“For a goddess to be parthenogenetic thus means that she stands as a primordial creatrix who requires no male partner to produce the cosmos, earth, life, matter, and even other gods out of her own essence. Plentiful evidence shows that in their earliest cults, before they were subsumed under patriarchal pantheons as the wives, sisters, and daughters of male gods, various female deities of the ancient Mediterranean world were indeed considered self-generating, virgin creatrixes.”
Marguerite Rigoglioso, Virgin Mother Goddesses of Antiquity
The ancient ritual at Eleusis celebrated the parthenogenic birth of Kore’s divine child. At the climax of the rites, the Hierophant proclaimed: Behold! Brimo has given birth to Brimos (Abundance has given birth to Plenty). The child, Brimos, represents the promise that participants will be blessed, not only in the afterlife, but in this life as well. Then Persephone was shown standing with a youth - not holding a baby. The birth was parthenogenic, in the ways of the older, female-centered reality. He was born complete – just as she was. Kore (interchangeably called Persephone by this time) is herself a parthenogenic aspect of Demeter the great mother god - alike as a clone, the waxing moon to Demeter’s full. She always was, and always would be, a youth.
With the advent of the myth, The Rape of Persephone, marriage became the only legitimate means of producing children. Zeus became Kore’s father, though she is likely much older than he is. The scholar, Rigiglioso, argues that “Persephone’s rape shifted the cosmic paradigm.” The interruption of the women’s mysteries in this (parthenogenic) regard corresponded with the transfer of divine birth practices to the service of “gods who ushered in the patriarchal era.”
Some scholars argue that the world rape in the myth actually means abduction, and doesn’t correspond to the violent assault we think of today – so it’s not as bad as all that. But Pluto abducted Kore so he could marry her against her will (with her father’s permission) in order to get to the wedding night. Do they assume that because she was married, the act that followed could no longer be classified as rape? It seems doubtful to me that Kore suddenly became a willing participant. What does this type of thinking say about the centuries of girls married against their will to much older men?
In addition to the ascetic abhorrence of sexuality, the history of the Christian virgin birth story gives insight into why, mythologically speaking, it was important for Jesus to be born asexually to a virgin. Modern historians say that stories of Jesus’ virgin birth were not circulated by people alive at the time. There’s no mention of a virgin birth until much later, as he was being mythologized. In fact, there is no proof of the real Jesus in the historical record at all. He is, first and foremost, a mythological figure. Barbara Walker suggests that the reason his story needed a virgin birth is because “all the other saviors had one.” Mythologically speaking, to be considered a god, he needed to fit a very old and important pattern.