BIOΣ ~ APTEMIΣ

ΒΙΟΣ as written by the classical Greeks an ambiguous word when read alone is it βίός the way of life ? or is it βίός the instrument of death ? unaccentuated it embodies both – a pair of opposites? ΑΡΤΕΜΙΣ a goddess of ambiguous and liminal zones nurturer of life, of birth and the young bringer of death in the hunt and the home - a contradiction ? Yet life has no meaning unless death exists and death is only meaningful if once there was life - co-dependent concepts. ΒΙΟΣ - one word symbolic of two interdependent concepts, ΑΡΤΕΜΙΣ - one goddess powerful in two inter-related realms. Karl Kerényi gives a comprehensive explanation of the Greek understanding of βίος where he makes the distinction between the finite property of βίος which exists between birth and death compared to the infinite properties of ζωή which means the opposite of death. This distinction is then used by him to characterise Dionysos as ζωή, the indestructible thread of continuous life. His dissertation on the meaning and use of these words is equally applicable to this assessment of Artemis, where her role is that of βίος, each discrete and individual life, a finite entity bounded by the milestones of birth and death. These two concepts of life co-existed in the Greek world. It is this concept of βίος, the finite span of life, with which both Artemis and this thesis are concerned.