Cybele, the Mother of the Gods

Goddess Figurine, Catalhoyuk, 5750 B.C.E.
(Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara)

Since it's mother'day today I thought it would be a great opportunity to take a look at the ancestors of what we have defined as the image of motherhood for centuries. Cybele, Magna Mater, Meter, the Mother of the Gods was an Anatolian deity with many attributes and symbolism we are still trying to figure out to this day. As Bettany Hues reveals quite dramatically in her BBC documentary Divine Women there was a time "When God was a Girl," and some of her ancestors lived in Anatolia...
There is a figurine from the sixth millenium B.C.E. excavated in Catalhoyuk at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara of the first archaeological evidence of what has been identified as a Mother Goddess. She sits enthroned between two feline figures giving birth.

Orthostat of a Mother Nursing her Child, Karatepe, 8th century B.C.E.

Chora: the Church of the Holy Savior Outside the City Walls

The Anastasis, Church of the St. Savior in Chora, Parekklesion, 1316-21
Chora Museum

The image of the Hagia Sophia always looms commanding and magnificent when one thinks of Istanbul but there is one other Byzantine church that also deserves just as much attention as her bigger, more famous sister, the Church of the St. Savoir in Chora. The magic about the Chora starts with its name, giving us a glimpse into a time and a city that was so far removed from what we know as Istanbul today. The name Chora comes from the Greek word Hora which has been translated as "land", "country" or "in the country," and in this case "outside the wall." Although it is located inside the Land Walls built by Theodosius II in the 5th century, near Adrionople gate, the first church built on this spot was outside of the city walls Constantine established in 324, hence the name. This was due to the ascetic lives lead by monks - at first monasteries would be built away from the city, outside of the city walls, a characteristic that would change in time as private, aristocratic houses in Constantinople would start to be turned into monasteries.