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Titanis (mythology)

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In Greek mythology, Titanis (Ancient Greek: Τιτανίς, romanizedTitanis, lit.'she-Titan') is an obscure figure who is connected to Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Her existence and myth is only attested in Euripides, an Athenian playwright of the fifth century BC.

Family

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The only thing known about her family is a father named Merops.[1]

Mythology

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According to Euripides in his play Helen, the beautiful Titanis was changed by Artemis into a golden-antlered deer and expelled from her group on account of her beauty.[1] The brief passage is very ambiguous, as it is not entirely clear what Euripides meant when he wrote that Artemis kicked her out on account of her beauty; it could be that Titanis bragged about being more beautiful than Artemis, or her beauty attracted the attention of Zeus, or Artemis got jealous of her.[2] The similarity to another myth, that of Artemis turning the nymph Taygete into a doe in order to help her escape from the advances of Zeus, has also been noted.[2] Titanis's own nature is questionable, as Euripides names her father as Merops, but given that her name translates to "female Titan", he could be designating her as a Titaness without naming her.[2]

In the Orphic Hymns, 'Titanis' (there spelled as Τιτηνίς, Titēnís) appears as an epithet of Artemis herself.[3][4][5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Euripides, Helen 382
  2. ^ a b c Fontenrose 1981, p. 131.
  3. ^ Orphic Hymn 36 to Artemis line 2.
  4. ^ Athanassakis & Wolkow 2013, p. 32.
  5. ^ Dunn 2018, p. 22.

Bibliography

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  • Athanassakis, Apostolos N.; Wolkow, Benjamin M. (July 31, 2013). The Orphic Hymns. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0881-1.
  • Dunn, Patrick (October 8, 2018). The Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Occult Practitioner. Llewellyn Worldwide. ISBN 9780738755847.
  • Euripides (1938). The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Vol. 11: Helen. Translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York: Random House.
  • Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy (1981). Orion: The Myth of the Hunter and the Huntress. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-09632-0.