Mary Mother of God

Remaining Ruin of Temple to Artemis

Statue of Artemis, Mother Goddess of Anatolia

I’ve met some gifted history teachers here in Turkey, including yesterday’s guide in Efes (Ephesus).  Mete led us from intriguing Neolithic hints to complicated Hellenistic history, and then from Roman ruins to Byzantine wreckage.  It was a fascinating day of history, story and pilgrimage.  With a bit of 21st century Turkish politics thrown in!

Particularly interesting to me is Mary (Mother of God) and her vital presence here in Ephesus and nearby Selcuk.  Legend has it that the beloved disciple (John, apparently) brought Mary to Ephesus, as directed, not long after Jesus' death and resurrection.  Even more, Mary’s supposed to have lived in a home high in the hills above Ephesus, were she died and ascended to heaven.  Beyond all that, however, it’s easy to speculate that Mary played a vital role in the formation of a new and lively church, in a city with a spirited mix of religious sensibilities and traditions.  Mete told us that, in its Roman heyday, Ephesus might have had a population of 200,000 or more.  And fully half may have been slaves.

So the Followers of the Way emerged in a tense, thriving, conflicted, spirited city.  And just as I imagined Paul and John wandering the marbled streets here, I easily imagined Mary, full of spirit, strength and resolve.  "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty!"  Heady stuff!  Urgent and edgy in Roman Ephesus.

Mary Mother of God: icon in Thessaloniki, Greece

The church, in its earliest centuries, built a huge basilica in her honor here, the first in her honor in fact.  In that very place, bishops gathered in the 400s to debate Mary's place in its emerging doctrine.  The spirited conclusion: Mother of God!

Library, Central Ephesus

Great Theatre of Ephesus (seated 25,000)

Nike: Goddess of Victory (swoosh!)

What I've learned--or what I think I've learned--relates the legends around Mary to much, much earlier traditions of devotion in Anatolia itself (today's Turkey).  Going back as far as 8000 to 9000 years BCE (the Neolithic Age), historians locate a vibrant Mother Goddess cult in Anatolia, and particularly in the Western Anatolia region.  Ancient statues feature the goddess with full breasts and wide hips, giving birth to earth itself.  At some point, this goddess was known as Cybele, the one who gives birth to earth.


Cultures and civilizations turned and turned, and the Lydians arrived in Ephesus in the sixth century BCE, building a huge new temple to Artemis/Diana.  It was one of the Wonders of the Ancient World, a huge and colossal temple and pilgrimage site.  And in doing so, the Lydians were clearly re-interpreting and re-casting ancient traditions around the Mother Goddess.  Making it relevant and lively and central in the lives of their people and culture.  Cybele, Artemis, Diana.  Well on through the Roman period, this cult plays a dynamic and important role in the spirituality and economy of the region.

Fresco on Walls, Wealthy Ephesian Home

Mosaic on Floor, Wealthy Ephesian Home

With grace and sophistication, Mete suggests that Mary's Ephesian legacy is a recognizable extension (and again, reinterpretation) of this old, old story.  Cybele, Artemis, Diana, Mary.  Here, Mary brings her courage, her determination, her willingness to give birth to God's future.  She relates--in compelling narrative--God's choosing ('you are the one, Mary') to her own unprecedented vocation ('let it be with me according to your word').  And this is the new Cybele, the new Artemis in a sense.  The Mother of God in Anatolia!

Mosaic of Mary, Mother of God, Aya Sofia (Istanbul)

Steps into Baptistery, Virgin Mary Church, Ephesus

A friend wisely directed me out behind the Virgin Mary Basilica in the flatland below the city.  There I found an old, old baptistery and sat quietly reading Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, all the way through.  In the great font, the cross-shaped font carved out of the earth, I imagined early Followers on Easter Sunday: stepping out of the shadows; into the deep, dark waters; emerging in the new life of Christ's peace and courage.  That baptistery postdates Mary's life--by centuries--but, still, I imagined Mary there too.  I imagined her encouraging and defiant and bold spirit: insisting that baptism makes new birth and new hope our mission to the end of time!

For good measure: here's a piece of Paul's Letter to the Ephesians:

"We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness and deceitful scheming.  But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, form whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love."

Mary make have been in Ephesus with Paul.  Maybe the two of them talked long into the night: about speaking the truth in love, about ligaments and the body of Christ.  Whether the Letter itself is Paul's or Mary's or a disciple of theirs, it preaches, I think.  It surely preaches!

I'm taking to this whole Turkish coffee thing!