{"id":23242,"date":"2019-05-12T13:22:04","date_gmt":"2019-05-12T17:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=23242"},"modified":"2019-05-12T13:22:07","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T17:22:07","slug":"happy-mothers-day-to-the-virgins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/12\/happy-mothers-day-to-the-virgins\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Mother’s Day to the Virgins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve been listening to (excellent) lectures on Classical mythology by Professor Kathryn McClymond<\/a>. One thing that I learned is that Remus and Romulus<\/a> were described in some Roman sources as having been born to a virgin who was miraculously impregnated by a god (Mars). There may also have been a solar eclipse on the day of their birth. It turns out that the story of a virgin birth is older than the New Testament. Signs from the stars and a virgin birth were markers of future greatness for a variety of young heroes in the ancient world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(The full course is “Great Mythologies of the World”, available from Audible<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Happy Mother’s Day to all of the readers who identify as mothers, including the virgins!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been listening to (excellent) lectures on Classical mythology by Professor Kathryn McClymond. 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