fiery, feminist Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne was immortalized in his verse across five decades. She married someone else, and much later, he did also.
Delving into a myth is very much like working with a dream. To understand the meaning or interpretation, a Jungian analyst works with the person whose dream it is, amplifying elements in it, which is what I will be doing with the myth of Atalanta in this book. Myths have the power of collective dreams and fascinate us because the themes in them are ours to inhabit or to observe.
Chapter Two
Atalanta, Artemis, Mother Bear
Mother bears are ferociously protective and extraordinarily nurturing. Good advice to people headed into the wilderness is never to get between a mother bear and her cubs! Mother bears have qualities that make them really good mothers. They are notably fierce in defense of their young; they are also good caretakers. Bear cubs are born in the winter months—usually in January and February, while the mother bear is in hibernation. Newborn bears are smaller than newborn human babies, weighing around ten ounces at birth. They can't open their eyes and are kept warm in their mother's fur and by her breath. They suckle instinctively and grow rapidly on the fat-rich milk, emerging only in early spring when they are big enough and strong enough to walk, run, and explore.
A mother bear sleeps only when her babies sleep. Initially, the cubs nurse every ten minutes. They are noisy, make humming noises when awake and suckling, and cry when they need something. The mother bear washes them often with her tongue, and puts them on a teat when they can't find one. Once the cubs leave the den, the mother will continue to suckle them until they are weaned. She then teaches them what berries they can eat, how to catch fish, and how to hunt. The cubs learn to climb trees for safety when there may be danger on the ground. They have little to fear when they are in their mother's sight—the biggest exception being the dangers posed by bad actors of their own species. Predatory male bears eat cubs.
When the cubs are able to take care of themselves, the mother bear makes them independent of her. She sends them up a tree, just as when she was teaching them to climb to safety, only this last time, she doesn't come back for them. They are old enough to be self-sufficient; now they must climb down and fend for themselves.
I am reminded here of a woman who described how she took animal mothers as role models for herself. On becoming pregnant, fearful that her own mother's unmaternal example may have rubbed off on her, she did the opposite and turned to the example of animal mothers—and particularly mother bears. I might add here that her own mother's behavior may have been caused by male “experts” on child-rearing who told young mothers to put babies on feeding schedules, to toilet train them early, and not to spoil them by giving in to their crying. This was also a time when it seemed that only foreigners and the poor nursed their children; middle- and upper-class women did not.
According to these “experts,” to be a competent modern mother was a matter of having a stronger will than the baby's. To comfort a fussy baby or to nurse on demand was frowned upon. This deprived both mother and child. The effect on young mothers was to suppress their bodies (drying up the milk) and to suppress the maternal instinct to respond to a crying baby. By doing what they were told, young mothers missed learning that they could instinctively distinguish levels of distress in their children, and could help and be comforting. Instead, a whole generation of American mothers got further lessons in hierarchy: Do what others tell you to do; believe what others say rather than what you feel yourself.
The pendulum eventually swung away from the “show the child who is boss” school of parenting to more permissive parenting, in which nothing must diminish the self-esteem of the child. In this version, a good mother and an indulgent one tended to become one and the same. While you can't spoil an infant by always responding to its distress or by providing whatever it needs, doing so long after infancy does spoil character. Shielding children from disappointments, not teaching them limits and limitations, and excessively praising them for every little thing prolongs childhood and isn't good preparation for responsible adolescence or adulthood. Time to call upon mother bear as a role model!
Mother Bear—Symbol of Artemis
The bear is a symbol of the protective aspect of Artemis. Artemis is particularly protective of girls and women. She is characterized as a virgin goddess and never as a mother. Yet she is the goddess to whom young pre-pubescent girls were dedicated; they were then referred to as the arktoi or “little bears.” During the year that young girls were sanctified under Artemis' protection, they were safe from early marriage and had the freedom from women's constrictions in dress and behavior. They could play as boys did and were free to be outdoors—very much like nine- to twelve-year-old “tomboys.”
I look back on summers at Girl Scout Camp and realize that these were artktoi experiences for me. The camp drew children from the Los Angeles area, busing us up to Big Bear Lake—to terrain dear to the goddess Artemis—where there were meadows, forests, mountains, lakes, and streams. We learned how to make campfires, use a compass, tie knots, carve with a knife, and recognize star constellations, trees, and various flora and fauna. We hiked a lot, sang together around the campfire and while hiking, slept under the stars, showered sometimes, wore wrinkled nondescript clothes (except for the “greenie tops” that had a somewhat uniform look), and stowed our stuff away in a shared tent in case of rain. We were from many parts of the city and surrounding areas. At camp, we did not have to live up to any image we had at school; we didn't spend time concerned about our reflections in mirrors or in how boys saw us. We learned about ourselves and each other, and shared confidences. While our parents sent us away to camp the first time, we returned there by choice. It was meaningful and fun because we had the Artemis archetype in common—the archetype of sister. When this is an active archetype in a girl or woman, she has a sense of sisterhood and an affinity to feminist causes.
Artemis is twin sister to Apollo. While Apollo is God of the Sun, with his golden bow and arrows, Artemis is Goddess of the Moon, with her bow and arrows of silver. She is also called Artemis Eileithyria and is the goddess of childbirth and the divine midwife, because she helped her mother, Leto, through the longest and most difficult labor in mythology. Leto was impregnated by Zeus, the chief god in Greek mythology, and bore the twins, Artemis and Apollo. Because Zeus' wife, Hera, was angered by the pregnancy, no one dared offer Leto shelter or aid.
Artemis is born first. After her delivery, Hera causes Leto to suffer and go into prolonged labor. But divinities are not like mortals, and newborn Artemis becomes her mother's midwife, helping to deliver Apollo. Consequently, in ancient Greece, women prayed to Artemis for swift delivery from the pain of childbirth. Contemporary midwives and women who choose obstetrics and gynecology as medical specialties to help women and reduce their fear and pain in childbirth are thus being true to this aspect of Artemis.
Artemis is the only goddess who often came to the rescue of women in other circumstances. She saves Arethusa from being raped; she protects or avenges her mother's honor when a giant tries to rape her and when a mortal woman demeans her. In these stories, Artemis is fierce in her protectiveness, like a mother bear. Or like activists who rescue trafficked girls from brothels and provide gynecological and psychological care to rape victims. Or like those who lead demonstrations to seek justice for raped girls and women in India, or lobby the United States Congress to pass the Violence Against Women Act, or advocate for a United Nations World Conference on Women. Or like anyone, in fact, who works toward equality for women and the protection of mothers and children.
Mother-Bear Support
Girls raised metaphorically by mother bear can be children nurtured by Mother Nature. They may be drawn to animals and find solace outdoors. They may feel
