Note 242 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.

Ἀρτέμιδι Ἀγροτέρᾳ. This title of the sylvan goddess is variously derived by etymologists. Scheffer (Ælian. V. H. L. ii. c. 25.) would have her ladyship so called from Agræ in Attica—χωρίον Ἄγραι καλούμενον, the scene of her first essay in hunting on arriving from Delos.Attic. L. i. c. xix. Διαβᾶσι δὲ τὸν Εἱλισσὸν, says Pausanias, χωρίον Ἄγραι καλούμενον, καὶ ναὸς Ἀγροτέρας ἐστὶν Ἀρτέμιδος, κ. τ. λ. But Perizonius objects to Scheffer’s derivation, and also to that ἀπὸ τῆς ἄγρας, à venatione, considering Ἀγροτέρα rather to signify rustica, in agris agens. If ἄγρα, venatio, be the root of the title, to the same may probably be referred the titular epithet by which Apollo is connected with the chase, by Pausanias in Atticis, (L. i. c. xli.) Ἀγραίος: unless the Attic Agræ would here afford a more ready solution. But the true derivation of Ἀγροτέρα is to be sought in ἀγρός. See Etymologicon Magnum.

From whatever source derived, it is sufficient for our purpose that the epithet is commonly applied to her in the character of “Dea Venatrix,” (Ovid. Met. L. ii. 454.)—“Dea sylvarum,” (Ovid. Met. L. iii. 163.)—“sævis inimica virgo—belluis,” (Hor. Od. xii. l. i. 22.)—as presiding over woods, and delighting in hunting. It is so used in the Thesmophoriazusæ of Aristophanes,

and in the Rape of Helen of Coluthus,

Coluthi Rapt. Helenæ. vs. 32.

To coursers it must be a mighty consolation to know that, by virtue of this distinction, the goddess is ominous of good when seen by them as a night-phantom; at least so says the dream-interpreter of Ephesus, the fortune-tellingOneirocrit. L. ii. c. xxxv. Artemidorus—κυνηγοῖς μάλιστα συμφέρει διὰ τὴν Ἀγροτέραν.

The Odyssey affords the graphic outline from whence Apelles is supposed to have worked off his finished picture of the Goddess of the Chase as an active toxophilite:

Homeri Odyss. L. vi. 102.

The rival copy of Virgil (Æneid. L. i. 502.) will occur to the reader’s recollection; and I need not again exhibit (see c. xxii. note 2.) the elaborate and highly-embellished portrait of the Carthaginian poet, (Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 86.) Effigies in marble of the Goddess of Hunting are to be seen in almost every collection; alone, with her usual symbols of venation, or accompanied by dogs of chase, or deer—or both, as in an alto-relievo at Wilton House. Temples and altars of Diana Agrotera are mentioned by Pausanias in Atticis c. xix. and c. xli., in eliacis i. c. xv., in Achaicis c. xxvi.

For the honour of Diana, in the character of Agrotera, the shows of wild beasts in the Roman Circus and Amphitheatre were generally designed: so Claudian,

Claudian. De Consul. Mall. Theod. vs. 292.

and for their support in splendid variety, the whole world was ransacked for its rarest and most savage animals:

No deity amongst the heathens was more terrible than the masculine daughter of Latona,Lucian. Deor. Dial. Juno et Latona. (ἀῤῥενικὴ πέρα τοῦ μέτρου, καὶ ὄρειος, in Juno’s taunting language,) and none less patient of affront—

Milton’s Comus, vs. 445.

The reader will call to recollection the death of the unfortunate son of Autonoë, τὸν Ἀκταίωνος ἄθλιον μόρον, (Euripid. Bacchæ,) and the desolation of the well-cultivated vineyard of Œneus (Homer. Iliad. L. ix.) at the hand of Dian,

Iliad. L. ix. 533.

It is supposed that the beautiful poetry of Callimachus, in which the anger and favour of the goddess are so feelingly described, (Hymn, in Dian.,) was imitated from the Psalms of David, which the poet, peradventure, had seen at the court of King Ptolemy. See the effects of her wrath, vs. 124. σχέτλιοι οἷς τύνη χαλεπὴν, κ. τ. λ.; with which are contrasted the good luck and happiness of those to whom she is propitious, vs. 129. οὓς δέ κεν εὐμειδής τε καὶ ἵλαος, κ. τ. λ. The conclusion follows, of course, that no man in his right senses should think of slighting the powerful dispenser of so much good andCallimach. H. in Dian. 260. evil—μή τις ἀτιμήσῃ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν.

The reader will find an amusing description of the worshipful Dian in the sulks at the marked insult of Œneus,

Ovid. Metam. L. viii. 277.

in Lucian, περὶ Θυσίων: καί μοι δοκεῖ ὁρᾷν αὐτὴν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ τότε μόνην, says the infidel satirist, τῶν ἄλλων θεῶν ἐν Οἰνέως πεπορευμένων, δεινὰ ποιοῦσαν, καὶ σχετλιάζουσαν οἵας ἑορτῆς ἀπολειφθήσεται.