Artemis' Cubs

'In Greece there is a cult of the goddess Artemis of Brauron, who was a bear goddess. Young girls of good families were given to serve the goddess from their twelth to sixteenth year. In the awkward time when girls are just as hard to keep home as boys, they were given into the service of the goddess. They behaved like tomboys- neither washed nor cared for themselves in any way, spoke roughly, and were called bear cubs. Thus the bear-cub societies of the mother-goddess served to reinforce the feminine under the veil of protection. In this way, the feminine personality could develop unharmed by the problem of sexuality and gointo life with a certain maturity, gained in security under the ugly bearskin.'

- M L von Franz
The Feminine In Fairytales (53)