I like your explanation better. :-)
Brian
Team A.I.
_____
From:
az-geocaching-bounces@listserv.azgeocaching.com
[
mailto:az-geocaching-bounces@listserv.azgeocaching.com] On Behalf Of Gale
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 1:13 AM
To:
listserv@azgeocaching.com
Subject: Re: [Az-Geocaching] AZ has own cache reviewer
Gee, and I was thinking Artemis Gordon from Wild Wild West
Steve Burton <
azhardman@inficad.com> wrote:
Artemis
The daughter of Leto and
Zeus , and twin sister of
Apollo . Artemis is the
goddess of the wilderness, the hunt and wild animals, and fertility (she
became a goddess of fertility and childbirth mainly in cities). She was
often depicted with the crescent of the moon above her forehead and was
sometimes identified with Selene
(goddess of the moon).
Artemis was one of the Olympians and a virgin goddess. Her main vocation
was to roam mountain forests and uncultivated land with her nymphs
in attendance hunting
for lions, panthers, hinds and stags. Contradictory to the later, she
helped in protecting and seeing to their well-being, also their safety
and reproduction. She was armed with a bow and arrows which were made by
Hephaestus and the
Cyclopes .
In one legend, Artemis was born one day before her brother Apollo. Her
mother gave birth to her on the island of Ortygia, then, almost
immediately after her birth, she helped her mother to cross the straits
over to Delos, where she then delivered Apollo. This was the beginning
of her role as guardian of young children and patron of women in
childbirth. Being a goddess of contradictions, she was the protectress
of women in labor, but it was said that the arrows of Artemis brought
them sudden death while giving birth. As was her brother, Apollo,
Artemis was a divinity of healing, but also brought and spread diseases
such as leprosy, rabies and even gout.
Being associated with chastity, Artemis at an early age (in one legend
she was three years old) asked her father, the great god Zeus, to grant
her eternal virginity. Also, all her companions were virgins. Artemis
was very protective of her purity, and gave grave punishment to any man
who attempted to dishonor her in any form. Actaeon
, while out hunting,
accidentally came upon Artemis and her nymphs, who bathing naked in a
secluded pool. Seeing them in all their naked beauty, the stunned
Actaeon stopped and gazed at them, but when Artemis saw him ogling them,
she transformed him into a stag. Then, incensed with disgust, she set
his own hounds upon him. They chased and killed what they thought was
another stag, but it was their master. As with Orion
, a giant and a great
hunter, there are several legends which tell of his death, one involving
Artemis. It is said that he tried to rape the virgin goddess, so killed
him with her bow and arrows. Another says she conjured up a scorpion
which killed Orion and his dog. Orion became a constellation in the
night sky, and his dog became Sirius, the dog star. Yet another version
says it was the scorpion which stung him and was transformed into the
constellation with Orion, the later being Scorpio. Artemis was enraged
when one of her nymphs, Callisto
, allowed Zeus to
seduce her, but the great god approached her in one of his guises; he
came in the form of Artemis. The young nymph was unwittingly tricked,
and she gave birth to Arcas
, the ancestor of the
Arcadians, but Artemis showed no mercy and changed her into a bear. She
then shot and killed her. As Orion, she was sent up to the heavens, and
became the constellation of the Great Bear (which is also known as the
Plough).
Artemis was very possessive. She would show her wrath on anyone who
disobeyed her wishes, especially against her sacred animals. Even the
great hero Agamemnon
came upon the wrath of Artemis, when he killed a stag in her sacred
grove. His punishment came when his ships were becalmed, while he made
his way to besiege Troy. With no winds to sail his ships he was told by
the seer Calchas that
the only way Artemis would bring back the winds was for him to sacrifice
his daughter Iphigenia
. Some versions say
he did sacrifice Iphigenia, others that Artemis exchanged a deer in her
place, and took Iphigenia to the land of the Tauri (the Crimea) as a
priestess, to prepare strangers for sacrifice to Artemis.
Artemis with her twin brother, Apollo, put to death the children of
Niobe . The reason being
that Niobe, a mere mortal, had boasted to Leto, the mother of the divine
twins, that she had bore more children, which must make her superior to
Leto. Apollo being outraged at such an insult on his mother, informed
Artemis. The twin gods hunted them down and shot them with their bows
and arrows; Apollo killed the male children and Artemis the girls.
Artemis was worshiped in most Greek cities but only as a secondary
deity. However, to the Greeks in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) she was
a prominent deity. In Ephesus, a principal city of Asia Minor, a great
temple was built in her honor, which became one of the "Seven Wonders of
the Ancient World". But at Ephesus she was worshiped mainly as a
fertility goddess, and was identified with Cybele the mother goddess of
eastern lands. The cult statues of the Ephesian Artemis differ greatly
from those of mainland Greece, whereas she is depicted as a huntress
with her bow and arrows. Those found at Ephesus show her in the eastern
style, standing erect with numerous nodes on her chest. There have been
many theories as to what they represent. Some say they are breasts,
others that they are bulls testes which were sacrificed to her. Which is
the true interpretation remains uncertain, but each represent fertility.
There were festivals in honor of Artemis, such as the Brauronia, which
was held in Brauron; and the festival of Artemis Orthia, held at Sparta,
when young Spartan boys would try to steal cheeses from the altar. As
they tried they would be whipped, the meaning of Orthia and the nature
of the ritual whipping has been lost and there is no logical explanation
or translation. Among the epithets given to Artemis are: Potnia Theron
(mistress of wild
animals) this title was mentioned by the great poet Homer; Kourotrophos
(nurse of youth's); Locheia (helper in childbirth); Agrotera (huntress);
and Cynthia (taken from her birthplace on Mount Cynthus on Delos). When
young girls reached puberty they were initiated into her cult, but when
they decided to marry, which Artemis was not against, they were asked to
lay in front of the altar all the paraphernalia of their virginity,
toys, dolls and locks of their hair, they then left the domain of the
virgin goddess.
Does that answer your question?
Koch, Dan wrote:
>Did I miss the announcement on here or did no one mention it?
>
>As of 12/23/04, Artemis is the new cache reviewer for AZ. CO Admin no
longer
>does it.
>
>Now...who is this Artemis?
>
>LazyK - Dan
>
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Tsegi Mike and Desert Viking
Till a voice, as bad as Conscience, rang interminable changes
On one everlasting Whisper day and night repeated -- so:
"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges --
"Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"
Rudyard Kipling , The Explorer 1898
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