Damaris (biblical figure)

Damaris /ˈdæmərɪs, ˈdæmrɪs/ is a woman mentioned in the New Testament, living around 55 AD in Athens, Greece. According to the Acts of the Apostles (17:34), she embraced the Christian faith following the speech of Paul of Tarsus, given in front of the Athenian Areopagus.

She might have been of high social status because only such women were allowed to assist the Areopagus meetings. This may be the reason why her name has been especially recorded.

Modern scholars also speculate that she may have been either a foreigner, since women of Athens would not likely have been present, or a Greek hetaera, an educated woman who provided companionship and intellectual stimulation to public figures.

The calendar of the Greek Orthodox Church describes her instead as a disciple of Dionysius.

There is no universal consensus about the meaning of her name. Apparently it is the Hellenization of the Celtic name Damara, the goddess of fertility. With the subsequent invasions of the Gauls to Asia Minor and their permanent establishment in the Galatia region, the intermixing of both Greek and Celtic cultures may have given birth to the "Graeco-Celtic" name "Damaris".

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