Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/182

 Artemis, [Greek: Kallistê], 'most beautiful'. The same deity, I suspect, survived also until recently, under a disguised form but with a kindred name, in Athens: for the folk there used to tell of one whom they named 'Saint Beautiful' ([Greek: hê hag[i(]a Kalê]), but to whom no church was ever dedicated ; her canonisation was only popular.

The account which I received in Aetolia of this 'lady Beautiful' agreed closely with the description already given of 'the queen of the mountains.' In appearance and in character she is but a Nereid on a larger scale. All the beauty and the frowardness so freely imputed to the nymphs are superlatively hers; there is no safety from her; on hillside, in coppice, by rivulet, everywhere she may be encountered; the tongue that makes utterance in her presence is thenceforth tied, and the eyes that behold her are darkened. The punishment that befell Teiresias of old for looking upon Athena as she bathed still awaits those who stray by mischance beside some sequestered pool or stream where the Nereids and their queen are wont to bathe in the heat of noon.

Such a spot, favoured in olden time by Artemis and her attendant Naiads, was the Cretan river Amnisos ; and it was probably no mere coincidence, but a good instance rather of the continuity of local tradition, that in comparatively recent times her personality and perhaps even her old name were still known in the district. It is recorded that in the sixteenth century both priests and people of the district declared that at a pretty little tarn near the Gulf of Mirabella they had seen 'Diana and her fair nymphs' lay aside their white raiment and bathe and disappear in the clear waters. It would have been highly interesting to know the name of the goddess which the Italian writer translated as 'Diana.' Though it is true that in Italy Diana herself was still worshipped in magical nightly orgies as late as the fourteenth century, it is scarcely likely that the Italian name had been adopted in Crete. More probably the slovenly fashion ofwas once identical with Artemis; see Preller, ''Griech. Mythol.'' p. 304.] p. 227.]