This study has two main purposes. The first is to review and re-analyse all the available literary and material evidence that relates to Brauron and to the Brauronia festival, which was introduced into Athens by the tyrant Peisistratos during the sixth century B.C. Comparable myth-riwal complexes concerning girls' maturation rites in other parts of Greece will also be examined to see if, by inference, they can add to the information we already have for the Brauronia. One of the festival's rites was the apKTE(a, when girls aged around ten years old 'mimicked bears' for Artemis, and one of its aetiological myths was a 'rescued' variant of the 'sacrifice' of Iphigeneia in which she was replaced by a bear at Brauron. The dominant tradition was that she was 'sacrificed' at Aulis, but replaced by a hind; however, in other variants the substitute was a bull, a she-goat, or an eiSc..lAOV, and there were other locations in Greece, such as Megara, which claimed to be the site of Iphigeneia's 'death'. This implies that there is some functional equivalence among all such myths of maiden 'sacrifice' and theriomorphosis. To this end, I also examine the suggestion that Thessalian girls performed the *ve(3(p)ela as a fawn equivalent of the Attic apKTEia. The second purpose is to examine the available evidence for temples and shrines belonging to Artemis in the city of Athens, and her cult-tides and festivals, to see whether one or more of these might have been modified, or superseded, by the Brauronia in the sixth century.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:407339 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Smith, Barbara Christine |
| Publisher | University College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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