L’Artemide ‘dei cervi’ e ‘dell’Alfeo’ in Elide
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According to Pausanias (VI 22, 8-11), Artemis was worshipped in Elis with, among others, the epithets Ἀλφιαία (Letrinoi) and Ἐλαφιαία: the former would be based on the river name Ἀλφε(ι)ός/Ἀλφιός, the latter on ἔλαφος ‘deer’. Some formal variants of both epithets are transmitted by other sources, namely Ἐλαφία, Ἀλφειονία, Ἀλφειοῦσα (Strab.), Ἀλφειῶσα (Athen.), Ἀλφειώα (Schol. in Pind.). Nevertheless, the ‘etymological’ explanation given by Pausanias basically holds true. This allows for the reconstruction of two groups of epithets, which often leave open more than one possibility as to their morphological analysis: on the one hand, the close relationship of Artemis with the deers accounts for Ἐλαφία, Ἐλαφιαία, on the other hand that with Alpheus, who, according to a secondary tradition reported by Pausanias, tried to rape the goddess instead of Arethusa, accounts for Ἀλφιαία, Ἀλφειονία, Ἀλφειοῦσα (and Ἀλφειῶσα, as well as for Ἀλφειώα, which, however, is most probably to be kept apart from the two previous forms).
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