Βριτομαρτις
A Cretan goddess, whose name meant the gentle virgin. She was the daughter of Zeus and Carme and said to be a virgin Nymph, a companion of Artemis, from Gortyn in Crete. Minos was in love with her an in his lust he pursued her for nine months throughout the mountains and valleys in the island. One day, at the end of that time, she realized that she was about to be caught and she threw herself from the top of a cliff into the sea where she fell into the fishermen's nets and was saved, which was why she acquired the name of Dictynna, 'the daughter of the net'.
Another, less miraculous version explains the same epithet by attributing to Britomartis the invention of the nets used for hunting. In yet another story, Britomartis, while out hunting was caught by accident in a net and, after being rescued by Artemis, she was accorded divine honours under the name of Dictynna. Like Artemis she was portrayed as surrounded by hounds, dressed as a huntress, eschewing male company and very fond of solitude.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources
- Solinus 11, 8
- Paus. 2, 30, 3; 3, 14, 2; 8, 2, 4; 9, 40, 3
- Diod. Sic. 5, 76
- Callim. Hymn 3, 189ff.
- Pseudo-Virgil, Ciris 301
- Antoninus Liberalis, Met. 40
- schol. on Aristophanes, Frogs 1356
- schol. on Euripides, Hipp. 146