Miraculous birth
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The motive of a hero’s miraculous birth is quite common for the world folklore, especially for fairy-tales. Additionally, it can be found in all of the world religions – from the most basic beliefs to modern and sophisticated religions like Christianity. The question of miraculous birth in the world mythology has already been thoroughly studied for the time being, and that there is a wide range of literature touching upon this issue. The most likely origin for the motive of miraculous birth is the lack of knowledge about the process of human reproduction in the early human tribes. Unaware of the actual reasons of conception, our ancestors believed that virtually anything was capable of impregnating a woman, including fruits, water, spells, the gaze of a god, etc. This, researchers say, may have been the precondition for the formation of the belief in virgin birth in the folklore of the different nations all over the world.
The kinds of miraculous birth are categorized into the following groups:
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[edit] Virgin birth
Since our far ancestors didn’t fully understand the actual cause of pregnancy and birth, they attempted to attribute it to practically anything – a sighting of some animal, a blow of wind, swallowing of a stone or a nut, etc. Therefore, the woman is considered to be the only source of new life and reproduction, which is the main principle of matriarchic society. Only the understanding of the man’s role in conception shall later on cause the domination of patriarchic views. Scholars suggest that such a state of things has existed on the early stages of the development of practically all groups of historic humans, which has contributed to the presence of the virgin birth motive in all of the world mythologies and religions.
[edit] Conception from a fruit.
This theme is seen quite often in Russian and Ukrainian fairytales in the form of eating a pea, while in the rest of the world, the most popular fruits for such beliefs are apples and nuts. It is considered that conception by eating (or, in some cases, merely touching) the fruit is an attempt to transfer the seemingly amazing fertility of the plants to humans. Then, some suggest that the seeds in a fruit (and especially a nut) may be seen as a symbol of a baby inside the womb.
[edit] Birth by an incantation or a spell.
An especially bright example of such a birth is the beginning of the Snow White fairytale. When the blood from the Queen’s pricked finger falls on the snow, she makes a wish to have a daughter with snow-white skin and blood-red lips. However, the queen’s words may as well be considered a sort of a magic incantation. It’s quite possible that in the earlier versions of the tale, the wording of the wish (or spell) was not “I wish I had a child…”, but “Let me have a child…” However, conception by a spell is comparatively rare, because it is usually combined with a touch, a hit, or a look.
[edit] Birth by drinking water
This motive has its roots in the belief in the power of water to bring life. In a Northern Russian fairytale, a queen drinks water from a spring and thereby conceives a son, whom she calls Ivan Vodovich (the similar in English would be something like Waterson). There was also a strong belief in the conceiving power of the rain, which used to be especially strong among agricultural tribes for obvious reasons. The belief in the life-giving abilities of water was so strong in the pagan times that the Church had to “legalize” it by building “holy” fountains or springs, usually named after a saint. Needless to say, the ceremony of baptism in Christianity that involves dipping into water and “filling a person with the Holy Spirit” (now we remember that Jesus was also conceived by the Holy Spirit), which symbolizes the beginning of a new life in the baptized person. Knowing about the belief in conception through water, we can easily trace the roots of this Christian ritual.
These beliefs in a way form a single group, because all of the forces that apparently cause miraculous pregnancy have a natural origin. In this way, the ancient humans attempted to transfer the power of the nature to reproduce itself onto themselves. However, some of these beliefs are not purely naturalistic. Some of them may be combined with animalistic concepts. For instance, drinking water is sometimes related to consuming something contained in it, like a fish, a worm. Then, the rain that gives birth to a hero in Greek mythology is an incarnation of god. Therefore the article concludes that there must be something else in these beliefs, and continues describing other causes of miraculous birth:
[edit] Birth as the return of the dead.
This is most likely related to a belief that a born person used to live before, or, shortly, reincarnation. Therefore, in folklore we can see the return of a hero, an ancestor, etc., through rebirth. The origin of this belief is seen by some in the resemblance of the children and parents, and the ignorance of the supposed origin of the new human souls. Reincarnation might have been the easiest way to explain where souls go after death and where they come from at the birth. The motive of a hero’s fast growth may also be related to this category, implying that the child used to live before as an adult, but since a woman is physically incapable of giving birth to an adult, the hero has to undergo a short phase of growth and development. Such heroes are present in Egyptian, Greek, Biblical and African myths, where the heroes are usually born in the times of trouble, and right after maturing they start undertaking heroic deeds.
