Artemis – The Misidentified Goddess

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[monsnoleedra]

This is a piece I wrote sometime ago which some might have seen already.  Yet I am encouraged to share it again by the one of whom it is written for.  In that light I offer it and perhaps it shall speak to you (collective you).

.......................................

Artemis – The Misidentified Goddess

  Of all goddesses I am aware of none has been more misappropriated than has the goddesses known as Artemis.  Her current face before society badly distorted and disfigured by the feminist movement’s selective use of attributes.  Her historical origins diluted as time has marched forward and group after group has changed her or reworked her to support their own belief or agenda.

Across the sands of time has she been called the Virgin Huntress of noted fame.  Known as a Mistress of Animals in some locations, Wild forest goddess in others, Sister to Apollo in some saga’s and of unique birth in other’s.  Many names and many guises have been overlaid upon her through out the ages.  Yet who is the true Goddess Artemis? Who is to say or can truly say for she has been seen as many things by many people.

Her earliest Greek persona is that of the Arcadian Artemis.  In this persona is she found to possess the characteristics she is so well known for.  It is the Arcadian Artemis that is the Wild Woman of the Forest and goddess of Nymphs.  The Goddess that spends all her time frolicking in the woods with her Nymphs and removed from man.  Just one facet of the Artemis persona that would be painted later and used to tie her in comparison to the Roman Diana.  Yet she holds no association to Apollo in this persona.

Her Olympian origin holds her as the daughter of Leto, sister to Apollo.  Under this guise she is also known as Artemis Agrotera (The Huntress) and as Cynthia from her place of birth upon Mount Cynthus on Delos.  The young daughter that is ever chaste and never to be dominated by man.  She who carries a deep love of the wild places and the hunt, of both swift joy and swift reaction to a perceived injustice against her.  A Daughter that is both associated with easy childbirth or death in childbirth by her silver arrows.

Yet older origins are hinted at in her association as Artemis, Lady of Ephesos (Ephesus).  It is at Ephesos that her persona as Mistress of Animals is perhaps the best known.  The so called many breasted statue giving rise to some facets of her possible older association with the goddess Cyebe.  Yet her history at Ephesos shows her origins to be owed to the race known as Amazons, the female warrior society.  It is at Ephesos that her grandeur and splendor would rise up as one of the ancient wonders of the Old World, The Temple of Artemis.  Her influence so strong and prevailing across time that it would be mentioned in the bible and become the birth place of the Cult which would rise up known as Mary, Lady of Ephesus in later years of Christianity.

Yet the Lady of Ephesus has no association to Apollo nor is she tied to the Olympian identifier.  No the Lady of Ephesus is best tied to the stories of the Anatolian Artemis, as separate a divinity as could be imagined.  Perhaps one of the greatest indicators of her none Olympian origins is the tacking of sides as recorded in the stories of the Trojan War.  Like Apollo, Artemis to fought on the side of the Trojans and perhaps as Main land Greece rises in power and the Trojans are defeated so to is Artemis defeated by Hera who takes her bow and arrows and sends her fleeing.  Potentially showing the rise of Mainland Greece over the outer regions and the final ordering of the position of the Anatolian Gods / Goddesses and their inclusion into the Olympian mythos.

Yet the Trojan War also introduces us to another face of the Anatolian Artemis, that being Artemis Turopolis or the Taurian Artemis.  It is under the guise of the Taurian Artemis that we find the connection to the blood rites and associations to Hekate another Anatolian Goddess.  We are introduced to the Taurian Artemis after Iphigeneia is demanded in sacrifice for an affront to Artemis in her sacred woods.  An affront so great that she holds the entire Greek fleet bound until it is sated with sacrifice.  As we follow the saga of Iphigeneia and Orestes do we see the migration of the Taurian Artemis back to Olympian Greece.

The Taurian Artemis would find a new home in the area of Brauron in Attica, whence the goddess derived the name of Brauronia.  It is at Brauron where the young girls of Athens would be bound to serve the Goddess as Bear Dancers (Arkteia) to make amends for the killing of a bear at her sacred sanctuary.  It is here also that the young girls would make sacrifice of their childhood things as they passed from childhood to adulthood and reached a marriageable age.  Yet the story of Iphigeneia and Orestes does not end at Brauron though Iphigeneia’s part of the story does.  No for the cult statue is believed by some to have been carried to Sparta.

It is at Sparta that Artemis becomes known as Artemis Orthia.  Even at Orthia did the blood rites continue and become part of the annual stealing of the Cheese from the altar.  The process where young boys were flogged as they tried to steal the cheese and the High Priestess held the image and decided if sufficient blood had been spilt upon it or not.  If she was unable to hold it then the sacred relic demanded more blood and that the boys be whipped harder.  Yet not only did the Taurian facet come but also the Mistress of Animals facet would be found at Othia.

Yet no single paper can touch upon all the facets of the goddess Artemis.  At Ikaria she is known as the goddess of seafarers and mistress of the coastal sea creatures.   At Sardis abt 60 miles from Ephesos was another of her temples built that would be listed as the 4th largest Ionic temple ever built, only matched in grandeur by Ephesos.  Her temples and sanctuaries being found all over even as far away as Syracuse.

Time would find her equated to the Egyptian goddess Bast and Pahket by the local Greek communities which would arrive in Egypt over various time frames.  Roman would equate her to their goddess Diana and would inter mingle their stories and legends, even to the point where Ephesus would take the name of Diana of Ephesus in places.  In her own lands would she become associated with Selene the moon goddess and Hekate of the crossroads.  Sometimes Artemis is seen as those goddess other times seen as sharing attributes of those goddesses.

No, of all the Goddesses I know none have been misidentified as greatly to my perspective as Artemis has.  Be she known as the Goddess of Nymphs; Goddess of the Amazons; Virgin Huntress; Mistress of Animals; Far Shooter; Eternal Virgin or any of her other names and persona’s she is so much more than the feminist movements visual or the narrow scope that so many try to paint her into in today’s society.  But each of us must find her in our own way I suppose but mine is to known her as deeply and honestly as I can.  I do not color over her capacity for vengeance and demands.  I do not enhance a single facet of her to support some hidden agenda.  No not even to paint her in the light of perfection and purity that some would place her in.

No to me she is all of those things and none of them all at once.  To me she is Artemis and demands I come to know her for whom she is not what they would select to present as her.

[Melamphoros]

This is a piece I wrote sometime ago which some might have seen already.  Yet I am encouraged to share it again by the one of whom it is written for.  In that light I offer it and perhaps it shall speak to you (collective you).

I know you said you wrote it, but was it published anywhere?  If so do you have permission to re-publish it like you're doing now?

I hate to ask, but we can never be too careful when it comes to potential copyright issues.

[monsnoleedra]

I know you said you wrote it, but was it published anywhere?  If so do you have permission to re-publish it like you're doing now?

I hate to ask, but we can never be too careful when it comes to potential copyright issues.

NO, its never been published outside of a few net sites I belong to where I posted it as a general topic.  In that capacity I am author and owner of the item in question.

[Melamphoros]

NO, its never been published outside of a few net sites I belong to where I posted it as a general topic.  In that capacity I am author and owner of the item in question.

Oh good, as I said, you can never be too careful.

[monsnoleedra]

Oh good, as I said, you can never be too careful.

Not a problem.  When I use other's works I try to cite it as best as possible, or at least cite the major work it is from and as much additional info as I can find.

[SunflowerP]

Her current face before society badly distorted and disfigured by the feminist movement’s selective use of attributes.

Nitpick:  Most of the feminist movement makes no reference whatsoever to Artemis.  The Women's Spirituality/Feminist Spirituality/Goddess Worship movement is just one small part of feminism.

Sunflower

[monsnoleedra]

Nitpick:  Most of the feminist movement makes no reference whatsoever to Artemis.  The Women's Spirituality/Feminist Spirituality/Goddess Worship movement is just one small part of feminism.

Sunflower

Perhaps today but the feminist movement of the 70's and early 80's used it almost exclusively.  In that capacity she was exploited almost as much as Hekate was to paint her as the crone.  Probably one of the reasons as a male I run into issues with many of the old guard females and being sworn to both Artemis and Hekate.  Of course this also includes the blanket association of Artemis and Diana in that feminist rolemodel, though I do not claim Diana as a goddess of mine.

[SunflowerP]

Perhaps today but the feminist movement of the 70's and early 80's used it almost exclusively.  In that capacity she was exploited almost as much as Hekate was to paint her as the crone.  Probably one of the reasons as a male I run into issues with many of the old guard females and being sworn to both Artemis and Hekate.  Of course this also includes the blanket association of Artemis and Diana in that feminist rolemodel, though I do not claim Diana as a goddess of mine.

The great majority of feminists, even in the '70s and '80s, did not identify as either pagan, or as goddess worshippers.

That the tropes to which you refer were almost exclusively used by feminists (generally, ones who did identify as pagans and/or goddess worshippers) is quite true.  But "all women who were part of the Goddess Worship movement were feminists" != "all feminists were/are goddess worshippers".

If what you mean is "the feminist movement within paganism", you should express it that way - because the feminist movement was much larger and more diverse than that.

Sunflower

[Caroline]

The great majority of feminists, even in the '70s and '80s, did not identify as either pagan, or as goddess worshippers.

That the tropes to which you refer were almost exclusively used by feminists (generally, ones who did identify as pagans and/or goddess worshippers) is quite true.  But "all women who were part of the Goddess Worship movement were feminists" != "all feminists were/are goddess worshippers".

If what you mean is "the feminist movement within paganism", you should express it that way - because the feminist movement was much larger and more diverse than that.

Sunflower

This. I lived through both decades as a feminist (and one moderately involved in activism), and outside of spirituality contexts, the mention of goddess archtypes in general (and Artemis in particular) was practically nil.

[monsnoleedra]

This. I lived through both decades as a feminist (and one moderately involved in activism), and outside of spirituality contexts, the mention of goddess archtypes in general (and Artemis in particular) was practically nil.

Caroline & Sunflower,

I admit I might be wrong in the general association of the feminist movement as a whole vice just the feminist movement within the pagan influence.  While I can't really change it here I have modified the file copy to be more specific.  Thanks for the expanded view point and consideration.

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