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How did Mary become associated with Eve in early Christian theology?

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Antonello da Messina: Madonna and Child — Mary *Madonna and Child*, oil and tempera on panel by Antonello da Messina, 1475; in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

In early Christian theology, the association between Mary and Eve emerged from the development of parallels between Jesus and Adam. Just as the New Testament contrasts the disobedience of Adam, which introduced sin into the world, with the obedience of Christ, which brought salvation, theologians began to draw a corresponding parallel between Eve and Mary.1

Writing near the end of the 2nd century, the Church Father St. Irenaeus formalized this connection. He observed that Eve, as a virgin, had disobeyed the word of God, whereas Mary, also a virgin, had obeyed it. Irenaeus argued that "Eve in Mary" was restored, meaning that Mary’s obedience served to undo and destroy the virginal disobedience of Eve.1

This theological framework, sometimes referred to as Mariological interpretation, suggests that Mary participated in the life that made human salvation possible, just as Eve had participated in the sin that led to human mortality. This parallel was not necessarily an invention of Irenaeus but likely belonged to an existing tradition that viewed Mary as the "second Eve".12