Cadillac's Goddess Returns to a New Era

The 2024 Cadillac Celestic EV flagship is a step into the future for General Motors' luxury brand, but it also revives a piece of the past in the form of the Cadillac Goddess mascot.

A relic from an era when hood ornaments were fashionable, the Cadillac Goddess appeared on the hoods of various models from 1930 to 1956, and was briefly revived on the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. Although not currently used as a hood ornament (this issue did not stop Rolls-Royce from using the hood ornament, but probably not good for aerodynamics), the same female figure also appears on the Celestic.

The goddess can be found on the Celeste's front quarter panel trim piece, the infotainment controller on the center console, a plate on the driver's side door sill, and the charging port.

The front quarter panel is machined from billet aluminum and surrounds a goddess molded in glass. The infotainment controller also has a glass centerpiece with the goddess, surrounded by an aluminum dial that rotates independently of the goddess, so that the goddess remains upright at all times.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the invention of the instrument cluster thermometer made room for a hood ornament on the radiator, where the thermometer had previously been located, and thus the automobile mascot became fashionable.

The original Cadillac Goddess was designed in 1928-1929 by William N. Schnell of the Turnstead Manufacturing Company, a GM subsidiary responsible for the automaker's brightwork. It was initially used with another mascot, the Heron, but the Heron was only used for a few years.

The Goddess first appeared on the Cadillac V-16 flagship, and its use was extended to the entire lineup in 1933 after a redesign by Chris J. Klein and John R. Morgan, also of Turnstedt Manufacturing.

Cadillac redesigned the Goddess in 1941, but use of this version was discontinued by World War II; further updates were made in the 1950s under the supervision of legendary GM design boss Harley Earl, but the Goddess was retired at the end of the decade. Cadillac began planning to revive it in 2016 as part of the new design direction heralded by the Escala concept that debuted at Pebble Beach that year.

The revised version of the 1933 design-inspired goddess will be used exclusively on the Celestic to showcase the exclusivity of this large electric hatchback. scheduled for launch in 2024, the Celestic will start at well over $300,000 and will be highly personalization, and will be manufactured to some extent by hand. Nevertheless, it will feature a number of technologies, including a 55-inch dash-wide digital display and GM's Ultra Cruise driver assistance system.