Goddess of Reason

During the French Revolution, on 10 November 1793, a Goddess of Reason (most likely representing Sophia (wisdom)) was proclaimed by the French Convention at the suggestion of Chaumette. As personification for the goddess, Sophie Momoro, wife of the printer Antoine-François Momoro, was chosen. The goddess was celebrated in Notre Dame de Paris (she was put on the high altar in the Cathedral).

Famous quotes containing the words goddess of, goddess and/or reason:

    “Well, if it isn’t Aurora Ratchett, goddess of the dawn, a sight for sore eyes.... I always think of Ebenezer Pritchett, the day he led that last charge at Shiloh. There was a gallant trooper, your father. You know, there went a man of quality. There went the flower of the South.”
    —Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)

    “As if the musicians did not so much play the little phrase as execute the rites required by it to appear, and they proceeded to the necessary incantations to obtain and prolong for a few instants the miracle of its evocation, Swann, who could no more see the phrase than if it belonged to an ultraviolet world ... Swann felt it as a presence, as a protective goddess and a confidante to his love, who to arrive to him ... had clothed the disguise of this sonorous appearance.”
    —Marcel Proust (1871–1922)

    “So far no actual revolutionary masses have come into view. This might be considered sufficient reason for reproaching someone who has set out to describe a revolution. But it is not our fault. This is, after all, a German revolution.”
    —Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)