:for the butterfly genus, see britomartis (butterfly). :"dicte" redirects here. for the fairy longhorn moth genus, see dicte (moth). thumb britomartis () was the minoan goddess of mountains and hunting. she is among the minoan goddess figures that passed through the mycenaeans' culture into classical greek mythology, with transformations that are unclear in both transferrals.other minoan/greek goddess figures -- that the scant archaeological evidence and speculative reading of literary sources suggest made the transition to classical hellenic culture -- can be detected in aspects of the olympian goddesses hera, demeter and artemis, and in europa, eileithyia, leto, leucothea, rhea, pasiphaÃ«, ariadne, and even helen. the subject is examined in detail in martin p. nilsson, the minoan-mycenaean religion and its survival in greek religion 2nd ed. (lund) 1950, which is presented in two sections, "the minoan-mycenaean religion according to the monuments" and "minoan-mycenaean religion in its relations to greek religion". see also walter burkert, greek religion, 1985:10-47. for the greeks, britomartis was a mountain nymph (an oread) whom greeks recognized also in artemis and in aphaea, the "invisible" patroness of aegina.k. pilafidis-williams, the sanctuary of aphaia on aigina in the bronze age (munich: hirmer) 1998, describes the distinctive local cult but is cautious in retrojecting the later cult of aphaia to describe britomartis at aigina; the explicit identification of britomartis and aphaea is in pausanias, ii.30.3 and in diodorus siculus, v.76.3. the goddess addressed as "britomartis" was worshipped in crete as an aspect of potnia, the "mistress". the oldest aspect of the cretan goddess was as mother of mountains, who appears on minoan seals with the demonic features of a gorgon, accompanied by the double-axes of power and gripping divine snakes. her terror-inspiring aspect was softened by calling her britomartis, the "good virgin", a euphemism to allay her dangerous aspect. she is also known as diktynna (ÎÎ¯ÎºÏÏÎ½Î½Î±; derived by hellenistic writers as from Î´Î¯ÎºÏÏÎ± [diktya], "hunting nets").for example, "...all but caught, she leapt into the sea from the top of a cliff and fell into the nets of fishermen which saved her. whence in after days the kydonians call the nymphe diktyna (lady of the nets) and the hill whence the nymphe leaped they call the hill of nets (diktaion)," (callimachus, ode 3 to artemis, 188ff. ==etymology== according to [[ga
Greek_goddesses Hunting_goddesses Minoan_religion Nymphs Offspring_of_Zeus Oreads Virgin_goddesses