'The last of the great Greek goddesses whom we have to consider is
Artemis. Her name, we shall see, has received many interpretations, but
none that can be considered as well established--none that, even if it
were so, would help us much in disentangling the many myths told about
her. Easy to understand as her character seems when we confine our
attention to Homer, it becomes extremely complicated when we take into
account the numerous local forms of worship of which she was the object.
'We have here a good opportunity of comparing the interpretations put
forward by _those who think that a study of the myths and customs of
uncivilised tribes can help us towards an understanding of Greek deities,
and the views advocated by classical scholars_ {138} who draw their
information, first of all, from Greek sources, and afterwards only from a
comparison of the myths and customs of cognate races, more particularly
from what is preserved to us in ancient Vedic literature, before they
plunge into the whirlpool of ill-defined and unintelligible Kafir
folklore. The former undertake to explain Artemis by showing us the
progress of human intelligence from the coarsest spontaneous and
primitive ideas to the most beautiful and brilliant conception of poets
and sculptors. They point out traces of hideous cruelties amounting
almost to cannibalism, and of a savage cult of beasts in the earlier
history of the goddess, who was celebrated by dances of young girls
disguised as bears or imitating the movements of bears, &c. She was
represented as [Greek], and this idea, we are told, was borrowed from the
East, which is a large term. We are told that her most ancient history
is to be studied in Arkadia, where we can see the goddess still closely
connected with the worship of animals, a characteristic feature of the
lowest stage of religious worship among the lowest races of mankind. We
are then told the old story of Lykaon, the King of Arkadia, who had a
beautiful daughter called Kallisto. As Zeus fell in love with her, Hera
from jealousy changed her into a bear, and Artemis killed her with one of
her arrows. Her child, however, was saved by Hermes, at the command of
Zeus; and while Kallisto was changed to the constellation of the Ursa,
her son Arkas became the ancestor of the Arkadians. Here, we are told,
we have a clear instance of men being the descendants of animals, and of
women being changed into wild beasts and stars--beliefs well known among
the Cahrocs and the Kamilarois.'
* * * * *
Here I recognise Mr. Max Muller's version of my remarks on Artemis.
{139a} Our author has just remarked in a footnote that Schwartz 'does
not mention the title of the book where his evidence has been given.' It
_is_ an inconvenient practice, but with Mr. Max Muller this reticence is
by no means unusual. _He_ 'does not mention the book where 'my 'evidence
is given.'
Anthropologists are here (unless I am mistaken) contrasted with
'classical scholars who draw their information, first of all, from Greek
sources.' I need not assure anyone who has looked into my imperfect
works that I also drew my information about Artemis 'first of all from
Greek sources,' in the original. Many of these sources, to the best of
my knowledge, are not translated: one, Homer, I have translated myself,
with Professor Butcher and Messrs. Leaf and Myers, my old friends.
The idea and representation of Artemis as [Greek] (many-breasted), 'we
are told, was borrowed from the East, a large term.' I say 'she is even
blended in ritual with a monstrous many-breasted divinity of Oriental
religion.' {139b} Is this 'large term' too vague? Then consider the
Artemis of Ephesus and 'the alabaster statuette of the goddess' in
Roscher's Lexikon, p. 558. Compare, for an Occidental parallel, the many-
breasted goddess of the maguey plant, in Mexico. {140} Our author
writes, 'we are told that Artemis's most ancient history is to be studied
in Arkadia.' My words are, 'The Attic and Arcadian legends of Artemis
are confessedly _among the oldest_.' Why should 'Attic' and the
qualifying phrase be omitted?