Britomartis
She was sometimes believed to be an oread, a mountain nymph, but she was often conflated or syncretized with Artemis and Aphaea, the "invisible" patroness of Aegina.Diodorus Siculus found it less than credible: But those men who tell the tale that she has been named Dictynna because she fled into some fishermen's nets when she was pursued by Minos, who would have ravished her, have missed the truth; for it is not a probable story that the goddess should ever have got into so helpless a state that she would have required the aid that men can give, being as she is the daughter of the greatest one of the gods.In the second century CE, the Greek writer Pausanias describes Britomartis saying, "She was made a goddess by Artemis, and she is worshipped, not only by the Cretans, but also by the Aiginetans.[11] Temples dedicated to her existed in Athens, Sparta, Massalia and between Ambrosus and Anticyra in Phocis,[12] where, as Artemis Diktynna, her cult object was a black stone worked by Aeginetans,[13] but she was primarily a goddess of local importance in Western Crete, such as Lysos and West of Kydonia.Britomart figures in Edmund Spenser's knightly epic The Faerie Queene, where she is an allegorical figure of the virgin Knight of Chastity, representing English virtue—in particular, English military power—through a folk etymology that associated Brit-, as in Briton, with Martis, here thought of as "of Mars", the Roman war god.
Britomartis (butterfly)BritomarisViridomarusJean Cousin the ElderGreek deitiesPrimordial deitiesTitansOlympiansWater deitiesChthonic deitiesNymphsAlseidAnthousaiAuloniadCrinaeaeDaphnaieDryadsEleionomaeEpimeliadsHamadryadsHesperidesHyadesLampadesLimnadsMeliaeNaiadsNapaeaeNepheleNereidsOceanidsOreadsPegaeaePegasidesPleiadesPotamidesThriaeAncient GreekGreek goddessArtemisAphaeaAeginaEdmund SpenserThe Faerie QueeneSolinusHesychius of Alexandriaepithetnoa-namePotnia TheronCarmêEubulusDemeterCallimachusDiodorus SiculusStraboCydoniaPausaniasAiginetansAntoninus LiberalisxoanonDaedalusChersonesosBritomarpeiaCretanKydoniaPolyrrheniaPhalasarnaMount DikteoverstrikeAthensSpartaMassaliaAnticyraAeginetansMount TityrosLinear BAspropyrgosChastityEnglishetymologyBritonElizabeth I of EnglandKing ArthurArthur RexThomas BergerGuinevereHMS BritomartH. J. RoseTheodor MommsenBlessed VirginAristaiosKallisteCarl A.P. RuckDanny StaplesLife of Apollonius of TyanaC. H. OldfatherLoeb Classical LibraryHarvard University PressWikisource1911 Encyclopædia BritannicaEarly deitiesAetherErebusHemeraPontusTartarusUranusCronusHyperionIapetusOceanusMnemosynePhoebeTethysThemisHeliosSeleneAsteriaAstraeusPallasPersesEpimetheusMenoetiusPrometheusTwelve OlympiansAphroditeApollo