Note 142 — Chapter I · THE KING OF THE WOOD

This appears from the name Partheniai applied at Sparta to the men who were born of the parthenoi (unmarried women) during the absence of the married men at the Messenian war. See Ephorus, cited by Strabo, vi. 3. 3, p. 279. Whether this explanation was historically correct or not (and other explanations of it were given, see W. L. Newman on Aristotle, Politics, vii. (v.) 7, p. 1306 b 29), it proves that in Greek of the best period parthenos did not connote chastity. Compare what Herodotus says of the Thracians (v. 6): τὰς δὲ παρθένους οὐ φυλάσσουσι, ἀλλ’ ἐῶσι τοῖσι αὐταὶ βούλονται ἀνδράσι μίσγεσθαι. As to the worship of unmarried goddesses in Western Asia, Sir W. M. Ramsay observes: “It is, in fact, probable, though with our present knowledge not susceptible of proof, that the term Parthenos in connection with the Anatolian system should be rendered simply as ‘the Unmarried,’ and should be regarded as evidence of the religious existence of the pre-Greek social system. The Parthenos goddess was also the Mother; and however much the Parthenoi who formed part of her official retinue may have been modified by Greek feeling, it is probable that originally the term indicated only that they were not cut off by marriage from the divine life” (Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i. p. 96). Similarly in a celebrated passage of Isaiah (vii. 14) the Hebrew word (עַלְמָה) which is translated “virgin” in our English version means no more than “young woman.” A correct translation would have obviated the necessity for the miracle which so many generations of devout but unlearned readers have discovered in the text; for while it would unquestionably be a miracle if a virgin were to conceive and bear a son, there is nothing whatever miraculous or even unusual about a young woman doing so.