The Cult of the Virgin:  A Radical Reinterpretation of Feminine Representation

As we move from Ancient and Classical Near Eastern and Mediterranean literature to the Medieval literature of North-Western Europe and Britain, the most notable change of attitudes we encounter is the massive shift or even complete inversion of how women are represented.  We're interested in a couple explanations for this change:

a) Geographically far from the Mediterranean and Greco-Roman influence, North-western European and especially Celtic cultures seem to retain more ancient (not only pre-Hebrew/Christian but also pre-Mycenaean) perceptions of gender.  Simply put, before the spread of Near Eastern culture via both the Mycenaean "Greeks" and Judeo-Christians, men and women appear to have been viewed as more equal (relatively).

b) Medieval European literature and culture is a blending of both Classical (Greek and Roman) literature with The Bible, and so we find sexualized Classical tales mixing with Hebrew chastity.

Nowhere is this more obvious than with the so called Cult of the Virgin: Mary

 
Virgin Birth: As we’ve already seen, throughout most all ancient cultures both heroes and gods are commonly the children of mortal virgins who conceive with a god -- Gilgamesh's mother is Ninsun; Rome was founded by Remus and Romulus, whose mother, Sylvia, was made pregnant by the god Mars etc.; Horus, the major Egyptian god, was born of the virgin Isis – and if we allow for heroes who are the offspring of a mortal father and an immortal/divine mother, the list grows again  (Achilles mother is the goddess Thetis etc.) – so virgin births and the partially divine origin of epic heroes signify one of the oldest and most common myths, going back to the very oldest recorded religious and epic tales known to humanity.

Fertility Cults: We have also examined how fertility cults seem to mark the oldest form of recorded religious belief, from the Celtic druids of Brittany on down through Europe (Ceres) and into the Middle East (Ishtar), so it’s easy to see how the world was primed to receive the belief that Mary was the virgin mother of the son of God: Jesus.

Hebrew Chastity: We’ve also seen that such virgin mothers and immaculate conception, however, is not a part of Judaism.  But chaste sexual attitudes toward sexuality do permeate Jewish religion and law (the penalty for sex before or outside of marriage is death, with the exception of men having sex with their female slaves), and these Hebrew sexual attitudes will revolutionize the world in the wake of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic revolution.

Vestal Virgins: Rome seemed primed for such a radical re-conception of sex either before or as Christianity arrived there. Romans shifted from sacred prostitutes toward Vestal Virgins in the first or second century (although sacred prostitution lingered on throughout the Empire).  More importantly, the virgin goddess Athena also played the most central role in the Homeric epics and as the patron saint of Athens; as Minerva she also deeply influenced Romans and those beneath the Roman empire.

In other words, it was easy for Greeks and Romans to transfer their veneration for the virgin Athena/ Minerva to the Virgin Mary.

Protestants certainly hold Mary as the mother of Christ, but she plays a much more central role in both Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity -- in countries of Spanish Catholic heritage especially, images of the Virgin Mary often outnumber those of Christ or Christ alone (unaccompanied by Mary).  

Also recall that Islam was the dominant religion in “Spain” from 711 to 1492, and Mary is mentioned more often in the Koran (30 references) than in the Christian Bible; considering the influence of Moorish courtly love on European romances, this connection seems obvious, as well: Mary's influence on S. Mediterranean culture may come to us in large part via Islam.

In the Americas, this Hispanic reverence for Mary is perhaps most commonly associated with Our Lady Of Guadalupe.  According to the legend, in 1531, in a small town near Mexico City, Mary appeared to a Native Mexican, Juan Diego, and told him, in his native language, Nahuatl, to build her a church at the spot of her appearance.  This and a series of ensuing associated miracles is largely credited with the conversion of Mexico and then Central and South America into Christian countries.

Gawain's Shield: Gawain keeps a picture of the Holy Virgin on the inside of his shield, while on the outside, for others to see, he keeps a pentangle.  This combination and the way it presents one image in battle and another to himself seems notable.  Similarly, note that Gawain's prayers are also directed toward Mary, not God or Christ.

Sexual Inversion: From the Gutter to the Tower

What's striking here is not that our epic heroes slowly evolve to respect women – recall the more ancient sacred prostitutes and horny goddesses in the Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey and the sex slave swapping in The Iliad -- but rather that the representation of sexual love has been entirely flipped upside down.   Courtly Love does not represent treating women as equals or with respect so much as worshipping them -- putting them on pedestals or up in towers -- and the representation of Medieval women is no more realistic than it was with the Sumerians and Greeks; they are still entirely Other.

Although now the men, rather than the women, are down on their knees,  notice that the women have simply been trapped in towers: they may be "high above" the men, but in fact they've gained little real power.

Still, it’s worth considering that by  1558 England would find its most powerful and successful sovereign ever in the commonly called “Virgin Queen”, Elizabeth (1533 – 1603), so if this sexual inversion does not represent equality itself, it may be an important step toward equality.  On the other hand, keep in mind as well that within both the Catholic and even the Anglican churches, women still cannot hold positions of real power, or power over men, and women will not achieve political equity until long after the establishment of secular democracies.