Rhea’s Story. Part 9.


“I have always believed in names, and my given name is Deanna. Which is Latin for Artemis, Queen of the Amazons, Archer Supreme, and fearless protectoress of women in childbirth, small children, and the helpless. It was thought before I was born that I would be a boy (from various signs that people were able to glean in 1941), my parents were ready to name me David. Even if I had been a boy, I would have grown up to slay Goliath. Maybe courage was « bred in the bone, » and proclaimed to be my destiny. I was also very much like the myth of Atalantis, who was thrown away by her father (who wanted a boy) and who was left to die on the hillside and was raised by wolves. She went on to become a fast runner and sure archer. Her fame spread, and her father took her back, but insisted that she marry. She didn’t want to marry and said that whoever would become her husband would have to win her in a race. If he won, all well and good, but if he lost, she would kill him.”

Mom has told this story many times and many ways - but these particular words in this order appeared in an interview by Phaedra Ameerah in the Gilded Serpent.

Mom felt a primal connection with Greece when she first visited in 1976. The ancient city in particular felt electric, magnetic. True to her instincts - with the exploratory fire of Sagittarius (her sun) and the persistent and practical will of Capricorn (rising)- she lives still in chosen beloved city of Athens, a stone’s throw from the Acropolis.