Mother of Life
Manichaean · deity · Manichaean religion (3rd c. CE Mesopotamia to medieval Central Asia) · Recorded classification
The Mother of Life (Syriac Emmā d-Ḥayyē) is the first being called into existence by the Father of Greatness, the opening move of the so-called First Creation. As a maternal counterpart within the Light she evokes her own son, the Primal Man, and arms him with the five luminous elements so that he may descend to meet the assault of Darkness. After the Primal Man's defeat and rescue she joins the Living Spirit in the demiurgic work of forming the structured cosmos out of the bodies and captured light of the vanquished dark powers. She belongs to the small group of high evocations that stand nearest the Father, and her name is stable across the Syriac, Coptic and Iranian sources.
Parentage
- parent: Father of Greatness
Children
Domains
- life and vivification
- divine motherhood
Powers
- to call forth the Primal Man as champion against the Darkness
- to help fashion the heavens and the worlds from the conquered powers of darkness
Epithets
- Emmā d-ḤayyēPaul Van Lindt, The Names of Manichaean Mythological Figures: A Comparative Study on Terminology in the Coptic Sources (Studies in Oriental Religions 26) (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1992) (secondary); Werner Sundermann, 'Manicheism ii. The Manichean Pantheon', Encyclopaedia Iranica (online ed., 2009) (secondary)
Relations
- subordinate to: Father of GreatnessThe Mother of Life is the first evocation of the Father of Greatness, called forth at the beginning of the cosmic war.Werner Sundermann, 'Manicheism ii. The Manichean Pantheon', Encyclopaedia Iranica (online ed., 2009) (secondary)
Sources
- The Mother of Life is the first divine being evoked by the Father of Greatness in Manichaean cosmogony, and the mother of the Primal Man whom she sends to battle Darkness.: Werner Sundermann, 'Manicheism ii. The Manichean Pantheon', Encyclopaedia Iranica (online ed., 2009) (secondary); Paul Van Lindt, The Names of Manichaean Mythological Figures: A Comparative Study on Terminology in the Coptic Sources (Studies in Oriental Religions 26) (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1992) (secondary); Werner Sundermann, 'Cosmogony and Cosmology iii. In Manicheism', Encyclopaedia Iranica (online ed., 1993) (secondary)