Ancient Greek Goddesses Artemis and Eleithyia

Le sanctuaire d’Artémis a livré un petit matériel votif très abondant, datant de l’époque archaïque à la fin de l’époque hellénistique. Si certaines catégories (miroirs, objets de toilette, instruments de musique) ne présentent pas de particularisme local et peuvent être analysées dans le contexte de consécration plus large des sanctuaires du monde grec, la spécificité thasienne de certaines offrandes (jetons de divination, amulettes prophylactiques, etc.) va au-delà de la production artisanale de masse : il est possible de déceler des fonctions de la divinité jusqu’alors inconnues à Thasos. Outre son rôle habituel de déesse kourotrophe, Artémis thasienne revêt une dimension de protectrice des femmes proche des attributions d’Hécate.
L’étude de l’instrumentum vient compléter ce corpus riche et varié, en rappelant qu’il est parfois difficile de délimiter clairement ce qui relève d’une fonction votive et ce qui fait partie du mobilier d’un sanctuaire.

The sanctuary of Artemis has yielded substantial quantities of small votive items, which date from the Archaic era to the end of the Hellenistic era. Although some categories (such as mirrors, toilet items, and musical instruments) do not display local peculiarities and may be analysed in the broader consecration context of the sanctuaries of the Greek world, the specifically Thasian nature of some of the offerings (divination tokens, prophylactic amulets and other objects) goes beyond mass craft production: it is possible to discern functions fulfilled by the deity that were previously unknown on Thasos. In addition to her usual role as a kourotrophic goddess, Thasian Artemis takes on the dimension of a protector of women similar to the role played by Hecate.
The study of the instrumentum crowns this rich and varied corpus, by recalling that sometimes it is difficult to distinguish clearly between what has a votive function and what is part of a sanctuary’s furnishings.

Five fragmented tiles originating from the 15th century and found in Prague are the research topic of this text. A woman and another zoo-anthropomorphic figure spinning in front of a spindle can be seen on the better preserved examples. An attempt has been made to connect the second figure with: (1) some forest or house female spirits from the Slavic folklore that are linked to the textile activities; (2) the initiation rites of girls into adult women through symbolic transformation from the natural sphere (animal, bear, forest) into the cultural (a wife, a house-socium) through the act of spinning and other textile activities.

Keywords: Slavic mythology, female forest spirits, female house spirits, Mokosh, spinning, weaving, initiation

THE ARTEMISION AND THE ΟΙΚΟΙ OF THE WEST STOA OF THE ASKLEPIEION AT MESSENE
The complex of the Asklepieion at Messene, surrounded on all four sides by stoas, was completely uncovered by Anastasios Orlandos between 1957 and 1972. It is a
large peristyle court, enclosed on all four sides by continuous stoa of double olonnade, with rooms at the back. The oblong building with the oikoi (rooms) occupies the west wing of the Asklepieion complex.
The layout of this wing follows the schema of ten consequent spaces, five of them
narrow, alternating with five wide ones. It is a unified complex of six compartments of
the same depth, differentiated only by their length. Their facades towards the double
colonnade stoa present the same design, following the pattern of a closed section
-tripartite opening— closed section. The tripartite opening has two double halph columns, set axially between antae at the two ends. The two openings at either sides
are closed off by parapets over which there were windows or grills (dryfracta).
The walls were made of grey limestone, whilst the architectural members, such as
columns and antae, where made of softer porous limestone (tufa?).
The first Oikos (Y) to the south-east was dedicated to Asklepios and his sons. Oikos
(Ρ) formed the entrance to the Asklepieion. Oikos (Ξ) is a rectangular space containing
a semicircular pedestal upon which, according to Pausanias, stood the statues of
Apollo and the Muses. The fourth Oikos (N) is entered through the stoa. Two internal
walls divide it into three aisles housing the statues of Hercules, the personified city of
Thebes and Epaminondas. Inside the almost square  Oikos (M), which had a tripartite
opening towards the stoa, a pedestal of a statue of Tyche is preserved in situ.
An inscription, dated to AD 42, helped identify the last Oikos (K), as temple of Artemis.
The Artemision at Messene presents a tripartite division. Two columns and two antae set the central aisle-cella apart from two lateral aisles. The entrance is framed by two double half columns. The centre of the west side of the cella is occupied by the large pedestal on which the cult statue of Artemis stood. Within the cella a series of votive pedestals belonging to statues of young «priestesses» of Artemis, some of them carrying inscriptions, some not, were arranged in a semicircular layout. Benches, of which only the lion-leg supportings made of stone are preserved, occupied the two lateral aisles.
The integration of the temple into the complex of the oikoi of the west wing happened during the 2nd century BC, as consequence of the new building programme of the Asklepieion. It was then that the temple of Artemis Orthia,  located to the south west of the four-stoa complex, was abandoned and the cult was transferred to the  west wing.
The temple of Artemis is built in the Ionic order. The lower half of its Ionic columns is  left unfluted. The base is Attic. The Ionic capital is of special interest. It is carved as part of the uppermost drum of the column, and its flutes taper into flat sections. The flanks (proskefalaea) of the capital are decorated by two banches made of acanthus and reed leaves. Morphologically, the combination of elements of the order is characterised by a trend to eclecticism. The artful decoration of the capitals is similar to that on monuments of Delos, southern Italy and Asia Minor. The neckings of the antae capitals are decorated with eight- leaf rosettes, and acanthus  leaves in reief, rendered in a style similar to that of the acanthus at the calyxes of the column capitals.
Finally, the foot of 0.296 m (Attic) was found to be the construction metric module.
The restored drawings of the Ionic order were fashioned according to this module.
The layout of the oikoi is typical of the four-stoa buildings during the 3rd century BC and after, irrespective of their use (palaestrae, gymnasia, agoras).
Certain particularities may be observed on the relation of the oikoi to the stoa and
the rest of the building of the Asklepieion: The oikoi occupy only the west wing of the
complex, forming its narrowest edifice. The great depth of the stoa renders the west
wing a particular character.
The oikoi set, succeeding each other, full of cult statues and votive offerings, formed a series of recesses in the stoa. The articulation and plasticity of their facades rendered the west wing a monumental character.
The view to the inside of the oikoi from the stoa was uninterrupted. Oikos (Ξ), housing statues of Apollo and the Muses, is of particular character in that it presented no closed off sides towards the stoa. Instead it had only  low parapets with windows
like those at the cellas of the other oikoi. Therefore, it wouldn’t be too much of an
exaggeration to argue the west wing of the Asklepieion at Messene possessed the
character of an “exhibition area" or of a “museum”.

Abstract: Artemis is often defined as a ‘boundary goddess’ with regards either to the physical position of her sanctu- aries situated in the eschatiai or to the metaphorical boundaries of the initiatory rituals in her honour, that is the borders between ‘savage’ and ‘civilized’ or puberty and maturity. It is appropriate to discern the first kind of liminality (‘topog- raphical’) and the second one (‘courotrophical’) by clarifying their respective meanings and nuances. Thus, this paper first analyses the location of her major sanctuaries, and then turns to the dimension of kourotropheia, which includes the delicate passage from puberty to adulthood. The borderline that separates these two phases is a long and unique proc- ess, articulated during marriage, sexual union, engenderment, and childbirth.

Величайшая тайна планеты. О чем молчит Библия.
_________________________

Книга Дэна Брауна «Код да Винчи», несущая губительную для рода человеческого мысль о смертной природе Христа, своим шумным успехом обязана истине: Иисус действительно имел женой Марию Магдалину. Сущий меж двух Марий, матерью и супругой, тем есть Христос, как в Сердце Ум, сущим в Женщине, Лоне Его, как реальном Творце, скрытым в Библии коркою лжи «Бог есть Муж».

"Various goddesses of the ancient Mediterranean world were once understood to be Virgin Mothers - creators who birthed the entire cosmos without need of a male consort. This is the first book to explore evidence of the original parthenogenetic power of deities such as Athena, Hera, Artemis, Gaia, Demeter, Persephone, and the Gnostic Sophia. It provides stunning feminist insights about the deeper meaning of related stories, such as the judgment of Paris, the labors of Heracles, and the exploits of the Amazons. It also roots the Thesmophoria and Eleusinian Mysteries in female parthenogenetic power, thereby providing what is at long last a coherent understanding of these mysterious rites. "Rigoglioso explores the power of virgin birth, or parthenogenesis, as the primal creative process. The clarity of her analysis reveals how pervasive and influential this motif and its rites were in the ancient world. Most interesting is her remarkable explication of the Eleusinian Mysteries, where - by her application of the ‘missing piece’ of virgin birth - she makes sense of much that has been passed over or ignored in the ancient texts. This is an original piece of scholarship that dares to imagine traditions at the foundation of Western culture in an entirely new light. As with any paradigm-shifting theory, some may challenge Rigoglioso’s interpretations, but all readers will recognize that parthenogenesis, as a symbol of profound spiritual perception, could not have received a more articulate spokesperson. One feels in reading her work that she is writing from inside a tradition that we didn’t even know existed, and the authenticity of her writing makes it all the more accessible and inviting." - Gregory Shaw, Professor of Religious Studies, Stonehill College and author of Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus "With this study, Rigoglioso has substantively corrected the common perception that ‘a few’ of the Greek goddesses have an inconsequential association with parthenogenesis. Her insightful explication of the parthenogenetic motif in the attributes of all the pre-Greek goddesses, as well as in the Thesmophoria and the Eleusinian Mysteries, establishes the generative powers of the Virgin Mother goddesses as a central dynamic in the pre-Greek substratum of Western religion." - Charlene Spretnak, author of Lost Goddesses of Early Greece"

Résumé
Les travaux et publications récents concernant le très abondant matériel de l’Artémision de Thasos permettent de proposer une première vue d’ensemble. Nous sommes ici dans une situation privilégiée puisque nous savons par les sources écrites qu’il s’agit d’un sanctuaire consacré à Artémis. Le matériel votif du sanctuaire permet-il alors de dégager un aspect particulier de la personnalité d’Artémis à Thasos ? Si quelques offrandes sont clairement le signe d’une dévotion de jeunes filles et de femmes ou sont directement à mettre en relation avec les attributions d’Artémis, force est de constater, à ce point d’avancée des recherches, l’absence d’offrandes vraiment originales, et en particulier le nombre très réduit de représentations de la déesse dans son sanctuaire, ce qui ne permet guère de déterminer une fonction précise de celle-ci à Thasos.

Abstract
Recent research and publications on the very numerous votive offerings found in the Thasian Artemision allow us to provide a preliminary overview. Circumstances are outstanding, since written sources tell us that this sanctuary was dedicated to Artemis. Do the offerings found in the sanctuary allow us to point out a particular aspect of the Artemis’ personality in Thasos ? While some offerings clearly indicate that worship was performed by girls and women, or can directly be related to the Artemis’ prerogatives, at this point of the research, we can state that there are no truly original offerings, and especially that the goddess herself is very rarely represented on offerings in her shrine, which does not allow us to define a precise function for her in Thasos.

Various goddesses of the ancient Mediterranean world were once understood to be Virgin Mothers - creators who birthed the entire cosmos without need of a male consort. This is the first book to explore evidence of the original parthenogenetic power of deities such as Athena, Hera, Artemis, Gaia, Demeter, Persephone, and the Gnostic Sophia. It provides stunning feminist insights about the deeper meaning of related stories, such as the judgment of Paris, the labors of Heracles, and the exploits of the Amazons. It also roots the Thesmophoria and Eleusinian Mysteries in female parthenogenetic power, thereby providing what is at long last a coherent understanding of these mysterious rites.

"Rigoglioso explores the power of virgin birth, or parthenogenesis, as the primal creative process. The clarity of her analysis reveals how pervasive and influential this motif and its rites were in the ancient world. Most interesting is her remarkable explication of the Eleusinian Mysteries, where - by her application of the ‘missing piece’ of virgin birth - she makes sense of much that has been passed over or ignored in the ancient texts. This is an original piece of scholarship that dares to imagine traditions at the foundation of Western culture in an entirely new light. As with any paradigm-shifting theory, some may challenge Rigoglioso’s interpretations, but all readers will recognize that parthenogenesis, as a symbol of profound spiritual perception, could not have received a more articulate spokesperson. One feels in reading her work that she is writing from inside a tradition that we didn’t even know existed, and the authenticity of her writing makes it all the more accessible and inviting." - Gregory Shaw, Professor of Religious Studies, Stonehill College and author of Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus

"With this study, Rigoglioso has substantively corrected the common perception that ‘a few’ of the Greek goddesses have an inconsequential association with parthenogenesis. Her insightful explication of the parthenogenetic motif in the attributes of all the pre-Greek goddesses, as well as in the Thesmophoria and the Eleusinian Mysteries, establishes the generative powers of the Virgin Mother goddesses as a central dynamic in the pre-Greek substratum of Western religion." - Charlene Spretnak, author of Lost Goddesses of Early Greece