Britomartis
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Britomartis (/brɪtoʊˈmɑːrtɪs/;[1]Ancient Greek: Βριτόμαρτις) was a Greek goddess of mountains, nets, and hunting who was primarily worshipped on the island of Crete. She was sometimes believed to be an oread, a mountain nymph,[citation needed] but she was often conflated or syncretized with the goddesses Artemis, Athena, and Aphaea. She is also known as Dictynna, Dicte, Dictymna, or as a daughter of Dictynna (Δίκτυννα).[2]
In the 16th century, Edmund Spencer named a character identified with English military prowess as "Britomart" in his knightly epic The Faerie Queene. This subsequently led to a number of appearances of "Britomart" figures in British art and literature.
Etymology
[edit]According to Solinus, the name 'Britomartis' is from a Cretan dialect. He also says that her name means virgo dulcis, or "sweet virgin".[3] It is possible that her name also means "sweet" or "blessing" (βριτύς) "maiden," with Hesychius of Alexandria equating the the Cretan βριτύ (britý) with the Greek word γλυκύ (glyký) 'sweet'.[2][4] Other scholars have argued that Britomartis is an epithet that does not reveal the goddess's name or character,[5] instead arguing that it may be a noa-name.[6]
Mythology
[edit]The goddess was frequently portrayed on Cretan coinage, either as herself or as Diktynna, the goddess of Mount Dikte, Zeus' birthplace. As Diktynna, she was depicted as a winged goddess with a human face, standing atop the mountain and grasping an animal in each hand. This imagery is directly related to the Potnia Theron motif, also known as the mistress of animals. She also occasionally appeared on coinage with a crescent moon, likely due to her close relationship with Artemis, goddess of the moon.[7]
By Hellenistic and Roman times, Britomartis was given a genealogical setting that cast her into a Classical context:
Britomartis, who is also called Dictynna, the myths relate, was born at Caeno in Crete of Zeus and Carmê, the daughter of Eubulus who was the son of Demeter; she invented the nets (dictya) which are used in hunting.[8]
One of the main myths surrounding Britomartis concerns her being pursued by King Minos. According to Diodorus, Britomartis was a nymph and huntress much beloved by Artemis. Minos took interest in her and pursued her for nine months. She continually fled his advances, and to escape, she at last leapt into the sea (possibly from Mount Dikte) and landed in fishermen's nets. She became entangled but was rescued by Artemis, who then made her a goddess.[8] In his third hymn to Artemis, Callimachus tells a similar tale, and claims it is the source of the name and title Diktynna, "Lady of the Nets." Some tellings instead claim that she was taken by fishermen to mainland Greece, therefore explaining the spread of her cult to Greece. Diodorus Siculus found it less than credible:
But those men who tell the tale that she has been named Dictynna because she fled into some fishermen's nets when she was pursued by Minos, who would have ravished her, have missed the truth; for it is not a probable story that the goddess should ever have got into so helpless a state that she would have required the aid that men can give, being as she is the daughter of the greatest one of the gods.[8]
Another version of the myth claims Britomartis vowed to live in perpetual maidenhood, and that she was a frequent wanderer before eventually settling in Crete. It claims she was born in Phoenicia, travelled to Argos and visited the daughters of the river god Erasinos, went to Cephalonia and was worshiped under the name Laphria, and then finally arrived in Crete and was pursued by Minos. This version of the myth additionally has her flee onto the island of Aegina, where she was then built a temple and worshipped as a goddess.[9]
Strabo notes she was venerated as Diktynna primarily in western Crete, in the regions of Cydonia and Lysos, where there was a Diktynnaion, or temple of Diktynna. Occasionally she was conflated with Artemis or Athena as the same goddess, with Solinus explicitly identifying her as the Cretan Artemis.[10] Diodorus suggests that since "she passed her time in the company of Artemis," that this was the "reason why some men think Diktynna and Artemis are one and the same goddess."[8] She has also been associated with Hecate.[11]
As Diktynna
[edit]A xoanon, a wooden cult statue, of Britomartis, allegedly carved by Daedalus, sat in the temple of Olous. In Chersonesos and Olous, she was often portrayed on coins and celebrated during the festival Britomarpeia, showing that she was worshipped in those cities. As Diktynna, her face was pictured on Cretan coins of Kydonia, Polyrrhenia and Phalasarna as the nurse of Zeus. On some early Britomartis coins produced in Kydonia, the coin was manufactured as an overstrike of specimens manufactured by Aegina.[12]
Temples dedicated to her existed in Athens, Sparta, Massalia and between Ambrosus and Anticyra in Phocis,[13] where, as Artemis Diktynna, her cult object was a black stone worked by Aeginetans.[14] One temple dedicated to the goddess was located on Mount Tityros near Cydonia.[12] Her temples were said to be guarded by vicious dogs stronger than bears.[15]
Another name, Pipituna, found in Linear B scripts, may be another form of Diktynna.[16]
As Aphaea
[edit]In the second century CE, the Greek writer Pausanias describes Britomartis saying, "She was made a goddess by Artemis, and she is worshipped, not only by the Cretans, but also by the Aiginetans."[17] The myths surrounding the Aeginian version of Britomartis differ slightly. Antoninus Liberalis wrote that after escaping Minos, she arrived at Aegina, but a local fisherman named Andromedes attempted to assault her, so she jumped off the boat and fled onto the island, where she became known as Aphaea, the "invisible" patroness of the island.[18] Antoninus interprets the name Aphaea as 'she who disappeared'. Aphaea was primarily worshiped at the temple of "Athena Aphaea," where she had a statue.[9][17] A temple dedicated to her also existed at Aspropyrgos on the outskirts of Athens.
Like Britomartis and Artemis, Aphaea was associated with the moon.[7]
Spenser's "Britomart"
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Britomart figures in Edmund Spenser's knightly epic The Faerie Queene, where she is an allegorical figure of the virgin Knight of Chastity, representing English virtue—in particular, English military power—through a folk etymology that associated Brit-, as in Briton, with Martis, here thought of as "of Mars", the Roman war god.
See also
[edit]- HMS Britomart, any of several Royal Navy ships of that name
Notes
[edit]- ^ Avery, Catherine B. (1962). New Century Classical Handbook. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. p. 227.
- ^ a b "Britomartis". Perseus 4.0: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. Retrieved 2025-03-25.
- ^ Solinus, xi.8.
- ^ "A deeper source of Cretan Britomartis", on paleoglot.blogspot.ca.
- ^ A Christian parallel may render this observation even clearer: Mater dolens, "grieving mother", identifies the Blessed Virgin, but none of the four attributes—"grieving, mother, blessed, virgin"— gives her name, Mary.
- ^ "Her name is supposed to mean the 'Good Maiden' — which like Aristaios and Kalliste, may be a euphemism for its opposite, the Maiden of Death." (Carl A.P. Ruck and Danny Staples, The World of Classical Myth [Carolina Academic Press], 1994:113).
- ^ a b "Britomartis". Perseus Digital Library. Retrieved 2025-03-25.
- ^ a b c d Diodorus Siculus, 5.76.3
- ^ a b Antoninus Liberalis, 40
- ^ Noted by H. J. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Mythology (New York) 1959:117, citing Theodor Mommsen's edition, 1864.
- ^ "Euripides, Hippolytus, line 141". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2025-03-25.
- ^ a b C. Michael Hogan, Cydonia, The Modern Antiquarian, Jan. 23, 2008
- ^ RE, s.v. "Diktynna", col. 584-588.
- ^ Pausanias, 10.36.5, saw on the high ground between the two cities "a sanctuary of Artemis surnamed Dictynnaean, a goddess worshipped with great reverence by citizens. The image is of Aeginetan workmanship, and made of a black stone."
- ^ Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 8. 30.
- ^ "The Minoan Deities Named: An Archaeologist Gleans Goddesses and Gods from Linear A". Archived from the original on September 20, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
- ^ a b Pausanias, 2.30.3.
- ^ K. Pilafidis-Williams, The Sanctuary of Aphaia on Aigina in the Bronze Age (Munich: Hirmer) 1998, describes the distinctive local cult but is cautious in retrojecting the later cult of Aphaia to describe Britomartis at Aigina; the explicit identification of Britomartis and Aphaea is in Pausanias, 2.30.3, and in Diodorus Siculus, v.76.3.
References
[edit]- Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Volume III: Books 4.59-8. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. Loeb Classical Library No. 340. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1939. ISBN 978-0-674-99375-4. Online version by Bill Thayer
- Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
External links
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