Goddesses of War
A. One of the astonishing phenomena in ancient mythology is the existence of goddesses of war, in contrast to the absence of women from the actual scene of war. For hundreds or even thousands of years of wars between rivaling tribes, peoples and countries, women have been excluded from one of the central occupations of human beings; but the appearance of goddesses of war persisted as long as there were any goddesses left in any pagan pantheon all round the globe, from America to the Far East to the Near East and Europe.
It is my contention that originally, War goddesses were not concerned with any of the battles mentioned above, but with the one kind that women did take an active part in, that led to their creation. This is not the concrete war taking place between peoples, but the symbolic seasonal battle taking place between two gods for the favors of the Goddess of Love, and for the right to leadership and power that her love would grant. Such mythological war was yearly conducted between figures like Baal and Mot, Balder and Hodder, Osiris/Horus and Set in order to gain the favors of the respective goddesses Anath, Nana and Isis, as described in my article The Fight for Love and Glory (s. link below). The goddess supervising this war would be none other than the Great Mother of Life and Death, as will be shown below.
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B. Some War goddesses were considered warrior themselves, others were in charge of the war, or of some parts of it without taking an active part in it. Two nameless figures appear from ancient mythology as being in charge but not taking part in any war. One is know from an old Amerindians story, that tells how war trophies in the shape of scalps, mounted