The Ancient Influences on

The Iconography of the Holy Mother

(Extract from the original essay)

Written by:

Ilia Calogero Curto Pelle

11а grade, NHSALC “Constantine-Cyril the Philosopher”

This essay has been written with the support of Dr. Veselina Vachkova (history

teacher at the NHSALC).

E-mail: v.vachkova@gmail.com; GSM: +359 897 534548.

July-September 2016

Christianity is a religion, whose adherents all around the world number more than 1.5

billion. It is based on the suffering of a figure with a human and divine nature – Jesus Christ. For

the modern world, the Birth of Christ is an event that transformed the world, which is illustrated

by the fact that, in the West, the system of chronology is divided into Before Christ and After Christ

(Anno Domini). Christianity is a unique religion, completely different from all others that came

before it. It ushered in a new era and ended the time of pagan practices, sacrifices, rituals, etc. We

accept this fact at face value. But is that so? Did Christianity just wipe the other century-old

religions of Antiquity from the face of the Earth, creating something completely different? Is Jesus’

cult that different of those of Mithras and Dionysus, and of other gods? Did the year 1 AD signify

the end of Antiquity and its culture? Most people would not think about these questions. However,

those who study History, Cultural Anthropology, Languages and Humanitarian subjects in general,

know that a culture, especially millennial ones, do not just disappear, but take time to die out. This

is also the case with the culture of Antiquity – it did not disappear with the coming of Christianity.

Even after the Edict of Milan, the two cultures coexisted at least until Justinian’s time. And when

two cultures coexist, they influence each other. The goal of this essay is to discuss the influence of

the cults of ancient goddesses, such as Isis, Ishtar, and Athena, on the iconography of maybe the

most revered figure in all of Christendom (sometimes even more than Christ himself) – the Holy

Mother.

“Illiterate men can contemplate in the lines of a picture what they cannot learn by means

of the written word.” These words of Pope Gregory the Dialogist reveal an important truth: during

the Middle Ages, literacy was scarce. The common man understood faith only through the images

in the church, where he could see the people and events he believed in, such as “The Birth of

Christ”, “The Last Supper”, or “The Transfiguration”, not through the dogmata of the Ecumenical

Councils, not even through the Bible. That is exactly why this essay will focus solely on the

iconography. To do this, the following methodology will be adopted: first the images of the Holy

Mother will be described, the ancient prototypes of these scenes will be studied, and the links

between them will be explained. The study includes only the depictions of the Virgin Mary alone

or with Christ, as well as scenes from her life. In the conclusion, the main findings and ancient

influences in this essay will be summarized.

The first depictions of the Virgin can be found in Roman catacombs. They are often purely

allegorical, so that their Christian origin may not be discovered, such as the depiction of Jesus

Christ as a fish, which is derived from the Greek abbreviation ιχθύς (Ιήσους Χρίστος Θεού Υιός

Σώτερ). However, since the start of the 3rd century, depictions of the Virgin herself can be seen.

One of the earliest types of

Christian images is the Holy

Mother in the pose of an

“Orant” (fig. 1).

Fig. 1. The Holy Mother “Orant”

in the basilica of Torcello,

Venice, Italy

We have fragments, which paint the picture of a woman with two hands, held in an upright

position, palms turned inwards. This type of image is called the “Orant” or “Praying” Holy Mother.

Initially, this figure symbolized the deceased or his family members, who pray for his or her soul.

Later, during the 4th century, when Christianity

became the official religion of the Roman Empire,

these depictions became associated either with the

Christian church, or with the human soul. In the

following centuries, many Christian saints became

“Orants” – St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Parascheva,

St. Hagia, and, most importantly – The Virgin Mary.

Until the 6th century, it is possible to see the Holy

Mother depicted without her maphorion (a mantle

with a hood and sometimes a hole at the neck), but

later she is typically in canon with a long robe and a

maphorion. Initially, the nimbus around the head of

the Virgin was not depicted, but later it became

canonical and was included in all representations of

saints. Sometimes a hand, which symbolises God, is

depicted above her head. The “Orant” can often be

found on coins of different rulers or on crosses,

decorations, frescoes, and mosaics. А variation of the

“Orant” (fig. 2) is sometimes depicted with a round

medallion on Mary’s chest, with Christ depicted on it.

Fig. 2. A fresco in the church “St. Spas Nerid”, Russia

Praying figures are easily found in images from every era of human history, no matter if it

is the gods, heroes, or regular people that pray. What they all have in common and the main reason

they are called “praying figures” is the gesture they all perform – they raise their two hands in the

air, with the palms being inverted inwards. The first depictions can be seen in Prehistoric drawings

and on Egyptian temples. In Late Antiquity, one can easily find such figures by looking at scenes

that depict mysteries, sacrifices, funerals, or prayers to the gods. The first author in literature, who

describes the stance of a praying man, is Homer. In his “Iliad”, one can identify at least three

characters, who “raise their hands towards the sky” – Chryses, the priest of Apollo, Agamemnon,

and Odysseus. This gesture's symblosim was later transferred to the tragedies of Euripides (i.e. in

“Hippolytus”) and into Aristophanes’s comedy “The Birds”. In sculpture and decorative art, this

stance may not represent solely prayer, but also ecstasy, in the Eleusinian mysteries and

Bacchanalias. Despite the popularity of this motif in art, statues of an “Orant” were not made until

the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. These images most often depict the goddess Pietas. Another

important statue is that of Livia in the Vatican Museum (fig. 3), with the image being also at prayer,

with two hands held in an upward direction. According to the “Encyclopedia of comparative

iconography”: “This pagan iconographic type was adopted

basically unchanged in early Christian art as the Orant”.

“Orants” can also be seen on the sarcophagi in the Roman

catacombs. As previously mentioned, they initially

represented the deceased or their families, or were a

personification of the human soul. Thus, it is not a surprise

that the Holy Mother is also depicted as an “Orant”, because

one of her key roles in Orthodox Christianity is to pray for

the dead in front of the Lord. Even Pietas herself would be

depicted as an “Orant” in a Christian context, but she would

no longer be a pagan goddess, but a personification of a

virtue – piety. Even the name “Pietas” would eventually

become synonymous with the image of “The Virgin Mary

mourns for the dead Christ”, the greatest example of which

is Michelangelo’s “La Pietà “.

Fig. 3 Statue of Livia, Vatican Museums

The “Orant” type with the medallion of Christ on Mary’s chest is of a different origin. This

image has been influenced by the statues of Artemis of Ephesus (fig. 4). However, as R. Menard

points out: “This goddess does not have anything in common with the sister of Apollo. The warlike

Amazons built a magnificent temple in Ephesus (it was one of the seven wonders of the Ancient

world), and there they created a cult of this goddess, which personifies the fertility of the Earth. In

the temple, there was an ancient statue of the goddess which resembled a mummy.” Truly,

similarities can be found between this image and the Egyptian mummies, but such a topic should

be discussed further in another essay. For the purposes of this essay, the huge resemblance

between the depictions of Artemis of Ephesus and the Virgin Mary is of greater importance. Both

these images show a figure with two hands in the air (one’s hands are directed upwards, while the

other’s are outstretched, as if giving something to the viewer)

and an aureole around their heads. This Artemis may be the

descendant of a Phrygian mother goddess, because this statue

has nothing in common with the way she was depicted in

Ancient Greece. Maybe, it is not a coincidence that the city is

both the place where the most splendorous of Artemis’ temples

and one of the seven wonders of the Ancient world was located,

and where the Virgin lived out her days with St. John the

Evangelist. N. P. Kondakov talks about a “recycling” of images in

a temple in Egypt, where a shrine of Isis was replaced with a

Christian church, but only statues of Isis were “adapted” to

Christian use by the Coptic church. Notwithstanding the

destruction of the shrine of Artemis and despite the lack of

“transformed” Christian depictions of the goddess, the

possibility that there is a link between the temple and the seat

of the Third Ecumenical Council {which actually discussed not

only the heresies, but also the role of the Virgin in Christianity. It

is possible that it was here that the church theologians created

the name Θεοτόκος (God’s Mother), which is popular even

today in Orthodox countries.} is too large to be ignored.

Fig. 4 “Artemis of Ephesus”, Rome, Italy

“The Birth of Christ” is the second, if not the most important, scene in all of Christian

iconography. It is one of the first images that started being depicted. Often, the scene is combined

with that of “The Adoration of the Magi”. While travelling from Nazareth to Bethlehem, Mary and

Joseph stopped in a cave (in Orthodox Christianity – fig. 5) or a stable (in Catholic Christianity – fig.

6). The early depictions included only the Virgin Mary, who was either sitting, or bowing to or

looking at Christ. Of course, it later expanded. Traditionally, in Orthodox depictions the scene is

comprised of Mary, who holds the baby Christ, while Joseph looks at him in disbelief or talks with

another man, who is believed to be a personification of Slander or the Devil. Christians believe that

Mary gave birth without blood or pain, rather, she bore her child in a mere instant, while sitting. In

the West, they paint straw in the stable as well as the Bethlehem star with three rays, which

symbolize the Holy Trinity, and, behind the protagonists, the ass and the ox. Later, shepherds can

be seen marveling at the miracle they had witnessed. The image has a profound symbolic

significance. The ox and ass symbolized the Jews and Pagans respectively, whom Jesus would lead

to the true faith.

Fig 5 “The Nativity” from Daphne monastery, Greece Fig. 6 “The Nativity” by Sandro Botticelli

However, it appears that this scene has its own prototypes in the many gods, who were

born miraculously, who suffered and died violently, but who then were resurrected. The main

parallels here should occur with scenes, such as “The Birth of Dionysus” (fig. 7), where the infant

Dionysus is held by Hermes, while three women prepare the font, where the baby must be washed.

They may be followed by the little god’s entourage of bacchantes, satyrs, and Silenus. Dionysus is

seated at Hermes’ legs. The only difference between the two images are the horses of the Magi

and the stable as a

setting. The hats of the

Magi (before they

became crowns) are

Phrygian or Eastern, and

their clothes are most

often Persian or

Babylonian. This attire is

typical of the priests of

Cybele and Mithras. The

three Magi represent

wisdom, power, age, the

continents, or the other

cults and religions, which

all bow down to the

Savior.

Fig. 7 A mosaic of “The Birth of Dionysus” from Dionysus’s villa in Paphos, Cyprus

The cave as a setting is also symbolic. According to Alexander Fol, the cave is a symbol of

the great mother goddess and represents her womb. In the same manner, the “Herminia” of

“Didron” describes the cave as symbolizing the womb of the Virgin Mary, which confirms an

established fact – that the Holy Mother is a descendant of the ancient mother goddesses.

Another noteworthy symbol is the star of Bethlehem. It is a symbol of the Virgin herself. In

ancient times, the stars were considered separate gods (for example, the constellation of Gemini

represented the Dioscuri). Goddesses such as Nut and Sotis аlso wore stars on their clothes, but

the origin of this influence is not from Egypt. Instead, we should examine an epithet of the Virgin

– Stella Maris – the Star of the sea. This epithet for those acquainted with Ancient culture should

be a signal that an influence from another goddess, who, although not called in this manner, was

definitely understood as a star born from the sea, is present. Aphrodite (fig. 8) is often depicted as

being born from the

sea, but the main

reason she was

considered a star was

the planet Venus,

which was discovered

by the Babylonians.

This link is present, for

example, in the scene

“The Coronation of

the Virgin Mary”,

which in Orthodox

Christianity is part of

the larger “The

Assumption of Mary”.

Fig. 8 “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli

Christ himself puts a crown of stars on Mary’s head, who sometimes wears a maphorion and robe,

decorated with stars, in the same way as Nut, Aphrodite, and Isis (it is possible that this style of

decorating garments originated from the images of these goddesses).

Petrarch calls the Virgin Mary “a Christian goddess”. This description is as inappropriate,

due to the fact that in Christianity there is but one God with three hypostases, as it is exact. The

Holy Mother is a descendant of many ancient goddesses, who have in one way or another

influenced her role in Christianity and her iconography. Until the Councils of Ephesus and

Chalcedon, there were many theological disputes about the role of the Virgin Mary, because she

is so godlike, but is not a goddess. These disputes can be seen in some heresies. Even today, in

Orthodox Christianity, Mary is revered more than Christ, in the same way that the ancient mother

goddesses were worshiped more than their sons and husbands.

Christianity is a religion that changed the world. But this change did not happen in a day.

Contrary to popular belief, Christianity did not break with Ancient tradition outright – it just

inherited its rich legacy. It took its symbols, it cleansed them from their pagan symbolism, and filled

them with new significance. It breathed new life into the myths of the Ancient world. The

influences, discussed in this essay, prove to us that nothing is ever lost in any culture; it continues

to exist in another form, or dies slowly, giving way to something newer and stronger. This is exactly

the case with the Virgin Mary’s iconography. Even today, The Holy Mother continues to be

worshipped and loved by Christians all around the world in the same way that Isis and Athens were

revered by the priests and adherents of these ancient religions.