The Sphere Also Gazes Into You...

Endgame and Artemis

So. I’m certainly team tumblr by now. But I must say. Sigh.

I knew people were liking all the Artemis stuff I posted during Seven Wonders because they liked some Sailor Moon character.

I just figured out that people were liking the Endgame post because of the Rise Against album named Endgame.

I may have to add Beckett to my list of themes.

Tumblr is a less wide-eyed place tonight.

time for Soju and Hite.

PS - If you reblog this for Rise Against or Sailor Moon, WE KNOW YOU’RE NOT READING WHAT YOU’RE REBLOGGING.
- 8 months ago
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Scale model of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus at Miniatürk, Istanbul.

The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus is actually a tomb for the Persian governor Mausolus. The “of Halicarnassus” comes from the name of the city where he was entombed. Halicarnassus is now known as Bodrum. The term “mausoleum” comes from this tomb, which was requisitioned by his wife Artemisia II of Caria.

The site stood for sixteen centuries until it fell victim to a series of earthquakes. Soon after, it’s pieces were used as fortification by the crusaders.
- 9 months ago
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An engraving of Orion from Johann Bayer’s Uranometria

Weird. Orion was famous for hunting prowess and often described as a (platonic…anthropomorphic much?) companion of Artemis, but then she caused his death. Why? Different stories. Kind of vague. Still, got him in the sky.
- 9 months ago
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Starry Night by DrPhotoMoto on Flickr.

Callisto was another familiar of Artemis. Most accounts (as always, they vary) say Callisto’s son Arcas is turned on his mother. Consequently, Zeus, with his characteristic empathy for women of whom he’s “taken advantage.” Is it just me, or is it odd that Artemis had a few figures placed in the heavens?
- 9 months ago
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Daniel Seiter’s 1685 painting of Diana over Orion’s corpse, before he is placed in the heavens.
- 9 months ago
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The Death of Adonis, killed by a wild boar sent by Artemis. Adonis had interactions with several god(esse)s. He is said to have been shared by Aphrodite and Persephone. In some stories, he is struck down by Ares rather than Artemis. In some accounts, he challenges Artemis’ hunting skill. In others, he suffers due to a quarrel between Aphrodite and Artemis. Regardless, it’s interesting a figure like Adonis would be struck down by the virginal Artemis.
- 9 months ago
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Roman marble Bust of Artemis after Kephisodotos
- 9 months ago
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Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Apollo and Artemis, Brygos (potter, signed), Briseis Painter

These two gods of Greek mythology were twins. What does that mean? It seems their origins are different. So what does it mean for them to have been twinned as practices and cults grew into a mythology? I imagine these ideas, words describing what people do and why, passing from person to person, traded, metaphysical “goods.” Eventually, they congeal into a set of stories, of beliefs. They become part of a canon. The sets of stories within a canon find other sets of stories that they go well with (and this happens, more likelily, as the canon forms). Some sets find they reflect well on each other, that they complement each other and play off of each other.

Michael Pollan describes Apollo and Dionysus as forming a kind of dichotomy in Greek thought, but it’s an odd dichotomy when you think about it. Apollo was one of the Olympian deities. Dionysus was not. But perhaps Apollo could be said to represent the otherworldliness, the idealism of the Olympian twelve. Dionysus was of the earth, of the people, a patron saint more than a omnipotent deity. So perhaps Apollo and Artemis can’t be seen as a dichotomy, as one would think twinned gods would do. Instead, maybe they represent a conflation, a parallel of thoughts and practices that ran too thickly through Greek culture to be represented by a single deity.
- 9 months ago
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The Diana of Versailles, in the Louvre
- 9 months ago
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Source: commons.wikimedia.org
The Roman Temple of Artemis in Jerash, Jordan, built around the middle of the 2nd century A.D. during the reign of Antonine the Pius.

This is not the “Seven Wonders of the World” Temple of Artemis. I never really thought of Artemis as one of the major gods. She’s the god(dess) of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity, and young girls, as well as bringing and relieving disease in women.

I always thought of her as the hunt(ress) and nothing much else. Not because the others are unimportant. I just imagine the hunt being all consuming, all else fading to shadows and carefully listened for noise.

But looking over all the stories that accompany the Artemis persona, I was surprised to see how often she is depicted as accompanied. Her stories include characters we know well, including Apollo, Adonis, Orion, and Callisto.
- 9 months ago
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