--- In cybalist@..., "João S. Lopes Filho" <jodan99@...> wrote:
> I think Aktaion (and possibly Orion) were related to Phoenician
Aqhat, a
> hunter who loved Anat, but was killed by her. I'm not sure if it's
exact,
> but it'is similar.
I am not familiar with the myth, though the names Acteon and Aqhat
appear similar. Anat was known elsewhere in the Near East as
Ashtarte, Ishtar, and so on. She must have been the same as Tanit in
Carthage. Some say she is found in Zoroastrian religion as Anahita,
who is also known as Tanais. Anyway, she is about the same as the
Anatolian 'Great Mother' goddesses like Ma, Cybele, Kubebe, and so
on. The Greeks compared them to Artemis, Athena, and Aphrodite in
their myths. Aphrodite lost her lover Adonis to Ares' jealousy. In
one
myth Athena lost her childhood sweetheart Palas and so took his name
as Palas Athena (contrived reason, IMO), and of course Artemis lost
Orion because Apollo was afraid he was going to doink his chaste
sister.
Acteon was turned into a stag and set upon by his hunting hounds
after he found Artemis in the buff. This part seems more in the IE
tradition. However, being torn to pieces and scattered to the fields
seems to have been more of a Near Eastern fertility rite. I haven't
seen too much on it, but it may have been based on actual ritual
human sacrifice going way back into the Neolithic.