ARTEMIS 225
- A rock on Mt. Sipylus in Asia Minor was identified in antiquity as the figure of Niobe.
- Actaeon was the son of Aristaeus and Autonoë.
- The nymphs' names, which are omitted in the translation, are Greek words sugges-
tive of cool, crystal-clear water. - A stag was commonly believed to live nine times as long as a man.
- Still Ovid goes on to give thirty-one more names, which are omitted in the translation.
- Orion sometimes appears as the son of Earth; in other accounts his father is Poseidon.
- Or Orion was run through by Artemis' arrows. Orion also attempted to rape Opis, a
follower of Artemis, if indeed she is not the goddess herself. - Several of the nymphs associated with her (e.g., Callisto and Opis) were probably
once goddesses in their own right and may actually represent various manifestations
of Artemis' own complex nature. One of them, Britomartis, is closely linked to Crete,
and perhaps was once a traditional mother-goddess. - Cf. Michael P. Carroll, The Cult of the Virgin Mary: Psychological Origins (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1986). Carroll ignores the aspects of Artemis as a mother
figure when he states (p. 8): "there is little or no basis in Graeco-Roman mythology
for portraying either [Artemis or Athena] as a mother figure." He has, however, very
perceptive analogies to make with the worship of Cybele (pp. 90-112). - Hecate's mother, Astérie, is Leto's sister; her father is Perses.
- For more on the legend of Hippolytus and his cult-sites, see pp. 564-565 and p. 639.