Havrelock R. The Myth of Birthing the Hero: Heroic Barrenness in the Hebrew Bible

Biblical Interpretation 16 (2008) 154-178.Motherhood in the Hebrew Bible has been celebrated as indicative of female strength as well as derided as patriarchy’s primary entrapment. Somewhere between the two, birth figures as a moment of narrative focus on female characters during which they reformulate their status. Employing theories of the hero pattern, this essay argues that the movement from barrenness to fertility is a mode of female initiation into a relationship with the divine.