The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.363

v2.c17.s1.363

Plutarch mentions the existence in the Sicilian town of Eugyion of a large temple dedicated to certain goddesses. They were Cretan women who nursed Zeus and hid him from his father Cronus. They were rewarded with a place in heaven and were placed among the stars and called the bears. The temple had great possessions. ‘Even a little before my time,’ says Diodorus, ‘the goddesses had three thousand sacred cows and land enough to produce a large income.' Mr. C. H. Tawney, whom I consulted on the subject, is of opinion that 'as the worship of these divinities came from Crete it seems probable that Eugyion was a Cretan colony or received Cretan colonists, as Diodorus says'. These mothers are intended by Goethe in the second part of *Faust*. I have failed, however, to obtain detailed descriptions or drawings of these goddesses, and cannot, therefore, make out how far they resembled their Indian sisters in other than their common names. It is obvious, however, that belief in these divinities dates from a much earlier period than the Tantras in which they are described.