The Palm Tree Goddess

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There was, then, in ancient times, known around the eastern Mediterranean countries of Egypt, Phoenicia, and Greece, a virginal, aggressive kind of goddess of war or hunting, or both, an independent female deity with no male attachment, connected with the palm tree, which was considered sacred. That does not yet show us how that idea connects between the Greek Artemis, granted a hunting goddess, and the palm tree, in whose image the Greek thought she was presented in Ephesus.

The area where Ephesus stood once belonged to the Hittite people. According to the site called All about Turkey, the Hittite had in their pantheon a goddess similar to Artemis. She was called Inaras, who was the “Daughter of the Storm-god and goddess of the wild animals of the steppe.” Artemis, the well-known goddess of wild animals, was supposed to be daughter of Zeus, who originally also was a storm god. The Encyclopedia of World Mythology (s. ref), though, claims that Artemis was of non-Greek origin (p. 155).

Artemis’ mother, according to Greek mythology, was Leto, or Latona, and she belonged to the Titans who preceded the Olympic gods. She became pregnant from Zeus, and to escape the wrath of his wife, Hera, she went as far as the island of Delos, opposite the western shore of Anatolia today.

The story is told on the site of Greek Conference: “Homer relates the charming myth. Leto, pregnant by Zeus, wandered from Thrace to Imbros, Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Cos, Euboea and Attica, all the time desperately searching for a place of refuge in which to give birth. But no place would receive her; they all feared the rage of Hera, the wife whom Zeus had betrayed… Although the wanderings of Leto — who by then was about to give birth — stopped on Delos, her pain did not, because Hera detained Ilithyia (the goddess of childbirth) on Olympus … As soon as Ilithyia (the midwife goddess) arrived on the island of Delos, the exhausted Leto “embraced a palmtree with her arms, knelt on the soft meadow” and gave birth first to Artemis and then to Apollo.”

The site of Theoi Greek Mythologyquotes from Nonnus, Dionysiaca 27.259: “When Leto carried her twin burden she had to wander over the world, tormented with the pangs of childbirth … until Delos gave help to her labor, until the old palmtree played midwife for Leto with her poor little leaves.”

In the site of Lycian Turkeyit says that “In Lycia, Leto, Apollo and Artemis were worshiped above all other deities and by far the most important religious sanctuary in Lycia was dedicated to Leto, called Letoon, in the Xanthos valley. It was the sacred cultic center of Lycia and Leto was the prime deity worshiped there, but in later dates her two twin children Apollo and Artemis were given equal importance. Letoon is undoubtedly of great antiquity and may go back to the 7th century B.C. Three temples stand here dedicated to Leto and her two children — the national deities of Lycia … The Cult of Leto was mostly concentrated along the western regions of Anatolia’s southern shore.  In Lycia she was worshiped as a national and family deity, as well as the guardian of the tomb.”

In conclusion, it seems not at all far-fetched, then, for the Greeks to claim the Ephesian goddess as their own adopted goddess Artemis, who so much resembled the Anatolian one both in her birthplace and in her character. The fact that neither ancient nor modern scholars recognize the clusters around her chest as those of dates only shows how much people (or perhaps, men) tend to forget what should be their proper heritage, especially where it concerns women and goddesses.

Reference:

Encyclopedia of World Mythology, Octopus Books Ltd. 1975

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