Selasphorus

Selasphoros ( ancient Greek Σελασφόρος , "light bearer") is an epic reading of several Greek deities, the most tangible here is the goddess Artemis .

Pausanias reports from a temple in the Athens Demos Phlya , in which an altar of Artemis Selasphoros was. In addition to her, Apollon Dionysodotos , the Ismenian nymphs and Ge altars also had there . Artemis was worshiped elsewhere with the epiklesi of Phosphorus . Presumably both of them worship Artemis as the one who wields torches with both hands in her function as a hunting or wedding deity. Two writings that were supposed to prove a cult of Artemis Salasphoros on the Cycladic island of Pholegandros turned out to be modern forgeries by the forger Konstantinos Simonides .

In his Dionysiacs, Nonnos of Panopolis names Apollon and Hephaistus with the surname Selasphoros. On a papyrus there is also a horoscope in which Selene is called with the epicreading Selasphoros.

literature

• Otto Höfer : Selasphoros . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 4, Leipzig 1915, Col. 641 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Albert Hartmann : Selasphoros. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II A, 1, Stuttgart 1921, column 1133 ( digitized version ).

Remarks

1. ^ Pausanias 1, 31, 4.
2. ↑ See Sophocles , Die Trachinierinnen 214; Sophocles, King Oedipus 206f; IG III 268 (inscription from the Athenian Acropolis )
3. ^ Nonnos, Dionysiaka 27, 253 & 30, 95.
4. ^ Frederic G. Kenyon : Greek papyri in the British Museum , Volume 1. London, 1893, p. 135.