Marija Gimbutas as Muse

Mary Mackey

Abstract

While Marija Gimbutas’ 1991 volume, The Civilization of the Goddess, was in the process of being published, the executive director of HarperSanFrancisco sent a note to Mary Mackey asking her if she would be interested to see the manuscript and to write a novel based upon it.

In this article, Mackey describes her initial reluctance to embark upon such a request until the manuscript arrived in the mail. She writes, “It may be hard to imagine, now that so much time has passed, the stunning impact this book had on me, my work, and my creative process. [. . .] Almost immediately, I decided that this was something the world needed to hear, something that needed to go far beyond academic circles.” As a novelist she recognized “there was nothing like fiction to spread ideas to people who would otherwise not be willing to consider them.” Therefore she embarked on a long and satisfying journey to produce four novels: The Year The Horses Came, The Horses at The Gate, The Fires of Spring, and The Village of Bones, based upon Marija Gimbutas’ magnum opus, The Civilization of the Goddess: the World of Old Europe.