Re: Iphigeneia

Hello, Rex,

your asked me for help in the case of Artemis/Britomartis. I believe
Britomartis was called Artemis by the Greeks because Artemis was closest to
the Cretan figure (we discussed before that ancient Greeks usually did that:
trying to understand others' gods by appropriating them to their own). The
Cretan goddess (we still don't know if she was one with several epithets or
different figures) was connected with hunting which is the main reason to
identify her with Artemis, I believe. The virgin is very probably an
invention of purely patriarchic times, even the traditional Greek Artemis
has connections with childbirth etc. that wouldn't be very plausible for a
virgin-goddess.

Greetings from Crete

Sabine