In ancient Greek religionArtemis Caryatis[1] was an epithet of Artemis that was derived from the city of Karyae in Laconia; there an archaic open-air temenos was dedicated to Carya, the Lady of the Nut-Tree, whose priestesses were called the caryatidai. Carya was a virgin who had been transformed into a nit-tree for her unchastity (with Dionysus) or to prevent her rape.[2]The particular form of veneration of Artemis at Caryae suggests that in pre-classical ritual Carya was goddess of the nut tree who was later assimilated into the Olympian goddess Artemis. Pausanias noted that each year women performed a dance called the caryatis at a festival in honor of Artemis Caryatis called the Caryateia.[3]
Notes
^Diana Caryatis, noted in Servius scholium on Virgil's Eclogue viii.30.
^ Sarah Iles Johnston, Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece. (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1999:227.
^ The festival is attested by Hesychius, s.v. "Caryai".
