Artemis

One of the twelve Olympians, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo. The twins were the offspring of the union between Leto and Zeus, supreme god of the Greek pantheon. Born in Delos, she assisted her mother in the birth of Apollo right after her own. She is usually described as clad in buckskins (or a short tunic) while carrying a silver bow and arrows, accompanied by animals such as a stag or bear and a train of nymphs. Sometimes it’s said that she was accompanied by hounds, sixty ocean nymphs as maids of honor and twenty Cretan nymphs to tend her hounds. Some emblems associated with her are the bow, the date-palm, the stag and the bee.

The goddess was always a free-spirited virgin maiden, only pleased by the forest and hunt. In the words of Sappho:
“Artemis swore an oath of the gods, swore by the beard of her father: "I shall always be a virgin and live on summits of the great sierras, hunting in the forests: O grant me this!" Her father nodded in approval. Now gods and mortals call her by her thrilling name, the deer-slaying-hunter, and she is pure of marriage or erotic love.”

Therefore she was known as the “Mistress of Animals” (she was referred to in this way in Cretan religious monuments) and one who cared for the welfare of children and mothers to be. It was believed that she gave a quick and painless death to those women who died during childbirth and that she also had the power to heal. Besides caring for virgins, children and mothers to be, Artemis was a patron of Amazons, warrior-women and huntresses; women who were independent from men and the traditional roles of females.

The main centers of worship towards this goddess were cities like Marseilles, Syracuse and Ephesus (where the legendary Temple of Artemis was built), and mountainous or rural areas like Arcadia and the Spartan territory.

Artemis could be a fair and caring goddess in some instances, but her wrath and retribution were fearsome. She was know for having a short temper, especially with those who showed erotic desire towards her or made any offense towards Leto, her mother.

Two myths that depict this side of the goddess are the myth of Actaeon and the myth of Niobe. The first one tells the story of how Diana turned the hunter Actaeon into a stag after he saw her naked, taking a bath. The young man, now a stag, fled only to be found by his dogs. The pack attacked and killed him. As in all myths, there are different versions but this is the general outline of the story.

The myth of Niobe tells the story of the queen of Thebes who offended Leto by boasting that she had many children while the goddess only had two. When Artemis and Apollo had knowledge of the offense they took the matter into their own hands by killing all of Niobe’s children.

On the other hand, there are myths that oppose this view. An example is the myth of Orion. It tells the story of the hunter Orion, who befriended the goddess. In some versions of the myth it is even stated that she loved Orion and that they were to be married. Most commonly it is said that the goddess and the hunter were spending a lot time together, much to Apollo’s disapproval. After many discussions the goddess paid no heed to her brother’s wishes, so the god tricked her into killing Orion. He told her that a shape seen from afar in the water could not be hit by her arrows and skill, Artemis proved him wrong only to find later that she had killed Orion. In her grief she turned him into a constellation. There are many different versions of this myth ( some state that she killed him on purpose) but this one can be found in Bulfinch’s Mythology.

Artemis is associated with Selene, personification of the Moon, in the same way that her brother Apollo was associated with the Sun. It’s very important to keep in mind that although some of her worship was of lunar character she was above all a maiden goddess of the hunt, patron of the forests and wild beasts, not a Moon goddess. Another common association concerning this goddess is between her and Hecate, goddess who came to be known as creator of witchcraft.

Sources

Bulfinch’s Mythology - by Thomas Bulfinch and edited by Richard P. Martin
Diccionario de Mitologia Griega y Romana - by Pierre Grimal
Artemis - http://jcccnet.johnco.cc.ks.us/~jjackson/arte.html
Artemis at a Glance, from Mythography - http://www.loggia.com/myth/artemis.html
MSN Encarta article: Artemis