Artemis
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Artemis (/'ɑ.tʌ.mɪs/) (Greek: Ἀρτεμις), in Greek mythology, is the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo. In later times she was conflated with the goddess Diana of Roman mythology. In Etruscan mythology, she took the form of Artume.
Worship
childbirth. She was worshipped as a fertility/childbirth goddess in some places since, according to some myths, she assisted her mother in the delivery of her twin. During the Classical period in Athens, she was identified with Hecate. Artemis also assimilated Caryatis (Carya) and Ilithyia.
Artemis was worshipped almost everywhere in Greece, but her most well known cults were in Brauron, Mounikhia (located on a hill near the port Piraeus), and Sparta.
In Asia Minor, a goddess identified with Artemis was a principal deity. The city of Ephesus is probably the best known of the Asian centers of her worship, from the story in the Acts of the Apostles, where the Ephesian metalsmiths who feel threatened by Paul's preaching of the new faith, jealously riot in her defense, shouting "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" (Acts 19:28 KJV)
Festivals in honor of Artemis include Elaphebolia, Mounikhia, Kharisteria, Brauronia, and the festival of Artemis Orthia in Sparta.
Young Athenian girls between the ages of five and ten were sent to the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron to serve the Goddess for one year. During this time the girls were known as arktoi, or little she-bears. A myth explaining this servitude relates that a bear had gotten into the habit of regularly visiting the town of Brauron, and the people there fed it, so that over time the bear became tame. A young girl teased the bear, and, in some versions of the myth it killed her, while in other versions it clawed her eyes out. Either way, the girl's brothers killed the bear, and Artemis was enraged. She demanded that young girls "act the bear" at her sanctuary in atonement for the bear's death.
In many parts of ancient Greece, just before marriage young women would dedicate toys, dolls, and locks of their hair to Artemis.
Artemis in art
In art, she was typically portrayed with a crescent moon above her head and her bow and arrows, created by Hephaestus and the Cyclopes. These arrows, in contrast to her role as goddess of childbirth, were said to be the cause of women dying in childbirth. Her brother Apollo exhibited contradiction as well, as he was a god of healing who brought leprosy, rabies and gout.
As Potnia Theron she was shown having large wings and holding an animal in either hand, usually a stag and a leopard, but sometimes a leopard and a lion.
In Ephesus, the Temple of Artemis became one of the Seven Wonders of the World. In Ephesus, and elsewhere in Asia Minor, she was worshipped primarily as an earth and fertility goddess, akin to Cybele, unlike in mainland Greece. Statues in Greece depict her with her bow and arrow. In Asia Minor, she was often depicted with multiple rounded protuberances on her chest. They were formerly believed to be multiple breasts but are now thought by some to have represented bull testes (see right).
Appellations
As Agrotora, she was especially associated as the patron goddess of hunters. Artemis was often associated with the local Aeginian goddess, Aphaea. As Potnia Theron, she was the patron of wild animals; Homer used this title. As Kourotrophos, she was the nurse of youths. As Locheia, she was the goddess of childbirth and midwives. She was sometimes known as Cynthia, from her birthplace on Mount Cynthus on Delos, or Amarynthia from a festival in her honor initially held originally at Amarynthus in Euboea. She sometimes used the name Phoebe, the feminine form of her brother, Apollo's, Phoebus.Etymology
There may be some connection with the Greek αρτεμης = "safe and sound" from the root αρ = "to fit".Birth
In Greek mythology Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. Leto had to find a place where the sun had never shone to give birth to the two due to a curse set by Hera, Zeus' wife. For this, Zeus rose an island that had been floating underwater and not yet touched by the sun. The island was Delos, and Leto gave birth there. Artemis was born first and then assisted Leto in the birth of her brother. Artemis and Apollo were born greater than any of Hera's children.Childhood
At three years old, Artemis asked her father, Zeus, while sitting on the god king's knee, to grant her several wishes. She asked to never have to be married and to have lop-eared hounds, stags to lead her chariot, and nymphs as her hunting companions. He granted her wishes. All of her companions remained virgins, and she guarded her chastity very, very closely.Tales of Artemis and men
Actaeon
She was once bathing naked in the woods when the Theban prince and hunter Actaeon stumbled across her. He stopped and stared, amazed at her ravishing beauty. He was so stunned that he accidentally stepped on a twig, and Artemis noticed him. She was so disgusted at his stares that she transformed him into a stag and set his own hounds to kill him. He was torn apart by the deadly hunting dogs, who never knew that the stag they were hunting was their own master. Alternatively, Actaeon boasted that he was a better hunter than she and Artemis turned him into a stag and he was eaten by his hounds.Adonis
In some versions of the story of Adonis, Artemis or Ares (her lover in this story) sent a wild boar to kill Adonis. This version is suspect because it implies that Artemis had lain with Ares and by virtually all accounts, she remained chaste throughout time.It is important to notice that the concept of "virginity" is rather different from what it is nowadays. At that time it is strangely believed that "to be a virgin woman" was considered the unmarried woman, with no strings attached to any man, therefore endorsing Ártemis' nature of untameable.
Siproites
A Cretan, Siproites, saw Artemis bathing nude and was changed by her into a woman. (The complete story does not survive in any mythographer's works, but is mentioned offhand by Antoninus Liberalis.)Orion
After leaving Eos, Orion became a follower of Artemis. She eventually killed him, though the reasons given vary:- According to Calypso in Homer's Odyssey, Artemis slew Orion to avenge the immortals' jealousy over a fellow immortal's (Eos's) marriage to a mortal (Orion).
- Orion and Artemis were engaged. Her brother, Apollo didn't believe it was appropriate for her to marry a mortal. Apollo convinced Orion to walk out into the water and then dared Artemis to try to hit the barely visible speck (actually Orion's head) with an arrow from the shore. She succeeded, killing him.
- Orion raped one of Artemis' female followers. She sent Scorpio, a scorpion, to kill him and both were placed in the stars as constellations. This legend explains why the constellation Scorpio rises just after Orion begins to set -- the scorpion still chases him. Orion's dog became Sirius, the dog-star.
- Artemis was in love with Orion. She was very happy and spent many of her days hunting with him. Apollo, her brother, got jealous that she was paying more attention to Orion than to himself, so he came up with a plan to get rid of him. Apollo sent a giant scorpion to kill Orion, but Artemis put him on an island where the scorpion could not get to him. Apollo then challenged Artemis, saying that she could not hit with a bowshot what appeared to be a rock, but was really Orion, far out in the water. When Orion's dead body floated to the shore, Artemis wept for days. She sent his body and his hunting dog to the stars, where they became the constellations Orion and the dog star Sirius. The scorpion became the constellation Scorpio.
- Because Orion left Eos, Apollo believed that he would do the same with his sister. One day, he saw Orion swimming in the sea, and immediently seized the opportunity. Calling his sister, he bets she can not shoot the bobbing object far in the ocean. She accepted the bet and shot Orion accurately, killing him.
- Orion left Eos and became prideful after boasting of his superiority and offending several immortals. They sent a giant scorpion after him, and while trying to escape Orion dived into the sea. He swam for the Island of Delos, where he knew Eos will protect him, but instead it is Artemis who waits for him. Apollo joins his sister and challenges her archery skills with several distant objects, the last being an object floating on the sea. Artemis realizes it is Orion only after his body is washed ashore. While she grieves, Apollo tells her someone like Orion does not deserve her tears. He would hurt her more should he remain alive, and as he is her brother, he refuses to let such an event pass
- Artemis was hunting one day and saw Orion hunting. She fell in love with him and told her female followers. All of her female followers including herself had taken a vow never to marry. The followers went to Apollo, who was jealous. He sent Orion out to sea and challenged Artemis to hit a dot on the ocean. She of course succeeded and did not realize it was Orion until his body washed ashore. She set him in the stars with his hunting dog.
Other stories
Callisto
One of Artemis' companions, Callisto, lost her virginity to Zeus, who had come disguised as Apollo or, in other legends, as Artemis herself. Enraged, Artemis changed her into a bear. Callisto's son, Arcas, nearly killed his mother while hunting, but Zeus or Artemis stopped him and placed them both in the sky as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
Agamemnon and Iphigenia
Artemis punished Agamemnon after he killed a sacred deer in a sacred grove and boasted he was a better hunter. On his way to Troy to participate in the Trojan War, Agamemnon's ships were suddenly motionless as Artemis stopped the wind. An oracle named Calchis told Agamemnon that the only way to appease Artemis was to sacrifice Iphigenia, his daughter. According to some versions, he did so, but others claims that he sacrificed a deer in her place and Iphigenia was taken to Crimea to prepare others for sacrifice to Artemis.Niobe
A Queen of Thebes and wife of Amphion, Niobe boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children (Niobids), seven male and seven female, while Leto had only two. Apollo killed her sons as they practiced athletics, with the last begging for his life, and Artemis her daughters. Apollo and Artemis used poisoned arrows to kill them, though according to some versions a number of the Niobids were spared (Chloris, usually). Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo after swearing revenge. A devastated Niobe fled to Mount Siplyon in Asia Minor and turned into stone as she wept, or committed suicide. Her tears formed the river Achelous. Zeus had turned all the people of Thebes to stone and so no one buried the Niobids until the ninth day after their death, when the gods themselves entombed them.Taygete
Zeus pursued Taygete, one of the Pleiades, who prayed to Artemis. The goddess turned Taygete into a doe but Zeus raped her when she was unconscious. She thus conceived Lacedaemon, the mythical founder of Sparta.Otus and Ephialtes
Otus and Ephialtes were a pair of brothers and giants. At one point, they wanted to storm Mt. Olympus. They managed to kidnap Ares and hold him in a jar for thirteen months. He was only released when Artemis offered to marry Otus. This made Ephialtes envious and the pair fought. Artemis changed herself into a white deer and jumped between them. The Aloadae, not wanting her to get away because they were eager huntsmen, threw pieces of their javelins and killed each other.The Meleagrids
After the death of Meleager, Artemis turned his grieving sisters, the Meleagrids into guineafowl.Chione
Artemis killed Chione for her pride and vanity.Atalanta and Oeneus
Artemis saved the infant Atalanta from dying of exposure after her father abandoned her. She sent a female bear to suckle the baby, who was then raised by hunters.Among other adventures, Atalanta participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, which Artemis had sent to destroy Calydon because King Oeneus had forgotten her at the harvest sacrifices.
Since her brother Apollo was the patron god of the city of Troy and because Artemis was heavily supported in Asia Minor where the city was located, Artemis favored the Trojans during the ten-year war with the Greeks. Artemis came to blows with Hera, who angrily reprimanded her for advocating the Trojans. Hera then struck Artemis on the ears with her own quiver, causing the arrows to fall out. As Artemis fled crying to Zeus, Leto gathered up the bow and arrows which had fallen out of the quiver.
Artemis in Neopaganism
In contrast, modern practitioners of Hellenic Reconstructionism, Hellenic Polytheism, or Hellenismos see Artemis in a much more traditional light, viewing her primarily as a Goddess of hunting, wild animals, nature, wildness, women, childbirth, and girls. They accept the validity and importance of all of the ancient myths, attempting to learn the lessons beneath the details. Modern Hellenic rituals tend to reflect the rituals of ancient Greece, modified for practicality and feasibility in the modern world. The three festivals of Artemis most often worshipped in the modern day are Elaphebolia, Mounikhia, and Kharisteria or Agrotera. Activities of worship include dedication of deer shaped cakes at Elaphebolia and amphiphontes (cakes 'shining all around') at Mounikhia, and activities such as archery contests and dances can happen at any time. Offering Artemis small model animals has also become popular.
Artemis in popular culture
In the Dark Hunter book series by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Artemis is the red-haired goddess responsible for the creation of the Dark Hunters. Upon their death she claims their soul, leaving them marked where she touched them with a bow and arrow, and permits them one act of vengeance before they return to serve her. She is particularly attracted to Acheron, the first of the Dark Hunters, with whom she has a love-hate relationship.
In the popular Sony videogame God of War, Artemis gives Kratos a massive and potent (albeit, slow) Sword, appropriately called the Blade of Artemis.
In the popular RTS computer game Age of Mythology, Artemis features as one of the Greek minor deities.
Many RPG installments (like Final Fantasy) feature high-level bows named after Artemis.
External links
- [Hymn To Artemis - The Virgin Goddess of the Hunt]
- [A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities] (1890) (eds. G. E. Marindin, William Smith, LLD, William Wayte)
| Greek deities series |
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| Primordial deities | Titans | Aquatic deities | Chthonic deities |
| Twelve Olympians |
| Zeus | Hera | Poseidon | Hades | Hestia | Demeter | Aphrodite Athena | Apollo | Artemis | Ares | Hephaestus | Hermes | Dionysus |
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