From: scerir (scerir@libero.it)
Date: Fri Nov 01 2002 - 09:37:10 MST
Amara:
> In Frascati, Italy, the patron folk figure is Miss Poppea,
> a three-breasted woman characteristic of abundance. You can buy
> cookies and ceramics of Miss Poppea in the tourist shops.
> And even further back in time: Goddess Artemis [...]
The goddess 'of the many breasts' is so dear to psychoanalysts as well as
to modern tourists that the simple truth, proved decades ago, can hardly
prevail: the fact that these 'breasts' are not a multiplication of female
sexuality but a kind of pectoral worn by the goddess, a detail linking the
statue of Ephesus to other cult statues of Caria and its surroundings. The
'breasts' have most recently been explained as scrota of sacrificial bulls
consecrated to the goddess, an idea perhaps repulsive to our imagination but
understandable on the more general principle of returning life to its
ultimate source, the divinity.
- Burkert
pics at
http://www.ancientroute.com/pictures/01380.gif
http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~snlrc/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/paganism/artemis.htm
l
http://sacredsource.com/all/page.pl?item=DOE9
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