SV: Pre-Basque Phonology

[Lars Martin Fosse]

Stanley Friesen [SMTP:sarima at ix.netcom.com] skrev 06. oktober 1999 03:51:
> This may certainly have been part of it.  However, a large part of the
> modern Marian treatment in Catholic Christianity goes back to the
> assimilation of the Romano-Egyptian worship of Isis.  (Of course, if it
> happened once it could happen more often, and we could have a major
> composite here).

And not only Isis. The Roman world knew a number of mother goddesses (e.g.
Cybele), as well as some chaste virgin goddesses (e.g. Athena, Artemis). In the
religious conscience of Mediterranean antiquity, there must have been a "niche"
for a mother goddess as well as a chaste goddess. The church combined these two
concepts in the Virgin Mary. I am not certain that Christianity would have been
as successful without this elegant sleight-of-hand.

Lars Martin Fosse

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse
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