Letters to you

Long ago I posted about some research we'd been doing on Rhea and the Korybantes. Just now I was answering an "interview" that siabha_maellyn had posted on her journal. One of the questions she asked was something along the lines of, "To which historical period are you the most attracted?" To answer that question, I linked to This Page about the cult of Artemis (which also mentions Rhea and the korybantes and could be thought of as a later version.) What attracted me to this particular description was the fact that the Beekeepers were the guardians the Temple of Artemis.

Then, scrolling down on that page, I noticed the following reference:

"I) ADRASTEIA Town in the Troad
Strabo, Geography 13. 1. 13 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.): "The city [of Adrasteia in the Troad] is situated between Priapos and Parion; and it has below it a plain that is named after it, in which there was an oracle of Apollon Aktaios (of the Shore) and Artemis."

Intrigued, I did a search on "Adrasteia" and came up with this Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrasteia. Adrasteia was a demi-goddess whose name meant "Inescapable". She was the daughter of "Melliseus" (a bee deity) and was charged by Rhea (along with the Korybantes) to raise and protect baby Zeus who was scheduled to be killed by his father.

We're getting our first package of bees very soon (we have a hive ready to go active and they've already been ordered) - so finding this was somehow appropriate.

A word came through to rialian in reference to a goddess-form encountered through some friends, and which we were wondering about. Is this form beneficial? Does she even like people? Some gods and goddesses don't particularly care for people at all! These questions were running through our minds.

The word was "Maeonii". I decided to do a search to find out what that word was, not sure I'd get any hits at all.

The search results showed that Maeonia is another name of East Lydia, which is located in Asia Minor along the Aegean. After reading a bit about the history and mythology of Lydia, I learned that in pre-Olympian times, their goddess was Rhea, the daughter of Gaia and Ouranos (Greek for Earth and Sky). Rhea was what is known as a Titan (pre-Olympian deity) and was known as the Earth Mother, but also the Daughter of Gaia (earth). Maybe the daughter of Gaia can be interpreted as Life? But something about Beauty also, and Balance. Something akin to the White Buffalo Calf woman of North America, or the Shekinah of the desert tribes.

She was married to Chronos (Time). The children of Life and Time were the Olympians.

Here is an extensive web page about Rhea: http://www.theoi.com/Ouranos/Rhea.html.

She is Mother and Daughter at the same time. When the Olympians took over, she lost many of her privileges (the overthrow of goddess religion?) and retreated to the mountains of Phrygia "with her attendants the Korybantes and surrounded herself with wild creatures."

Interestingly, rialian has attended several workshops with R.J. Stewart on the subject of the Titans. The Titans are not respectors of persons/personalities, but are immense forces that are tied in with continental plates and in some cases with certain of the great tribes. They can move to another location if the land is similar or there is a migration of tribes. The feeling we got was that it was good to be aware of and to work with (rather than against) a Titan. This one can be found where the wild creatures are...