Mother Goddess, Artemis, Virgin Mary…

The matrimonial societies of Anatolia respected the woman and created goddesses symbolising “the woman and the mother”. This faith originating from Amazons and propagating engendered the creation of many sacred sites, monuments and statues of goddesses. “The Mother Goddess” in the houses transforming to “Cybele” in the temples had the same qualities; they symbolised the soil, nature and abundance. What mother Goddess meant for Çatalhöyük, Cybele meant the same in Central Anatolia, Ishtar meant in Mesapotamia and Artemis meant in the Aegean Region… Artemis discovered in the West Anatolia has been a part of the faith; fecundity, virginity and the quality of warrior had been added to her qualifications… Some historians pretend that the Amazon women had been the first sisters of the Artemis Temple and that the first Artemis Temple had been established in Ephesus by the Amazons.

When St. Paul, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ had come to Ephesus in 53 AD to propagate Christianity, the biggest obstacle in front of him had been the faith in Artemis. The positive approaches of people to the Christian faith had engendered the reaction of gold and silver masters doing business in the Artemis Temple. The most important income of the jewellers had generated from the jevels related to Artemis and the faith in Jesus Christ would have meant to lose this market. So, the resistance began with this anxiety had been turned to the “safe” of the rich classes, people suffering had started to adopt Christianity like in the Roman and Byzantine Empires. Virgin Mary was a mother and virgin for them like Artemis…

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