Three thousand years after her death, we still know exactly what it means to call a woman a Jezebel: Promiscuous. Manipulative. Immoral. Dangerous.
The conjecture around her name became so great, that most of us never stopped to examine the truth.
That is the point.
She was a Phoenician princess who grew up in a goddess-based tradition where she was seen and valued by her community. She was educated, autonomous, and likely trained in sacred sexual rituals. She came into her marriage wielding her own political power.
She married a Hebrew King, making her a Queen who often ruled in tandem with her husband.
He came from a culture firmly rooted in patriarchy, yet he allowed her to erect temples to her goddess, practice her sacred rituals, and share them with their people.
The King’s inner circle disapproved of her political leadership and the new religious synthesis that was emerging. The King’s leaders could not allow a woman to have power, especially sexual power as it would challenge their control over women and their patriarchal social and religious structure.
So while the marriage led to a political, trading and military alliance, the religious and cultural chasm was too great. Jezebel had to be discredited and dethroned.
But killing the queen isn't enough: her reputation had to die too.
The accounts that survive come through the religious and political tradition of her opponents.
Over centuries, the foreign queen becomes seductress, whore, manipulator and embodiment of female wickedness.
It’s one of history's most successful smear campaigns.
In this Garden of Even™ portrait, Jezebel stands between worlds: carrying the symbols of the Phoenician culture she came from while confronting the political and religious order of the kingdom she married into.
She stands at the fault line between cultures, religions and competing claims to power while holding her own as a Queen.
