Aristobule ( grc, Ἀριστοβύλη) was an

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

of the

Greek goddess A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of de ...

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...

, meaning "the best advisor", under which she was worshipped at

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

. The politician and general

Themistocles Themistocles (; grc-gre, Θεμιστοκλῆς; c. 524–459 BC) was an Athenian politician and general. He was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy. A ...

built a temple of Artemis Aristobule at Athens, near his house in the

deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and ear ...

of Melite, in which he dedicated his own statue. This annoyed a great many Greeks, who took this as Themistocles boasting of his own good counsel as a politician. Not long after this, Themistocles was

ostracized Ostracism ( el, ὀστρακισμός, ''ostrakismos'') was an Athenian democratic procedure in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. While some instances clearly expressed popular anger at the cit ...

and went into exile. Some scholars contend that "Aristobule" should not be globally conflated with Artemis, and outside Athens was a distinct divine concept in its own right. The philosopher Porphyry spoke of Aristobule as one known by this name alone (as opposed to a more surname-like epithet, "Artemis Aristobule"). Scholar Noel Robertson proposed that in

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

"Aristoboule" ought to be identified with the Roman Mother goddess, also known as

Cybele Cybele ( ; Phrygian: ''Matar Kubileya/Kubeleya'' "Kubileya/Kubeleya Mother", perhaps "Mountain Mother"; Lydian ''Kuvava''; el, Κυβέλη ''Kybele'', ''Kybebe'', ''Kybelis'') is an Anatolian mother goddess; she may have a possible forer ...

. It has also been suggested by religion scholar

Hermann Usener Hermann Karl Usener (23 October 1834 – 21 October 1905) was a German scholar in the fields of philology and comparative religion. Life Hermann Usener was born at Weilburg and educated at its Gymnasium. From 1853 he studied at Heidelberg, ...

that "Aristobule" was a euphemism for

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

, and that this epithet and its temple had something to do with public executions, though other scholars disagree with this interpretation. This largely comes from speculation around the fact that in Athens the temple of Artemis Aristobule was very near to the place where the bodies of executed criminals who were denied interment (which was the ultimate punishment) were thrown into an open pit to rot.

References

{{DGRBM, author=LS, title= Aristobule, volume=1, page=300, url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/acl3129.0001.001/315 Epithets of Artemis Epithets of Cybele