THE ORANTE AND THE GODDESS IN THE

ROMAN CATACOMBS
Valerie Abrahamsen

ABSTRACT
The Orante, or Orans, figure, a very common and important
symbol in early Christian art, is difficult to interpret. Theories
of what she meant to early Christians, especially Roman
Christians who buried their dead in the catacombs, range from
a representation of the soul of the deceased to a symbol of filial
piety. In this article, I will attempt to show that the Orante
figure originates with the prehistoric goddess, the all-encompassing Nature deity worshipped for millennia throughout the
Mediterranean world. While many early Christians superimposed Christian meaning on her, it is likely that other
Christians still viewed her in conjunction with the earlier
Nature goddess of birth, life, death and rebirth, even as they
worshipped God in male form.

Introduction

he Orante or Orans, generally a female figure with open

eyes and upraised hands, is a pervasive symbol in early
Christian art, perhaps the most important symbol in early
Christian art.1 Found frequently in the late second-century art in
the Roman catacombs, as well as in sculpture, her head is almost
always covered with a veil, and she wears a tunic. She exists both
as a separate symbol and as the main figure in a number of
Biblical scenes, but rarely in masculine form with male clothing.
Instead, she frequently stands in for male figures in scenes of
deliveranceshe becomes Noah in the ark, Jonah in the boat and
spewed out of the whale, Daniel between the lions, and the three
young men in the fiery furnace. In one instance, she does
represent a female figure Susannah as she is saved by Daniel.2
1 Graydon F. Snyder, Ante Pacem: Archaeological Evidence of Church Life
Before Constantine (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1985), 19. To my knowledge, the term Orante or Orans was never used by early Christians; this appears
to be a term coined by modern-day scholars, meaning the praying one.
2 Ibid.

Journal of Higher Criticism, 9/1 (Spring 2002), 1-15.

JOURNAL OF HIGHER CRITICISM

It is the salvation/deliverance aspect that appears to be the most

common in early Christian art.
Her exact meaning and usage, however, are debated, since
there is no ancient literature to tell us exactly how her image was
employed. Before considering the range of meanings she might
have had, it is necessary to discuss the primary context of her
image the Roman catacombs.
Located in a rough circle approximately three miles from the
city center, the catacombs date between the mid-second century
and 400 CE.3 They derive their English name from the Greek kata
kymbas and Latin catacumba, neither of which has a clear
meaning,4 contributing to the abiding intrigue and mystery of
these underground burial sites.
Invading Goths ransacked the catacombs in the sixth
century,5 and in 817 most of the bones interred there were
removed to churches and chapels within Rome by order of Pope
Pascal I. The catacombs were first excavated in the late 16th
century. About 40 chambers are known.6
The catacombs preserve some of the earliest Christian, as
well as Jewish and pagan, art related to death, resurrection and
reunification of the deceased with the deity. This art is a rich
repository of religious symbols, some of which originate in a much
earlier time and can assist in the interpretation of the Orante.
Below we shall consider several types of symbols: the gender and
posture of the Orante herself; Nature symbols, including flora and
fauna; anthropomorphic figures from the Graeco-Roman repertoire, such as deities and personifications of values; and Biblical
scenes and figures.

Traditional Interpretations of the Orante

ver since their modern discovery in the catacombs and on
other artifacts such as sarcophagi, Orante figures have
been studied and interpreted by early church historians,

3 Horst Moehring, Catacombs, The Encyclopedia Americana International

Edition (Danbury, CT: Grolier, 1997), Vol. 5, 812.
4 Catacomb, The New Encyclopaedia Britannica (Chicago: Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 1994), Vol. 2, 944. While legend has it that early Christians escaped
persecution by hiding in the catacombs, this cannot be generally true, since the
underground burials were well-known, accessible and too small for large
gatherings.
5 Moehring, 812.
6 Catacomb, Britannica, 944.

ABRAHAMSON: THE ORANTE

art historians and other scholars. However, among present-day

scholars, there is no consensus on their meaning.
One common interpretation of the Orante is that she represents the soul of the dead person whether a man or a woman
rather than an actual dead woman 7 or the immortal image of
the dead, under the guise of a young girl.8 The question
becomes, why use a female figure to depict the soul? One
explanation is that the word for soul in Greek, psyche, is
feminine, and that the Orante is similar to other personifications
of qualities and virtues; Nike, for instance, is a female personification of the quality Victory, and Tyche/Fortuna personifies
Luck or Fortune. However, in Gnostic and other literature of the
early Christian period, the human soul must become male to
have eternal life.9 The Jewish God was male, and the Christian
TrinityFather, Son, Holy Spiritwas overwhelmingly male (at
least in the orthodox literature of the time, most of which was
written by the church fathers). Sophia, or Wisdom, represented a
strand of Judeo-Christian thought and an example of a female
personification,10 but it does not seem to be her attributes that
are depicted in the catacombs.
Therefore, the question becomes, what is it about the human
soul that would compel an early Christian painter working in the
catacombs (or his/her patron) to depict the soul of the deceased
as a veiled female figure with upraised arms? Even if the femaleness can be accounted for, why would her arms not be folded in
prayer, stretched out frontally, or held in a blessing posture, as
are some Christ figures in early Christian art?
Another possible interpretation is that the Orante represents
pietas, or filial piety: the Orante appears on imperial coins with
the inscription pietas. Since the Orante image occurs in both
funerary and ecclesiastical art, some scholars suggest that she
referred to the security of filial piety, with the adopted family of
the church providing believers with a sense of community

7 Jean Lassus,
The Early Christian and Byzantine World (New York and
Toronto: McGraw Hill, 1967), 13.
8 Early Christian Art, Harpers Encyclopedia of Art, Vol. I (New York and
London: Harper & Brothers, 1937), 112.
9 Gospel of Thomas 51.19-26, as quoted in Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels
(New York: Random House, 1979) 49, 67.
10 Pagels, Gnostic Gospels, 48-69.

JOURNAL OF HIGHER CRITICISM

security or peace; this might explain depictions of the Orante in

Biblical scenes of threat and impending death.11
However, this does not explain the androgynous nature of the
figure: Since [the Orante] frequently represents male figures in
early Christian art, the constant use of female clothing seriously
affects our interpretation of pictorial art.12 Why did the Orante
emerge as female to begin with, only to be so consistently used in
scenes of menof the emperor, of Noah, of Daniel? Also, why
would a female figure be used to symbolize the protection of
believers from danger, when contemporary theology was so intent
on stressing male deitiesJesus, Godin that role?
A third possibility is that the Orante, when surrounded with
flowers, represents the gardens of Paradise. If placed in the context of the Shepherd of Hermas, an early Christian document, and
the visions of St. Perpetua, both these pastoral and floral scenes
may be seen as visions of the place of light and peace. 13 Again,
though, why choose a female figure to represent paradise, rather
than a Christ figure, shepherd or other masculine type? Several
gardens in Biblical literaturethe Garden of Eden, the Garden of
Gethsemanecould have been depicted, yet the catacomb artists
chose a female figure with upraised arms in a pastoral, Natureoriented setting.
As we shall see, there are other explanations for the choice of
this particular type in the catacombs at this particular time. To
arrive at them, we will explore a far-distant time in the past,
when, as some scholars believe, an all-powerful female deity ruled
the human and natural world.

Origins: The Neolithic Goddess and Her Legacy

nvestigating possible origins of the Orante figure reveals that a
female figure with upraised arms was in the religious repertory
of prehistoric peoples of Old Europe14 and the Mediterranean.

11

Snyder, Ante Pacem, 20.

Idem, 19.
13 Lassus, Early Christian, 13.
14 This is a term coined by Marija Gimbutas: the collective identity and
achievement of the different cultural groups of Neolithic-Chalcolithic southeastern
Europe. The area it occupied extends from the Aegean and Adriatic, including the
islands, as far north as Czechoslovakia, southern Poland and the western
Ukraine. Between c. 7000 and c. 3500 BC, the inhabitants of this region
developed a much more complex social organization than their western and
northern neighbours.... From Marija Gimbutas, The Goddesses and Gods of Old
Europe 6500-3500 BC: Myths and Cult Images (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
12

ABRAHAMSON: THE ORANTE

What might this figure have represented, and could the same
meaning have persisted into the Graeco-Roman era?
In recent years, excavations of sites dating to the Neolithic
era (New Stone Age, approximately 7000-3500 BCE in this region)
have yielded finds indicating that, unlike later societies, people
revered a powerful female deityin effect, a female manifestation
of Nature or Earth and all its (her) attributes.15 Neolithic (and
some Paleolithic) sites that have yielded significant finds include
atal Hyk in Turkey; sites on the Greek island of Crete, the
height of whose culture is Bronze Age but owes a great debt to the
Neolithic; Sitagroi, Greece, near the early Christian colony of
Philippi; and a number of sites in Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia
and Hungary.
From multidisciplinary interpretation of the material remains
from these sites, a description of the Nature/Earth goddess can
be attempted. Artifacts found by archaeologists in countless
Neolithic sitesoverwhelmingly female in form bear symbols of
a deity that link her with water, animals, plants, birth, life, death
and regenerationindeed, all of Life. This goddess was believed,
through observation, to have dominion over not only the earth
and all things on it, but also the skies and the planets (which
were viewed as earths ceiling, for all intents and purposes).16
Belief in the female origin of life and close attention to its
manifestations in Nature allowed Neolithic peoples of Old Europe
and elsewhere to cultivate crops, domesticate animals, and live in
harmony with Nature and one another.
However, even when death and disaster struck, whether
through storms, animal attacks, illness, or accident, the prehistoric mind still viewed the world from a gynocentric (femaleUniversity of California Press, 1996. First ed.: London: Thames and Hudson,
1974, 1982. Originally published in the U.S. in 1974 by University of California
Press under the title The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe: 7000-3500 BC. New
and updated edition in paperback, 1982), 17.
15 The question can be raised as to whether one speaks of one goddess or
many. If one views earth and Nature as a single entity with many aspects, with
that entity being in female form, then one can view the deity, equated with the
earth and Nature, as one female entity with many aspects. This is not a philosophical discussion so much as it is based on the close observation of ones
surroundings.
16 The deity had dominion over Nature and human beings by the mere fact
that, for the most part, human beings could not control Nature. This may be a
difficult concept for modern human beings to imagine, since we can control Nature
to some extent: large-scale irrigation mimics rain, airplanes mimic birds, running
water does not depend on a river running downstream, human beings can create
fire without waiting for lightning to strike, and so on.

JOURNAL OF HIGHER CRITICISM

centered) perspective. Rather than attribute bad fortune to a

separate evil being, as in later thought, misfortunes were seen
to derive from the crone, witch, or hag manifestations of the same
Nature goddess. While ugly, fearsome and dreaded, these attributes were not separate from the good side, to be defeated or
annihilated, but rather to be accepted as part of the natural order
and propitiated with ceremony, offerings and ritual.17
The goddess was thus viewed as all-powerful and involved in
almost every aspect of life, not only in the large scale events
birth, death, childbearing, marriagebut also in more of lifes
everday activities. The goddess oversaw ones everyday work, play,
seasonal activity, relationships within the community, the
creation of homes and clothes, and so on. In contrast to many
strands of later androcentric, historic, war-defined religion the
world over, the goddess belief and praxis system emphasized joy,
creativity, beauty and harmony, both between human beings and
between people and Nature.
The archaeological evidence demonstrates that the agricultural communities created by such goddess-worshippers experienced a large growth in population and developed a rich and
sophisticated artistic expression. This culturea true civilizationboasted towns with temples several stories high, four- or
five-room houses, and professional ceramicists, weavers, and
copper and gold workers. A network of trade routes facilitated the
exchange of obsidian, shells, marble, and salt.18 Goddess cultures
of prehistory were matrilineal and matrifocal but, significantly,
not matriarchal; that is, descent was through the mother, the
new husband lived with his wifes family, but women did not
dominatesocial structure was egalitarian.19
Out of the excavations of Neolithic sites have come thousands of female figurines and symbols with stunning parallels
with the Orante figure. Among these are various manifestations of
17 While it seems farfetched to draw these philosophical and theological
conclusions from physical artifacts alone, given the absence of literature from this
era, the archaeological evidence in its totality strongly supports these conclusions.
Gimbutas and others present thousands of examples of female-centered figures
and symbols in contexts of death, destruction, and misfortune, as well as the
positive, life-affirming contexts, that demonstrate very clearly this aspect of the
goddess as the other side of the same coin. See especially Gimbutas, Goddesses
and Gods; idem, The Language of the Goddess (San Francisco: Harper and Row,
Publishers, 1989); and idem, The Civilization of the Goddess, ed. Joan Marler (San
Francisco: HarperSan Francisco, 1991).
18 Gimbutas, Civilization, viii.
19 Ibid.

ABRAHAMSON: THE ORANTE

the Nature goddessthe hunt goddess, the snake goddess and

the frog or toad.
The hunt goddess, who later became Artemis to the Greeks
and Diana to the Romans, had a magic relation to animals. Her
image, with upraised arms, is found throughout European folk
tradition, art, alchemy and witchcraft. In Stone Age cave paintings, sacred women stood with upraised arms during the hunt,
acting as receivers of cosmic energy.20 To us accustomed to an
image of man as hunter, this image may be counterintuitive,
but the archaeological evidence and later Greek and Roman
literature confirm the association between hunting and an
ancient female deity.
As for the snake goddess, a classic example comes from
Minoan art. The great goddess of Crete, bare-breasted, wears a
flounced skirt and dances ecstatically with upraised arms,
holding magic snakes in her hands.21 For many pre-industrial,
Nature-centered peoples, even today, snakes symbolized both
immortality and the image of spontaneous life energy, and the
goddess bare breasts in the Minoan image connote the nourishing lifestream of the Mother.22 In the catacombs and other early
Christian art, the powerful female deitys upraised arms may still
have represented this same energy, life, regeneration and
immortality, even though in orthodox Judeo-Christian thought
the snake had evil and misogynist characteristics.
The goddess in a birth-giving positionlegs spread widely
apart and arms upraisedis a very common image from the
Neolithic sites, appearing on pottery of various kinds from
Yugoslavia, Hungary, Bohemia and elsewhere in Old Europe. In
some examples, the goddess resembles a frog or toad, animals
closely connected to both birth and death. The frog-woman image
may be as old as the Upper Paleolithic (the millennia preceding
the Neolithic), appearing as stand-alone figurines or carved or
painted on pottery. The animal is depicted frequently in prehistoric sites along with the human vulva and the sign of the uterus,
so the frog shape is not necessarily representative of the birthgiving posture but rather an anthropomorphized animal connected by its symbolism to regeneration or life after death.23
20 Monica Sj and Barbara Mor, The Great Cosmic Mother (San Francisco:
Harper and Row, 1987), 84.
21 Idem, 212-14.
22 Idem, 213.
23 Gimbutas, Language, 251-55.

JOURNAL OF HIGHER CRITICISM

This survey suggests that the Orante in a death/burial

setting is a direct descendant of the prehistoric Nature goddess
and many of her attributes. It remains to be seen how she ties in
with other symbols of the catacombs and what meaning she may
still have had for early Christians.

Religious Symbols in the Catacombs

n the catacombs, space shared by pagans, Jews and Christians, are depicted Graeco-Roman goddesses, plants, flowers,
trees, birds, animals, food and fish. As images representative
of other values or qualities, these symbols all have roots in
prehistory. While such images may be merely decorative, they
may also have deep meaning, especially in a specific context.
Since the primary function of the catacombs was to provide a
permanent resting place for the deceased, it is highly likely that
many of the symbols chosen for the paintings held meaning
related to death, resurrection and the afterlife.
First, as has been noted by art historians, catacomb art
generally conveys peacefulness, plenitude, and deliverance from
danger. There is remarkably little sense of human sinfulness,
death (even the death of Jesus on the cross), fear or the awesomeness of God. Death appears as an almost welcome release from
the perils and hardships of life, not as a dark, foreboding place to
be dreaded.
Since this positive emphasis is so different from much of
early Christian theology as expressed in mainstream literature of
the time (written mostly by men), we must ask why there is a
discrepancy. Might the ethos of the catacombs be due to earlier,
pre-Christian (and even pre-Jewish) conceptions of death and the
afterlife? The underground burials were sacred ground, with
apparently little or no theological conflict occurring between the
many groups using them. This space was also ground itself
mother earth, Nature, a locus of life-sustaining and life-enhancing vegetation.
The connection between Nature and peacefulness is well
illustrated in the Jewish catacomb of Vigna Randanini. The wall
paintings in this catacomb have a festive air... There is nothing
solemn about the graceful, mythological figures, leaping dolphins

ABRAHAMSON: THE ORANTE

and sea horses, flying birds, palm trees full of dates, and garlands
of flowers.24
Furthermore, one of the vault frescoes of Vigna Randanini
depicts a Winged Victory (the Greek goddess Nike) crowning a
naked youth in the center of a round design; Nike holds a palm
leaf in her right hand. The central picture is surrounded by
symbolic flora and fauna: a peacock with its feathers spread sits
on a column, while two birds stand on either side of a pedestal
with a basket of flowers and fruit on top.25 The decoration of the
vault also includes curved and straight lines in a design that
gives a swirling, watery feeling.
Many of the symbols found here not only evoke Nature but
are reminiscent of the prehistoric goddess, as presented especially
by Gimbutas. Nike is a female deity or personification; she, like
many female deities in the Graeco-Roman pantheon, are direct
descendants of the prehistoric goddess.26 The palm leaf has very
early goddess resonance,27 as do birds, flowers and fruit, geometric designs, and water. The peacock, sacred to Juno/Hera,
Queen of Heaven, is also significant: the eyed feathers of
peacocks tail represented the goddess starry heavens or her allseeing awareness. On Roman coins, Junos peacock meant apotheosis for women.28
However, the peacock could also be a bad-luck sign in Christianity, precisely because of its goddess association.29 Since it is
unlikely that anyone, Jewish or Christian, would have surrounded their deceased relative/s with symbols that might negatively impact his or her afterlife journey, it is quite likely that the
artist, the deceased and the deceaseds kin took comfort from
these symbolsand therefore revered the goddess with which
they were associated, whether they called her Nike, Juno, or Hera
or had no name for her at all.

24 Letizia Pitigliani, A Rare Look at the Jewish Catacombs of Rome, Biblical

Archaeology Review (May/June 1980) 43
25 Estelle Shohet Brettman, Vaults of Memory: Jewish and Christian Imagery in
the Catacombs of Rome (Boston, MA: International Catacomb Society, 1985) 1213; Pitigliani, Rare Look, 43.
26 See, e.g., Gimbutas, Civilization, 226, 235.
27 Sj and Mor, Great Cosmic Mother, 163-64.
28 Barbara G. Walker, The Womans Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects
(San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), 405-06.
29 Walker, Dictionary, 406.

JOURNAL OF HIGHER CRITICISM

10

Symbols such as the tree, the vine, wine, fish and bread are
found frequently in the catacombs. The tree, like the palm,
represents for Christians either a sign of victory (the presentation
of a palm to the winners of the games) or a sign of life or both.
Of course, in many contexts victory could mean victory over
death, which parallels the promise of eternal life. Church
historian Graydon Snyder asserts that the tree appears most
frequently in the context of the Good Shepherd, which may
derive from Orpheus with the tree symbolizing satisfactory
existence.30 However, far back in time the tree represented life in
the sense of Nature, life-giving fruit, shade, and shelter; these too
were all under the dominion of the great goddess.31
Doves and other birds also figure prominently in catacomb
art. Whether under the guise of Aphrodite or Astarte, the dove
represented for pagans of the Graeco-Roman era the great
goddess,32 while for Christians it was often equated with John the
Baptist and the Holy Spirit.33 Therefore, the frequency of the
doves appearance in the catacombs cannot be purely coincidental. In several instances (e.g., the catacomb of Priscilla, several
times in the catacomb of Vigna Randanini, and in the catacomb
of SS. Marcellino e Pietro), the dove is presented with an olive
branch or roses.34 For people of the Neolithic era, both the olive
branch and the dove symbolized the peace of the goddess.35
Elsewhere in the catacomb of Vigna Randanini, four doves,
depicted with a spray of roses, may signify the four seasons,36
which were also under the domain of the goddess in the
prehistoric mindset. Another examples of doves is from the
catacomb of Priscilla: a figure of the Good Shepherd stands amid
his flock of sheep flanked by doves who sit on two trees.37
The roses too were significant, appearing in graveside
funerary rituals and symbolizing immortality, rebirth and hope
from very early times.38 A hen and roses appear on a wall painting
30
31

Snyder, Ante Pacem, 21.

See, e.g., Sj and Mor, Great Cosmic Mother, 163-64; Gimbutas, Language,

319.
32
33
34
35
36
37
38

Gimbutas, Language, 195.

Walker, Dictionary, 399.
Brettman, Vaults, 22-23.
Barbara, Dictionary, 399-400.
Brettman, Vaults, 23.
Idem, 31.
Idem, 20, 23.

ABRAHAMSON: THE ORANTE

11

in cubiculum I in the Vigna Randanini catacomb.39 Ducks and

hens, fish, baskets of food, and roses are depicted together in the
Vigna Randanini and SS. Marcellino e Pietro catacombs,40
bringing together themes of fertility, water, nourishment and
immortalityall linked to the prehistoric goddess.
Fortuna/Tyche, symbol of Natures profusion, is another
goddess descendant appearing in a vault painting in the Vigna
Randanini catacomb.41 She holds a cornucopia in her left hand
and pours a libation with her right.42 As both giver of plenty and
taker of life, she was very much at home in the catacombs.
Another two female deities appear in the catacomb of the Via
Latina. In cubiculum O, a wall painting shows Demeter as a
fashionable Roman matron. With her right hand she sprinkles
grain from a sheaf; in her left she bears aloft the flaming torch of
life.43 In cubiculum E the goddess appears again: a voluptuous
pagan earth goddess clutches to her bosom a serpent, symbol of
earths fecundity. The scene has been associated with the myth of
the fertility goddess Persephone.44 This scene, like many others,
reinforces the link between life and death and recalls that people
saw the earth as both womb and tomb. The flaming torch of life
symbolizes the hope that the way to the other world is illuminated
for the deceased by the deity, and the serpent/snake, as we saw
above, is the return to earth and new life (via the annual spring
shedding of its skin) and life energy.45
Significantly, the Via Latina catacomb was a private paganChristian catacomb.46 This suggests that the families who buried
their kin here did not find it contradictory to honor ancient
deities, including goddesses or female personifications, along with
the Christian god. Perhaps they felt that the goddess better
represented fertility and the earth than did Jesus, a male.
The fish is a very complex symbol, carrying several meanings
for early Christians but hearkening back much earlier. There
appear to be two early Christian uses of the fish symbol, one
nautical representing life in an alien environment and the other
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46

Idem, 24.
Idem, 21.
Idem, 9.
Idem, 24.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Sj and Mor, Great Cosmic Mother, 59.
Brettman, Vaults, 10.

JOURNAL OF HIGHER CRITICISM

12

in conjunction with the communal meal: Jesus the Christ is

eaten in the eucharistic meal. Snyder proposes that the nautical
fish developed de novo [and] referred to the alien nature of the
environment. When that alienation disappeared, the nautical fish
became a Christological symbol with baptismal implications. . . .
At the same time a meal with fish . . . became the primary kinship
or fellowship meal of the early Church.47
Even the church father Tertullian in his work de baptismo
appears to connect early, goddess-related symbols to Christian
theology: But we little fish, according to our ichthun Jesus
Christ, are born in the water, nor are we saved in any other
manner than by remaining in the water.48 Tertullian and other
early Christian leaders argue that the goddess, one of whose
domains was water, the environment of the fish, has been
replaced by Jesus the Christ; the goddess life-giving waters,
essential to all living things, have been replaced by the more
esoteric and symbolic waters of baptism, possible only through
conversion to the Christian faith. Tertullians reference to being
saved by water obviously refers to Christian baptism, yet it
undoubtedly hearkens back to salvation and life as originating in
the waters of the human female and, by extension, the allpowerful Nature goddess who provides the life-giving waters of
streams, rivers, lakes and oceans.
A similar transformation has taken place with regard to the
fish as a major component of the meal. Fish as a source of food
would again, in the Nature-centered, pre-industrial mindset, be a
gift from the deity, especially the female deity who rules over all
plants and animals. In the Christian context, the deity becomes
male; the communal meal is given to devotees by the grace of a
male god in the form of Jesus the Christ.
Finally, the overall pastoral setting of much of catacomb art
is a compelling illustration of a link between the Orante and the
ancient goddess. In a painting in an arcosolium in the Coemeterium Maius in Rome, the Orante figure stands in surroundings
suggesting an earthly Paradise [green trees and grass], flanked by
two shepherds, one of them milking one of the flock, the other
bringing a stray to the fold, under the watchful eyes of a dog. The
graves are carved directly under this painting.49
47

Snyder, Ante Pacem, 25.

Idem, 24-25.
49 Lassus, Early Christian, 20.
48

ABRAHAMSON: THE ORANTE

13

Several symbols in this painting are suggestive. Milk was a

sacred liquid associated with the goddess, a female fluid and vital
source of sustenance, without which humans and animals would
perish. The dog, often accompanying a goddess such as Hekate,
appeared in prehistoric images and later folklore as a harbinger of
death, overseer of cyclical time, guardian of life and crucial to the
awakening of slumbering vegetation.50 The lush surroundings in
which this figure is placed further suggest the goddess who
oversees all of Nature and causes trees, plants and grass to grow,
to the benefit of all.

Conclusion

e can now begin to draw some conclusions about the

meaning of the Orante in the catacombs. First, many, if
not most, of the symbols used in catacomb art were not
purely decorative. Much of it held great meaning for the patron,
the deceased, the loved ones, and the community at large. This
meaning of course derived from contemporary religious and
philosophical belief. Most Romans of this era had at least a
rudimentary understanding of mythology and ritual practice, and
gods and goddesses were an integral part of their everyday lives.
Second, the context of the catacombsunderground burials
in mother earthreflect the prehistoric goddess oversight of
both the earth and human death, the womb-tomb connection.
The art of the catacombs illustrates peoples belief that the
deceased did not just go to a dark, foreboding place for eternity
but was rather reunited with a beneficent deity in a paradise-like
setting of peacefulness and abundance.
Third, the posture of the Orante in early Christian art reflects
that of earlier, very powerful female deities from the prehistoric
period. The hunt goddess, snake goddess and anthropomorphized
frog provide intriguing models that may have been available to the
artists of the catacombs. These ancient figures represented
energy, life and regeneration in female form; the Orante appears
to have done the same for the Christians, Jews and pagans using
the catacombs.
Fourth, the natural imagery used in so much of the catacomb
art, which was also used elsewhere by Jewish and Christian
artists, is striking in its resonance with prehistoric goddess
symbols. As we have seen, flora and fauna chosen in many
50

Gimbutas, Language, 197.

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JOURNAL OF HIGHER CRITICISM

catacomb paintings had clear goddess associations millennia

earlier. Romans in the early Christian era remained an agricultural, pre-industrial people, so those using the catacombs to inter
their loved ones would have seen many of these plants, animals
and birds in their daily lives. This is not to say that early Jews
and Christians did not take comfort in other symbols, such as the
shepherd, menorah, Biblical figures, and the like, but rather that
images from the natural world still evoked feelings of comfort that
may have been linked to an all-powerful female deity.
Now we can begin to answer the question as to why a female
religious figure was used in conjunction with security and peace
and the theory that the Orante represents pietas. Could it be that
pietas originally developed as female because of the role the
goddess had played in providing for her people? The characters of
the Hebrew and Christian faiths who need rescuingNoah,
Susannah, Danielare depicted in the guise of the Orante,
according to Snyder, because she symbolizes the rescue of
threatened Christians by membership in a community of faith, a
community protected by a loving god. That this meaning is
depicted by an ancient figure of a female with upraised arms
which, cross-culturally, represents the powerful, all-embracing
love and energy of a female deity must be taken seriously in these
Judeo-Christian contexts.
A fifth link between the catacombs and the prehistoric
goddess is the sometimes surprising appearance of GraecoRoman goddesses and female personifications in catacomb art. As
noted above, Nike, Tyche, Demeter and Hera/Juno all make
appearances in the Roman catacombs, in contexts of peacefulness, repose and abundance. Female deities of this era, even
though depicted in literature as more-or-less distinct beings with
their own mythologies and personalities (like male deities of the
same era), were descended from the prehistoric Nature goddess.
Many of them, including Demeter, had dominion over the
underworld; others, such as Artemis and Athena, were called
upon as city protector deities throughout the Mediterrean area.
For Jews and Christians to accept these deities images in their
final resting places strongly suggests that Jews and Christians
still looked to a powerful female deity for solace, protection and
deliverance.

ABRAHAMSON: THE ORANTE

15

Finally, we noted above that some scholars connect the

Orante with the place of light and peace. Light can also be
linked to the prehistoric goddess through her command of the
sun, stars and moon.
The above analysis does not mean that Christians or Jews
who used the catacombs as burial places necessarily consciously
and ritualistically worshipped the same goddess revered in
Neolithic times. What it does show is that rituals to the goddess
that originated in the Neolithic era most likely continued, as did
some remnant of a belief in this very ancient deity and her power.
To entertain this possibility means that we can no longer do
business as usual in interpreting early Christian symbols and
images, including the Orante. We cannot automatically maintain
that Christians and Jews in the second through fourth centuries
had completely transformed ancient symbols into their own
terms, discarding their earlier meaning. Neither can we say that a
symbol that appears to be Christian or Jewish had only one
meaning for all people who used it.
Early Christians had a choice of symbols to stand forever
over the graves of their loved ones. They could easily have chosen
the male gender and any number of different hand and body
postures to represent peace, solace, deliverance, abundance and
everlasting life (which they did in other times and places). Rather,
they chose a veiled woman with open eyes and upraised arms.
The Orante, like other female personifications and deities of the
Graeco-Roman era, is a direct descendant of the prehistoric
Nature goddess in both form and function, and her image was
depicted because of her beneficent power in the lives of her
people.