{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/220",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 220,
    "subject": "SOLDIER-Goddesses",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-10-02T09:17:51+00:00",
    "last": "1997-10-02T09:17:51+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0004-0329@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "al at interport.net"
      },
      "date": "1997-10-02T09:17:51+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) SOLDIER-Goddesses",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "THE GODDESSES\n\n\nFollowing classical authors, Wolfe presents the Persian wars partly as a\nconflict between gods, in this case two goddesses, both of whom attempt to\nuse Latro as their tool. First is the Great Mother, called Ge, Gaeia,\nCybele, Kotytto, Demeter and also Hera. Allied with her is her daughter\nKore/Persephone, Queen of the Dead, also Europa, the sea-nymph Thoe, and\nperhaps Ares/Pleistorus. Opposed to her is the Triple Goddess, whom\nCybele/Ge calls the Usurper: her aspects are Moon (Selene, Cynthia)/\nHuntress (Artemis, Bendis, Auge)/ Dark Mother (Hekate, Enodia). A clever\napproach I had not seen before is opposing Hera's children (i.e. Ares) to\nthose Zeus had on his own or with mortals (this may not be consistent; we\ndon't know how Athena stands).\n\nSorting out who is on whose side is not clear-cut: for example, Cybele was\noriginally near-Eastern, thus would seem to favor the Persians—yet they\nhave deserted her for a male deity, Ahura Mazda. Elata starts out as\nArtemis's handmaiden, but gets \"lent\" to Hegisistratus and clearly stands\nwith Cybele as a confederate in the Horses of the Sun escapade—but is\nArtemis's representative at the council at the end of ARETE. And it stands\nto reason that the huntress Amazons would favor Artemis—but they don't.\nSimilarly, Thoe, the sea-nymph, seems as though she would be on Artemis's\nside, but isn't. And I would have thought Medea would line up with Cybele,\nbut not here.\n\nBut here is a short who's whose:\n\nGaeia/Cybele                                             \n\nLion, wolf, pig (boar): beast-mistress      \nCastrated priests\nSpartan slaves (helots)\nHegesistratus\nAmazons (via Ares)\nEarth\nPolos, Amykles\nAglaus\nEuropa\nThoe\nMemory sphinx\t\t\t\n\n\n\tArtemis\n\nDog, snake (here at least)\nEurykles/Drakaina/Medea\nSpartan citizens\nTisamenus\nAthenians?\nAir (with Athena?)\nElata\nPindaros (via Apollo)\n\t\t"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}