Dear Mwindsorfw
Not really. What few know is that the statue of Artemis of Ephesus is not a mother goddess. Those aren't breasts girdling her. They are the wrong shape to be breasts. They are testicles. The offerings to that Goddess was bulls testicles. Artemis is not a mother goddess but a virgin goddess, psychotically adverse to sex and a champion of chastity. Her bitter enemy is Aphrodite, who was the Goddess of love. Artemis is the champion huntress and archetypical virgin. Not in your wilting weak type but in your almost tomboyishly strong type.
Artemis is one of those very interesting goddess' because of her ambiguity. She is the supreme huntress-- but she is also the protector of the wild and wild animals… so… what does she hunt?
She is a virgin goddess and despises sex, but she is always followed about by a bevy of nymphs. What in the world does she need nymphs for who are always in greek mythology connected with sex? She allegedly hates sex and is very hard to those of her followers who give in to it, but is the the goddess women cry to for help in the pain of childbirth.
Perhaps one of the most powerful of her myths is that of Acteon. Acteon is a hunter who one day goes hunting in the woods with his dog. (Dangerous assertion to make --- being the best hunter in the world with the Hunter Goddess Artemis about). He hunts in the woods and finds nothing. Then he stumbles into the grotto of Artemis where she is taking her bath. Her nymph's shriek in horror and cluster around Artemis to hide her nakedness.
But Acteon has SEEN! He has committed through no fault of his own the greatest sacrelige. He has seen nature (for Artemis is also the goddess of nature) in its self, in its nakedness, in its real self. Acteon knows he Is doomed. As he turns to flee Artemis splashes him with water from the grotto and says "Tell what you have seen-- if you CAN tell."
Acteon flees in terror and he is changed into a stag and his own hounds pursue him and tear him to pieces and his blood soaks the earth.
Now… you don't have to be a Freudian to understand some of the hidden meanings…
"The Grotto of Artemis?" Oh my whatever could that be.
"Water from the Grotto of Artemis?"
the dropping of his bow, the changing into a stag, the "knowing" of the inner nature of nature, seeing the essence of nature. The pouring of his blood onto the ground? The tearing to pieces of the stag by Acteon's own hounds, with the hound being the symbol of fidelity, order, and logic.
Thus you can see this is no mother goddess, no caring nurturing god, but a bloodthirsty vindictive fearsome and emasculating God. Yet at the same time she is beautiful and alluring, not the horror of the subject of this thread.
