John Henry Freese

“ According to Plato (Symposium, 180) , there are two Aphrodites, “the elder, having no mother, who is called the heavenly Aphrodite—she is the daughter of Uranus; the younger, who is the daughter of Zeus and Dione—her we call common.” The same distinction is found in Xenophon’s Symposium (viii. 9) , although the author is doubtful whether there are two goddesses, or whether Urania and Pandemos are two names for the same goddess, just as Zeus, although one and the same, has many titles; but in any case, he says, the ritual of Urania is purer, more serious, than that of Pandemos. ”

“ From the time of Pheidias calm earnestness, self-conscious might, and clearness of intellect were the main characteristics of the goddess. The eyes, slightly cast down, betoken an attitude of thoughtfulness; the forehead is clear and open; the mouth indicates firmness and resolution. The whole suggests a masculine rather than a feminine form.
From Greece the worship of Athena extended to Magna Graecia, where a number of temples were erected to her in various places. ”

“ The most distinctively oriental title of the Greek Aphrodite is Urania, the Semitic “queen of the heavens.” It has been explained by reference to the lunar character of the goddess, but more probably signifies “she whose seat is in heaven,” whence she exercises her sway over the whole world—earth, sea, and air alike. Her cult was first established in Cythera, probably in connexion with the purple trade, and at Athens it is associated with the legendary Porphyrion, the purple king. ”

“ Here the connexion of Artemis with the Hyperborean legend (see Apollo) is shown in the names of the maidens (Opis, Hecaerge) who were supposed to have brought offerings from the north to Delos, where they were buried. Both Opis (or Oupis) and Hecaerge are names of Artemis, the latter being the feminine of Hecaergos, an epithet of Apollo. Like her brother, she is not only a goddess who deals death, but she is also a healing and a purifying divinity, οὐλία (“the healer,” cf. Apollo Oulios) , λύη, λυαία (“purifier,”) and σώτειρα, “she who saves from all evils” (cf. Apollo ἀποτρόπαιος) . ”

“ Finally, all idea of the divine vanished, and the artists merely presented her as the type of a beautiful woman, with oval face, full of grace and charm, languishing eyes, and laughing mouth, which replaced the dignified severity and repose of the older forms. ”

“ In older times her figure is fuller and stronger, and the clothing more complete; certain statues discovered at Delos, imitated from wooden models (ξόανα) , are supposed to represent Artemis; they are described as stiff and rigid, the limbs as it were glued to the body without life or movement, garments closely fitting, the folds of which fall in symmetrical parallel lines. As a goddess of the moon she wears a long robe, carries a torch, and her head is surmounted by a crescent. ”

“ As a war-goddess, she is the embodiment of prudent and intelligent tactics, entirely different from Ares, the personification of brute force and rashness, who is fitly represented as suffering defeat at her hands. She is the patroness and protectress of those heroes who are distinguished for their prudence and caution, and in the Trojan War she sides with the more civilized Greeks.
The goddess of war develops into the goddess of peace and the pursuits connected with it. She is prominent as the promoter of agriculture in Attic legend. ”

“ The idea of Artemis as a virgin goddess, the “queen and huntress, chaste and fair,” which obtained great prominence in early times, and seems inconsistent with her association with childbirth, is generally explained as due to her connexion with Apollo, but it is suggested by Farnell that παρθένος originally meant “unmarried,” and that “Ἄρτεμις παρθένος may have been originally the goddess of a people who had not yet the advanced Hellenic institutions of settled marriage ... and when society developed the later family system the goddess remained celibate, though not opposed to childbirth.” ”

“ It has been observed that she is rather the patroness of the wild beasts of the field than of the more agricultural or domestic animals (Farnell, Cults, ii. p. 431) , although the epithet ἡμερασία (“the tamer,” according to others, the “gentle” goddess of healing) seems to refer to her connexion with the latter. The bear was especially associated with her in Arcadia, and in her worship as Artemis Brauronia at Brauron in Attica. According to the legend, Callisto, an Arcadian nymph, became by Zeus the mother of Arcas, the eponymous hero of the Arcadians. ”

“ The younger generation, in view of the requirements and criticism of a reading public, cultivated the art of composition and rhetorical embellishment. As a general rule the annalists wrote in a spirit of uncritical patriotism, which led them to minimize or gloss over such disasters as the conquest of Rome by Porsena and the compulsory payment of ransom to the Gauls, and to flatter the people by exaggerated accounts of Roman prowess, dressed up in fanciful language. ”

“ This oriental Aphrodite was worshipped as the bestower of all animal and vegetable fruitfulness, and under this aspect especially as a goddess of women. This worship was degraded by repulsive practices (e.g. religious prostitution, self-mutilation) , which subsequently made their way to centres of Phoenician influence, such as Corinth and Mount Eryx in Sicily. In this connexion may be mentioned the idea of a divinity, half male, half female, uniting in itself the active and passive functions of creation, a symbol of luxuriant growth and productivity. ”

“ The Greek Artemis was usually represented as a huntress with bow and quiver, or torch in her hand, in face very like Apollo, her drapery flowing to her feet, or, more frequently, girt high for speed. She is accompanied often by a deer or a dog. ”

“ As early as Homer she takes especial interest in the occupations of women; she makes Hera’s robe and her own peplus, and spinning and weaving are often called “the works of Athena.” The custom of offering a beautifully woven peplus at the Panathenaic festival is connected with her character as Ergane the goddess of industry. [2] As patroness of the arts, she is associated with Hephaestus (one of her titles is Ἡφαιστία) and Prometheus, and in Boeotia she was regarded as the inventress of the flute. ”

“ The first of the annalists, the father of Roman history, as he has been called, was Q. Fabius Pictor (see Fabius Pictor) ; contemporary with him was L. Cincius Alimentus, who flourished during the Hannibalic war. [1] Like Fabius Pictor, he wrote in Greek. He was taken prisoner by Hannibal (Livy xxi. 38) , who is said to have given him details of the crossing of the Alps. His work embraced the history of Rome from its foundation down to his own days. With M. Porcius Cato (q.v.) historical composition in Latin began, and a livelier interest was awakened in the history of Rome. ”

“ It is suggested by M. Kraus in Classical Review, February 1908, that Aphaea, the cult-name of Artemis at Aegina, is of Semitic origin and means “beautiful.” Closely connected with this legend is the worship of Artemis Brauronia. The accounts of its institution, which differ in detail, agree that it was intended to appease the wrath of the goddess at the killing of a bear. A number of young girls, between five and ten years of age, wearing a bear-skin (afterwards a saffron-coloured robe) danced a bear-dance, called ἀρκτεία, the girls themselves being called ἄρκτοι. ”

“ C. Tümpel the “dark one,” referring to Aphrodite’s connexion with the lower world) . The function of Aphrodite as the patroness of courtesans represents the most degraded form of her worship as the goddess of love, and is certainly of Phoenician or Eastern origin. In Corinth there were more than a thousand of these ἱερόδουλοι (“temple slaves”) , and wealthy men made it a point of honour to dedicate their most beautiful slaves to the service of the goddess.
Like her oriental prototype, the Greek Aphrodite was closely connected with the sea. ”

“ This view, however, has not met with general acceptance, on the ground that, in Semitic mythology, the moon is always a male divinity; and that the full moon and crescent, found as attributes of Astarte, are due to a misinterpretation of the sun’s disk and cow’s horns of Isis, the result of the dependence of Syrian religious art upon Egypt. ”

“ Perhaps the finest existing statue of her is the Diana of Versailles from Hadrian’s Villa (now in the Louvre) , in which she wears a short tunic drawn in at the waist and sandals on her feet; her hair is bound up into a knot at the back of her head, with a band over the forehead. With her left hand she holds a stag, while drawing an arrow from the quiver on her shoulder with the right. ”

“ Here some local divinity, a daughter of Poseidon, connected with the water and also of a warlike character, was identified by the colonists with their own Athena. In any case, it is fairly certain that Tritogeneia means “water-born,” although an old interpretation derived it from τριτώ, a supposed Boeotian word meaning “head,” which further points to the name having originated in Boeotia. Roscher suggests that the localization of her birthplace in the extreme west points to the western sea, the home of cloud and storm. ”

“ Nevertheless, Livy at first made use of him as one of his chief authorities, until he became convinced of his untrustworthiness. C. Licinius Macer (died 66) , who has been called the last of the annalists, wrote a voluminous work, which, although he paid great attention to the study of his authorities, was too rhetorical, and exaggerated the achievements of his own family. ”

“ In Crete she has been identified with Ariadne, who, according to one version of her story, was put ashore in Cyprus, where she died and was buried in a grove called after the name of Ariadne-Aphrodite (L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, ii. p. 663) . ”

“ Her connexion with the trial of Orestes, the introduction of a milder form of punishment for justifiable homicide, and the institution of the court τὸ ἐπὶ Παλλαδίῴ, show the important part played by her in the development of legal ideas. ”