Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

, Aspalis (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

: ) was a local heroine from Melite in

Phthia In Greek mythology Phthia (; grc-gre, Φθία or Φθίη ''Phthía, Phthíē'') was a city or district in ancient Thessaly. It is frequently mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'' as the home of the Myrmidones, the contingent led by Achilles in the ...

whose story was apparently meant to provide an etiology for the local surname and cult of

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 ...

. As in certain Artemis mythology, she hanged herself and her body disappeared.

Mythology

The exact story of Aspalis, known from

Antoninus Liberalis Antoninus Liberalis ( el, Ἀντωνῖνος Λιβεράλις) was an Ancient Greek grammarian who probably flourished between AD 100 and 300. His only surviving work is the ''Metamorphoses'' (Μεταμορφώσεων Συναγωγή, ''Me ...

, is as follows. Melite was once ruled by a

tyrant A tyrant (), in the modern English usage of the word, is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler's sovereignty. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to rep ...

so cruel that the citizens dared not pronounce his real name, dubbing him Tartarus. He would order for the most beautiful girls to be brought to him and made them his concubines against their will. When he sent for Aspalis, daughter of Argaeus, the girl hanged herself rather than be violated. Her brother Astygites swore to avenge her death before her body would be taken out of the noose. He put on his sister's clothes, hiding a sword underneath, and in this disguise got into the tyrant's palace and killed him. The citizens threw the tyrant's body into a river which from that circumstance became known as Tartarus, and crowned Astygites with a wreath to express gratitude to him. As they were going to give burial to Aspalis, they found that her body had disappeared, but a wooden statue of Artemis was discovered on the spot (It is believed that Artemis turned her body into statue out of pity). It became a cult object, and was referred to as "Aspalis Ameilete Hekaerge"; а young she-goat was sacrificed to the goddess every year via being hanged by the city maidens, this being a ritual imitation of Aspalis' suicide. Aspalis was speculated to have originally been a western Semitic hunting goddess identified with Artemis.Michael Jordan, Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses. Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002 - p. 33

Notes

References

, ''The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis'' translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992)
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
*

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC *Pausanias of Sicily, physician of th ...

, ''Description of Greece'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
*Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903.
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library

External links

* Hunting goddesses Women in Greek mythology West Semitic goddesses Epithets of Artemis Metamorphoses into inanimate objects in Greek mythology {{MEast-myth-stub

Mythology

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Notes

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External links