#misericord

Artemis & mermaids nursing lions

Boeotian vase painting, ca 680 BCE, and English church carving, ca 1420 CE.

I’m not arguing that Artemis, the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt, evolved into a mermaid, or is connected with fish-tailed imagery. But I’ve been researching a post about sirens and mermaids nursing snakes in church art, came across a couple of footnotes that suggest an incredibly tentative— and I do mean tentative— connection with Artemis and mermaids. So, let’s take a look at it.

Let’s start with some facts. In ancient art, Artemis was sometimes connected to Potnia Theron, or the Mistress of Animals, which I’ve talked about in different posts. One part of that imagery is her with wild animals, sometimes lions, at her side:

Winged Artemis with lions, Glyptotek in Copenhagen. My photo.

Second fact, unrelated to the first: in medieval English church art, there are examples of mermaids nursing lions:

Mermaid nursing a lion, Norwich Cathedral, England, misiercord. Ca 1400s.

With the facts out of the way, let’s dive into rampant, wild speculation. Once, in ancient Greece, there was an image of the oceanid Eurynome with a fish tail, and the guy writing about this fish-tailed oceanid said she was identified with Artemis: [Dietrich 1962]

So, if you squint, there was one possible time that Artemis was maybe identified as having a fish tail. (No, the sculpture hasn’t survived.)

Next, there is one surviving image of Artemis as Potnia Theron with a fish on her dress:

Artemis as Potnia theron. Boeotian, neck-amphora, 680-670 BCE. National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Photo by Zde, via Wikipedia.

Now, we’re going to casually jump ahead about a 1000 years to medieval England. Misericords are carved of wood, and attached to pews so church goers could get some relief from standing, without having to actually lower the seat and sit. (Apparently medieval Christian pastors were as cranky about people sitting, as managers at minimum wage jobs.)

Since misericords were added after the church was built, the designs tended to be more varied and not always connected with religious imagery: domestic scenes; folktales; travellers’ tales; mythical animals; instead of the lives of saints or scenes from the Bible.

So: perhaps the carvings of mermaids nursing lions relate to a forgotten folktale… or, as one writer suggests, an ancient holdover from Greek myth?

[Burnell 1949]

To be honest, I’m leaning more towards “this is just weird medieval art and/or this is someone’s fetish that got made into art” than “medieval artisans were super well versed in obscure facts about Artemis.” Like I said, this connection is so tentative that it barely exists. Medieval art is full of weird stuff that doesn’t have a clear explanation. Like this lion from the Ashmole Bestiary that’s afraid of a rooster:

I'm going to wrap this up with the rest of the images of mermaids nursing lions in English church art I've found:

From Remnant 1969.

If anyone knows an obscure English folktale, or something else, that explains why there's mermaids nursing lions in church art, leave a comment.

Sources

Lawler, Lillian B. "A Lion among Ladies (Theocritus Ii, 66-68)." Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 78  (1947): 88-98.

Dietrich, Bernard C. “Demeter, Erinys, Artemis.” Hermes, vol. 90, no. 2, 1962, pp. 129–48.

Burnell, F.S. "Ino and Her Veil." Folklore 60 1 (1949): 201-07.

Remnant, G.L. A Catalogue of Misericords in Great Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969.

Misericord. East Anglia c1350, oak, with naked Adam figure

A 14th-century misericord on a choir bench at Southwell Minster.  The carving shows the biblical hero Samson slaying a lion.

Well, well… You’ve cracked the code. I can’t get anything past you. 

Looking at you… hurts sometimes. And other times it infuriates me. But.. there’s something to be said for having a sentient mirror. 

…you make me think and feel. I can’t get anything past you – and I don’t like it. I like it better when you want to crack the mirror. Surely, you must see the same thing when you look. So, why don’t you take a swing for a change? 

Inside Ripon Cathedral

Was this particular style of scale armor (or most styles/forms) susceptible to an upward stab from a piercing weapon?            

That’s an optical illusion, the Roman scale mails had most of the body protected by two overlapping plates, with some spots covered by four. They were not attached in one spot so as to hinge upwards. The weaknesses of scale mail were that the danger points, areas like the arm pits and groin, were larger than a mail hauberk

In battle, the overlapping plates transferred the kinetic energy to each other. The scales were also backed by a chain mail backing garment, adding further protection against slashes. So in order to do what you’ve said, you’d need to wedge between the plates and then between the rings…not very easy to do without the ability to control the weapon.

Now, the misericord and other execution-type weapons were effective, and they were small and sharp to make them easier to control specifically so the user could have the precision needed to stab the opponent in joint seams between plates or in the eyeslit of helms. You didn’t use a misericord in melee combat itself, you used it on a downed opponent to execute them, usually after knocking them over and planting a boot on their chest so they couldn’t get up. Much of anti-armor fighting techniques involved knocking the opponent down, whether it was hooking a knight with a polearm to yank him off the horse, shoving with a shield, or just braining him with something large and heavy. Once he was down, the infantry could put weapons to the downed knight’s throat, taking them prisoner, and ransoming them off. Or just finish them off and swipe whatever finery you could to be sold later.

Thanks for the question, Anon.