A Taxonomy of Divine Birth Priestesshoods

Abstract

The intuitive flash I had that wintry New York day in January 2001—that specialized women in ancient Greece may have actively participated in attempts to produce children in non-ordinary ways as part of a spiritual calling—stimulated me to approach my research on ancient Greek history and religion from new angles. In my studies, I began to notice data that seemed to cluster around and verify this idea, which inspired me to seek out supporting information more actively. As I made sense of the data I was collecting, further and unanticipated patterns began to emerge. New insights were sparked, as well, which subsequently stimulated ever new cycles of mining ancient texts and secondary literature in search of validating details. The process thus was both deductive and inductive.