George, or Holiness; of Sir Guyon, or Temperance; and of the Lady
Britomartis, or Chastity.
The Cretan nymph
Britomartis leaps from a cliff to escape the lustful King Minos; accounts differ as to whether or not she was saved, but her cult was closely allied with that of Artemis (Larson, Ancient 177).
You could read the stories of the followers of Artemis: Daphne, Actaeon, Hippolytos, Atalanta, and
Britomartis. Each offers a slightly different way to embody this goddess in daily life.
Baxter's muse here--which must surely have appealed to his cultish devotion to the Virgin Mary (and is echoed by Burns's 'Highland Mary')--is that most ancient version of the Cretan Goddess
Britomartis, who is terrifying with her Gorgon features and double-axes of power, but whose name, 'the good virgin', implies an element of righteousness.
3000-1000 BC) the bee and honey played a prominent role in religious traditions, particularly so in the cult of Artemis /
Britomartis ("Honey-maiden").