So the Akathist hymn hails Our Lady, as the Redemption of the tears of Eve. It is a common theme throughout the history of Christianity, beginning with the Annunciation story in Luke 1, which has evident parallels with the story of the Fall. And indeed in that story already, in Genesis 3, we have announced the Seed ‘of the woman’ who will crush the serpent’s head. In fact, going even further back, to Genesis 1, and the creation of humanity as male and female, we may see an image of ‘the man Jesus Christ,’ and the one whom, both at the start and at the end of His Ministry He hails as ‘Woman.’
As Eve was seduced by the word of an angel and so fled from God after disobeying his word, Mary in her turn was given the good news by the word of an angel, and bore God in obedience to his word. As Eve was seduced into disobedience to God, so Mary was persuaded into obedience to God; thus the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve – St Irenaeus of Lyons