The myths of Artemis surrounding Argos indicate she has a far larger sphere of influence than I yet give her credit. She is Peitho, the goddess who persuaded Hera to free the girls who slighted her from madness, but also she who influenced the jury to acquit Hypermnestra for betraying her father. On the road to Arkadia she is Orthia, of the steep mountain pass. Yet still too is she in the agora beside the temple of her brother, as Zeus gave her domain of the wilds and access to cities’ agorai (Callimachus).
For now I celebrate the Artemisia with what little we know of the Athenian Elaphebolia, with Artemis as goddess of the hunt and the wilds, by camping with my dog out in the bush.
(Campsite muddy from spring rain)
Then there is the ἔλαφος. This is a cheesecake made on the festival of Elaphebolia, of wheat-flour, and honey, and sesame.
-Deipnosophists 14.55 Athenaeus
But Plato, in his Phaon, says—
The mullet is not wholesome for the nerves,
For it is sacred to the chaste Diana,
And all excitement hates.
But Hegesander the Delphian says that the mullet is accustomed to be carried about in the Artemisia, because it is accustomed diligently to hunt out and destroy the sea-hares, which are poisonous animals; on which account, as it does this to the great benefit of mankind, the mullet as a huntress is considered sacred to the goddess who is also a huntress.
-Deipnosophists 7.126 Athenaeus
(Preserved meat and waxed hard cheese on bread thins)
Artemisia (ἀρτεμίσια) one of the great festivals celebrated in honour of Artemis in various parts of Greece, in the spring of the year. We find it mentioned at Syracuse in honour of Artemis Potamia and Soteria (Pind. Pyth. II.12). It lasted three days, which were principally spent in feasting and amusements (Liv. XXV.23; Plut. Marcell. 18). Bread was offered to her under the name of Λοχία (Hesych. s.v.). But these festivals occur in many other places in Greece, as at Delphi, where, according to Hegesander (Athen. VII p325), they offered to the goddess a mullet on this occasion; because it appeared to hunt and kill the sea-hare, and thus bore some resemblance to Artemis, the goddess of hunting.
(Gnawing on a tasty bone)
