Goddess Games Pre-date Olympics....Games of Hera, Hecate and Artemis

[icymist]

It's been a busy week for Goddess Advocates! Honoring the more accurate essence of Aphrodite for Valentine's Day. The Mardi Gras season ended this week which coincides with the celebrations of the Pagan Lupercalia and Goddesses Cybele and Juno. Now, the Super Bowl just over and the Olympic Games upon us, we harken back to the ancient competitive games of Greek Goddesses Hera, Hecate and Artemis, viewing them through the lens of the sacred site of Hera on the Greek island of Samos.

Temple of Hera

Located on a Greek island located two miles from the Turkish mainland, the Temple of Hera on Samos, has been a sacred site of Goddess since Neolithic times. Eight layers of prehistoric remains from 2500 BCE were unearthed here in the Heraeum, which along with Argos, makes this site one of the most important temples of Hera in the Mediterranean region. Many temples of Goddess have come and gone here over hundreds of years, the victims of fire and flood, but at its zenith the first century CE writer Strabo describes the site visitors would have seen as they approached the island. Travelers would have been awed at the Temple of Poseidon on a promontory of Mount Mycale. Casting their eyes left would reveal the Heraeum, the shrine and Temple of Hera. The shrine was said to have been a repository of many votive tablets, with the small chapels of the temple precinct full of art, some of which were open to the sky where many statues were kept. Some of the more prominent statues within the sacred complex were those of Athena, Heracles and Zeus
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[Behind the Aegis]

1. Very interesting.

It is amazing the amount of history that is unknown or overlooked, especially in regards to women.