The ascent of Olympus / by Rendel Harris.

  • J. Rendel Harris
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The ascent of Olympus / by Rendel Harris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and her body was being carried past the port of Glasgow, when the mermaid raised her voice ab ove the water and in slow accents cried :— If they wad nettles drink in March, And eat muggons in May, Sae mony braw maidens Wad na gang to the clay.” So it appears that the plant continued as a maid's medicine in Scotland till recent times. We have now accumulated enough material, or nearly so, to en¬ able us to decide on the relation between Artemis and Artemisia. It is clear that it is one of the oldest of medicines : it is the mother of herbs ; in that respect it ranks with the peony, of which Pliny says (“ H.N.” XXV. 11) that it IS the oldest of medical plants. It is also clear that it is first and foremost women’s medicine, and this must be the principal factor in determining the relation between the woman’s goddess and the woman’s pharmacopoeia. Amongst the special places where the plant is found we have mention of Mt. Taygetus, after which one of the principal varieties of the plant appears to have been named. Now Mt. Taygetus is known from Homer to be the haunt of Artemis, e.g. “ Od.” VI. 102, 3 :— oil) ApTejjLL^ elacv Kar ovpeo^ lo'geatpa, rj Kara Tijiiyerov TreptpurjKerov t] ’EpvpavOov. Or we may refer to Callimachus’ hymn to Artemis, in which the poet asks the goddess her favourite island, harbour, or mountain ; and makes her reply that she loves Taygetus best :— Si vv TOi vpo'cov, TTOLOv S’ 6po<; eijaSe irKelarov ; Se \tpbrjv ; ttolt] Se 7roXt9 ; riva S’ e^oga vvpcfiicov (f)L\ao, Kal 7roLa<; ?7^(wtSa9 eV^e9 eraipa^^; elire, Oed, av puep dpipblv, eycb S’ eripoiaiv deiaoy. Nrjactiv puev AoXigrj, ttoXlcov Se rot evaSe Uepyr]* T Tjvy er ov S’ 6 p i co v, Xipuive'^ ye puev EvpiTroio. If, then, the plant is found on the mountain, then it is the plant that loves the mountain, and not Artemis in the first instance ; or rather, the plant is A rtemis and A rte^nis is the plant, Artemis is a woman’s goddess and a maid’s goddess, because she was a woman’s medicine and a maid’s medicine. If the medicine is good at ^ Vetustissima inventu Paeonia est, nomenque auctoris retinet.
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