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Artemis Orthia or Orthosia (by some identified with the Tauric Artemis; cf. 103. 1 n.) was worshipped especially at Sparta, where boys, as is well known, were flogged at her altar (discovered in 1906; B. S. A. xii. 331 seq.); perhaps this cruelty was a Spartan peculiarity. The oldest certain mention of her cult is Pind. Ol. 3. 30, but Bergk conjectures Ὀρθία in Alcman P. L. G. iii. 41; for it cf. Paus. iii. 16. 7, and Frazer ad loc., and Farnell C. G. S. ii. 452 seq. The title may be explained with the Schol. to Pind. as ὀρθοῦσα τὰς γυναῖκας, i. e. in travail; others connect it with the stiff straightness of an early ξόανον; but this was not peculiar to Artemis.

ἱροῦ. There was a temple on each side, these being twenty stadia apart (Strabo 319); the Asiatic one (to Zeus Οὔριος) was the more important (cf. Polyb. iv. 39, where there is a most interesting account of the Pontus).

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