Artemis Bear-Leader
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9356352 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael B Walbank (University of Calgary, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1981 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 276-281 |
| Publication date | 1981-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Classical Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0009-8388 • E-ISSN: 1471-6844 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0009838800009587 |
| OpenAlex | W1979082881 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 11 |
Editors of Lysistrate have regarded this passage as a kind of cursus honorum of a well-brought-up young Athenian lady: the chorine first served at the age of seven as a bearer of the sacred casket ( arrephoros ); then at the age of ten as miller of corn for Athena Archegetis ( aletris ); then followed service as a ‘bear’ ( arktos ) of Artemis at the Brauronia; finally, she returned to Athens as a basket-bearer ( kanephoros ), holding a string of figs, when a fair young girl. After this, presumably, she married. There are several difficulties in this interpretation: notably, the intrusion into service apparently wholly devoted to Athena of a spell as one of Artemis' servants at Brauron; moreover, the evidence is that Artemis' ‘bears’ were pre-pubescent, not young girls on the verge of marriage, as the above interpretation seems to require them to be. Another weakness lies in the period of service as an arrephoros : this passage seems to be the only direct evidence that arrephoroi might be seven-year-old, rather than adolescent, girls. A more extreme interpretation is that of A. Brelich, who regarded this passage as proof that there existed in fifth-century Athens a system of universal female initiation, based on four successive grades, arrephoria, aletria, arkteia and kanephoria . I do not propose to comment in detail upon Brelich's hypothesis, but critics of it might begin by questioning the age and number of the arrephoroi , and the function and location of the kanephoroi
Ancient history · Genealogy · Girl · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Spell · Theology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · History · Philosophy · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,07 |
| Citation span | 1996 - 2017 (22) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |