4. Who is Ungit

[Manuel]

Ungit, the mother of Eros, is the equivalent of Afrodite (Venus) in the Greek (Roman) mythology. What do you think was C.S. Lewis's intention when he created this character? Did he intend to represent a Pagan goddess, or something else?

[Mariangel]

Probably he intended both. The atmosphere he creates with all the details about the cult of Ungit is very vivid and gloomy.

[Harry]

I find the whole story vivid and gloomy. I’m hoping that’s why Lewis wrote this story and extended it, to resolve this. Maybe Christian morals will save them?

[J. W.]

Something I read recently in Mircea Eliade's book on Alchemy, 'The Forge and the Crucible' shed some light on this (for me at least):

'We shall do well to bear in mind the early religious
significance attaching to aeroliths. They fall to earth charged
with celestial sanctity; in a way, they represent heaven. This
would suggest why so many meteorites were worshipped or
identified with a deity. The faithful saw in them the 'first
form', the immediate manifestation of the godhead. The
Palladium of Troy was supposed to have dropped from
heaven, and ancient writers saw it as the statue of the goddess
Athena. A celestial origin was also accorded to the statue of
Artemis at Ephesus and to the cone of Heliogabalus at Emesus
(Herodian, v, 3, 5). The meteorite at Pessinus in Phrygia
was venerated as the image of Cybele and, following an injunction by the Delphic Oracle, it was transported to Rome
shortly after the Second Punic War. A block of hard stone, the
most ancient representation of Eros, stood side by side with
Praxiteles' sculptured image of the god (Pausanias, ix, 27, i).
Other examples could easily be found, the most famous being
the Ka' aha in Mecca. It is noteworthy that a certain number
of meteorites are associated with goddesses, especially fertility
goddesses such as Cybele. And here we come up against a
transference of sanctity: the celestial origin is forgotten, to
the advantage of the religious notion of the petra genitrix.'

The notion of the raw lump of (meteoric?) rock standing next to a beautiful, carved statue of Eros called this book directly to my mind.

[Harry]

Orual presents her case to the judge. Orual is Ungit and Psyche. The negative view of herself causes Orual to despise Ungit and idolize her sister. Orual personifies god as herself and deifies her sister, the equivalent of serving two masters. Our image and likeness of God is our ability to love. Our image and likeness to other humans makes it possible to love all humans, including ourselves, as God does. Lewis is showing how Christian Conversion works. The face of God is Love. The face of every human is our own and God’s love. To love every other person is to see the face of God and therefore your own.

[Fonch]

I think that the Harry's conclussion is right and much better than my conclussion. It is Ungit something more that Isthar or Cibeles at the beggining i Thought that It Might be The devil but the Harry explanation likes me much more and i think that It is the right.