-Caveat Lector- A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"
/A -Cui Bono?-
Classical Deities Derived from Personified Prehistoric Mushrooms
ARTEMIS OF EPHESUS
Over tens of millennia, the features of personified entheogenic mushrooms,
which artists had begun creating in the Upper Paleolithic period, were
morphed by the artists of various cultures as each culture's poets, priests
and rulers imbued those deities with different traits, associations and
escapades. For instance, the figure on the left depicts a reproduction of the
statue of the Roman goddess Artemis standing in her sanctuary in the once
Ionian Greek, but now Turkish, city of Ephesus clothed in a dress with
numerous swellings.
Prior to my having identified many prehistoric anthropoid figurines as
personified mushrooms, I would have assumed, as many scholars and laymen
have, that the plain swellings on the dress' bodice were intended to
represent, for some reason, a multitude of breasts, but that the swellings on
the dress' skirt were intended to be different, strictly decorative,
structures. However, after comparing the statue's dress to the pocked
surfaces of the many prehistoric figurines, like the one on the left in Fig.
14, which I had by then identified as personified A. muscariae, it was
readily apparent that all the swellings on Artemis' dress were intended to
personify studs on the surface of a developing A. muscaria.
More specifically, comparing the dress' raised, striated neckline to the
continuous rings left on the upper stems of many A. muscariae by their
ruptured partial veils ( adjacent figure, left), I could infer that the
dress' neckline was designed to personify such a ring. And, by comparing the
statue's bent arms to the discontinuous rings that are left on the upper
stems of other mature A. muscariae by their ruptured partial veils, such as
the one on the right in the same figure, I could infer that the statue's bent
arms had been sculpted to personify a discontinuous ring.
It was then no longer surprising that Artemis' name had been derived from the
Greek word tmesis for a cutting, or plant part that grows into a new plant,
as the Neoplatonist philosopher Porhyry had inferred.1 An ancient Greek
wordsmith had evidently personified the A.muscaria as a cutting using tmesis,
because the A. muscaria was considered a part which sprang from its arboreal
host with the ability to grow into a new plant, just as Vedic priests
regarded Soma as a shoot or amsu.
Contrary to Porphyry's belief that Ar- was derived from the Greek stem aer-
for air, and that Artemis thus meant "cutting the air", it is more likely
that Ar- was derived from the Greek root arg- for the luminous moon. This
parallels the finding that the name of the Hindu deity Soma, which Wasson
recognized as a personified A. muscaria, had been derived from the identical
Sanskrit word for moon. The reasons for this naming convention is that A.
muscariae emerge from spherical, white bioluminescent primordia, like the one
in Figure, and prehistoric wordsmiths, artists and mytho-poets metaphorized
that primordium as a little moon.
Artemis was therefore also intimately associated with the night, with trees
and with the forest, in general. Moreover, she was intimately associated with
bears and bees. But to understand why the following dialogue between
Entheogenas and Aneist, the brother of Aeneas, is of interest:
ENTHEOGENAS AND ANEIST: ON THE ORIGINS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF ARTEMIS
Entheogenas: And what is it, dear Entheogenas that bees and bears have in
common?
Aneist: Why it is honey, of course, dear Entheogenas.
Entheogenas: Correct, Entheogenas. They both have a fondness for honey. And
honey is what?
Aneist: Why that it is easy, too, Entheogenas. It is a sweet, golden liquid.
Entheogenas: Right, dear Entheogenas. And honey is often used for what?
Aneist: Well, Entheogenas. It is used to sweeten things.
Entheogenas: And where is honey found, dear Entheogenas.?
Aneist: Ha! Now, you are mocking me, Entheogenas. Any schoolboy knows honey
is found in hives.
Entheogenas: Right again, Entheogenas. And where are hives usually found.
Aneist: Well, they can be found anywhere. But they often hang from tree limbs
Entheogenas: Yes. That is correct again. And what do these hives look like?
Aneist: Well, Entheogenas, they can have different shapes. But generally they
are white, bulbous, somewhat conically shaped, structures with many ridges
and depressions.
Entheogenas: You are correct again, Entheogenas. So, now let us see what we
have so far,: we have bears and bees seeking hives filled with honey.
Aneist: That is correct, dear Entheogenas.
Entheogenas: Now, dear Entheogenas, you know that we tell children storks
bring babies, and the children believe us until they begin to see that the
story was designed to prevent them from learning about something we don't
think they should know about.
Aneist: Yes, I know that, Entheogenas.
Entheogenas: And you also know that here in Greece and
