Britomartis
（
Βριτόμαρτις, “sweet maid”). A Cretan
goddess, supposed to dispense happiness, and whose worship extended throughout the islands and
along the coasts of the Mediterranean. Like Artemis, with whom she was sometimes identified,
she was the patroness of hunters, fishermen, and sailors, and also goddess of birth and of
health. Her sphere was Nature in its greatness and its freedom. As goddess of the sea she bore
the name of Dictynna, the supposed derivation of which from the Greek
δίκτυον, “a net,” was explained by the following legend. She
was the danghter of a huntress much beloved by Zeus and Artemis. Minos loved her, and followed
her for nine months over valley and mountain, through forest and swamp, till he nearly
overtook her, when she leaped from a high rock into the sea. She was saved by falling into
some nets, and Artemis made her a goddess.
