Virgin birth (more strictly, virginal conception), in the proper sense, is differentiated from other miraculous births in that it is birth from a mother who is a virgin; and no male seed in any form is involved. Thus a birth resulting from artificial insemination of a virgin would not be classified as a virgin birth.

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  • Virgin birth (more strictly, virginal conception), in the proper sense, is differentiated from other miraculous births in that it is birth from a mother who is a virgin; and no male seed in any form is involved. Thus a birth resulting from artificial insemination of a virgin would not be classified as a virgin birth. Similarly, asexual births involving only a father, such as Athena's mythological birth from Zeus's forehead, would similarly not be classified as a virgin birth under this definition. Many alleged virgin births in ancient mythology are probably more accurately described as miraculous births, since the mother is understood to have been impregnated by a god in either his own form or in an assumed form, as when Zeus impregnated Leda. For example, the births of Buddha, born from married parents, and Mithras, formed out of solid rock, were miraculous births, but were not the result of virginal conception by a virgin. The birth of Krishna is confounded with separate stories that include his birth as the 8th of a series of children, while ancient texts such as the Bhagavata Purana have him born without a sexual union, by "mental transmission" from the mind of Vasudeva into the womb of Devaki. Another was that of Quetzalcoatl in the Pre-Hispanic religion of the Aztecs and Toltecs of Mexico. According to legend, his birth, along with his twin Xolotl, was unusual; it was a virgin birth, to the goddess Coatlicue.
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  • Virgin birth
  • virgin births in mythology
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  • Virgin birth (more strictly, virginal conception), in the proper sense, is differentiated from other miraculous births in that it is birth from a mother who is a virgin; and no male seed in any form is involved. Thus a birth resulting from artificial insemination of a virgin would not be classified as a virgin birth.
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  • Virgin birth (mythology)
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