In Greek mythology, Hera is the wife of Zeus, and while she is said to be very beautiful, presiding over marriage, birth, and many aspects of women’s lives, she is not the most popular of the Greek goddesses. She is often seen as jealous and spiteful, causing problems for Zeus’s many lovers and illegitimate children. But there is some evidence that Hera was around long before Zeus ever came into the picture.

Pre-Hellenic Greece had a thriving goddess culture, and Athena, Hera, Demeter, Persephone, Pandora, and several others were worshiped before any of the male gods showed up. As Charlene Spretnak explains in her book Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, beginning around 2500 BCE, waves of invasions by northern groups including the Dorians brought the concept of the male gods—and patriarchy itself—to these matriarchal societies.

Baba Yaga is the classic crone, the Witch of the Forest. She is old and ugly, often riding around in a mortar without a pestle or on a broom. She lives in a little magical hut that has sentient chicken legs to carry her wherever she wants to go, making her exceedingly hard to find. In some of her stories, she cooks and eats children in her giant stove. In others, she gives them magic, helping them survive and thrive if they are willing to work on her terms.