In Greek mythology, Titanis (Ancient Greek: Τιτανίς, romanized: Titanis, lit. 'she-Titan') is an obscure figure who is connected to Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Her existence and myth is only attested in Euripides, an Athenian playwright of the fifth century BC.
Family[edit]
The only thing known about her family is a father named Merops.[1]
Mythology[edit]
According to Euripides in his play Helen, the beautiful Titanis was changed by Artemis into a golden-antlered deer and expelled from her group on account of her beauty.[1] The brief passage is very ambiguous, as it is not entirely clear what Euripides meant when he wrote that Artemis kicked her out on account of her beauty; it could be that Titanis bragged about being more beautiful than Artemis, or her beauty attracted the attention of Zeus, or Artemis got jealous of her.[2] The similarity to another myth, that of Artemis turning the nymph Taygete into a doe in order to help her escape from the advances of Zeus, has also been noted.[2] Titanis's own nature is questionable, as Euripides names her father as Merops, but given that her name translates to "female Titan", he could be designating her as a Titaness without naming her.[2]
In the Orphic Hymns, 'Titanis' (there spelled as Τιτηνίς, Titēnís) appears as an epithet of Artemis herself.[3][4][5]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
Bibliography[edit]
- Athanassakis, Apostolos N.; Wolkow, Benjamin M. (July 31, 2013). The Orphic Hymns. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0881-1.
- Dunn, Patrick (October 8, 2018). The Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Occult Practitioner. Llewellyn Worldwide. ISBN 9780738755847.
- Euripides (1938). The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Vol. 11: Helen. Translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York: Random House.
- Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy (1981). Orion: The Myth of the Hunter and the Huntress. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-09632-0.
