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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    we can register the transfer of the name of the goddess to a particular plant. We have already drawn attention to the spring-wort^ which opens all doors and has the entree to all treasure chambers ; and we have shown that Artemis and Hekate are called by the epithet KXetSoi})(09, the one that holds the key, and that Artemis shares this title with another shadowy goddess, a kind of double of her own, whose name is Ilpo6vpaia. My suggestion is that the epithet belongs to the spring-wort. Artemis holds the key because she is the spring-wort before which everything opens. If this can be made out for the origin, or rather for one of the first developments of the Artemis Cult (for we have given the first place to the mugwort), then we must, in view of the antiquity of this primitive medicine and these primitive and still widely spread superstitions, look for the same elements in the early Roman Cult. The Romans also must have believed in and honoured the spring-wort: it was not indeed their Diana who was /cXetSoi})(09, it was the male counterpart and conjugate of Diana, viz. Dianus or Jamis. One has only to recall the extraordinary antiquity of the Cult of Janus, and the position assigned to him as the opener and closer of all doors, and the genius of the opening year, and his actual representation as a key-bearer,^ to justify us making a parallel between Janus with the keys, and Artemis (or Hekate) nXeiSov^o^. The connection which the Latins make between Janus and Jamia turns upon the same rights of ingress and egress. If Artemis is equated with UpoOvpaia^ what are we to say to Macrobius^ when he tells us that apud nos Janum omnibus praeesse januis nomen ostendit, quod est simile Svpaicj . . . omnium et portarum custos et rector viarum. H e is almost called UpoOvpaiOf; in Diosc. (73, 13) where he is spoken of as 1 (p lavcp T(p irpo Tcov uvpoyv. has been used in China from time immemorial for cauterizing as a counter- irritant, especially in cases of gout. Other species of Artemisia are also found in China.” ^ For the representation of Janus with the key (whether interpreted sexually or otherwise) see Ovid, “ Fasti,” I. 9.:— Ille tenens baculum dextra, clavemque sinistra: or Macrobius, “ Sat.” I. 9, 7 : cum clavi et virga figuratur. ^ Macr., “ Sat.,” I. 9, 7.
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