Agrotera ( Gr. , "the huntress") was an

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

of the

Greek goddess A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of de ...

Artemis, the most important goddess to

Attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the ...

hunters. At

Agrae Agryle ( grc, Ἀγρυλή, Ἀραυλή, or Ἀγροιλή) was the name of two demoi In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Classical Athens, Athens and other city-stat ...

on the Ilissos, where she was believed to have first hunted after her arrival from

Delos The island of Delos (; el, Δήλος ; Attic: , Doric: ), near Mykonos, near the centre of the Cyclades archipelago, is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece. The excavations in the island are ...

, Artemis Agrotera had a temple, dating to the 5th century BC, with a statue carrying a bow. During the

Boedromia The Boedromia (Βοηδρόμια) was an ancient Greek festival held at Athens on the 7th of Boedromion (summer) in the honor of Apollo ''Boedromios'' (the helper in distress). Though Apollo was referred to as Boedromios by the Boeotians as well a ...

, on the seventh day of

Boedromion The Attic calendar or Athenian calendar is the lunisolar calendar beginning in midsummer with the lunar month of Hekatombaion, in use in ancient Attica, the ancestral territory of the Athenian polis. It is sometimes called the Greek calendar beca ...

(roughly, the beginning of September), an armed procession would take 600 goats to this temple, where they would all be sacrificed by the polemarch in honor of the victory at the Battle of Marathon. This rite derived from a vow made before the Battle of Marathon, which in turn derived from the custom of making a "slaughter sacrifice", or ''sphagion'' (), to Artemis Agrotera before a battle. The temple was destroyed in 1778, when the Ottoman forces occupying Athens set about demolishing ancient sites for building material to construct a wall around the city. The ruins of the temple survive today on Ardettou Street, tightly surrounded by modern buildings. There is an ongoing campaign for the expropriation of adjacent buildings and the restoration of the temple. Under this name Agrotera was also worshiped at

Aigeira Aigeira ( el, Αιγείρα) (, grc, Αἰγείρα or Αἴγειρα, la, Aegeira) is a town and a former municipality in northeastern Achaea, West Greece, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it has been a municipal unit of the ...

, Sparta, and elsewhere. The name Agrotera is synonymous with the epithet Agraea, but Eustathius derives it from the town of Agrae. The epithet Agrotera was also sometimes applied to the nymph Cyrene. Pindar, ''Pythian Odes'' 9.6

References

External links

ArtemisAgrotera.org
- information on the archaeological site of the temple of Artemis Agrotera {{SmithDGRBM, title= Agrotera Epithets of Artemis Religion in ancient Athens Religion in ancient Sparta Battle of Marathon Greek animal sacrifice