1. We now proceed to consider the worship of Artemis; a subject which need not be so fully examined as that of Apollo, as it does not, like the worship of that god, everywhere present the same fundamental notions, and therefore cannot, in all its first beginnings, be derived from the religion of the Dorians. But as in general the Grecian mythology adopted the most various and inconsistent religious views and ideas, so in the name of the single goddess Artemis were united almost opposite branches of ancient worship, which we must attempt to separate. Lest, however, it should be supposed that we are unable to trace the association of ideas, which saw a simple character in the “various forms of that great goddess, who, having her origin in the interior of [pg 372] Asia, passed from thence into Greece, and was worshipped as the moon, the goddess of the woods, the huntress, the nurse of children, and a nurse of the universe, as well by the choruses of the virgins of Caryæ, as in the dances of the temples;”1514 we will endeavour to ascertain some historical criterion, which may distinguish the worship of Artemis from that of any other deity, and which must not be one of the ideas or symbols of the worship itself, since it is concerning the possibility or impossibility of their connexion that we are to inquire.
2. For this purpose it may be assumed, that the Artemis connected with Apollo belongs alone to the same system of religious notions: and consequently, the Artemis of Ephesus, Artemis Orthia, and Artemis Tauropolus, are of a different nature, as Apollo is never represented as their brother: of this, however, more hereafter. Here we will first show, that in all the chief temples of Apollo, Artemis was worshipped as his sister, as the partner of his nature and of his actions, and, as it were, a part of the same deity. Thus both were children of Latona, and were equally the rulers of the temple of Delphi;1515 the victory over the Python, the flight, and the expiation, concern both;1516 both were honoured at the Pythian games of Sicyon, together with Latona;1517 as also in [pg 373] Crete,1518 Delos, Lesbos,1519 at Carthæa,1520 in the Didymæum,1521 on the citadel of Troy,1522 in the worship of Lycia,1523 as well as in that of Metapontum.1524 The worship both of Apollo and Artemis is said to have been derived from the Hyperboreans;1525 and the names of the Hyperborean priestesses, who brought the rites to Delos, Arge and Opis, according to others Hecaerge and Loxo, are only epithets of Artemis. Arge probably means “the rapid;” Opis1526 (Ὦπις, Ionice Οὖπις, the same as ὄπις) well characterises the spirit of this religion, as it signifies the constant watch and care of the goddess over human actions,1527 while at the same time she inspires fear and veneration of herself.1528 She was known also by the same name among the Dorians [pg 374] of Sparta,1529 and celebrated as such in sacred chants:1530 thus almost all the attributes and actions of Apollo are referred also to Artemis. She is also the goddess of sudden death;1531 which she sometimes inflicts in wrath, but sometimes without anger;1532 and hence she is represented as armed, not only with bow and arrows, but in the Doric states with a complete panoply.1533 In ancient poets she is not only the destroyer of wild beasts, but also, like her brother, of sacrilegious men.1534 Thus, with Apollo, she killed Tityus, and, by herself, the Aloidæ,1535 and Orion, who dared to violate Opis when bringing the ears of corn to Delos.1536 Hence she [pg 375] was to be appeased by expiatory rites; and had an equal share in Thargelia, and similar festivals.1537 And for the same reason the laurel was likewise sacred to Artemis.1538 She was honoured with the song of the pæan.1539 She is at the same time the destroyer and the preserver (λυκεία1540 and οὐλία).1541 And even her name Ἄρτεμις1542 clearly corresponds with that of the protecting Apollo, since it signifies the “healthy,” the “uninjured.”1543 Whether the art of music belonged to Apollo alone is not certain; at least the Lacedæmonians celebrated in honour of Artemis a musical contest called καλαϝοιδία;1544 and her singing is represented in the Iliad as delighting both gods and men.1545 On reliefs which represent the victors in musical contests, Apollo is always accompanied by his mother and sister.1546 Artemis had also a claim to the gift of prophecy, at least if we can attribute any antiquity to the tradition of her being a sibyl.1547 Like Apollo, she is [pg 376] always represented as unmarried; and therefore not as the deity of an elementary religion, and originally not as goddess of the moon, although it cannot be denied that the worship of the moon was very nearly connected with other branches of the worship of Artemis.
But, it may be asked, if this Artemis always has the same characteristics as Apollo, and has none that are peculiar to herself, why should there be two deities to express one idea? Wherefore both a male and female, if neither have any relation to sex? It is difficult to give a satisfactory answer to these questions.
This consideration may, however, in some measure assist; namely, that as soon as Apollo was once supposed to be as an earthly god, as the ideal of all human strength, it was necessary to add also a female being. And the near approximation of the male to the female deity may be accounted for by the condition of the Doric women, who were much more considered as independent beings, and possessed a capability for all those other things which adorn the other sex.
3. But the most difficult part of our problem still remains unsolved; viz. to ascertain what was the worship of Artemis, which had not the same origin and nature with that of Apollo. First of all we should mention the Arcadian. That goddess has nowhere so many temples as in Arcadia; she was there the national deity, and had been long revered, under the title of “Hymnia”, by all the races of that people.1548 She was also introduced under the name of [pg 377] Callisto into the national genealogies, and called the daughter of Lycaon1549 (i.e. of the Lycæan Zeus), and mother of Arcas (i.e. of the Arcadian people). For that Callisto is only another form of the name of Artemis Calliste, which is a common epithet of Artemis, is plain from the fact that the tomb of that heroine was shown in the temple of the goddess,1550 and that Callisto was said to be changed into a bear, which was the symbol of the Arcadian Artemis.1551 Afterwards, indeed, the fable was much altered; and it was related that Artemis changed Callisto into a bear merely from anger.1552 But that this ancient Arcadian deity was not the Doric Artemis is proved by the above-mentioned criterion; viz. that she has no connexion with Apollo.
Another circumstance, however, speaks even still plainer. Apollo and his sister seldom received any particular surnames from places where they were worshipped;1553 whereas the other Artemis has almost innumerable names from the mountains, hills, fountains, and waters of Arcadia, and the other regions of Peloponnesus. Hence Alcman remarks that the goddess bears the names of thousands of hills, cities, and rivers.1554 There must have been, therefore, something [pg 378] in the attributes of this Arcadian Artemis which produced such a number of local names; she must have been considered as united and connected with the country in which she was worshipped. This leads to the notion of an elementary goddess, of a similar, though more universal nature than nymphs of the mountains, rivers, and brooks. Accordingly we find that this ancient Peloponnesian Artemis was nearly connected with lakes, fountains, and rivers. She was worshipped in several places under the titles of Limnatis and Heleia.1555 There were frequently [pg 379] also fountains in the temples of Artemis: viz., at Corinth, Marius, Mothone,1556 and near the district of Derrhiatis in Laconia.1557 She likewise received great honours at the Clitorian fountain of Lusi.1558 Among rivers, those she was most connected with are the Cladeus and the Alpheus.1559 The moist and watery district, through which this latter stream flows into the sea, was filled with temples of the nymphs of Aphrodite and Artemis, among which the sanctuary of the Alphean Artemis1560 is most remarkable. There were in that temple paintings of Cleanthus and Aregon of Corinth, which were chiefly on subjects relating to religion; as, for instance, that of Poseidon presenting a thunny-fish to Zeus while in the act of producing Athene.1561 All this naturally suggests the idea of a goddess who produced a flourishing and vigorous life from the element of water; and hence we would not entirely reject the popular faith of the Phigaleans, that Eurynome, the goddess of fish, and herself represented as half a fish, was an Artemis.1562
[pg 380]4. The mention of the river Alpheus reminds us of Sicily, whither, in order to catch the fountain Arethusa, which was swallowed up in the land of Elis, he is said to have followed her under the sea, and to have first reached her in the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse.1563 This singular fable may perhaps be explained by the following considerations. Syracuse was founded in the 5th Olympiad by Corinthians, with whom were some settlers from the district of Olympia, and particularly some members of the family of the Iamidæ, who held a sacred office at the altar of the Olympian Zeus.1564 These joint colonists (συνοιχιστῆρες according to the expression of Pindar) appear to have had sufficient weight in the new city to introduce their own religion and mythology. For, as we have seen above, Artemis was worshipped at Olympia as the goddess of the Alpheus, being generally considered in that country as presiding over lakes and rivers. She had in the grove of Altis an altar, together with Alpheus;1565 and there was there a popular legend, that Alpheus had once loved Artemis. Now the settlers that went from this district to Syracuse, in their first expedition, confined themselves to the island of Ortygia. Here they built a temple to the river-goddess Artemis; a sanctuary of so great fame, that Pindar calls the whole island “the seat of Artemis, the river-goddess.1566” There was, however, no river in Ortygia, and therefore Artemis was supposed to regret her beloved Alpheus. Hence arose the belief that Arethusa, a fountain near the [pg 381] temple, contained the sacred water of the Alpheus;1567 a belief which was strengthened by the circumstance that large fish were found in the spring;1568 and from this arose the fable that Alpheus had followed the goddess to Sicily. But Artemis was supposed to fly from the pursuit of Alpheus.1569 This at least was the fiction followed by Telesilla, a poetess who lived in the 64th Olympiad;1570 and the same fable was perhaps adopted by Pindar.1571 Afterwards, however, the precise meaning and origin of this fable were forgotten; and the fountain-nymph Arethusa took the place of Artemis, and became the object of the pursuit of the river-god.1572 Such appears to have been the origin of the elegant fable of Alpheus and Arethusa.
We now return to the Peloponnesian Artemis, and will mention some of her other symbols and attributes. Her statue stood next to that of Demeter, at Megalopolis, dressed in the skin of a deer, with a quiver on her back, holding a torch in one hand, and two serpents in the other, with a dog by her side.1573 The connexion which existed between her and the Arcadian Demeter is probably more ancient than this statue; and indeed the symbol of the deer seems to have been common in Arcadia to both Artemis and [pg 382] Cora, called in Arcadia despœna.1574 She was also worshipped with Bacchus;1575 and, like him, had phallic festivals.1576 From her connexion with fountains and rivers, and other rural objects, it was natural that this Artemis should be considered as the patron of wild animals. Thus Æschylus calls her “the protectress of young lions, and the whelps of other wild beasts.”1577 In like manner she was supposed to preside over the breeding of horses,1578 and generally over the nurture of infants and children;1579 it was therefore by a perversion of the original idea that she took the character of a [pg 383] huntress, the enemy and destroyer of wild animals. An analogous inconsistency to that before pointed out in the attributes of the Doric Apollo and Artemis, who were represented as both protecting and destroying.1580
5. By the mythological symbol of Artemis Callisto, the bear, we are reminded of some ceremonies at Athens, where young girls, between the ages of five and ten years (who were consecrated to the Munychian and Brauronian Artemis), were called bears;1581 and the goddess herself, in some singular traditions, is represented as a bear calling for human blood.1582 When the Ionians went from Athens to Asia, they carried the worship of the Munychian goddess to Miletus and Cyzicus;1583 and to the former city the kindred worship of Artemis Chitone, as the goddess presiding over birth, whose wooden statues were made of fructiferous wood.1584
6. The consideration of the Attic festival of Artemis leads again to another variety of the worship of Artemis; viz., to that of Artemis Orthosia, Orthia, or Iphigenia. We will first give the traditions and facts as we find them. Iphigenia, coming from Tauria to Attica, was supposed to have landed at [pg 384] Brauron, and at the neighbouring Halæ Araphenides, and left behind her the ancient wooden image of Artemis.1585 Here she was immediately interwoven with the heroic genealogy, and called the daughter of Theseus.1586 In Sparta there was a temple of Artemis Orthia in a damp part of the city, called Limnæum, where was also shown a wooden statue, which had come from Tauria.1587 As to the introduction of the worship, it is said that Astrabacus and Alopecus (the ass and fox), the sons of Irbus, descendants of Agis in the fourth generation (about 900 B.C.), had found the image in a bush, and had been struck mad by the sight of it; that the Limnatæ, and other villages of Sparta, had upon this offered sacrifices to them, when a quarrel arose, and murder ensued. A number of men were killed at the altar; and accordingly the goddess called for victims to atone for the pollution; instead of which, in later times, the scourging of boys was instituted, over the severity of which the priestess presided.1588 It is remarkable that this was immediately followed by a πομπὴ Λυδῶν, a Lydian procession.1589
[pg 385]From this narration it follows that the scourging was considered as a substitute for human sacrifice; and further, that the worship was looked upon as of a foreign origin: notwithstanding this, it was completely interwoven into the Lacedæmonian mythology. For it can be shown that the pretended daughter of Agamemnon, Iphigenia, is no other than the Taurian goddess, who was actually worshipped in several cities of Greece under the name of Ἰφιγένεια. Considered as a heroine, indeed, she became first, instead of the goddess thirsting for human sacrifice, the virgin sacrificed to her; and, secondly, her sacrificing priestess.1590 According to the Cyprian poems (for Homer knew nothing of her) Iphigenia was sacrificed to Artemis; but was by her brought to Tauria, and made immortal, a deer (or, according to others, a bear, and also a bull) having been left in her place;1591 Hesiod also represented her as immortal, viz., as Hecate.1592 The sacrifice was supposed to have taken place at Aulis, because there was a temple (probably of the Orthosian Artemis) near the port, to whom sacrifices were made at the passage.1593
This worship probably came to Laconia from Lemnos,1594 one of its principal seats. In early tradition Lemnos was probably identical with Tauria,1595 and the latter country derived its poetical name from the symbol of the bull, in the same manner as Lycia in later times took its name from the symbol of the wolf. In [pg 386] Lemnos also a great goddess was anciently worshipped with sacrifices of virgins; to which place the wooden image is said to have been brought from Brauron. This opinion becomes more evident by a comparison with the worship of Chryse. Agamemnon is said to have been the father of Chryse as well as of Iphigenia,1596 and also, according to others, of a son Chryses, who went to Tauria with Orestes.1597 Now it is certain that Chryse was a goddess, who had from early times been worshipped both at Lemnos and Samothrace. The Argonauts under Hercules and Jason were said to have sacrificed to her; and her ancient wooden image, raised over an hearth of unhewn stones, is often represented on ancient vases.1598 Philoctetes is said to have been bitten by the viper1599 when he discovered this altar.1600 This goddess Chryse, who is also called Athene, was probably only a different form of her sister Iphigenia.
The worship of both these goddesses spread to other places, to the north of the Ægean sea. Thus on the coast of Byzantium there was an altar of Artemis Orthosia;1601 and opposite to it, at Chrysopolis, was the tomb of Chryses, the son of Agamemnon, who, in his search after Iphigenia, was said to have died there.1602 It is evident that this system of religious names was arbitrarily transferred to the genealogy of the Lacedæmonian [pg 387] kings, and most curiously interwoven with the Trojan mythology. The Greeks first became acquainted with Tauria by their voyages to Miletus; and they gave it a name already celebrated in their mythology. They found there some sanguinary rites of a goddess, which, by partly softening the name, they called Oreiloche;1603 they also found human sacrifices, which they supposed to be offered to Iphigenia;1604 their own worship of that deity bore so many marks of ancient barbarism, that they were willing to consider the northern barbarians as its authors. Yet it is certain that the Tauric Artemis was no more derived from the Taurians, than the Æthiopian Artemis from the Æthiopians,1605 &c. In Asia Minor1606 also there were modes of worship, which the Greeks compared with the rites of the Orthosian Artemis, of the similarity of which we shall presently treat.
7. Hitherto we have merely collected the fabulous narrations of the ancients, and attempted to show their connexion; we shall next speak of the ceremonies which attended the worship of this goddess or goddesses.
In the first place we will treat of the meaning and character of this truly mystical worship.1607 We have [pg 388] a goddess adored with frantic and enthusiastic orgies, certain signs of an elementary religion, as well as with human sacrifices, which the character of the Greeks endeavoured only to moderate and to ennoble; it appears to have originally resembled the Arcadian worship of Callisto; but that it acquired at Lemnos, from the proximity of the Asiatic religion, a wilder and more extravagant form, which it retained after its return to Attica and Laconia. It cannot be a matter of doubt that Artemis Tauropolus is nearly identical with the Taurian goddess; this name of the goddess was established in Samos (where cakes of sesamy and honey were offered to her on solemn festivals),1608 in the neighbouring island of Icarus,1609 and at Amphipolis.1610 The ceremonies were undoubtedly enthusiastic, as the goddess herself was considered as striking the mind with madness;1611 and bloody, because the worship at Aricia was considered like it.1612
8. We are now to consider those temples of Artemis which had a purely Asiatic, and not a Grecian origin, and are wholly distinct, not only from the Doric, but also from the Arcadian worship of Artemis.
[pg 389]The Ephesian Artemis was doubtless found by the Ionians, when they settled on that coast, as already an object of worship, in her temple,1613 situated in a marshy valley of the Cayster.1614 From some real or accidental resemblance in the attributes of the Munychian and Ephesian goddesses, they called the latter “Artemis;” yet, wherever her worship spread, she was always distinguished by the additional title of “Ephesian.”1615 Every thing that is related of the worship of this deity is singular and foreign to the Greeks. Her constant symbol is the bee, which is not otherwise attributed to Artemis; the other attributes, which adorned her statues in later times, are too far-fetched to admit of any conclusion being drawn from them. The bee, however, appears originally to have been the symbol of nourishment;1616 the chief priest himself was called ἐσσὴν, or the king-bee: some of the other sacerdotal names are of barbarous, and not Greek derivation.1617 The gods, by whom this great goddess1618 was surrounded, must also have been of a peculiar description. It is not probable that Latona was originally called [pg 390] her mother,1619 as Apollo is never joined with her.1620 Her nurse appears to have been called Ammas.1621 Hercules is said to have proclaimed her birth from mount Ceryceum.1622 This Hercules may perhaps be some native demigod, possibly one of the Idæan Dactyli, whose names were, according to some, contained in Ephesian incantations, which were inscribed at the foot of her statues.1623
9. Thus much concerns the character of this worship, which appears, like an isolated point, projecting from a religious system, otherwise confined to the western parts of Greece.
As to its origin, the unanimous tradition of antiquity is that it was founded by the Amazons, This legend had probably been mentioned in some of the ancient epic poems before it was alluded to by Pindar;1624 and that it was also preserved on the spot appears from the celebrated contest of Phidias, Polycleitus, and other artists, to make statues of Amazons for the Ephesian temple: lately also a sarcophagus was found near [pg 391] Ephesus representing the battle of the Amazons.1625 The traditions respecting the foundation of the cities of Smyrna, Cume, Myrlea, Myrina, Æolis, Priene, Mytilene, and Pitane also make mention of the Amazons.1626 With respect to the meaning of Amazons, it has rightly (in my opinion) been supposed that the idea of them was suggested by the sight of the innumerable female slaves (ἱερόδουλοι) who were employed about the temples of Asia Minor.1627 According to Callimachus also the Amazons danced to the sound of the pipe round the statue which had been newly raised on the trunk of an elm-tree. It is also stated as an historical fact, that, even in the times of the Ionians, women of the Amazon race dwelt round the temple;1628 although virgins only were permitted to enter the sanctuary itself.1629 It appears therefore that the goddess upon whom these Amazons attended, being represented as a beneficent and nourishing deity, was likewise supposed to have the attributes of war and destruction; a double and opposite character, which we have traced in other branches of the worship of Artemis. As to the native country of the Amazons, who were supposed to have founded this worship, it does not seem to have been Phrygia, as they are stated in the Iliad to have come from the east of the Sangarius, and to have [pg 392] fought with the Phrygians.1630 The Syrians, however, bordered on that people: and Pindar, who says that the Amazons led the Syrian army,1631 fully coincides with those who fix their origin on the banks of the Thermodon, Chadesius and Lycastus along the coast of Themiscyra.1632 The striking agreement of several authors in this statement, and its singular precision, render it of double importance. And what country could have been more probably the native place of the Ephesian Artemis, as well as of the warlike Hierodulæ, than Cappadocia; where there were, in the historical age, large numbers of sacred slaves, both male and female; where also there was an elementary religion, with frantic rites, and the principal divinity was at the same time a Bellona and a Magna Mater?
This same oriental worship had also been in other places adopted by the Greeks of Asia Minor. Among these are Leucophryne, who was worshipped in Phrygia, near a warm spring,1633 and thence particularly honoured along the banks of the Mæander in Magnesia; and therefore also by Themistocles.1634 She was represented in the same form as the Ephesian goddess.1635 Her sacred animal was the buffalo.1636 The Artemis of Sipylus was worshipped with wanton games, from which she [pg 393] was also called at Olympia (according to Pausanias) Cordaca.1637 The Pergæan Artemis known all over Greece by her itinerant priests,1638 and of the same form as the Artemis Leucophryne;1639 with many others.1640 It was in the true spirit of this worship that the musician Timotheus called Artemis “the raging and foaming, like a Bacchanalian;”1641 and the tragic poet Diogenes in a beautiful though not a very accurate passage of his Semele speaks of the Lydian and Bactrian virgins, who with soft strains worshipped the Tmolian Artemis on the banks of the Halys.1642
I have now endeavoured to give the reader a general view of the different branches and forms of the worship of Artemis; in which some difficult and doubtful questions have of necessity been passed over: but I have preferred rather to reckon on the acquiescence of the reader in some uncertain propositions than to weary his patience by a detailed examination of all the debatable points.