Britomartis ( / b r ɪ t oʊ ˈ m ɑːr t ɪ s / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Βριτόμαρτις ) was a Greek goddess of mountains and hunting, who was primarily worshipped on the island of Crete . She was sometimes believed to be an oread , a mountain nymph , but she was often conflated or syncretized with Artemis and Aphaea , the "invisible" patroness of Aegina . She is also known as Dictynna or as a daughter of Dictynna (Δίκτυννα).
25-732: Britomart may refer to: Britomartis , a nymph of Greek mythology A character in Edmund Spenser 's epic poem The Faerie Queene Lady Britomart Undershaft, a character in George Bernard Shaw 's play, Major Barbara . HMS Britomart , seven ships of the Royal Navy G-ACOY Britomart , a Boulton & Paul P.71A mailplane LNWR Experiment Class 4-6-0 No. 2645 Britomart A Hunslet quarry locomotive named Britomart Point Britomart ,
50-530: A former headland between former Commercial Bay, and Official Bay, Auckland, New Zealand Britomart Transport Centre (Now known as Waitematā railway station), Auckland's CBD public transport hub, located in the area of the former headland Fort Britomart , a fortification of the British Army during early colonial days, located on the headland Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
75-483: A local fisherman named Andromedes tried to lay hands on her, so she jumped off her boat, and became known as Aphaea , a local Aeginetan goddess, whose name Antoninus interprets as 'she who disappeared'. In Britomartis's place, a statue appeared in a temple of Artemis in Aegina. A xoanon , a wooden cult statue, of Britomartis, allegedly carved by Daedalus , sat in the temple of Olous . In Chersonesos and Olous, she
100-552: A powerful female knight known as Britomart after the death of the King. Eubuleus In ancient Greek religion and myth , Eubuleus ( Ancient Greek Εὐβουλεύς Eubouleus means "good counsel" or "wise in counsel" ) is a god known primarily from devotional inscriptions for mystery religions . The name appears several times in the corpus of the so-called Orphic gold tablets spelled variously, with forms including Euboulos , Eubouleos and Eubolos . It may be an epithet of
125-478: 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. Strabo notes she was venerated as Diktynna only in western Crete, in the region of Cydonia , where there was a Diktynnaion , or temple of Diktynna. "Oupis [Artemis], O queen, fairfaced Bringer of Light, thee too the Kretans name after that Nymph," Callimachus says. "She passed her time in
150-763: 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. In Spenser's allegory, Britomart connotes the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I of England . In his retelling of the King Arthur legends, Arthur Rex , author Thomas Berger suggests that Queen Guinevere may have become
175-556: Is sometimes identified as one of the figures on the so-called Regina Vasorum ("Queen of Vases"), a mid-4th-century BC hydria from Cumae that depicts various figures from Eleusinian myth. A sculptural head most often attributed to the Athenian artist Praxiteles has sometimes been identified as Eubuleus. Uncovered by archaeologists in 1883 in the Ploutonion of Eleusis , it may instead represent Triptolemus . Alternatively,
200-564: The Underworld . Literary texts provide only scant evidence of the mythology of Eubuleus. He is not mentioned in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter . Differences among genealogies and cross-identifications with other gods raise the question of whether all the sources using a form of the name refer to the same figure. Diodorus Siculus says that he was a son of Demeter and the father of Karme , thus grandfather of Britomartis . One of
225-485: The 16th century, the naming of a character identified with English military prowess as "Britomart" in Edmund Spenser 's knightly epic The Faerie Queene led to a number of appearances by "Britomart" figures in British art and literature. According to Solinus , the name 'Britomartis' is from a Cretan dialect; he also says that her name means virgo dulcis , or "sweet virgin". Solinus also identifies her explicitly as
250-521: The Cretan Artemis. Hesychius of Alexandria also equates the Cretan word βριτύ ( britý ) with Greek γλυκύ ( glyký ) 'sweet'. Other scholars have argued that Britomartis ("sweet maid") is an epithet that does not reveal the goddess's name, nor her character, instead arguing that it may be a noa-name . The goddess was frequently portrayed on Cretan coinage, either as herself or as Diktynna,
275-688: The God and Goddess — that is, of the King and Queen of the Underworld, in reference to mystery cult — and of Eubouleus. In the Orphic tablets, Eubuleus is invoked four times along with Eucles ("Good Fame"), following a declaration in the first line to the Queen of the Underworld, Persephone. He is also invoked in the Gurôb Papyrus of the mid-3rd century BC. Because Eubuleus seems to be a human being in
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#1732775392120300-596: The Orphic tablets identifies him as the son of Zeus , as does one of the Orphic Hymns . Hesychius identifies him with Plouton , who is also hailed as Euboulos in the Orphic Hymn to Plouton , but other contexts distinguish the two. In visual representations, Eubuleus resembles Iacchos . Both are often depicted with a "dreamy" or "mystical" expression, and long hair styled in a particular manner. Both figures can also be represented as torchbearers. Eubuleus
325-473: The central Orphic god, Dionysus or Zagreus , or of Zeus in an unusual association with the Eleusinian Mysteries . Scholars of the late 20th and early 21st centuries have begun to consider Eubuleus independently as "a major god" of the mysteries, based on his prominence in the inscriptional evidence. His depiction in art as a torchbearer suggests that his role was to lead the way back from
350-609: The company of Artemis, this being the reason why some men think Diktynna and Artemis are one and the same goddess," Diodorus Siculus (5.76.3) suggested. 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 ." Antoninus Liberalis wrote that after escaping Minos, she arrived at Aegina, but
375-407: The goddess of Mount Dikte, Zeus' birthplace. As Diktynna, she was depicted as a winged goddess with a human face, standing atop her ancient mountain, grasping an animal in each hand, in the guise of Potnia Theron , the mistress of animals. By Hellenistic and Roman times, Britomartis was given a genealogical setting that cast her into a Classical context: Britomartis, who is also called Dictynna,
400-507: The goddess was erected in ancient times on Mount Tityros near Cydonia. Another name, Pipituna, found on Linear B may be another form of Diktynna. Britomartis was worshipped as Aphaea primarily on the island of Aegina , where the temple "Athena Aphaea" stood. A temple dedicated to her also existed at the Aspropyrgos on the outskirts of Athens. Britomart figures in Edmund Spenser 's knightly epic The Faerie Queene , where she
425-510: The head could be an idealized portrait of the type frequently made of Alexander , perhaps of Demetrius Poliorcetes , as it agrees in respects with Plutarch 's description. The identification as Eubuleus is based on comparisons with other sculptural heads that have the name inscribed, and the presence of the name on a base found separately but also within the Eleusinian Ploutonion. The Scholia to Lucian say that Eubuleus
450-525: 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. The third hymn to Artemis by Callimachus tells how she was pursued by Minos and, as Diktynna , "Lady of the Nets", threw herself into fishermen's nets to escape him; thus rescued, she was taken by the fishermen to mainland Greece. She
475-601: The pit and retrieved the decayed remains, which were placed on altars, mixed with seeds, then planted. Pits rich in organic matter at Eleusis have been taken as evidence that the Thesmophoria was held there as well as in other demes of Attica . In keeping with his ritualist approach to myth and other preoccupations in The Golden Bough , J.G. Frazer thought that the pigs, rather than merely accompanying Persephone in her descent, were an original feature of
500-521: The story, representing the " corn spirit " that was later anthropomorphized as the young goddess. The " First Fruits Decree " (5th century BC) requires sacrifices for Demeter and Kore ("the Maiden," usually identified with Persephone), Triptolemus , Theos (God), Thea (Goddess) and Eubolos . The inscription with the Lakrateides relief identifies the person making the dedication as a priest of
525-451: The title Britomart . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Britomart&oldid=1242782142 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Britomartis In
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#1732775392120550-511: Was a swineherd who was feeding his pigs at the opening to the underworld when Persephone was abducted by Hades. His swine were swallowed by the earth along with her. The scholiast presents this narrative element as an aition for the ritual at the Thesmophoria in which piglets are thrown into a sacrificial pit ( megara ) dedicated to Demeter and Persephone. Ritual attendants called "bailers" (ἀντλήτριαι, antlêtriai ) then descended into
575-435: Was also known as Dicte . This myth element "explains" the spread of the Cretan goddess's 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
600-653: Was manufactured as an overstrike of specimens manufactured by Aegina . Temples dedicated to her existed in Athens , Sparta , Massalia and between Ambrosus and Anticyra in Phocis, where, as Artemis Diktynna, her cult object was a black stone worked by Aeginetans , but she was primarily a goddess of local importance in Western Crete, such as Lysos and West of Kydonia . Her temples were said to be guarded by vicious dogs stronger than bears. A temple dedicated to
625-404: Was often portrayed on coins, showing that she was worshipped in those cities; the festival Britomarpeia was held in her honor. As Diktynna, her face was pictured on Cretan coins of Kydonia , Polyrrhenia and Phalasarna as the nurse of Zeus. On Crete, she was connected with the mountain where Zeus was said to have been born— Mount Dikte . On some early Britomartis coins of Kydonia, the coin
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