VIRGIN MARY

THE HOMELAND OF THE GODDESSES: ANATOLIA

From Kubaba to Cybele, Leto to Artemis, and Virgin Mary to Sarıkız…
The female signs of the fertility, fruitfulness and wisdom…
Anatolia, the longest-lived motherland of the goddesses…

The gratitude sentiments and vows of the people in Anatolia for these goddesses form similar parts of the goddess tradition in Anatolia in different epochs. Hence, determining the worship places in the Anatolia, means pursuing the women of such epoch who have many roles in social and religious life.

FROM CYBELE TO VIRGIN MARY

Cybele is a result of societies’ observations about the women giving products like soil. She has been assumed as the mother goddess belief’s result. The Hittites who see themselves as the people of thousand gods’ religion, named Anatolian Cybele as Arinna then Kubaba. The Urartus who are mentioned in Old Testament and who lived near Van, Turkey;
as being a civilization of thousand gods called their most important god as Haldi, and his wife Arubani. The Phrygians who had their capital called Gordion near Ankara today, worshipped Kubileya, the mother of mountains. The Lycians have conserved their mother goddess custom and Leto who named the city Letoon, has got the mother goddess role in this region called Land of Light. Leto and Zeus had their children Artemis, the goddess of fertility; and Apollo, the god of light. Artemis, the mother goddess of the Anatolia was identified with Virgin Mary with her characteristics.
There were always the evidences of the mother goddess worship in the Anatolia even sometimes these evidences are reduced. From Cybele to Kubaba, from Leto and Artemis to Virgin Mary, Anatolia has always been the land of mother goddesses.

VIRGIN MARY

This sacred woman, which has been accepted by two dominant religions and as a primer member of the third dominant religion, supposedly shows us the way of solidarity and the fraternity, living in an earth where there are no conflicts. In a special surah (Al-I İmran Surah) of the Quran it says: “The angels said: O Mary! Behold, Allah has elected thee and made thee pure and raised thee above all the women of the world.”

Virgin Mary's home