Okay, so.

[apocalypsos]

I'm trying to come up with a list of mythological things that only a virgin can do. You know, like virgins are the only ones who can touch unicorns or virgin blood is tastier to vampires or whatever.

Anybody think of any others? 'Cause my list is kind of short right now.

Comments

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

They're the only ones who can touch vampire unicorns?

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yeah, probably. :)

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

Other than that I got nothin'.

[trinity_clare]

Aside from being more appealing as ritual sacrifices, I can't think of a whole lot.

[newredshoes]

Well, there's being the virgin sacrifice, but that pretty much sucks, so.

If you're a certain kind of virgin, you can have mind-blowing sex the very first time if it's your true love, right? Right?

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

Little known fact: Only virgins can lose their virginity. It's true.

[22by7.livejournal.com]

damn, i was gonna say this one

[fakymcfakerson.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that in certain traditions, they're the only ones that can brew certain perfumes/potions or weave certain cloth for use in rituals.

Also, weren't virgin priestesses used to tell the future at Delphi?

[akire-yta.livejournal.com]

yep, virgins were the only women who could make prophecy (though men still 'translated' the prophecy). If a non-virgin stepped into the holy sanctuary and got high breathed the vapours, they'd die violently, driven insane.

Needless to say, they were blamed for being raped, too, but that's a rant for another thread :)

Supernatural also has a few things to say on the use of virgins (lightly toasted)

[kalimai.livejournal.com]

They're the only one able to keep the fire in Mars temple.
They're supposed to be sensible to spirits on All Saint's Day eve.

[silveraspen]

Dragon sacrifice.

Virginity is also sometimes associated in stories with the Sight, or with the ability to use magic/power/witchcraft/etc.

[sometimesophie.livejournal.com]

There's the one that says virgins are the only ones that survive in horror films, but I'm pretty certain that doesn't come under 'mythological'. *G*

[astaria51.livejournal.com]

preternatural?

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

In Once Bitten Only the blood of a Virgin can keep a female vampire young and beautiful.

In The Dresden Files the sexual lust of a Virgin is that much richer a feast to an incubus/succubus.

In some mythology the gods are pleased with virgin sacrifices. Volcanoes quit erupting, and so-on.

[irenak.livejournal.com]

In The Dresden Files the sexual lust of a Virgin is that much richer a feast to an incubus/succubus.

And if you're of incubus/succubus descent, you only remain human until your first time. It gets messy after that.

< /Dresden geek>

[tenebris.livejournal.com]

I had heard--and Babyblon 5 would back me up on this--that Galahad was a virgin. Which means only a virgin could pick up the Holy Grail. (Spiritually pure person--well, we all know THEY can't have any sex.) Virgin tears are also supposed to be purer--actually, I'm thinking that bits of virgin (oh ho ho) are supposed to be better for spell work, once again due to that ritual purity thing.

See, and now I've got Willow Rosenburg going off in my head about what a crock of shit this is. ;)

Edit: And I totally came back to mention the virgin goddesses (often occuring in triplets), Vestal Virgins, and tenders of Oracle of Delphi, but everyone else beat me to it. I'm trying to think of any Asian/East Asian thing about virginity, but nothing has come to mind so far.

[pen37.livejournal.com]

They make more desirable sacrifices. They make more desirable servants (nuns, vestal virgins). In some cultures, they could be warriors, or their magic might be stronger due to virgin status. Valkyries were virgins. So were certain greek goddesses (vesta, artemis)

This link might help:
http://www.helium.com/items/967617-virgin-women-given-special

Do Virgins Taste Better?

[brigidsblest.livejournal.com]

A dragon has come to our village today.
We've asked him to leave, but he won't go away.
Now he's talked to our king and they worked out a deal.
No homes will he burn and no crops will he steal.

Now there is but one catch, we dislike it a bunch.
Twice a year he invites him a virgin to lunch.
Well, we've no other choice, so the deal we'll respect.
But we can't help but wonder and pause to reflect.

Do virgins taste better than those who are not?
Are they salty, or sweeter, more juicy or what?
Do you savor them slowly? Gulp them down on the spot?
Do virgins taste better than those who are not?

Now we'd like to be shed you, and many have tried.
But no one can get through your thick scaly hide.
We hope that some day, some brave knight will come by.
'Cause we can't wait around 'til you're too fat to fly.

Now you have such good taste in your women for sure,
They always are pretty, they always are pure.
But your notion of dining, it makes us all flinch,
For your favorite entree is barbecued wench.

Now we've found a solution, it works out so neat,
If you insist on nothing but virgins to eat.
No more will our number ever grow small,
We'll simply make sure there's no virgins at all!

[elorie.livejournal.com]

Things that only virgins can do:

*Tend the eternal flame in the temple to Vesta
*Be oracular priestesses
*Step over Math ap Mathonwy's staff
*Give birth to divine avatars
*Spin flax for magical purposes

You know, you could take up spinning as a hobby and sell the results at outrageous prices.

[vass]

Hanne Blank wrote a book about virginity, Virgin: the Untouched History. I don't know if it has stuff like that in there, but it might.

[squigglepie.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Well, there were the Vestal Virgins, virgin priestesses of the Goddess of the Hearth Vesta who tended a sacred fire. If it went out, Vesta would withdraw her protection and Rome would y'know, fail. Vestal Virgins were the shit back then.

Er, what I mean is that female virgins are usually the only ones that attend Goddesses and have the mystical and/or religious power. If they have sex then they lose all that power. : [

Yeah, Vestal Virgins? If they were found to have had sex (before their 30yr term was up) they were supposed to be buried alive in the city, because you weren't allowed to spill her blood.

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

I once read a romance novel about the Vestal Virgins (what can I say, it was published in the '70s and it was my mother's) and one of the main character's, uh, co-workers was put to death that way.

[budclare.livejournal.com]

If they were found to have had sex (before their 30yr term was up) they were supposed to be buried alive in the city, because you weren't allowed to spill her blood.

Does lesbian sex count? 'Cause that'd be a pretty nice loophole to have. :)

(Recent research has lead me to some interesting suspicions about Artemis, actually...)

[levi.livejournal.com]

A virgin won't get killed by the serial murderer.

[coolgrin.livejournal.com]

see Saints and stuff.

[20thcenturyvole.livejournal.com]

I think they're the only acceptable sacrafice for dragons and, going earlier, large Grecian sea-monsters.

Hey, if we're doing current mythology, the virgin or non-sexualised female is the only one who can survive the horror film, being a symbol of purity and innocence (while, as everyone knows, those whores who let men near their shame-caves deserve to die horribly). See also Alien, and for a subversion, Scream. Known as the Final Girl in academic circles.

*is geeky film major*

[thornsilver]

Sex with a virgin would cure siphilis. And AIDS.

[supesfan88.livejournal.com]

Sex with a virgin would cure siphilis. And AIDS.

Also, you know, their virginity :)

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Damn, I was going to go for that one!

[storm_dancer]

Give birth to the Christian Savior.

[notrafficlights.livejournal.com]

And a Buddhist one.

And a Hindu one.

And a Taoist... oh nevermind...

[storm_dancer]

Yeah, on second thought, it's easier just to say, "check one under religious births."

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Tend a Shinto shrine (and perform particular sacred festival dances).

ETA: That's female virgins, BTW. Men can do this any time.

[lovetheboys.livejournal.com]

I don't think this counts as "mythology" because I only read it in the one story. It was in one of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress anthologies (I don't know which one right now, since I have more than a dozen of them, and it might be one I read but don't own).

The story was about a sorceress in a world where only virgins could practice any magic at all. Their power came from their purity.

But the story goes on to have a minor god seduce the sorceress, and through her sensuality she actually has way more power than she had before, and she and the minor god plan to team up.

It's sort of feminist/revisionist stories a lot of the time, so my theory is that this version of "virgin-only magic" was a revisionist of another one. But I'd have to do more research.

Oh, and if you want to consider The Scorpion King mythology, the seer/sorceress (holy crap, I just found out from imdb that she was actually supposed to be Cassandra...) would only receive her visions and have her power if she remained a virgin. But at the end of the movie it came out that that was a story told by her ancestors (implying it's a family trait) to keep a king/emperor/whatever from taking advantage.

...I guess those don't really count, but they're cool, right?

Um...on some research: Snopes has a list of college-type virgin myths. So...apparently on college campuses, virgins can animate statues?

That's all I got...

[redfiona99.livejournal.com]

The only virgins can see the future got used in 'Live and Let Die' too.

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

Get an angel to specifically protect her virginity? (I think St Cecilia)

I'd have to double check whether all the known stigmatics were virgins/professed celibates, but I'm not positive on that.

Only a virgin can touch the Holy Grail (Galahad).

[trishalynn.livejournal.com]

Most of them, anyway. Look into a female saint's history (particularly the medieval ones) and if she wasn't married before she took orders, it was highly likely she was a virgin and at one point God intervened on her behalf for some reason or another.

[the-jackalope.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there a countess in Eastern Europe who bathed in the blood of virgins in order to keep her skin looking young and healthy?

So there's that.

[elusive-life-77.livejournal.com]

I think it was Lady Bathory that believed that bathing in the blood of virgins would keep her young forever.

[fyrdrakken]

You know, the thing I can't help remembering going down these comments is that, pre-reliable-birth-control, virgin = childless husbandless woman, hence virgin = woman undistracted by familial obligations, and thus virgin = woman available to serve societal/cultural purposes without disrupting a family unit.