Imagine witnessing a sacred ritual of antiquity, at a sanctuary near the mouth of the Erasinos River in eastern Attica. Before you, a group of young girls dressed in yellow robes move rhythmically around an altar, holding burning torches. You hear people whisper that they are the arktoi – the “little bears” of the goddess Artemis, the deity worshipped here. In this episode, we journey to the Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron. We uncover the secrets of this initiation rite and follow the footsteps of Iphigenia – from her near-sacrifice at Aulis to her mythical cenotaph at Brauron. It is a journey to a place where womanhood and motherhood were honoured as nowhere else in the ancient world.

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