliefs or practices which emerged predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand in the 1970s. The movement grew as a reaction to perceptions of predominant organized religion as male-dominated, and makes use of goddess worship and can include a focus on women, or on one or more understandings of gender or femininity.
Pseira is an islet in the Gulf of Mirabello in northeastern Crete with the archaeological remains of Minoan and Mycenean civilisation.
Vaphio, Vafio or Vapheio is an ancient site in Laconia, Greece, on the right bank of the Eurotas, some five miles south of Sparta. It is famous for its tholos or "beehive" tomb, excavated in 1889 by Christos Tsountas. This consists of a walled approach, about 97 feet long, leading to a vaulted chamber some 33 feet in diameter, in the floor of which the actual grave was cut. The tomb suffered considerable damage in the decades following its excavation. During conservation work in 1962 the walls were restored to a height of c. 6 m.
Minoan religion was the religion of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization of Crete. In the absence of readable texts from most of the period, modern scholars have reconstructed it almost totally on the basis of archaeological evidence of such as Minoan paintings, statuettes, vessels for rituals and seals and rings. Minoan religion is considered to have been closely related to Near Eastern ancient religions, and its central deity is generally agreed to have been a goddess, although a number of deities are now generally thought to have been worshipped. Prominent Minoan sacred symbols include the bull and the horns of consecration, the labrys double-headed axe, and possibly the serpent.
"Horns of Consecration" is a term coined by Sir Arthur Evans for the symbol, ubiquitous in Minoan civilization, that is usually thought to represent the horns of the sacred bull. Sir Arthur Evans concluded, after noting numerous examples in Minoan and Mycenaean contexts, that the Horns of Consecration were "a more or less conventionalised article of ritual furniture derived from the actual horns of the sacrificial oxen"
Kommos is a Greek prehistoric Bronze Age port and archaeological site in southern Crete, 5 km north of Matala. It was a busy port with connections to the Near East that continued into historic periods; the rich finds and elaborate buildings reflect the importance of foreign trade for the Cretan economy. Its ancient name was probably Amyklaion, which would reflect a link with Amyclae; Robin Lane Fox speculates that it is referred to in Odyssey 3.296: "a small rock holds back the great waves." That small rock is likely to have been the natural reef of Papadoplaka and a submerged sandy shore stretching to the coast would have formed a natural harbor. This breakwater was partially degraded by aerial bombing during the Second World War as part of a campaign to deny safe harbours for the Nazis' enemies.
The Hagia Triada Sarcophagus is a late Minoan 137 cm (54 in)-long limestone sarcophagus, dated to about 1400 BC or some decades later, excavated from a chamber tomb at Hagia Triada, Crete in 1903, and now on display in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum ("AMH") in Crete.
The wall paintings of ancient Thera are famous frescoes discovered by Spyridon Marinatos at the excavations of Akrotiri on the Greek island of Santorini. They are regarded as part of Minoan art, although the culture of Thera was somewhat different from that of Crete, and the political relationship between the two islands at the time is unclear. They have the advantage of mostly being excavated in a more complete condition, still on their walls, than Minoan paintings from Knossos and other Cretan sites.
Kavousi Vronda is an archaeological site in eastern Crete, Greece, located about 1.25 km south of the modern village of Kavousi, a historic village in the municipality of Ierapetra in the prefecture of Lasithi.
The Kavousi Project was a multidisciplinary program of archaeological investigations in the area of Kavousi, a historic village at the eastern end of the Gulf of Mirabello in East Crete, Greece. The objective of the project was to restudy a number of archaeological sites originally investigated by the pioneering American archaeologist Harriet Boyd [Hawes] in the early years of the 20th century, focusing on the Greek Dark Age sites of Kavousi Vronda and Kavousi Kastro, but also including tombs at nearby Aloni, Plaï tou Kastrou, and Skouriasmenos, all located in the northern foothills of the Thripti Mountains of eastern Crete.
Helen Hughes-Brock is an independent scholar working in the archaeology of the Minoan civilization of Crete and Mycenaean Greece.
Sheila Hyah Sarah Ernst was a British psychotherapist who helped to develop a radical feminist approach to group analysis.
Nanno (Ourania) Marinatos is Professor Emerita of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, whose research focuses on the Minoan civilisation, especially Minoan religion.
Christine E. Morris is an Irish classical scholar, who is the Andrew A. David Professor in Greek Archaeology and History at Trinity College Dublin. An expert on religion in the Aegean Bronze Age, her work uses archaeological evidence to examine the practice and experience of belief. She is a member of the Standing Committee for Archaeology for the Royal Irish Academy.