with eagle’s feathers, were placed in the hand of an old woman; she bore them about in a scalp-dance – naturally danced by men – while derogating epithets were uttered against the tribe from which these had been taken. The “old woman” seems to be in charge of the war dance, and by implication, symbolically in charge of the war itself. It may be understood that the person in charge of the war would be in charge of the life and death of the men who are going to face battle.
C. The second case is that of a “Dark Girl”, who had the body of a bird (making her a heavenly being), appearing in Chinese mythology as the one who taught the art of war to the Yellow Emperor of the Middle Heaven – one of China’s most esteemed ancient divine figures. Significantly, that same woman also taught the Yellow Emperor the art of love, and helped overcome his enemy the Green Buffalo by pouring water on the fire it had created. Both water and fire belong to the fertility scheme of things, and thus that “Dark Girl” is seen as being in charge not only on the Emperor’s ability in battle, but also of the personal rivalry between him and the Green Buffalo. The latter idea gets us back to the seasonal war theory mentioned above.*
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D. Unlike the two nameless figures mentioned above, which seems to be remnants of ancient, long forgotten rituals and myths, many traditional War goddesses are still well known from old myths of European, Middle Eastern, Far Eastern and American cultures. One such famous War goddess is the Greek Athena (s. link below), without whose help great warriors (like Odysseus, for instance) would hardly consider taking on such ventures. Athena, though, was first of all the