"the essence of the mythological canon of

the hero-redeemer is that he is fatherless or motherless,

that one of the parents is often divine, and

that the hero’s mother is frequently the Mother Goddess herself or else betrothed to a god.

These mothers are virgin mothers, which is not to say that what psychoanalysis has attempted to read into this fact is necessarily correct.

As everywhere in the ancient world, virginity simply means not belonging to any man personally;"