Harvest Moon last night so I guess it really is autumn now 🍂
Happy Equinox everyone!🧡🌕🍂

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Kiana Khansmith
NASA
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
Not today Justin
i don't do bad sauce passes
almost home
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izzy's playlists!
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blake kathryn

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Three Goblin Art
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@philomeirax
Harvest Moon last night so I guess it really is autumn now 🍂
Happy Equinox everyone!🧡🌕🍂
A Companion of Diana by Jean-Louis Lemoyne (1724)
Diana with a hare Walheim, Germany
~Pair of Earrings with the Figurine of Artemis on a Fallow Deer.
Date: Second quarter of the 4th century B.C.
Place of origin: Crimea, environs of Kerch
Archaeological site: Nymphaeum Necropolis
Material: Gold
Artemis by John Collier (Early 20th Century)
Okay so i’m going to need everyone who is a Hellenic Polytheist or worships any of the Hellenic gods to read Transforming Artemis: From Goddess of the Outdoors to City Goddess by Ivana Petrovic
It doesn’t matter if you don’t and or ever plan to worship Artemis, while this is a great resource on her I’m not recommending it for that reason. Also it’s a quick and easy read (less than 14 pages and not heavy with the academic jargon).
The main reasons I want everyone (especially those just starting out) to give this a read:
It highlights that while the works of Homer and Hesiod were important to the Ancient Greeks that didn’t stop them from worshiping different versions of the gods in their cults
They allowed their gods to expand and evolve past the depictions presented by Homer and Hesiod while still respecting the original foundation laid out by them
They also expanded on the actual mythology to better represent the gods as they knew them in their own time. (Homer ain’t shit, anyone??)
Basically this is really a great overview of what I keep saying about mythology and specifically Homer. The Ancient Greeks were able to show respect for the works of Homer and Hesiod while also not limiting the gods to those depictions. It’s a balance that the rest of us desperately need to learn.
Verwünschen by Alexander Rothaug (Austrian, 1870–1946)
Temple of Diana at Ephesus by Peter Jackson
🏹 Lesser known epithets of Artemis:
Ἁγεμόνα - Hegemona - cult title of Artemis in Molossia, the region of Epirus, where an inscription devoted to Her was found; possibly bears connection to a Doric word for “leader”
Ἐφέσια - Ephesia - cult title of Artemis in Ephesus quickly spread over and accepted across the Greek world
Εἰλείθυια - Eileithyia - initially a Mycenaean Goddess of childbirth partially associated with Artemis in the Classical era
Ὀρθία - Orthia - cult title of Artemis in Spartan villages where boys and girls alike devoted to the Goddess; it is hard to say what Artemis Orthia governed over - fertility, beasts, or more
Χιτώνια - Chitonia - Doric epithet to Artemis defining Her as “wearing a short tunic”
Καρυᾶτις - Caryatis - cult title of Artemis in a small town in Laconia where a pre-Classical Goddess of the nut tree, Carya, was worshiped; Artemis’ epithet might be connected to Her
Ταυρόπολος - Tauropolos - cult title of Artemis in Brauron, Attica; translated widely as Artemis of Tauris, one pulled by a yoke of bulls, or the bull hunting Goddess
Θροσία - Throsia - cult title of Artemis in Thessaly where the Goddess was likely worshiped as protectress of pregnant women
Ἐπηκόῳ - Epicos - cult title of Artemis in Ephesos according to the inscriptions found at the site; possibly means “listening one”
Sources:
🦌Artemis Hegemona in Molossia 🦌 The Regalia of Artemis Ephesia 🦌 Approaches to Artemis in Bronze Age Greece 🦌 Visualising fertility at Artemis Orthia’s site 🦌 A New Testimony on the Cult of Artemis of Ephesus 🦌 Studies in the Cult of Artemis Throsia 🦌 Ephesos 819 - ancient dedication to Artemis Epikoos
T*rfs/g*ndercrits/r*dfems DNI.
Lead figurines of the winged Artemis Orthia
Archaic Greek, Laconian, dated to 7th–6th century BCE
The Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia (Brauronion)
The Brauroneion was the sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia on the Athenian Acropolis, located in the southwest corner of the Acropolis plateau, between the Chalkotheke and the Propylaea in Greece. It was originally dedicated during the reign of Peisistratos. Artemis Brauronia, protector of women in pregnancy and childbirth, had her main sanctuary at Brauron, a demos on the east coast of Attica.
(Please do not use photos without permission)
Actaeon, in the process of transforming into a deer, is set upon by his hounds. Apulian red-figure skyphos, artist unknown; ca. 400-350 BCE. Now in the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Germany. Photo credit: Carole Raddato.
Cult statue of Artemis Bathyria, from the sanctuary of Artemis (at the river mouth of Baphyras River), Archaeological Museum, Dion
Krotala of the Cult of Artemis (Part II)
Picking up where we left off with Part I.
These are dancing spoons. They are made of wood and you can see how they are held in the hands in this second image. I use rubber bands on mine, like you see in the first image, because it helps to keep them from sliding while you are trying to get your groove on. These are most commonly used today in what is now Turkiye.
Next we have a few examples of nacchere. These are used in Southern Italy in tammurriata traditions.
And for your delight and amusement, here are a few samples of an Egyptian version dated to around 1900BCE. Funsies. These are made of hippopotamus ivory.
What I really want to highlight in that 2nd image just above with the whole scene of musicians and dancers laid out are how the drummers are playing and the difference in the size of the dancers. This is a single-handed frame drum style that was once prevalent all over the Mediterranean and Aegean but is now only found in a few isolated areas--mostly Islands and in the South of what is now Italy. As for the dancers, this dance family tree is strongly associated with youth. As I said in Part I, it was a normal part of a young girl's education in martial arts and courtship that would prepare them to hopefully find a good mate and also give them the building blocks to defend themselves.
Just a little close up on what they are holding in their hands. This was a dance family that was very popular all over the Med and Black Sea regions. I have followed it all the way out to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic and, more recently, it has gone on to influence some South and Central American dance traditions. I am a big ol' dance nerd so I just love seeing all the ways this dance family tree has spread and what different groups of people have done with it over time. It was known to be an import to Egypt, it was not reportedly a native dance there. The Egyptian court had a very long standing tradition of importing performers from all over the place. They just liked cool dances.
Back to Artemis and what this all has to do with her cult!
Artemis had a lot of weapon based dances back in the day. Shield dances (prulin eonoplion) were very common in her worship especially. A funerary dance called prylis is a very good example of that. Prylis was a shield dance that was danced around a funeral pyre, culminating in the dancers depositing their wooden shields onto the pyre to help the body burn. It was a way to show deep grief and honor. This dance was featured in the Iliad as King Priam performed it for the burning body of Hector. So, there are some funerary associations for Artemis for you.
There were also sword dances, spear dances, archery dances, etc. If it was a weapon or could be used in defense, there was probably an associated dance for Artemis tied to it. Such pyrrhic dances were used to train for warfare and self-defense. They were basically a series of weapon drills set to music and often done with a partner. This would result in trading blows with your partner, and since these were kids initially doing it, those blows would go clack--because they were made of wood. Over time, the rhythmic sound of the wooden clacking came to represent Artemisian dances and became an essential component in them. To the point that weapons and shields were replaced with krotala in the courtship version of this type of dance. This allowed people to dance more freely with each other, without smacking your potential mate in the head. Which, I shouldn't have to tell you, is not a great start to a romance. There were other versions of this dance that replaced the shield with a cape or mantle. That one was usually accompanied by a sword or a spear and was intended to look extremely elegant.
The Music
These dances were set to music utilizing a single handed frame drum in a 1-2 1-2-3 type of pattern, and involved singing layered over the top of this. Different cults paired different types of instruments and songs together so the unique combination of: single handed frame drum + vocals + wooden hand clackers + the 1-2 1-2-3 rhythm pattern + paired dance with elements of self defense and courtship = a rather specific thing. Makes it very easy to track. There are many surviving examples of this rhythm out there today. Tammurriata is one of them! Which is part of the reason why I set my version of the Orphic Hymn to Artemis to a Tammurriata.
To be continued yet again...
A Roman Bronze Bust of Artemis, circa 2nd Century A.D.
Probably from a fulcrum terminal, the goddess turned to her right, and wearing a chiton falling from her left shoulder, part of a bow or quiver remaining above, her elaborately arranged hair bound in a topknot. Height 16.8 cm.
People often get confused (and even rude) when I share my experiences with Artemis and see that it deviates greatly from their own. Most depictions of her that I come across show her as a very serious, quiet, regal, and composed goddess while my image of Artemis is far more playful, wild, loud, expressive, and dare I say…childlike
And that my friends is what people seem to forget when they don’t understand or try to attack my experiences with Artemis. She’s the goddess of CHILDHOOD and often depicted as a child herself. So why is it so mind boggling for people when they come across experiences that show her acting more like a child than the serious elegant fierce hunter??
Her childhood aspect is exactly the part of her im working with because she’s helping me heal from my childhood trauma and reparent/reconnect with my child self. Your Artemis may be different because you’re working with another aspect of her because you need something different than I do. It’s the same thing with Apollo, which is why some of us get the more serious, Mr. Order and Structure, while others get a softer more romantic version. It all has to do with what aspect you’re connecting with.
So just remember that the gods have epithets for a reason.
skeleton of cave bear in Bears Cave, Romania
wonder why it’s called that