Afeja (lat. Aphaia) was daughter of Greek god Zeus and Karma of Crete. Afeja was known as goddess and protector of hunters and fishermen, who gave her different names. On the island of Samos she was know as Britomartide. On the island of Crete she was called Diktine, and on the island of Aegina she was called Afeja.

Britomartid was persecuted by Crete’s king Minos who loved her greatly. She ran, and hid under the leaves of young oak trees. Later, he chased her among the rugged mountains, and flat valleys, until she threw herself in the sea out of desperation. Fishermen saved her, and Artemide, goddes of hunting, spreaded a net on the sea shore because she liked Britomartid’s love for hunting.

Artemide made her a goddess named Diktina, but on the island of Aegina people worshiped her under the name of Afeja because she vanished. In Sparta, she was called Artemide, as ‘Lady of the Lake’. In Kefalonia she was called Lafria.

In the VII century B.C. a temple was built on the highest hill of island Aegina in Afeja’s honor. Statues that appareled it were taken to Germany in 1812, and today they can be seen in Gliptotece in Munich. Remnants of her temple, and its emboss represent some of the most beautiful pieces of Greek art from the late archaic, and early classic age.