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:''For the butterfly genus, see ''Britomartis (butterfly). :''"Dicte" redirects here. For the fairy longhorn moth genus, see ''Dicte (moth). Britomartis () was the Minoan goddess of mountains and hunting. She is among the Minoan goddess figures that passed through the Mycenaeans' culture into classical Greek mythology, with transformations that are unclear in both transferrals.〔Other Minoan/Greek goddess figures -- that the scant archaeological evidence and speculative reading of literary sources suggest made the transition to classical Hellenic culture -- can be detected in aspects of the Olympian goddesses Hera, Demeter and Artemis, and in Europa, Eileithyia, Leto, Leucothea, Rhea, Pasiphaë, Ariadne, and even Helen. The subject is examined in detail in Martin P. Nilsson, ''The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and Its Survival in Greek Religion'' 2nd ed. (Lund) 1950, which is presented in two sections, "The Minoan-Mycenaean religion according to the monuments" and "Minoan-Mycenaean religion in its relations to Greek religion". See also Walter Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 1985:10-47.〕 For the Greeks, Britomartis was a mountain nymph (an oread) whom Greeks recognized also in Artemis and in Aphaea, the "invisible" patroness of Aegina.〔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, ii.30.3 and in Diodorus Siculus, v.76.3.〕 The goddess addressed as "Britomartis" was worshipped in Crete as an aspect of ''Potnia'', the "Mistress". The oldest aspect of the Cretan goddess was as Mother of Mountains, who appears on Minoan seals with the demonic features of a Gorgon, accompanied by the double-axes of power and gripping divine snakes. Her terror-inspiring aspect was softened by calling her ''Britomartis'', the "good virgin", a euphemism to allay her dangerous aspect. She is also known as ''Diktynna'' (Δίκτυννα; derived by Hellenistic writers as from δίκτυα (), "hunting nets").〔For example, "...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.〕 ==Etymology== According to Solinus, the name 'Britomartis' is not Greek but from a Cretan dialect; he also says that her name means ''virgo dulcis'', or "sweet virgin".〔Solinus, ix.8.〕 Solinus also identifies her explicitly as the Cretan Artemis.〔Noted by H. J. Rose, ''A Handbook of Greek Mythology'' (New York) 1959:117, citing Theodor Mommsen's edition, 1864.〕 Hesychius of Alexandria also equates the Cretan word βριτύ (''brite'') with Greek γλυκύ (''glyke'') 'sweet'.〔("A deeper source of Cretan Britomartis" ) paleoglot.blogspot.ca〕 According to some other scholars, ''Britomartis'' ("sweet maid") is an epithet that does not reveal the goddess's name,〔A Christian parallel may render this observation even clearer: ''Mater dolens'', "grieving mother", identifies the Blessed Virgin, but none of the four attributes—"grieving, mother, blessed, virgin"— gives her name, ''Mary''.〕 nor her character, for it has the ring of an apotropaic euphemism.〔"Her name is supposed to mean the 'Good Maiden' — which like Aristaios and Kalliste, may be a euphemism for its opposite, the Maiden of Death." (Carl A.P. Ruck and Danny Staples, ''The World of Classical Myth'' (Academic Press ), 1994:113).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Britomartis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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