Byzantium

"Byzantium is one of the first ever monotheistic empires. It is incredibly influential. It always appears as a footnote in Western history but at the time it was in control of vast parts of the Mediterranean, the Middle East and at times North Africa. So this was a Greek Orthodox Christian Empire. It is interesting to see what you do in a monotheistic civilisation. It is the first time it has really happened to any full-blooded degree. The Romans became Christians very late in their development and the Byzantine Empire was set up in the fourth century as the new Christian capital of the new Roman world. “Mary the mother of Jesus was not just described as the mother of Jesus but as the actual mother of God himself, which is really amazing.” So suddenly you have a male God, and Jesus who is the Son of God as our chief representative. What the Byzantine empresses did, very cleverly, was to keep one foot in the pagan past. They used their old traditions, which believed in female deities, and took on the mantle in a monotheistic way. You have the great Empress Theodora who helped to build Hagia Sophia in Istanbul with her husband Justinian. She sits alongside Justinian as if she is the mother of God, making judgement in the heavenly court. By this time, interestingly, among the Byzantine empresses, Mary the mother of Jesus was not just described as the mother of Jesus but as the actual mother of God himself, which is really amazing. So that puts her in pole position, and the empresses really associate themselves with the cult of Mary. Here you have these flesh and blood women associating themselves with the divine."