Girls and goddesses

Abstract

The Gospel of Mark was written in a time and place of religious and cultural diversity. As the author of the first narrative gospel, Mark had a unique task: he had to make the case that Jesus was the Son of God not only to Jewish audiences but also to non-Jewish Greeks. Some of the Greeks who would hear Mark’s Gospel were likely familiar with, if not adherents of, various mystery cults. One of the most important mystery cults in the ancient world was the Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone (also known as Korē). In this essay, I will engage in a comparative analysis of two adolescent girls: the daughter of Herodias in Mark 6:14–29, and Persephone, as she is depicted in the Hymn to Demeter. First, I will situate the Gospel of Mark in its broader religious and literary context. Second, I will briefly summary of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and provide an overview of the initiation rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Third, I will compare the Hymn and initiation rituals of the Mysteries to the daughter narrative in Mark 6, focusing on the agency of the girls and the act of dancing. I will support this assertion by examining other portions of the Gospel that may also be read as opposing the goddesses and the Eleusinian Mysteries: the parables of the sower and the growing seed (Mark 4:1–20 and 4:26–29); and the healing of the Geresene demoniac (5:1–20). I will argue that Mark used the story of Herodias’s daughter in part to discredit the mother and daughter goddesses in favor of Jesus the son and his father God.