"And I will put enmity between thee and the Woman, and between thy seed and Her Seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel." (Genesis 3:15)
Protoevangelium is a compound word of two Greek words, protos meaning "first" and evangelion meaning "good news" or "gospel". Thus the protevanglium in Genesis 3:15 is commonly referred to as the first mention of the good news of salvation in the Bible.
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The Orthodox Church expresses reverence toward the Blessed Virgin by the many feast days commemorating the various events in Her life. In prayers the Virgin Mary is called Theotokos, which in Greek means the Mother of God, since the One Who was born from Her was at the time of conception and always will be the true God.
Several prophecies of the Old Testament foretold of the incarnation of the Son of God and of the blessed Woman who would become a tool for the salvation of mankind. The very first promise concerning the Redeemer, heard by our fallen ancestors Adam and Eve, contained a prophecy about a special Woman. God said to the devil: “I shall put enmity between thee and the Woman, and between thy seed and Her Seed” (Genesis 3:15). It should be noted that during the time of the Old Testament the progeny were always called the seed or descendent of a male parent. Only here is the Redeemer-to-Come referred to as the Seed of the Woman, and this was the first indication that He would have no human father.
Many centuries afterward the prophet Isaiah added important details to this first prophecy of Genesis. He said that the Woman, Who will give birth to the Messiah-Emmanuel, will be a virgin. “God Himself shall give you a sign,” explained the prophet Isaiah to the disbelieving descendants of King David, — “the Virgin shall accept into her womb and bear a Son, and shall name Him Emmanuel, which means: God is with us” (Isaiah 7:14). Another important message in the prophecy of Isaiah about the coming Messiah is that He will be God Himself. Hence the title Theotokos — “birth-giver of God” — given to the Virgin Mary by the ancient Church.
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In the ultimate sense, Christ did crush the serpent’s head and was struck Himself by the serpent, both aspects of His death on the Cross. However, there is another sense in which Our Lady the Blessed Virgin Mary crushed the serpent’s head and in which She was struck at by the serpent. She didn’t do these things directly, but indirectly, through Her Son and through Her cooperation with Her Son’s mission.
It was She, not someone else, who was the person that agreed to become the human channel through which Christ would enter the world in order to crush the serpent’s head (cf. Luke 1:38). And She was wounded when the serpent struck Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Simeon had prophesied to Her that “a sword will pierce through your own soul also,” a prophecy that was fulfilled when Our Lady Virgin Mary saw Her Son hanging from the cross (John 19:25–27). Thus Our Lord and God Jesus directly crushed the serpent and was directly struck by the serpent, while Our Lady Virgin Mary indirectly crushed it and was indirectly struck by it due to Her cooperation in becoming the mother of Christ.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protevangelium
stmaryoc.org/patronsaint
catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-woman-the-seed-the-serpent
