Artemis Orthia
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Florian Sommer
Zusammenfassung
The goddess Orthia, whose name is attested by different variants in inscriptions mainly at her sanctuary at Sparta, and who was at some point identified with Artemis, is the subject of an ongoing debate in various fields of ancient studies. As the textual mythology of the goddess is meagre, the etymology of this theonym is of primary importance in bringing to light possible mythological concepts associated with the deity. Drawing on earlier attempts proposed in the literature, the Greek adjective ὀρθός (ved. ūrdhvá- ‚upright‘) is identified as the natural derivational basis for the name, which can in turn be traced back to the PIE root underlying ved. vrādh- and av. uruuad-. In Vedic, ūrdhvá- is used in describing the epiphany of Uṣas. Orthia can therefore be considered to be a descendant of the PIE dawn goddess. Via its etymology, the name of Orthia is related to the Avestan theonym Arəduuī (and probably to Celtic Ardvinna as well). The abundantly documented mythological profile of the Iranian goddess matches up well with the proposed origin of the name, thereby cross-validating the linguistic and mythological origin of Orthia.
© 2022 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Altisländisch vatr neben vatn, färöisch vatur neben vatn ‚Wasser‘
- Alternative etymologies for two British Celtic verbal forms
- The Luwic inflection of proper names, the Hittite dative-locative of i- and iia̯ -stems, and the Proto-Anatolian allative
- Sobre el origen de la escansión larga de la sílaba reduplicada de ἵημι
- Luwian Tarhunaza-, Cilician Τροκοναζας, Τρικοναζας
- Take up your arms
- Hermes Ἀργεϊφόντης and Agni bhā́r̥jīka
- Une innovation divine
- The mixed aorist subjunctive in Classical Armenian
- A note on Greek ἰκμάς
- Greek τηλεκλυτός ‘far-famed’ and its Welsh comparanda
- Interlocked life cycles of counterfactual mood forms from Archaic to Classical Greek
- The root of all gluttony
- Artemis Orthia
- Linguistic evidence for Kuṣāṇa trade routes
- Variation and change in the formal marking of Khotanese I
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Altisländisch vatr neben vatn, färöisch vatur neben vatn ‚Wasser‘
- Alternative etymologies for two British Celtic verbal forms
- The Luwic inflection of proper names, the Hittite dative-locative of i- and iia̯ -stems, and the Proto-Anatolian allative
- Sobre el origen de la escansión larga de la sílaba reduplicada de ἵημι
- Luwian Tarhunaza-, Cilician Τροκοναζας, Τρικοναζας
- Take up your arms
- Hermes Ἀργεϊφόντης and Agni bhā́r̥jīka
- Une innovation divine
- The mixed aorist subjunctive in Classical Armenian
- A note on Greek ἰκμάς
- Greek τηλεκλυτός ‘far-famed’ and its Welsh comparanda
- Interlocked life cycles of counterfactual mood forms from Archaic to Classical Greek
- The root of all gluttony
- Artemis Orthia
- Linguistic evidence for Kuṣāṇa trade routes
- Variation and change in the formal marking of Khotanese I
