Iphigeneia

I enjoyed Mark's remarks on Clytemnestra's children, and his wondering about
something mythic there. His focus was on Elektra
and amber, but Iphigeneia has some artfully hidden meaning as well,
and I reviewed her a while back in the context of an entertaining
discussion on another list centering on the Artemis of Ephesos, and her
bulbous chest. I also think there is a lot of intended meaning lost in the
whole set of daughters (or nieces). I'm interested as well in what others
on this list think. (I wasn't aware of Mark's translation of Iphi...which is
also interesting.)

Mark contributes:

> The third daughter, Iphigeneia (=Mothering a Strong Race) is said >by

some to be Helen's daughter by Theseus, fostered by her Aunt >Clytemnestra,
and it is Iphigeneia who is sacrificed to Artemis

>at Aulis by her uncle or father, Agamemnon.

Most versions of the Iphi. story refer to some transgression against
Artemis (by Ag. or an associate) that has led to a weather problem delaying
a nautical military movement. Ag. is advised by Oracle that he must
sacrifice (the first daughter seen?) to gain good winds.
From memory: It seems only a few versions of the story actually have her
killed by Agamemnon; others have her rescued by various agents. (Some argue:
as a later Greek social adjustment of the story to deny the historical
convention of human sacrifice..but I question that.) One version has
Achilles in collusion with the deity Artemis concluding the rescue; and
another has Artemis effecting the rescue in person. Significant is that
both versions resulted in her sequestering at an Artemisian temple in the
Taurian state on the North Black Sea coast. (As in..Artemis takes her
home?).
Yes, these are the people who later seem to be incorporated into
the near contradictory Scythian "nomadic state" (while the Cimmerians are
expelled)..and contributed to the Greek "Inhospitable sea" label for the
Black Sea. Why inhospitable? Because shipwrecked Greeks were handed over
to priestesses of this
Taurian Artemis, who sacrificed them.
Enter our boy Herodotus, in his histories, who has the Taurians as
distinct from Scythians, but peacefully coexisting as their neighbors.
According to H.: The same Taurian cult is not Artemisian..but built around
Iphi. herself. He adds that the sacrifice included nailing the head to
a(cross/frame/pole) while the decapitated body is tossed off a cliff into
the sea by the priestesses. He seems to be genuinely confused as to why the
Taurians are worshipping Agamemnon's daughter; and adds that he has several
reports that it is so.
Now, other Greek stories have Iphi's brother captured by the Taurians,
and sent to the temple for "disposition"..where she recognizes him and
conspires in his escape; and joins him to travel back to Greece. In their
flight they carry a stolen wooden Image of Artemis, which becomes a Greek
icon of note. The two devote their lives as pilgrims converting others to
Artemis in Greece, Cappadochia (where the Cimmerians may have wound up?)
and Rhodes. The wooden Icon variously shows up as a captured Persian
artifact in the east, or is built into a fortress in Rhodes. (Take your
choice.)
Artemis retains a fertility related role only for some cattle raisers in
the Greek Interior, and earlier is associated with a bear. (Bear? In Greece?
Yes. Artimul = Ursul? Arthur, after all, is the Bear. One
priestess/consort is "transformed" into a bear..and this is depicted on
Greek pottery in one known case.) Universally, and later, she has a sort of
female protector role during child birth..which gets a bit beyond just
"fertility". Iphi gets incorporated as an assistant consort deity in some
areas, and new mothers and midwives "sacrifice" soiled clothing and bedding
materials to Iphi, while giving thanks to Artemis for the successful
delivery. Artemis became a very female favored deity,and of course, she
gained the attention of a certain lady writer of Lesbos.
Now, another lady deity with a very similar role and history on Crete
(Help me out here Sabine?)..one Britomartis..manages to get syncretized into
the Artemis story as a sort of "Assistant" Artemis..as a
mortal who gets tangled in fishing nets trying to escape from the advances
of Minos himself. Artemis, observing, likes the fact that mortal
Britomartis is both a virgin and a Huntress (and earlier..also a daughter of
Zeus) (like Anath a bit too, maybe even early versions of Athena..who became
an "urban" version of the "rural" Artemis.) rescues her and gives her
immortality in her service. (Apollo can only have one sister..and his sister
can have only one (final) name. :-)
One can argue that the northern Black Sea Taurian connection..is
obscure: and has nothing really to do with Greece. Then you learn that in
Attica, the "Tauropolia Festival" at "Halae Araphenides" honoured Artemis
Tauropolos (Bull Goddess) who received offerings of a few drops of blood
drawn by sword from a man's neck (once they had quit actually cutting the
head off).
Why do you think Lydian Croesus is so interested in the Greek Ephesos
temple to Artemis? Archaeology suggests there were three versions of the
temple on the same site, extending much earlier than the one Croesus built
c.550 BCE, while the Greek colony on the same site dates from only about 600
BCE. Why does this image have the bulbous chest in a temple guarded by
bronze Amazon warriors? What are these bulbous appendages on our lady's
chest? Multiple breasts for fertility has been proposed, (Anthropologists
see fertility in everything!) even bull testicles. (Anath used to hang body
parts about from killed beasts.) But she has bees on her skirt in
Ephesos..maybe the bulbous projections are honeycomb? Hannahanna's bees?
Are Artemis/Britomartis/Athena/Anath all regional versions of the same
original concept, the first three of them resyncretized into one later
pantheon after time has altered the name and roles slightly?
Do the Clytemnestra stories really suggest in family metaphor some clues to
ethnic complexity and origins; as Helen's honor (or her husband's pride) is
a possible metaphor for reaction to economic competition as the launcher of
the thousand ships?

La Revedere;
Rex H. McTyeire
Bucharest, Romania
<rexbo@...>