Blood on Her Altar

The idea that Artemis was only worshipped by women in the ancient world, which is a common one amongst modern pagans, is simply not true.  Men often played a role in ceremonies honouring her, though in a very different way and for different reasons from women.

In Sparta during the Roman period, young men had to undergo severe flogging on the altar of Artemis Orthia, the scourging would continue until the entire altar was covered in their blood.  This ritual flogging was known as diamnastigosis   (from diamastigô - ”to whip harshly”), and was a test endurance through which the men had to demonstrate their willingness and worthiness to be devotees and warriors fighting in the name this goddess.  

This particular ceremony is believed to have its origins in the discovery of the image of Artemis Orthia which was lost from a temple and then subsequently rediscovered.  The statue was found by two Spartan warriors, Astrabakos and Alopekos, who went insane when they found the statue.  The statue was then replaced in the temple, an altar set up and Artemis temporarily propitiated.  Then at a sacrifice honouring Artemis at this icon, groups of Limnatians, Kynosourians and Mesoans got into a quarrel, which developed into a fight during which several of the men were killed at the altar.  The Goddess was furious and killed the remaining men through a disease! 

The disease started spreading and the Spartans were understandably concerned and therefore consulted with an Oracle.  They were told that the only way in which they could appease Artemis and thereby prevent further spread of the disease would be to stain her altar with human blood.  Initially this took the form of human sacrifice on the altar, with the blood of the sacrifice being smeared on the altar.  But it was eventually substituted with the ceremonial scourging of young men as part of their coming of age, journey into manhood.   During the scourging a Priestess would hold the wooden image of Atemis, and if the image became heavy to her, it meant that the men scourging the boys were giving favour to a boy, maybe because of the rank of the child or because of his beauty.  If this happened then the Priestess would chastise the scourgers and make sure that the boy in question is scourged properly.

This combined with the use of ritual flogging as described by Xenophon as I discussed in my blog of yesterday and the mock sacrifice at the temple of Artemis Tauropolos in Attica demonstrate examples of where men were very much the centre of ceremonies honouring Artemis. 

As always I would love to hear your thoughts on this practice, you can respond here or at the original blog www.sorita.co.uk

For more info see: ARTEMIS Virgin Goddess of the Sun & Moon