Once upon a time, in the days of the first apostles, a demon who had been cast out of a person wandered about the province of Asia in search of a new home. Finally, coming to Ephesus and being very tired, he approached the temple of Artemis and seeing her great statue, possessed it like he would a person. He had only just entered the statue of Artemis when there approached a woman who was with child. She came and bowed before the statue and she said:
“O great Artemis. Hear my prayer. Grant me please that I might have a safe birth.”
“Why of course I will, O mortal, if only you will do this one thing for me,” the demon said from the statue, making his voice sound like a woman’s voice. “You must promise me that if you have a girl child that you will bring her back to this temple to serve me always when she is old enough.”
“Thank you, great goddess,” said the woman. “I will do as you ask. If I have a girl child, then I will bring her to your temple to serve you.”
The woman then went her way. After she had left, the demon chuckled to himself, delighted that he had deceived her. He continued to dwell inside the statue for many days.
At the proper time, the woman gave birth to a girl. Around the same time this woman’s female slave also gave birth to a girl. Both had been with child by the woman’s husband, and day by day her husband gave the female slave more and more attention and she less and less. He doted on his daughter by the female slave, but he paid the daughter whom he had with his wife little mind.
“What am I to do?” the woman exclaimed within herself. “This female slave has stolen my husband. All his favor has turned toward her.”
Then she remembered her vow to Artemis. Thus, after years had passed and her daughter had grown of age to serve at the temple, she put her plan into action. One day when her husband was not at home, she sent the female slave into the market. Then she got the female slave’s daughter and dressing her in some of her own daughter’s clothes, she took her to the temple of Artemis. She came with the girl and prostrating herself before the statue of Artemis, she said:
“O great goddess, Artemis. You have given me a safe birth and so now I have come to give you what was promised. Behold, my daughter is here to serve you all of her days. May the great goddess, Artemis, continue to look upon me and my family with favor.”
Then the demon, being very proud of himself, answered:
“O mortal, you have fulfilled your vow. Thus, I am pleased with you and will surely show favor to you and to your family.”
The woman thanked the goddess, and leaving the daughter of the female slave with a priestess, she went home.
A short while later, her husband arrived home. He immediately went to find his daughter by the female slave, his favorite child, but he could not find her. Then the female slave returned from all the errands for which she had been sent to the market. The woman’s husband asked the female slave where his daughter was. The female slave went to find her, but after making a careful search could find her nowhere. She told her master that she did not know where his child was. Her master was furious and he had her whipped. Never again did he look upon her with favor. But he once again gave his attention to his wife. Thus, the woman had won back her husband.
Several days later, the demon spotted the woman and her daughter from the statue, and he realized what the woman had done. The demon was utterly astounded.
“Here I had planned to deceive this woman to her own hurt, but rather she has deceived me,” he said. “If the Lord, the one in Hades, finds out about this, he will certainly laugh at me and insult me, and I shall never hear the end of his scorn and derision. And she had no fear to deceive a goddess. If this is how humans are, then it is better to possess a fly and fly about the rump of an ass while it attempts to swat me with its tail than to live in this great statue of Artemis.”
Thus, the demon departed and no longer lived in the statue of Artemis. He possessed a fly and he flew about the rump of an ass while it attempted to swat him with its tail. But the woman possessed her husband’s affections and never again did she have to compete for them.
