Parthenos

parthenos - a certain type of virginity, a female who is fertile but not yet had a child - that female bloom of life. kore / oracular priestess. Parthenos virginity is not related to the Hymen.

Curious about the Parthenos, and why antiquity made a big deal of her?

Insight into the Parthenon temple's naming... and female power in prechristian times.
What exactly were they erasing, and what did the church have against witches?

Virgin myths

Parthenos virginity is not related to the Hymen.
There is no supernatural virgin birth (those parthenos all knew how they got pregnant).

The Parthenos and the Voice of Justice in Antiquity

In the ancient Mediterranean world, the concept of the parthenos—typically translated as "virgin" or "maiden"—carried far deeper cultural, philosophical, and spiritual significance than the modern term suggests. The parthenos was not merely a girl who had not yet married or engaged in sexual union; she represented a liminal figure at the threshold between childhood and womanhood, between mortality and divine inspiration. In classical thought, she was a vessel of incorruptible clarity, untouched by the cynicism of adulthood or the distortions of power and institutional doctrine. She was the living embodiment of nature’s intuitive harmony and cosmic order — what the Greeks called dikaiosynē (justice).

Throughout Greek, Roman, and Etruscan traditions, young women in this transitional state—often in their early teens—were appointed to serve as oracular priestesses, muses, and kore figures (a Greek word meaning "girl" or "daughter") in religious rites, mystery cults, and philosophical myths. Their perceived purity of heart and immediacy of emotional truth was thought to make them uniquely capable of transmitting divine will, especially in relation to justice. Philosophers and statesmen alike looked to the inspired utterances of these maidens as sources of untainted moral wisdom.

The following excerpt from Dr. David C.A. Hillman's Hermaphrodites, Gynomorphs, and Jesus (2013) explores the ancient belief in the parthenos as the sacred conduit of cosmic (structural) justice. Hillman traces how her voice was central to the spiritual and political imagination of classical civilization, and how this tradition was gradually suppressed by rising Christian orthodoxy, which sought to sever justice from the spontaneous expression of feminine power.

What Dr Hillman has to say about the Parthenos

Excerpted under Fair Use for nonprofit educational and scholarly purposes.
From "Hermaphrodites, Gynomorphs, and Jesus by Dr David C.A. Hillman PhD, Ronin Publishing, 2013." (p164-168)

Justice cannot survive as either a law-code or a religious doctrine. The classical world recognized that statutes and orthodoxy are inherently corruptible. The founders of democracy knew very well that wealth and resources could amend written laws to suit small minorities of power brokers; Solon based his democratic reforms on this very premise.

Classical civilization also understood that any religious creed was subject to manipulation by generations of those with majority access to goods and services. Despite this depressing reality, ancient clerics, philosophers and poets taught that Justice could always be found in an incorruptible place—the heart of a teenage girl in the midst of the bloom of puberty... currently under the influence of love.

Teenage Priestesses

This belief laid the foundation for the use of teenage oracular priestesses in antiquity. Members of the ancient world as prominent as Socrates and Alexander the Great relied upon the songs of young oracular maidens to decide questions of war, social policy and personal interests. Greeks, Romans and Etruscans put such incredible stock in young song-writing girls because they believed their understanding of Justice was divinely inspired and completely incorruptible.

It was for this reason that Dionysus was the champion of Justice; the god's greatest personal mission was the resurrection of his young mother from the underworld. Dionysus' mother was important because, as a young girl, or kore, she attracted the attention of the highest, most powerful god. Zeus was captivated by Semele precisely because of her perfect, just beauty. Her songs charmed the god-king of Olympus, and their union produced the god of ecstasy. Greeks and Romans believed the song of a young girl in love was the purest form of piety in the universe, and the vehicle of Justice.

Dionysus journeyed to the underworld to raise his mother, the greatest kore, from the realm of shadows to the world of light. Her resurrected voice became the source of cosmic Justice that would ultimately triumph over the Earth-born monster of self-worship. Classical mythic heroes made similar journeys to Erebus, including Odysseus and Aeneas. And in both of these cases, a young teenage prophetess was the guide.

Sexual Rites

The sexual experience of the maiden-singer was the ancient catalyst for transporting ordinary mortals to realms beyond the material universe. Witches and priestesses preserved sexual rites that were meant to elevate a potential kore from the state of normal pubertal development to that of inspired, visionary ecstasy.

Using snake venoms, poisonous botanicals and other natural pharmaceuticals, oracular priestesses wielded dildo-like applicators to induce sexual ecstasy-the original symbols of western medicine still worn by physicians today.

As mated pairs, like Odysseus and Circe, or Aeneas and the Cumaean Sibyl, heroes and priestesses entered a netherworld, where they claimed to find direction and guidance from the dark gods of Erebus-gods who were particularly invested in the enforcement of Justice.

In the underworld, Greek and Roman heroes always ended their extra-dimensional journeys at the feet of the great Kore, the queen of the dead.

This girl, named Persephone by the Greeks, Proserpine by the Romans and Phersipnei by the Etruscans, was the sole source of cosmic Justice. Her return to Earth was celebrated on a yearly basis in the most famous mystery religion of the ancient world—the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Kore's incorruptible song, her divine resurrection witnessed by initiates, marked the retum of Justice to humanity.

It is no accident of history that these mysteries of the Kore were celebrated just a few miles away from the world's first democratic city. Athenians assigned great value to the songs and poetry of the young girls who served as the oracular Muses of ancient civilization.

Athenian statesmen were not afraid of the sexuality of young singers; they believed the bloom of life was a source of natural Justice and a necessary object of veneration.

It is also no accident of history that the Christian church saw the activities of oracles and pagan witches as a threat to the survival of their own doctrines. Early Christianity was able to absorb specific elements of pagan mystery religions, but openly condemned the practices of female priesthoods and the pagan concept of Justice as a maiden's song. Christianity co-opted the figure of the gynomorphic savior, but altered the image so that the son-of-god's resurrection-doctrine was the ultimate source of Justice; Christians purposely and purposefully defied the notion that Justice originated from a young girl's love-inspired voice. In dethroning the Kore, Christianity established a perpetual authoritative creed that would prevail as the predominant influence of western culture for nearly two thousand years. Christianity deliberately and with malice aforethought silenced the voice of the ancient Muse.

The Justice Power viewpoint

Suppression of women via move to Christianity (e.g. Rome 491CE), was about who controls justice.
And that ancient female power defined justice.
They had to ensure it never threatened their control of the definition of justice.

Christian erasure started by reframing hellenic religion as "pagan" and illegal (specifically oracular or enchidnaic religion).
Targeting any aspect of that power... from the

temple practice (control of religion; 491CE Emperor Anastasius I outlawed the practice of traditional Greco-Roman polytheism and associated rituals, sacrifices, temples, and philosophical schools)

to the

pharmaka (control of drugs; the war on drugs)

to the

sexuality (control of sexuality; reframed to emphasize hymenal virginity instead of parthenos)

to the

freedom (control of women; European witchhunts of 1500–1700CE; American Witchunts of 1600s CE; took til 1920 for women to vote; 1974 for women in the USA to get a credit card or a mortgage without a man to sign)

All to make sure that the feminine didn't come back to own the definition of justice again.

It really makes it click when evaluating "what the church has against witches, and women"...

We always knew the patriarchal abrahamic structures were about suppressing female power.

Because at one point in time incorruptible justice came from "a female in the bloom of life"
We can see the weight, why those in power dont want justice which they cannot define themselves.
So, they moved that definition of justice back to someplace where they could corrupt it, back into the hands of those who define legislature - and created barriers to female power that lasted into the future.

This is why.

Human beings will find a way to corrupt any perfect system.

The Authority Control viewpoint

Nature shows us self determinism
Monism represents authority and your submission to that
Monism is not nature, and monism is not natural.

Monism is about stopping self determination. The female body being the only pathway for the creation of an oracle is the biggest threat to monism. It was about removing the ability for the creation of an oracle, which would allow for a multipolar word order, which means competition for the monist god. That’s the main thing with monism. Taking away the right to self determination.

It’s not even the fact that YHWH is a female hating god. He just hates geopolitical competition. Even under Athenian democracy, with Athena as the head patron deity, women (even Athena’s priestesses) weren’t allowed to vote, or hold positions of public office. That was normal even in the pagan world.

Which viewpoint is accurate?

Why not all... people are complicated and central organization doesn't last for long before being corrupted from within. Read this manifesto from StarWars which is relevant to tyrannical authoritarian power, and how fragile it is:

Nemeks Manefesto

And remember this: the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.

Of course,
To correct for error (and tyranny is error), also requires constant effort, which we must provide.
The Sophia Mythos tells us that the anthropos (Human beings) are here to constantly correct for error.
You know what you must do.