The Tale of Priestess-Architect Aristarcha And Her Dream Blueprints

Greek settlers from the city of Phocaea colonized southern France, founding the city of Massilia (modern Marseilles) in 600 BCE or earlier. Folklore, legend and myth about the city and its foundation abound, and the Roman geographer Strabo (64 BCE-21 CE) was one of the many authors to write down a folkloric story about Massilia’s creation. His tale, however, did not focus on the colonial expedition’s leaders, or the political intrigue that the Greek sailors found themselves in once they reached the French coast. Strabo, instead, presented a story about a woman who was chosen by the goddess Artemis (or Diana for the Romans) as the architect for one of the first temples in the fledgling colony of Massilia.

According to Strabo, the Phocaean colonizers of Massilia were approached by an oracle before they departed from their original Ionian homeland. This oracle reportedly encouraged the settlers to stop by Ephesus before they left the Aegean Sea. The oracle claimed that a person was living in the city whom the goddess, Artemis, wished would accompany the Phocaeans on their journey. Heeding the advice of the oracle, the expedition from Phocaea stopped by the city of Ephesus, but upon their arrival they realized that they did not know how to locate Artemis’ champion. Evidently, Artemis took matters into her own hands. According to Strabo, “The goddess appeared in a dream to Aristarcha, one of the most honourable women of the city, and commanded her to accompany the Phocaeans, and to take with her a plan of the temple and statues” (Geography, IV.1.4). Pious Aristarcha (a name that might be an early cult title or honorific) gathered the materials that Artemis directed her to bring and then presented herself to the loitering Phocaeans. After convincing them of her authenticity, Aristarcha joined their expedition and journeyed with them into the Mediterranean.

When the settlers reached the site where they would build Massilia, they soon began constructing a temple to Artemis based on Aristarcha’s blueprints. This temple, with its ties to Ephesus, was eventually called the Ephesium, and Aristarcha reportedly became the temple’s first priestess.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Diana the Huntress painted by Guillaume Seignac (1870–1924), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Strabo’s Geography, translated by H.C. Hamilton and W. Falconer (1903 edition), republished in The Complete Works of Strabo (Delphi Classics, 2016).
• https://www.ancient.eu/massilia/ 
• https://www.britannica.com/place/Marseille/Administration-and-social-conditions#ref12516  

The Murderous Kings Of the Grove Who Oversaw The Temple Of Diana At Aricias

In the ancient world, a person traveling southeast from Rome along the Appian Way toward Aricias would eventually see a rectangular temple of the goddess Diana, which was situated to overlook the nearby Lake Nemi. In charge of this temple was one of the most peculiar priests of the ancient world—the rex Nemorensis or “King of the Grove.”

Several ancient scholars wrote about these bizarre priests, including Suetonius, Ovid, Pausanias and Servius. According to the accounts of these men, there could only be one King of the Grove at any given time. This king lived in luxury—before it was destroyed in the 2nd century, the temple of Diana at lake Nemi supposedly had a golden roof, an artificial terrace, abundant masterful sculptures, a bath, a granary and even a small theatre. Yet, despite the beautiful scenery and the impressive title, the position of King of the Grove was a job that most people would not want.

According to the ancients, there were specific requirements that a person needed to meet before they could become a King of the Grove. The first step was to be enslaved and then escape, for only an escaped slave could become King of the Grove. After escape, the runaway slave needed to successfully reach the temple of Diana at Lake Nemi. Once at the temple, the true initiation began. There were no understudies, apprenticeships or seminaries at the temple—these priests of the goddess of the hunt had a different process for succession.

When the claimant to the priesthood worked up enough courage, he would supposedly break off a branch from a sacred oak tree on the temple compound, thereby warning the current King of the Grove that a new contender had arrived. With the breaking of the bough, the hunt began. The ancient sources were vague on which hunting tactics the claimant would use, be it a duel or ambush, but the only way the escaped slave could become the new priest of the temple was to kill the reigning King of the Grove. Either way, it was not an easy task, for the hunted priest had once been the hunter. The Kings of the Grove intimately knew how succession worked in the temple of Diana, so they were constantly watching new arrivals with a paranoid eye and always had a weapon on hand. Nevertheless, no matter how careful they were, the Kings of the Grove would inevitably fall to new successors, either because of mistakes or age. With that baptism by blood, the successful contender would don the title of King of the Grove and spend the rest of his life warily watching for broken branches in the sacred grove.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Mosaic depicting the goddess Diana, c. 2nd century, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, translated by Robert Graves and edited by James B. Rives. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007.
• http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/miscellanea/nemi/rex.html 
• http://classics.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-5567 
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/3269555?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents  

The Tragic Greek Myth Of Niobe, And Her Family That Was Massacred By The Gods

(Apollo and Artemis Killing The Niobids, c. 1772, by Pierre-Charles Jombert, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

The myth of Niobe is definitely a contender for ancient Greece’s most depressing mythological story. Her story was one of the clearest examples of unrestrained wrath from the gods meted out against humans. What became of Niobe and her family is sure to dampen your eyes and strum on your heartstrings.

According to myth, Niobe was the daughter of King Tantalus and the wife of King Amphion. Alongside her husband, Queen Niobe ruled Thebes. Her proudest achievement, however, was her huge family—Homer wrote that she had twelve children, but many other writers recorded that she had fourteen. The sexes of her children were split evenly in all accounts of her myth; there were either six or seven sons and six or seven daughters.

Niobe’s pride for and love of her family would bring destruction upon everyone she loved. It all began when she acted disrespectfully during a ceremony that honored the titan goddess Leto—Niobe had the gall to compare her motherhood to that of the goddess. Leto did not take kindly to a petty human comparing her motherly achievements with a goddess like herself, so she had her children go put Niobe in her place. In some versions of the story, Leto’s famous divine twins, the archer-gods Artemis and Apollo, sought out retribution against Niobe without any instruction from their mother. Nevertheless, in each way the story was told, the two powerful twins set out to defend the honor of their mother, Leto.

The number of deaths that Artemis and Apollo caused depended on which account was being read—in all cases, however, the majority of Niobe’s family was massacred. Apollo rained arrows down on all of Niobe’s sons and Artemis shot the queen’s daughters. In an alternative telling of the myth, the youngest daughter survived. After witnessing the massacre of his children, King Amphion committed suicide. With her children and her husband dead, Niobe fled from Thebes to Mt. Sipylon (or Sipylus).

After the killing of Niobe’s children, Zeus turned the people of Thebes into stone. As there was no one to bury the dead, the bodies of the slain children were left out in the weather for nine days. Only on the tenth day did Zeus and the gods, themselves, bury Niobe’s deceased children.

As for Queen Niobe hiding in the mountains, she could only cry. She eventually turned to stone, but her tears continued to pour—legend claimed that the Achelous River was created and sustained from Niobe’s ceaseless tears caused by the loss of her children.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

• The Iliad by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by Peter Jones. New York: Penguin Classics, 2014. 
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Niobe-Greek-mythology 
• http://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Niobe/niobe.html 
• http://www.pantheon.org/articles/n/niobe.html
   

The Greek Goddess Artemis Unleashed A Giant Boar Against A City That Slighted Her

(Wild Boar by Walter Heubach (German, 1865-1923), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons mixed with The Ancient City of Agrigento, by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (1750–1819), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

According to the ancient Greek poet, Homer, Lord Oeneus of the Aetolian city of Calydon made the grave mistake of forgetting to leave a harvest offering to Artemis, the goddess of animals and hunting. Apparently, every single Greek god and goddess besides Artemis was given his or her share of the harvest. Artemis, alone, was forgotten—and she was not happy about that, at all.

To have her revenge against the people of Calydon, Artemis sent a colossal boar to ravage the personal lands of Lord Oeneus. The gigantic beast used its terrible tusks to gouge the land and rip up trees from their roots. Lord Oeneus’ son, Meleager gathered a large army of hunters and hunting dogs from the surrounding Aetolian settlements to do battle against Artemis’ boar. Though many of the huntsmen died, they managed to kill the rampaging boar and return its impressive carcass to Claydon.

Artemis, however, not to be outdone by the hunters, sowed jealousy and rivalry between the many proud hunters. They all argued over who would keep the magnificent boar as a hunting prize. To make matters worse, war broke out between the Aetolian people and their foes, the Curetes.

Meleager championed the Aetolians in war, and his skillful military leadership made victory almost a certainty. There was, however, a nagging problem among the Aetolian ranks—Artemis was still flaming the fires of envy and jealousy over who would keep the boar as a prize. In a heated dispute over the giant hunting trophy, Meleager killed his uncle in a frenzied rage. After the murder, Meleager’s mother could not forgive her son for killing her brother. Quite the opposite, she prayed to the gods for her son’s death. Having killed his uncle, and with his mother wishing his death, Meleager withdrew from battle and sulked with his wife at their home in Claydon city.

Without Meleager’s leadership, however, the Aetolian forces lost their advantage. The Curetes seized their chance and counter-attacked, pushing deep into Aetolian territory. The line of battle was pushed all the way back to the city of Claydon, where Meleager was still licking his wounds.

Only when the Curetes began to siege and scale the walls of Claydon did Meleager rejoin the battle. With their champion back in the battlefield, the Aetolians were able to soundly defeat the Curetes and end the war. No longer distracted by the threat of war, the Aetolians decided who would obtain prizes fashioned from the giant boar that the huntsmen had recently killed. Meleager, whose stubbornness and solitude had caused the Curetes to reach all the way to the walls of Claydon, was pointedly not given a share of Artemis’ great boar as a hunting trophy.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Source:

• The Iliad (Book 9, approximately line 530) Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by Peter Jones. New York: Penguin Books, 2014.

Ares, The Greek God of War, Was Trapped In A Bronze Jar For 13 Months

(So-called “Ludovisi Ares”. Pentelic marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from ca. 320 BC. Some restorations in Cararra marble by Gianlorenzo Bernini, 1622, photographed by Marie-Lan Nguyen, via Creative Commons 2.5 (CC2.5))

Though Ares, according to Greek mythology, was the god of war, aggression, rage and all other chaotic emotions that come from battle and bloodlust, he suffered a very embarrassing incident. This ancient mythological tough-guy was overwhelmed and stuffed in a bronze jar by two young brothers (possibly only nine-year-olds) named Otus and Ephialtes.

To be fair, these were no ordinary brothers, and they were far from human. Otus and Ephialtes were immensely powerful giants born to Poseidon and Iphimedeia. By ‘immensely powerful,’ I mean they were virtually indestructible—Hercules (strong enough to harm and embarrass multiple gods) could not place a scratch on the giant brothers and even Zeus’ feared lightning bolts had no effect.

As the story goes, Otus and Ephialtes plotted to march against Olympus and usurp power from Zeus and the gods. Along with their longing for world dominance, Otus lusted after the goddess, Artemis, and Ephialtes felt the same emotion for Zeus’ wife, Hera. Therefore, when they were not trying to break into Olympus, the giant brothers would call out for the goddesses they desired.

Ares, the god of war, charged out of Olympus to defeat the threat to the gods, but was quickly humbled by the giants. Otus and Ephialtes scooped up Ares, as if he were nothing, wrapped him in chains, and stuffed him in a bronze jar. Meanwhile, Artemis answered the call of the giants and appeared before them. After the brothers saw her, she turned into a white doe (other stories claim Apollo sent the doe), and ran in-between the two giants. The brothers, trying to incapacitate or kill Artemis, simultaneously threw spears at the doe, but missed—instead of hitting the doe, they skewered each other. Though Otus and Ephialtes were invulnerable to the attacks of gods and man, they proved to be their own weakness, because they died from their wounds.

Ares, whose only achievement during the giant brothers’ reign of terror was to be captured and imprisoned in a jar, remained in his bronze prison for thirteen months. The god of war was nearing his last breaths when Hermes (one of the most under-appreciated and underestimated of the gods) was informed of Ares’ predicament. Hermes quickly found, and saved, Ares and brought the god of war back to Olympus, where Artemis was being celebrated for her wit and valor. Ares, on the other hand, only gained from the ordeal a tale he wished everyone would forget.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Sources:

• The Iliad (Book 5, approximately line 390) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by Peter Jones. New York: Penguin Classics, 2014. 
• http://www.theoi.com/Gigante/GigantesAloadai.html 
• http://www.paleothea.com/Myths/OtusEphialtes.html