Cult of the bee goddess

🐝 Cult of the bee goddess | Are the curious round protrusions on the vest of the statue of the Goddess Artemis of Ephesus breasts, bull testicles, or beehives? Dr Carla Ionescu, a scholar, historian, and a leading expert on Artemis, thinks its beehives.

🐂 The theory that the Artemis of Ephesus wears an iconic vest featuring multiple rows of breasts has been popular for centuries. Another theory is that the 'breasts' are eggs, or represent the scrotums of bulls sacrificed in honour of Artemis at ancient festivals.

But Dr Ionescu, and others, believe bees makes the most sense.

🐝 Bees were connected to the divine due to their ability to predict the weather or events, the healing properties and uses of honey, and the (incorrectly assumed) role of queen bees as virginal mothers, able to reproduce without sexual fertilisation. At Ephesus, the fusion of the archaic pre-existing great mother goddess with the Hellenic Artemis resulted in a chaste mother goddess who was, conversely, associated with fertility and childbirth.

🍯 "There is this very long association between bees and prophecy, and in fact, there's a type of incense that you make from fermented honey," Dr Ionescu said. "And the prophetess at Delphi, would use that as incense to help her create the prophecy to contact the divine, which is of course Apollo at Delphi, which interesting, he is also the brother of Artemis."

🕍 Bees are associated with legends of the founding of Artemis's temple, located in modern day Türkiye, once one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The Amazon warriors were said to have built Artemis's first temple in Ephesus. "The goddess told the original architect in a dream that wherever you see the sort of settlement of bees, that's where you will make my temple," Dr Ionescu said.

According to legend, the city's original name was Apasas, which was the name of an Amazon queen and means "queen bee" in the Hittite language. Ephesus is claimed to be founded by the Greeks in the eleventh century BCE.

A bee also features on coins from Ephesus dating back to 400 BCE, which feature a stag and a palm tree on their reverse side, all symbolic of the goddess Artemis.

🗨️ Dr Ionescu's quotes (above) are from History Hit’s The Ancients podcast in 2021.
🎙️ History Hit - The Ancients podcast | Episode 100 |
Artemis of Ephesus: The Great Mother Goddess |
https://lnkd.in/gB5_XUsA
🌐 Dr Carla Ionescu | https://lnkd.in/gBPuYFRx