Christianity & Literature

Abstract:

The Virgin Mary and the Greek goddess Demeter both make frequent appearances in Irish women's poetry. Usually these figures are treated as representative of separate aesthetic needs: the Virgin Mary as a religious figure only, and Demeter as a link to the classical past or a representative of mother-daughter narratives. This separation, however, neglects how several poets, particularly Eavan Boland, Paula Meehan, and Mary O'Malley, make frequent use of both figures, often for related reasons. Demeter can thus be regarded as a parallel divine mother to Mary, whose agency and sexuality offer divine alternatives to Mary's remote passivity.