Ancient catgirl booty

Nifty historical overview of the sex life of the sphinx.

Toward the end, the author approvingly cites the virgin/mother/crone triune goddess as per Robert Graves (he didn't actually originate the trope, did he?). I gather this concept has been gathering an increasing quantity of flak from within neopaganism, or at least certain quarters who question the underlying disparity of concepts; as presented, the thresholds are presumably defloration/childbirth (*not* synonymous; sheesh) and menopause, though Graves considered the term "nymph" roughly synonymous with "mother" as simply representing a woman of fertile age.

So what we're really talking about with Graves' thresholds are several overlapping sets: defloration (by itself), menarche/menopause, and impregnation/childbirth. Completely aside from how much women's identities should be shaped around sexuality and reproduction, there's a historical question of whether most women would've necessarily menstruated at regular intervals for most of human history, esp. in peasant populations with chronic caloric deficits, or lived long enough to reach menopause. If those phenomena were experienced only by a privileged minority, then their invocation as liminal events might be like saying "You're not a real adult until you get your driver's license" or "You know you've become a respected elder when you finish paying off your mortgage".

Also, danger + opportunity = eyeroll.