Britomartis: Difference between revisions

'''Britomartis''' ({{lang-grc-gre|Βριτόμαρτις}}) was a [[Greek goddess]] of mountains and hunting, who was primarily worshipped on the island of [[Crete]]. She was sometimes believed to be an [[oread]], or a mountain [[nymph]], but she was often conflated or syncretized with [[Artemis]] and [[Aphaea]], the "invisible" patroness of [[Aegina]].<ref>K. Pilafidis-Williams, ''The Sanctuary of Aphaia on Aigina in the Bronze Age'' (Munich: Hirmer) 1998, describes the distinctive local cult but is cautious in retrojecting the later cult of Aphaia to describe Britomartis at Aigina; the explicit identification of Britomartis and Aphaea is in [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.30.3 2.30.3], and in [[Diodorus Siculus]], v.76.3.</ref> She is also known as ''Diktynna'' (Δίκτυννα; derived by Hellenistic writers as from δίκτυα [''diktya''], "hunting nets").<ref>For example, "...{{nbsp}}all but caught, she leapt into the sea from the top of a cliff and fell into the nets of fishermen which saved her. Whence in after days the Kydonians call the Nymphe Diktyna (Lady of the Nets) and the hill whence the Nymphe leaped they call the hill of Nets (Diktaion)," [[Callimachus]], ''Ode 3 to Artemis'', 188ff.</ref>

 

 

In the 16th century, the naming of a character identified with English military prowess as "Britomart" in [[Edmund Spenser]]'s knightly [[Epic poetry|epic]] ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'' (probably just because "Brit" seemed to fit well with "Britain", with "mart" from [[Mars]], the god of war) led to a number of appearances by "Britomart" figures in British art and literature.