The Protectoresses
Living with the Gods
BBC
4.7 • 616 Ratings
🗓️ 13 November 2017
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Neil MacGregor's series on the role and expression of beliefs continues this week with a focus on images.
In Mexico, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe came not from the hand of an artist, but was directly given from heaven - according to its history. Our Lady of Guadalupe is now the most powerful of presiding images, and the Basilica of Guadalupe near Mexico City is said to be the most visited Roman Catholic pilgrimage site in the world.
The sanctuary of the goddess Artemis in the great trading city of Ephesus, now in western Turkey, was by far the most celebrated temple of the antique Mediterranean, and the cult of Artemis spread eastwards towards the Black Sea, and westwards towards Spain. Artemis was thought to protect the vulnerable at their moments of greatest personal danger.
Neil MacGregor also visits a shrine devoted to a woman sometimes perceived as a contemporary protectoress.
Producer Paul Kobrak
The series is produced in partnership with the British Museum, with the assistance of Dr Christopher Harding, University of Edinburgh. Photograph (c) The Trustees of the British Museum.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | She wears a polos crown indicative of her divinity and then has a pectoral covered with knobs |
| 0:06.4 | that have been interpreted variously as breasts or bull testicles. Hello, I'm Neil McGregor, |
| 0:13.0 | and in this series of podcasts, I'm looking at objects to see how shared beliefs have helped |
| 0:19.5 | shape societies. |
| 0:23.4 | Now we're focusing on images. |
| 0:28.5 | We start with images sent to protect us, sent direct from heaven. |
| 0:30.2 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:36.2 | When Pope Francis visited Mexico in February 2016, |
| 0:40.3 | he decided to talk immediately about the country's political problems. His first public address, with the president standing next to him, |
| 0:43.3 | he warned of the dangers of a society driven by greed, corruption, drug trafficking and violence. |
| 0:49.3 | This was a popular move, but it was what he did next that really endeared him to the Mexicans. |
| 0:56.0 | He went to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Patriot Saints of Mexico, the biggest icon. |
| 1:01.0 | For them that was a really important... |
| 1:02.0 | This particular image of the Virgin Mary, the Virgin of Guadalupe, is for most Mexicans today, |
| 1:08.0 | not just an object of religious devotion, but the symbol of their national identity. |
| 1:13.6 | Why? |
| 1:16.6 | In our next five programs, I'm focusing on the many roles |
| 1:20.6 | that images can play within communities of belief, |
| 1:23.6 | and on the many problems that images bring with them. |
| 1:26.6 | And the Virgin of Guadalupe is a good place to start, |
| 1:30.7 | because this image of Mary is said not to have been painted by any human hand, |
| 1:35.9 | but to have come directly from heaven to Mexico. |
... |
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