What is the Warrior cult? It’s the stories, the philosophies and the ingrained assumptions that aggression equals strength and manliness, that caring and compassion are womanly and weak, that the glory of conquest is more important than life itself.
The Odyssey is this summer’s big movie. The Manosphere is obsessed with testosterone. Wars rage, driven by some strong man’s ego. Maybe it’s time to re-examine the cult of the Warrior, that Bronze-Age propaganda coup that has driven our myths, our religions and our conceptions of gender for thousands of years. The cult still shapes politics, entertainment and religion, in ways both obvious and unseen. And it lives within us, constricting who we can be.
Yet there are other images of strength and courage. The ancient Goddesses long pre-date the rise of the Warrior, and in their imagery and stories, we can find alternative visions of power. And at this crucial time, when the world is literally burning and democracy itself may fall victim to the strongmen, we need both those ancient powers and our own creativity and vision to forge a new mythic ground.
Yet there are other images of strength and courage. The ancient Goddesses long pre-date the rise of the Warrior, and in their imagery and stories, we can find alternative visions of power. And at this crucial time, when the world is literally burning and democracy itself may fall victim to the strongmen, we need both those ancient powers and our own creativity and vision to forge a new mythic ground.
Thank you Starhawk, who is teaching a course Magical Activism: Transforming the Warrior Cult.
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ARTEMIS EPHESIA
"From as early as the Bronze Age, and before, the great Mother Goddess whose worship was carried by the Amazons who founded the city of Ephesus (now Selcuk), was worshiped and venerated in the part of the world which is now Turkey. She seems to be a merged cosmic descendant of several Goddesses of the ancient Fertile Crescent: Kubala, Kybele, Ishtar, Astarte and Ashtoreth. These were worshiped in Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Phrygia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Crete, Egypt, the Aegean Islands, Greece and Etruscan Italy. She was passionately venerated, and was the guardian Goddess of several cities of the Near East, Marsilia, Ephesus and Carthage.
"She was worshiped for long before Her first temple was built near Ephesus in 625 BCE, on a site which had already been sacred for centuries. The whole of nature is Her - the earth, the flowers and fruits and She rules the elements, sky, earth and sea. She governs the life of the animals, tames the wild beasts and protects the animals from extinction. She assists in birth and is invoked by all mothers, and would-be mothers. Although Her original name is not known, Her identity eventually merged with the Greek Goddess Artemis and She took on the name of Artemis, though She was clearly more than that name alone. She was accredited with the creation of all civilization, and as its ruler, wore a crown/headdress carved with city towers. Each year She was celebrated everywhere in these regions as the Mother, the fertility Goddess and the grantor of innumerable prayers. Her annual festival lasted a whole month. People from all these regions poured into Ephesus for rituals, entertainment, dances and markets. Her visage appeared on the coins of Ephesus - Sacred Mother, Her arms outstretched to embrace Her children.
"In the image of Her standing in the plaza entrance to the Artemision, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Her tubular skirt is carved with birds, stags, goats, bees and winged beings we would recognize today as angels. This kind of skirt is not Greek, neither is the crown/headdress. It was obviously from another region and time before Classical Greece. She was referred to as the Bee Goddess, The Light Bearer, Artemis of the First Throne, Queen of the Cosmos, Savior, Heavenly Goddess, Greatest & Holiest, Mistress of the Animals. Her famous statue, of which many copies were made, though it does not survive today, had protuberances in rows around Her chest about which there has been much speculation and interpretation. They have been variously posited to be pendulous breasts (as though having fed many children), bull testicles (as bulls were often sacrificed to Her), the bodies of bees, the teats of animals, and even possibly the teeth of the red deer or elk (as red deer teeth had been sacred decorations for many thousands of years in a wide ranging and sweeping area from Siberia to Africa). Though any of these are possible given the ancientness of Her worship and the associations with Artemis Ephesia as Mistress of Animals and Great Mother of All, and although scholars now as a group reject the idea they are breasts, due to the fact that Greek sculptors never depicted breasts this way in any other sculpture, I feel intuitively that they are indeed breasts. This sculpture did not originate with the Greeks in its first form. The image is clearly from another earlier, more eastern culture. That they are breasts certainly makes more logical sense than any of the other possibilities.
Especially sacred to women, She presided over a woman’s passage from girl to married woman. She is a triple Goddess, though not in the way triple Goddesses are thought of now - Virgin/Girl, Wife, and Mother. The number 3 is especially sacred to Her. She also came to be related to death and the underworld - womb and tomb. She has the universal power to override both astrological influences and the Fates. This is symbolized in the yoke of the dress she wears (in the sculpture) that is adorned with all the yearly track of the zodiac across the night sky. She had priestesses who were Oracles, successively, and Artemis Ephesia’s oracle predated Apollo’s oracle at Delphi. Artemis played a central role in the life of the city of Ephesus, its identity, and civic pride. Many inscriptions record a strong belief in Her ability to answer prayers and petitions.
Although Christianity began to get a foothold in the region, it is recorded in the biblical book of Acts, that the apostle Paul’s preaching about the new god, Jesus, on the very steps of the Artemision, was met with strong and vocal opposition by the residents. There was a big public demonstration to drive Paul out of the city as many citizens shouted and chanted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Eventually Christianity gained prominence, but not until 600 CE did the worship of Artemis Ephesia become completely eclipsed. The Catholic Church, however, was not able to turn the hearts of the people away from Her and incorporated the image of the Goddess with Her arms outstretched into the image of Mary, who to this day is depicted with her arms outstretched to embrace. The Church even declared Ephesus the place where Mary, mother of Jesus, was entombed, though much, much later in the 19th century, there was a papal bull about Mary’s bodily ascension to heaven.
Now, in these modern times, there is a project in germination to restore and rebuild the great Temple of Artemis in Selcuk, Turkey on its original site. The first Artemision took 120 years to complete. It was designed by the famous Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes, and adorned by almost every famous sculptor of Greece in that time period. It was three times as large as the Parthenon at Athens, with 120 marble columns. With modern machinery and techniques, it should, hopefully, take not nearly as much time to complete. The original was financed by King Croesus of Lydia - one can only hope the rebuilt Artemision is financed as well as its predecessor, as it is estimated the completed project will cost $150 million dollars.
For myself, I echo the cry of the ancient populus of Ephesus:
**Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!**
c. Diane Horton
This copy of the original statue is in the Vatican.
Thank you for the FaceBook post June 21, 2021
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Sharing with Sepia Saturday
If you want more about my Life in Durango, there's the new blog!
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I was up early and made several comments, mostly because you readers who live east of me (England, Scotland, Ireland, North Carolina, Ontario!) are already busy with your days while the sun hasn't even thought of our horizon yet in Colorado...why am I saying this! NO COMMENTS ARE BEING POSTED FROM ME! I have my usually wise funny things to say, but they just freeze rather than publish. Sorry. Will work on it...somehow.
