Children of the Mother Goddess. History of Mediterranean Neonates

Vassilios Fanos, Murat Yurdakök

• Publisher: Hygeia Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9788898636433
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia europea

The leading elements in this volume are the cultural representation of birth and the forms through which its narration and representation develop in the figurative arts, through historical references, mythological tales and legends, traditions, customs and habits. The influence of myth, language and artistic expression on our cultural representation of procreation is manifest, and this way of “narrating” birth resists even today, although it comes into conflict with a more scientific vision of pregnancy and childbirth.
With this book we believe we have contributed to an in-depth examination of illness narratives, thus favouring the search for a convergence between medical language in the sector and the language of cultural experience so that evidence-based medicine does not clash with narrative-based medicine, but that the two languages come together towards a reciprocity that will strengthen the alliance between physician and patient.

1. Birth in Mediterranean Cultures: Searching for the Roots

Luigi Cataldi, M. Giuseppina Gregorio

A new tree was not worth so great a price.

Ovid, Metamorphoses 10, 310

The Mother Goddess and the evolution of a culture

The Mother Goddess was probably the first deity imagined by man. She is also the most represented in cultures of the ancient world. The Goddess's representation is widely available in the European and Mediterranean area. It is characterized by very large-breasted female figures, symbolizing abundant milk production, with buttocks and bellies beyond normal size that glorify pregnancy (Figure 1). Representations of the Mother Goddess have been found not only as engravings on stone or bone, or even rock carvings, but they are mostly in the form of stone or clay statues in the entire Mediterranean basin and Europe, extending to the Ural Mountains, and the Middle Eastern area, to territories of ancient Mesopotamia, many millennia before the flowering of Babylonian-Assyrian civilization. The oldest artefacts depicting birth are in fact dated around 40,000-30,000 BC. From this period, known as subglacial, comes the oldest representation of birth, carved into rock, which was found in 1911 in a cave in Dordogne, in south-eastern France.

Figure 1. The Venus of Willendorf, 11 cm high (22,000-21,000 BC).

To better understand the reasons behind the interest of the populations of the time in this deity we must discover the origins of its cult of fertility and procreation. This requires a knowledge of the previous life of humankind, prevalently a life of hunting and gathering closely connected with those natural cycles for which humans have always shown great interest. Over the millennia, man acquired knowledge that allowed him to understand the rotation of the seasons and find the periods in which seed will produce a good harvest. He sensed that the land was not always fruitful, but only when it was "impregnated" by what was then called the male principle, the sun. Simultaneously, he arrived at the understanding that the Mother Goddess could become a mother only when she was accompanied by a partner, sometimes even a son, generated by the Mother Goddess herself, who became pregnant, as occurred for the mother earth who must be made pregnant in certain times of the year. Likewise also her companion is subject to a number of cycles of death and rebirth that represent the birth and death of nature. In the Neolithic, the meeting of Mediterranean people, devoted to hunting, with East Asian nations, who were farmers, led to a vast cultural transformation. Man's relationship with the deity did not change: it moved slowly from forest to farm, but remained dependent on natural cycles and fertility rites. The latter, which were related to spontaneous production, were now closely related to agriculture and harvesting.

The sacred marriage of the Goddess: the Mediterranean culture

The idea of the sacred couple as an apotropaic ritual that made the land fertile and pregnant, is far more ancient than the myth itself. Such a concept is expressed in the primitive idea of "sacred caves", deep uterine images of the Goddess where the male element, the universal Priapos, represented by the Sacred Stalagmites, was generated in this metaphorical womb of the Goddess. So it is both the "son" being generated by the Goddess and her "partner" because he ensures fertility. Another important example, that we find around Salento, the extreme southeastern part of Italy, are the sacred betyls, the male element, the menhirs, the stones placed upright in the ground, which, as a mystic Priapos, makes it fertile. Marija Gimbutas recalls an ancient custom quoted at the beginning of 1900 by Sebillot: "Rubbing the bare navel or stomach against a menhir (standing stone) and especially around a projection, a round knob, or an unevenness of the stone assured marriage and fecundity and helped a happy delivery. A round knob and even an unevenness on a menhir was considered to be a spot where divine energy was concentrated – in other words an omphalos".

What we now call "myth" thus consists of the memory of these ancient traditions of worship that we find in later societies and cultures. We shall now briefly report the result of our research on the traces that remain of this ancient cult of fertility and prosperity in cultures that come down to us from ancient Mediterranean peoples.

In Mesopotamia, during the third millennium BC the goddess Inanna (who later took the name of Ishtar) and her union with the god, the son, mate and shepherd Dumuzi (later Tammuz) were worshipped. The harvest myth of Dumuzi was celebrated as a source of life and fertility. Indeed, the Mesopotamians were convinced that nature was reborn each year through a sacred marriage that was consummated between the two deities. The myth is embodied in the poem of Inanna's descent into the Underworld, which we find in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The story goes that the goddess had descended into the underworld, where she was imprisoned, and her absence caused the ceasing of births on Earth. The goddess pleaded for her own release, but even a goddess had to comply with a strict rule of the underworld: every soul that comes back to life must be replaced by another in the underworld. So Inanna offered poor Dumuzi in exchange for her release, but here his sister intervened in favour of her brother by pleading that he should be retained in the underworld only six months a year and offering to take his place there for the other six months.

According to a vision that James Frazer defined as "sympathetic magic", this union was actually celebrated between a priestess representing Inanna and the king of the city, who assumed the functions of Dumuzi. This marks the beginning of a tradition that later gave origin to the practice of sacred prostitution. We once again find the cult of Inanna and Dumuzi in Classical Greece in the myth of Tammuz, that is, Adonis: Persephone, moved by pity for her beloved, transformed him into a tree and held a funeral feast in his honour. The anniversary, which was held during the day of the equinox, was linked to the reproductive cycles of death and rebirth of nature: also in this event Adonis as a tree is the phallic symbol of the god.

Moving to Egypt, we find the myth of Osiris: it is said that on the chest where the god was imprisoned, a pomegranate tree grew, then represented by the letter zed. Zed was a symbol in ancient traditions associated with his cult, but in reality it was far more ancient. It was depicted in tombs of the pre-Dynastic period, while the name of the god is not found prior to the Fifth Dynasty. The tree grew on the chest built by Typhon and is thus a phallic symbol of resurrection, often represented in sarcophagi for the purpose of bringing the dead back to life.

In Egypt, the life-giving functions were performed by Hathor, the cow goddess with "uterine horns" where the sun rises, as identifying the goddess from whom all things come and whose name means "House of Horus". In the first myths she is the goddess and mother of Horus and for this, when the god was identified as the posthumous son of Osiris and Isis, she is confused with the latter and thus Isis acquired from Hathor her representation with cow's horns. It is precisely this confusion that caused the sacred wedding to be associated with Isis and Osiris, a tree god who died and was then resurrected by the goddess. If we return to the first records, Hathor is, however, both mother and companion of Horus in a vision similar to those previously described. Horus does not undergo a real death, unlike the earlier gods, but loses an eye thanks to which he can resurrect his father Osiris, the symbol of vegetation and therefore of natural cycles. As previously described in the cult of Inanna, also in this case it was the Pharaoh himself who had intercourse with his royal wife (Hathor) and his sacred concubines (or priestesses of the goddess). Copulation took place in what today we would call a harem, the place of sacred prostitution stemming from the Arabic word Haram which means both sacred and prohibited.

In the Syrian-Palestinian area, the cult of the goddess and her partner is linked to the figures of Anat and her brother-consort Baal. The goddess is often represented by a wild cow, an animal totem that we find in many other depictions of the Great Mother, under the guise of which the male deity would mate with her in the desert. The sacredness of cows is also found in a Phoenician sacred tradition which flowered in the middle of the 3rd century BC. According to the writings of Tirius Porphyrius, a Phoenician would never eat cow meat. Obviously, this tradition is much more recent than the period under examination but it is definitely a "clue" to the sacredness of the animal.

The mythological cycle consists of various not always consistent episodes that we omit citing to avoid confusion. Generally in this myth the male deity is linked to a sacred tree. The sacredness of a tree, seen as a divinity, is found in the rituals of spring, during which each year a large tree was chopped down (chopping down means death) and then raised in a sacred enclosure to be subsequently covered with cloths and gifts (similar to our maypole).

Another interesting myth, whose traces we find in the study of James Frazer, concerns Virbius (aka Hippolytus) and Diana (aka Artemis). The myth narrates the legend of Virbius, a young hunter who spent his life in the woods hunting wild beasts, having as his only companion the virgin huntress Artemis. Proud of that divine companion, he disdained women and this was his undoing. Aphrodite, offended by his indifference, made his stepmother Phaedra fall in love with him, and when the youth rejected the offers of the woman, she falsely accused him before his father Theseus, who believed Phaedra's lies. Theseus then turned to his father Poseidon to avenge the imaginary affront. Virbius, while driving his chariot along the Saronic Gulf was attacked by a ferocious bull which emerged from the waves sent by the sea god. The terrified horses reared up, throwing him off the wagon and dragging him to his death. But Diana, who loved the young man, convinced the doctor Asclepius to bring him back to life. The myth is similar to the one already mentioned of Adonis. Virbius is undoubtedly the image of a god as the companion of the goddess previously described, the archetype of those king-priests described in Frazer's work, whose lives, always terminated by violent death, were joined to a tree. If the myth of the king of the forest is seen from the viewpoint of the myths of "sacred marriage", this explains the connection of a god-priest with a tree and his having to die a violent death.

We briefly recall the Hittite divinities Hepatu and Teshub, or the goddess Ma and her son-mate the god of storms, venerated in Cappadocia and then in Italy brought by the Romans and to whom the cult of Ma or Mamede was dedicated, traces of which can still be found today in Italian folklore. In fact he became a Christian saint through an authentic work of syncretism; the cult of Saint Mama we find for example in Ca' Campo, near Bergamo, where the chapel is officially dedicated to Saint Pantaleon but in fact popular veneration is all for Saint Mama, depicted as a bearded saint and martyr holding a breast in the palm of his right hand. The god always undergoes a cycle of death and resurrection that follows the natural cycle and his new life is always connected with the goddess and the tree element.

To explain these cycles some observations are due. Among natural phenomena there is not one like that of death and resurrection that comes closer to that of the disappearance and reappearance of vegetation. The idea of a solar cycle is far less applicable and in any case is a later development, because even though it undergoes a weakening in the winter it does not undergo a real death, an idea contradicted every day by its reappearance. God is thus a god of vegetation, as also underlined by his close relationship with trees. So if we assume that the "appearance" of the god is somehow related to agriculture, one might suggest that the base of the cycle of death and resurrection is the natural cycle of the fields, with sowing, growth and death. But whatever may be the interpretative vision of these common points, their existence in the myths of very distant cultures corroborate the hypothesis of a single religion, spread over a period that might be called the "Golden Age", where the deities were the Great Generating Goddess and her spouse.

2. Birth in Ancient Anatolia

Murat Yurdakök

Arinna, Our Sun Goddess, only you can stop the evil actions, and you can leave them alone. Give him a long and healthy life.

Hittite cuneiform tablets

12,000 years ago

Göbeklitepe is located about 15 km northeast of Şanliurfa in southeastern Turkey; it is not only the first man-made monument, but "the oldest human-made place of worship" (i.e. the "World's First Temple") yet discovered. The site was erected by hunter-gatherers in the 10th millennium BC, approximately 12,000 years ago.

There are several circular structures with diameters ranging from 10 to 30 meters which are surrounded by unworked rectangular stone walls about two meters high. The numerous T-shaped monolithic pillars of limestone which probabily supported roofs are about three meters in height, and are placed in the center of the structures.

The fantastic T-shaped obelisks, the largest of which weighs about 25 tons, each have reliefs of wild animals and insects which were carved by using a piece of flintstone. Few humanoid forms have surfaced at Göbeklitepe, but they include a relief of a naked woman carved into a stone slab on the floor between two stone god reliefs, posed frontally in a crouched position similar to the Venus figures found in Neolithic North Africa, but nothing else like it has been found in Mesopotamia or Anatolia (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Relief of a naked woman in a crouched position (height 30 cm), Mesolithic Period, 9500-9000 BC, Göbeklitepe.

According to early speculation, the squatting or lying woman had just delivered a child and the umbilical cord was protruding out of the vagina. This figured floor suggests the center might have been for pregnant women to have safe birth procedures under the protection of the surrounding stone gods. If she was lying down, this figure might be the oldest known example of a gynecologic position. However, if this figure represents a woman after delivery, her breasts, and even abdomen, should be depicted larger and she would not be naked.

A second and more likely archaeologic speculation is that the figure with enlarged labia represents the classic intercourse position of the female with an erect penis just entering the vagina. Although no trace of a male is seen in the relief, the head of the woman seems to represent the image of the glans penis, which may be related to a female-centered cult. As in the first speculation, this figure on the floor of the temple surrounded by carved animal gods might have served as the ideal location for blessed intercourse for new couples under the powerful gods' eyes.

Neolithic times

Çatalhöyük, the largest and best-preserved Neolithic settlement dating from around 7500 BC, is located on the Konya Plain, southeast of the present-day city of Konya (ancient Iconium) in Turkey. The inhabitants lived in mud-brick houses which were crammed together in an agglutinative manner.

A striking feature of Çatalhöyük are its female figurines, representing a female deity of the Great Goddess type, which were found primarily in areas believed to be shrines. One was found in a grain bin, suggesting that it might have been a means of ensuring the harvest or protecting the food supply. This figurine of the Mother Goddess modelled in baked clay, dated at 6500 BC, is important for neonatal medicine (Figure 2). The figurine with pendulous breasts and belly, and enormous buttocks, hips, thighs and shoulders was presumably a symbol of fertile femininity, similar to other paleolithic and neolithic figurines.

Figure 2. Mother Goddess clay figurine (height 20 cm) seated on a throne flanked by two leopards. Neolithic Period, 6500 BC, Çatalhöyük. Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. The head of the woman and the head of the animal by her left arm are not original. Note the head of the newborn infant between the legs; the child is highlighted in grey.

The Mother Goddess of Çatalhöyük is seated on a throne. Each of the throne's arms is formed by a leopard. Her hands rest on the leopards' heads. The leopards' tails trail up the goddess' back and curl down over her shoulders. In this Early Neolithic period at Çatalhöyük, the power of wild life and death seems to have been symbolized by the leopard, the largest and fiercest wild animal in the region. This terracotta statuette shows the leopards supporting the Goddess in her confinement. It is further speculated that this Mother Goddess is also the "Mistress of the Animals" or the "Lady of the Wild Things".

On the ground between her generous legs we can see a baby's head, which indicates that the figurine of the Mother Goddess of Çatalhöyük is a particular female figurine that represents an obese woman whose sitting position makes childbirth apparent. Although some authors have interpreted the rounded shape between the legs of the woman in the sculpture as a skull used for unknown ritualistic purposes rather than a woman giving birth, the nose and eyes of the baby are intact and visible, even though the statuette was found with some damage to the newborn's head. Therefore, the figurine of the Mother Goddess from Neolithic Çatalhöyük is the world's earliest known work of art that depicts a female giving birth and her newborn infant.

Another interesting finding of a white marble figurine of diencephalic (omphalopagus) twins was found in a Neolithic period shrine at Çatalhöyük and was dated at around 6500 BC. This is one of the earl...