Political power compels action; normative authority determines which action is worthy. They are now often intertwined, making them easy to mistake for one institution. Yet a priestess, ritual keeper, maternal line, or community could possess authority without an army or coercive apparatus.
Aletophany reads several ancient narratives as possible traces of a struggle to unite these powers. The Fall, the serpent, Tadukhepa, and the office of high priestess are not proof of one secret history, but comparative material: who could name good and evil, and who later claimed that right?
Established evidence and reconstruction must remain distinct here. Archaeology and texts attest complex female religious offices; a universal sequence of female precedence followed by male appropriation is not proven. This node therefore remains explicitly hypothetical and open-edged.