…when Artemis saw Patmos

…the island was in the bottom of the sea. In Greek mythology, Artemis (or Diana) was the huntress goddess, daughter of Dias (Zeus) and twin sister of Apollo. On the coast of Asia Minor, on a mountain called Latmos, Artemis had a very nice temple where she used to spend some time hanging around and eavesdropping on the mortals.

The king of Latmos was Endimionas who was the loved one of Selini (the moon). Endimionas was one of the many, many, many children of Zeus (who as we know, apparently was extremely active and diligent in his extramarital adventures…). He probably wasn’t a big favorite with his dad because instead of becoming a demigod, like so many others, he only got a gift that allowed him not to get old while he was sleeping…! What a “gift”! I am sure Zeus had a twisted sense of humor and lacked paternal instincts. What kind of a “gift” is the ability to stop the passage of time while you are asleep? So, when you are awake, you know you are getting older all the time so you need to sleep to stop time and live longer…to sleep some more and without realizing, completely forego living… This was a gift, so closely resembling a curse, which probably carries one of those deeper meanings that we as humans take pride in identifying and then do our best to ignore.

Anyway, as you can imagine, Endimionas was asleep most of the time. However, even in this weird existence of his, he still managed to secure the affection of Selini, which goes to show that there is someone for everyone out there no matter what oddballs people can be. Imagine for a second that you possess this “gift” …would you fall in love with the Goddess of the Moon? the one creature that can only show up exactly when you are supposed to be sleeping?! which as we know, is imperative to do because of the “gift”?! These circumstances of tragic ironies that tormented lovers through the centuries have taught mortals nothing, but provide excellent material for dramas, whether they are played out in ancient theaters with actors wearing kothorns or in modern cinemas in huge IMAX screens.

Ofcourse, Selini used to visit her lover at night and since she would find him asleep, she’d chat with Artemis, as girls do. The island of Patmos was totally submerged in the Aegean sea and was only visible while the moonlight of Selini was directly above it. That’s how Artemis happened to see the island one night in the bottom of the sea and immediately fell in love with it.

She telepathically, asked her twin brother Apollo to help her pull the island out of the sea, because twins can do that. However, Apollo said he had better things to do, or some other lame excuse to that effect as usually siblings deliver shamelessly when asked to do anything…but he did call out to his dad to help if he could. Zeus didn’t want to get in trouble with his brother Poseidon, as these two had a bad history of fighting over everything, so in order to show how nice he can be, he actually asked Poseidon if it would be ok to pull the island out to the surface. Poseidon didn’t care one way or the other so Zeus dragged Patmos out from the bottom of the sea in order to make his little girl happy (it’s uncanny how these stereotypes remain indestructible in perpetuity! I can definitely see Artemis wearing a T-shirt with Daddy’s Little Girl-Goddess on it!)

Artemis was very excited and Selini called her brother the Sun to warm up the newborn island that was brought up to the surface of the sea gleaming with salt water and sea weeds. The Sun (an exemplary big brother) warmed up Patmos and the island immediately became alive. The first name of Patmos was Litoi (Λητωις) which was another name for Artemis, meaning the daughter of Lito but because people from the mountain Latmos went to live on the newborn island the name changed to Patmos through the passage of time.

A lot of siblings were involved in this birth of the beautiful island of Patmos in mythology, but one thing that remains true today as it probably was in the ancient times, is that this island is so exquisite that if it was in the bottom of the sea, and never discovered by Artemis, Greece would have been deprived of a magnificent little rocky jewel in the Aegean.

However, non of the above are known to most Greeks since Patmos is the famous island of the Revelation and one of the most important religious destinations in Europe. St. John was exiled from Rome and sent here, where in 95 AD he wrote the Revelation in a cave. Which is a very surprising part of the New Testament actually. Being here made me curious about the Revelation and I started reading it yesterday. After learning about the colorful horses of Doom, the curiously exact numbers of sinners stamped on their foreheads, the imminent coming of the Beast and minutiae details of his multiple names, horns, scorpion tails, dragon heads and fiery, foul breath…I gave up! I skipped the colorful descriptions and went straight to the end where the Second Coming will ensure the prevalence of God over everything and thank goodness that the New Testament keeps with Disney’s’ rule of a Happy Ending!

More than 100 churches in this little island ensure that you can light a candle wherever you are in gratitude of safe deliverance from menacing winds and waves!