of victory at war: Artemis, whom the Romans knew as Diana.
The wrathful and relentless divine vengeance of Artemis, which
parallels that of Nemesis,43 far more appropriately fits Titorelli’s highly questionable Justice – that is always on the move and does
not stand still – than Dike would. Winged depictions of goddesses were very rare in Greece, and were associated with the Near East.
Artemis is often depicted as a winged goddess and (if we except
Hecate) she shares this distinction only with Nike, the goddess of victory, and Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance.44 Artemis was at 40 Kafka,
The Trial, 146 –147 (emphasis mine).
41 David Schur, The Way of Oblivion: Heraclitus and Kafka (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), 189.
42 Ibid.
43 Sorita D’este, Artemis: Virgin Goddess of the Sun & Moon – A Comprehensive Guide to the Greek Goddess of the Hunt (London: Avalonia Press, 2005), 91-96.
44 Ibid., 11, 80.
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times even equated with Nemesis, the virginal Avenger45 driven by righteous anger.46 This notion of ‘Justice’ as cunningly unpredictable and relentless is closer to the spirit of the novel as a whole. As we
are told repeatedly, this Court’s type of prosecution allows for
no successful defense. This should make us recall the original
meaning of “the Trial” or Der Prozeß in German. In addition to the derivative meaning of a legal process, it can also mean an “ordeal”
or simply “Process” as such. A “process” is what is always in motion,
never static. An attempt to defend oneself according to fixed legal
principles, within the context of a perpetual flux, would certainly be an “ordeal.”
In court proceedings such as these victory is more like a martial
triumph than an impartial verdict. Artemis and Ares (the Roman Mars) were together the two patron deities of the Amazons, and the Amazon queen Otrera, who was a wife of Ares, is alleged to have
been the founder of the great temple of Artemis at Ephesus (one of
the seven wonders of the ancient world).47 Artemis shared a shrine
together with Ares on Illissos.48 She is also linked to Ares through
the pyrrichists or “war dancers.” Artemis is the goddess of dance, and these war dancers were (predominately) women who danced nude
– wearing nothing but helmets and shin guards – bearing a shield
and weapons such as a sword, spear, or javelin.49 Attempts to abduct
these fierce maidens, if only to ransom rather than rape them, did
occasional y disrupt ceremonial performances of such dances at
Ephesus and other temples of Artemis.50 It was believed that the
Amazons inaugurated these war dances,51 and they were especial y
popular in Sparta, the most martial of the Greek cities, where there
45 Ibid., 113.
46 Edith Hamilton. Mythology (New York: Back Bay Books, 1998), 40.
47 D’Este,
Artemis, 105.
48 Ibid., 29.
49 Ibid., 85-86.
50 Ibid., 86.
51 Ibid., 90.
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were more temples dedicated to Artemis than elsewhere.52 The
Spartans and other Greeks prayed to her for victory at war, with
long lines of soldiers marching from their respective gymnasiums to
deliver dedicatory wreaths to the temple of Artemis at Ephesus.53 The
divinity in Titorelli’s painting, which is at once the Goddess of the
Hunt and the Goddess of (martial) Victory, could only be Artemis.
What clinches this is the reference to her fiery halo. Artemis was
known both as Selasphoros or “the light bearer”54 and Phosphorus or “light-bringer”.55 Within the same spell of the Greek Magical
Papyri, Artemis is referred to as both the “bringer of light” and the “crafty…infernal one.”56 The light-bearer that we all know from
Greek mythology is, of course, Prometheus – who becomes the
Roman Lucifer. Artemis persuaded Zeus to allow Heracles to release Prometheus.57 In order to draw out the Luciferian dimensions of
infernal light surrounding the figure of the goddess in Titorelli’s
painting, it is imperative to recall how Artemis was conflated with
Hecate. From the 5th century BC onwards, Artemis and Hecate
were so closely associated with one another on account of common
attributes that they were effectively fused into a single divinity.58 The attributes that they had in common included both being maidens,
light-bringers bearing torches, depicted as winged (like Near
Eastern goddesses and unlike Greek ones), association with dogs,
serpents, and gorgons, as well as the moon and saffron.59 As with Artemis, it is said that Hecate is the only one to have been aware
of the abduction of Persephone into the Underworld by Hades on
52 Ibid., 89.
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid., 55.
55 Ibid., 61.
56 Ibid., 109.
57 Ibid., 112.
58 D’Este,
Artemis, 110; Sorita d’Este and David Rankine Hekate: Liminal Rites: A study of the rituals, magic and symbols of the torch-bearing Triple Goddess of the Crossroads. (London: Avalonia Press, 2009), 25, 169.
59 D’Este,
Artemis, 88, 115.
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account of being “the one who keeps in mind the vigor of nature.”60
Hecate was a companion to Persephone in her journey to and from
the Underworld.61
The aura suggested by Kafka in the halo around the figure of
the Goddess in Titorelli’s painting is not a halo of light – but one
of shadow – shades being the ancient name for “ghosts”. Hecate was known as the “Queen of Ghosts.” She controlled many shades and
daimones.62 Hecate was associated with the untimely dead, who
might wander the Earth as ghosts.63 These were considered to have
more magical power than the living, and they could be summoned
to one’s aid.64 Those who suffered a violent death, especial y while
young, were considered the best assistants.65 Defixiones or binding spel s requesting such aid from the restless dead were thrown into
a water source, such as a well or a lake.66 One of the most popular
defixiones of Hecate, were those for “judicial binding to win court cases”, wherein “the person was bound, along with any legal
advocates or witnesses for them.”67 Hecate was particularly relevant
to summoning the spirits of those young persons who had done
away with themselves by means of drowning.68 She was involved
with divining the future incarnation of these suicides.69
Like Artemis, Hecate was a lunar goddess.70 Hecate also shared
with Artemis an association with wolves, being called the “She-
wolf” on certain protective charms.71 Other charms even referred
60 D’Este,
Hekate, 52.
61 Ibid., 86.
62 Ibid., 60.
63 Ibid., 84.
64 Ibid., 84-85.
65 Ibid., 85.
66 Ibid.
67 Ibid., 86.
68 Ibid., 148.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid., 52.
71 Ibid., 66.
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to her as “chief huntress”, clearly a title of Artemis.72 Hecate also
shares with Artemis, the role of nurse goddess who presides over
childbirth.73 On account of all of these affinities, images of Artemis and Hecate a
re often indistinguishable.74 In addition to both being
the goddess of crossroads, they were both also known as the watcher
over harbors.75 In this connection, I suspect that the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor is actual y Artemis-Hecate. As with Artemis, the
priestesses of Hecate were torch bearing. The “running maiden” figure
depicted on a vase bearing two torches has now been identified as
Hecate76 after long having been thought to be Artemis.77 This bears
directly on Titorelli’s goddess always being in motion. Like Artemis,
Hecate was not only known as Phosphorus or “light-bringer”, but also as Purphoros or “fire bringer”.78 Her fire ultimately became the coiling stel ar fire and intellectual fire described in the Chaldean Oracles.79
Venus, the morning star – the last star seen in the sky before the
dawn, was considered one of the torches of Hecate.80 The morning
star is, of course, also known as Lucifer – so that Artemis-Hecate, the goddess haloed by infernal light in Titorelli’s painting, can be seen
as the feminine aspect of Lucifer: the one who brings the liberating
and potential y destructive fire of Wisdom. Hecate played a key role
as Propolos, or “torch bearer”, in the Eleusinian mysteries – with her priestesses carrying twin torches as they guided the initiate into labyrinthine underground passageways symbolizing the Underworld.81
She was said to fill the roads with light at night by her fires.82
72 Ibid., 75.
73 Ibid., 169.
74 Ibid., 170.
75 D’Este,
Artemis, 88, 115.
76 D’Este,
Hekate, 49.
77 Ibid., 60.
78 Ibid., 56-57.
79 Ibid., 57.
80 Ibid., 52.
81 Ibid., 56.
82 Ibid., 57.
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The question of whether the Law hunts down its victims, the
animal passion seen in Joseph’s exchanges with the women who offer
to aid him, the idea of rebirth into the state of mind of childhood,
and Leni as the “nurse” of those who are children before the Law
– we shall see how all of these themes hark back to the archetype
of Artemis-Hecate portrayed in Titorelli’s painting. Even more
significantly, Artemis is the twin sister of the god Apollo; together
they were the patron deities of the Hyperboreans.83 After Apollo,
Dionysus is the other divinity most associated with Artemis. In
addition to being the only two divinities of the wilds predominately
worshipped by women, Artemis tamed savage lions for Dionysus
and fought on his side in the Indian Wars of Dionysus; she also very
uncharacteristical y bares no ill will towards him when he seduces
her nymphs.84 While Apollo was Artemis’ twin brother, Dionysus
was her best friend.85 Artemis was also particularly associated
with big cats, such as lions and leopards. She is often flanked by
lions, or holding a lion in her left hand and a leopard in her right
hand.86 The lion was a symbol of Apollo and the Leopard a symbolic
representation of Dionysus.87
In The Birth of Tragedy, Friedrich Nietzsche radical y reinterprets the pre-Socratic period of Greek culture and its epitomizing tragic
art in terms of the dynamic balance of two seemingly opposed states
– the Apollonian and Dionysian. 88 The former can be understood through the analogy of a dream, particularly a lucid dream, in which
both the joys and struggles of life are resolved into a simpler and
more perfect form and are thus imbued with greater meaning than a
reality that is confusing, contradictory and fragmentary. It is a world of vivid yet merely apparent images. The Apollonian is the basis of
the principle of individuation – which provides us with the il usion
83 D’Este,
Artemis, 104.
84 Ibid., 108-109.
85 Ibid., 36.
86 Ibid., 79.
87 Ibid.
88 Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy (NewYork: Dover Publications, 1995).
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of a boundary of rational and independent self-hood that guards us
from the surging flux of chaos which is the true nature of the world
and which would otherwise envelope and swallow us. On the other
hand, the nature of the Dionysian can be comprehended through
the analogy of intoxication. In this state, the forms of rationality
that sustain the principle of individuation are compromised and
revealed as limited, or they col apse altogether. This results at once in a tremendous feeling of horror in the subject, which is swallowed
by chaos and also a tremendous feeling of ecstasy and rapture,
which rises up from the most profound depth of humanity. This
ecstasy is real y the ecstasy of nature’s self-satisfaction in man. In the Dionysian the son of humanity is reunited in communion with
Mother Nature – for whom there is great awe and reverence. Not
only do the subjective boundaries between people re-dissolve into
a primordial unity, but also the boundary between humanity and
the earthly element. Human being itself becomes a work of art, a rapturous embodiment of Nature’s creative force. We will see how
one aspect of Joseph K. is Apollonian, while the other is Dionysian.
Reflecting the status of Artemis as a mediate figure intimately related to both Apollo and Dionysus, the three women who embody the
spirit of the Huntress try to act as mediators between the Apollonian
and Dionysian elements in the character of Joseph K.
The ferocity of Artemis is clearly connected with the defense of
her maidenhood and that of her nymph attendants and initiates. The
myths unambiguously state that she was by far the most beautiful
of all the female divinities, prompting many men to be attracted to
her and view her as the ultimate trophy to seize and possess.89 Yet at the same time, it has been suggested by some researchers that sacred
prostitution was ongoing at the Ephesus temple and that her status
as ‘maiden’ did not mean so much “virgin” as it meant “unmarried”
or not in the possession of any man.90 This would make a great deal
of sense if she were original y an Amazon goddess, since the warrior
women did have male lovers who were deemed worthy but they
89 D’Este,
Artemis, 48, 63, 103.
90 Ibid., 63-64.
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fiercely resisted being claimed as a “wife” by any of these men.91 In
his Blue Octavo Notebooks, Kafka writes:
One of the most effective means of seduction that Evil has is the
challenge to struggle. It is like the struggle with women, which
ends in bed.92
Celibacy and suicide are on similar levels of understanding,
suicide and a martyr’s death not so by any means, perhaps
marriage and a martyr’s death.93
Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the
representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms.
This world’s method of seduction and the token of the guarantee
that this world is only a transition are one and the same. Rightly
so, for only in this way can this world seduce us, and it is in
keeping with the truth. The worst thing, however, is that after the
seduction has been successful
we forget the guarantee and thus
actual y the Good has lured us into Evil, the woman’s glance into
her bed.94
The idea that breathes between the lines of all of these notes is that a perpetual seduction that is not killed by the fixity of possession is potential y redemptive. Joseph encounters such a seduction to Life
through all of the three women who are associated with the Law:
Fraulein Burstner, the Usher’s wife, and above al , the “nurse” Leni.
It is in Titorelli’s studio that Kafka gives us the key to how exactly these three women are related to the archetype of the Goddess in the painting. This key is Titorelli’s explanation to K., of the three ways 91 Lyn Webster Wilde, On the Trail of the Women Warriors: The Amazons in Myth and History (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), 72.
92 Max Brod [Editor] The Blue Octavo Notebooks by Franz Kafka (Cambridge: Exact Change, 1991), 87.
93 Ibid., 26.
94 Ibid., 50.
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or three paths that one may take in one’s “trial” or process: “There are three possibilities, that is, definite acquittal, ostensible acquittal, and indefinite postponement. Definite acquittal is, of course, the
best, but…I have not met one case of definite acquittal…”95 Thus the
Goddess of Justice, who always secures Victory, and who is also the
Goddess of the Hunt, watches over three paths of the Law.
Hecate was a triple goddess, she was represented as three women in one, and in this way she watched over the three ways; one of her epithets is “Goddess of the Three Roads” ( Trioditis, Latin Trivia) or
“Goddess of the Crossroads” ( Enodia).96 She stood at the crossroads bearing the keys to the mysteries.97 Hecate was the divinity of
triplicity par excellence, the original Trinitarian, being referred to as Trimorphos – “three formed” or “three bodied”.98 The “crossroads”
can be taken to mean the ordeal wherein K. must decide which
of the three paths to follow in his case, and in a deeper sense, the
spiritual ‘crossroads’ of his life. I suggest that the three bodies of Artemis-Hecate are the three women who are associated with the
Law, namely Fraulein Burstner, the Usher’s wife, and Leni. Joseph
K. is offered the assistance of these women who, while promiscuous
like Hecate, are as unbound to any one man as Artemis. His desire
to possess them for himself alone (effectively to ‘marry’ them), leads him ever closer to conviction.
3. The Duality of Joseph K.
The ‘crossed roads’ that Hecate watches over can also be taken to
Lovers of Sophia Page 33