Βριτό-μαρτις

Βριτό-μαρτις

Meaning: Surname of Artemis on Crete (inscr., Str.), also a goddess or nymphe on Crete, Dreros (Call. Dian. 190).

Other forms: Also Βριτόμαρπις, -μάρπεια (Crete).

Derivatives: Βριτομάρτια n. pl. feast on Delos (inscr.).

Origin: PG [a word of Pre-Greek origin]

Etymology: Acc. to Marinatos Άρχ. Δελτ. 9, 79ff. to Μάρπησσα, name of a divinity in Aetolia. Wahrmann, Glotta 19, 170 thinks -μαρπις is the original form (but that Βριτόμαρτις is due to dissimilation is improbable); thus Guarducci, Inscr. Cr. 1, 35. Also Βρυτόμαρτις (Wahrmann l.c.). - Acc. to Solin. 11, 8 = `dulcis virgo', which seems confirmed by the gloss. Latte thinks that the gloss may have been invented secondarily to explain the name, but R. A. Brown, Pre-Greek Speech on Crete, 1985, 41 rightly objects that the υ-stem is not accounted for in this way. IE etymologies are useless. For π\/τ Fur. 166 compares Πανοπεύς \/ Φανοτεύς see also his p. 389; a variation ι\/υ is known from Pre-Greek.