ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the broader associations of the term 'Daughter Zion'. It considers the significance of this figure in the Old Testament, in which Zion features primarily as a gendered space standing in a particular relationship to YHWH. The chapter also examines the re-interpretation of Zion by the Church Fathers as a watchtower or as a mirror, both of which signify speculatio. It seeks to make explicit connections with the later medieval context, for example by considering the deployment of Zech 2:10 as an advent antiphon, or by showing how speculatio and mirror imagery are foregrounded in the medieval German Daughter Zion texts. The image of Daughter Zion sits alongside that of Zion as promiscuous wife: the prophets thematize the sexual attractiveness of the Daughter, but also her waywardness, and, particularly in Lamentations, her vulnerability.
