Cult of the bee goddess

The Farnese Artemis or Artemis of Ephesus is a 2nd century AD sculpture of the ancient goddess, Artemis of Ephesus.

Artemis, guardian of the ancient city of Ephesus in modern day Turkey, is the only pagan goddess named in the Bible. She had a magic black stone and eunuch priests, who castrated themselves to serve her. She was associated with fertility - and also bees.

🐝 Debate on the curious protrusions on the vest worn by Artemis of Ephesus, as depicted on statues, continues to this day. Are they breasts, bull testicles, or bee eggs? Dr Carla Ionescu, a scholar, historian, and a leading expert on Artemis, thinks it's bee symbolism.

⚡️Bees were connected to the divine due to their ability to predict the weather or events, the healing properties and uses of honey, and the (incorrectly assumed) role of queen bees as virginal mothers, able to reproduce without sexual fertilisation.

🍯 "There is this very long association between bees and prophecy, and in fact, there's a type of incense that you make from fermented honey," Dr Ionescu told The Ancients podcast (link below). "And the prophetess at Delphi, would use that as incense to help her create the prophecy to contact the divine.”

🕍 Bees are associated with the founding of Artemis's great temple in Ephesus, which was once one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The city's original name was Apasas, which was the name of an Amazonian queen and means "queen bee" in the Hittite language.

🐝 A bee also features on coins from Ephesus dating back to 400 BCE, which feature a stag and a palm tree on their reverse side, all symbolic of the goddess Artemis.

⚡️Some believe Ephesus’s pre-existing goddess who was ‘rebranded’ as Artemis by the Greeks 1000 years BCE, was Cybele, the Phrygian great mother goddess, who had an association with bees. Both goddesses were associated with the wilderness and wild animals, and childbirth.

✂️Interestingly, given the castration practices of her Galli priests, there are legends of Cybele arriving from the heavens in her black stone, possessing both male and female reproductive organs. Her physicality threatens the other gods and they cut her male genitalia off and she takes her goddess form. Other legends associate Cybele with the Phrygian god Attis, who also severs his male organ.

Others propose the Artemis of Ephesus is a fusion of several goddesses, including Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, who is often associated with Artemis.

Ephesus is said to be founded by the Greeks in the eleventh century BCE, although archeological evidence suggests the site was sacred as early as the Bronze Age.

🗨️ Dr Ionescu's quotes (above) are from History Hit’s The Ancients podcast in 2021.
🎙️ History Hit - The Ancients podcast | Episode 100 |
Artemis of Ephesus: The Great Mother Goddess |
https://lnkd.in/gB5_XUsA
🌐 Dr Carla Ionescu | https://lnkd.in/gBPuYFRx