The megalithic temples of Malta : an anthropological perspective

Abstract

At Gozo, one of the smaller islands of the Maltese Archipelago, there is still lingering in the memory of the people a legend about a woman Giant that is told to the visitors of the Ggantija Temple (Temple of the Giants). Is it possible that the woman of the legend and the Great Goddess worshipped in prehistoric Malta were one and the same? The shape of the Maltese temples could be assimilated to the shape of the body of the Goddess. I looked for ethnographic parallels and I found one in the Fang people of Africa; accordingly, in the very condensed and complex symbolism of the Fang, the structure of the cult house is assimilated to the womb. In a preliminary study, I propose Malta and its Archipelago as a model for an agricultural society where the much later religion of Demeter-Persephone had its origin and its mysteries.