Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of
the Ancient Greek deities. In the classical period of
Greek mythology, Artemis (
Greek: (
nominative)
, (
genitive) ) was often described as the
daughter of
Zeus and
Leto,
and the twin sister of
Apollo. She was the
Hellenic goddess of forests and hills, child birth, virginity,
fertility, the hunt, and often was depicted as a huntress carrying
a bow and arrows.“Her proper sphere is the earth, and specifically
the uncultivated parts, forests and hills, where wild beasts are
plentiful
. . . .” Hammond and Scullard (editors),
The Oxford Classical
Dictionary. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970) 126. The
deer and the
cypress were
sacred to her. In later Hellenistic times, she even assumed the
ancient role of
Eileithyia in aiding
childbirth.
Artemis later became identified with
Selene,
a
Titaness who was a Greek moon
goddess, sometimes depicted with a crescent moon above her head.
She was also identified with the Roman goddess
Diana, with the
Etruscan goddess
Artume, and with the Greek or
Carian goddess
Hecate.
Etymology
A hypothesis connects Artemis to the
Proto-Indo-European root
h₂ŕ̥tḱos meaning "bear" due to her cultic practices in
Brauronia and
the
Neolithic remains at the
Arkouditessa.
Birth
Various conflicting accounts are given in Classical Greek mythology
of the birth of Artemis and her twin brother, Apollo. All accounts
agree, however, that she was the daughter of
Zeus and
Leto and that she was the
twin sister of Apollo.
An account by
Callimachus has it that
Hera forbade Leto to give birth on either terra firma (the
mainland) or on an island. Hera was angry with Zeus, her husband,
because he had impregnated Leto.
But the island of Delos
(or Ortygia
in the
Homeric Hymn to Artemis) disobeyed
Hera, and Leto gave birth there.
A
scholium of
Servius on
Aeneid
iii. 72 accounts for the island's archaic name Ortygia by asserting
that Zeus transformed Leto into a
quail
(
ortux) in order to prevent Hera from finding out his
infidelity, and Kenneth McLeish suggested further that in quail
form Leto would have given birth with as few birth-pains as a
mother quail suffers when it lays an egg.
The myths also differ as to whether Artemis was born first, or
Apollo. Most stories depict Artemis as born first, becoming her
mother's mid-wife upon the birth of her brother Apollo.
Childhood
The childhood of Artemis is not embodied in any surviving myth: the
Iliad reduced the figure of the dread
goddess, making her a girl, who, having been thrashed by
Hera, climbs weeping into the lap of Zeus. A poem of
Callimachus – the goddess "who amuses
herself on mountains with archery" – imagines some charming
vignettes: at three years old, Artemis asked her father, Zeus,
while sitting on his knee, to grant her six wishes. Her first wish
was to remain chaste for eternity, and never to be confined by
marriage. She then asked for lop-eared hounds, stags to lead her
chariot, and
nymphs to be her hunting
companions, 60 from the river and 20 from the ocean. Also, she
asked for a silver bow like her brother
Apollo. He granted her the six wishes. All of her
companions remained virgins and Artemis guarded her own chastity
closely. Her symbol was the silver bow and arrow.
Other myths about Artemis
Artemis and Actaeon
She was
once bathing in a vale on Mount Cithaeron
, when the Theban prince and hunter Actaeon stumbled across her. One version of
this story says that Actaeon hid in the bushes and spied on her as
she continued to bathe; she was enraged to discover the spy and
turned him into a stag which was pursued and killed by his own
hounds. Alternatively, another version states that Actaeon boasted
that he was a better hunter than she and Artemis turned him into a
stag and he was eaten by his hounds.
Artemis and Adonis
In some versions of the story of
Adonis, who
was a late addition to Greek mythology during the Hellenistic
period, Artemis sent a
wild boar to kill Adonis
as punishment for his hubristic boast that he was a better hunter
than she.
In other versions, Artemis killed Adonis for revenge. In later
myths, Adonis had been related as a favorite of
Aphrodite, and Aphrodite was responsible for the
death of
Hippolytus, who
had been a favorite of Artemis. Therefore, Artemis killed Adonis to
avenge Hippolytus’s death.
Orion
Orion was a hunting companion of
the goddess Artemis. In some versions of his story he was killed by
Artemis, while in others he was killed by a
scorpion sent by
Gaia. In some versions, Orion tried to
seduce
Opis, one of her followers, and she
killed him. In a version by
Aratus, Orion
took hold of Artemis' robe and she killed him in
self-defense.
In yet another version, Apollo sent the scorpion. According to
Hyginus Artemis once loved
Orion (in spite of the late source, this version appears to be a
rare remnant of her as the pre-Olympian goddess, who took consorts,
as
Eos did), but was tricked into killing him by
her brother Apollo, who was "protective" of his sister's
maidenhood.
Other stories
Callisto
She was the daughter of Lycaon, King of Arcadia and also was one of
Artemis's hunting attendants. As a companion of Artemis,
Callisto took a vow of chastity. Zeus
appeared to her disguised as Artemis, or in some stories Apollo,
gained her confidence, then took advantage of her (or raped her,
according to
Ovid). As a result of this
encounter she conceived a son, Arcas. Enraged, Hera or Artemis
(some accounts say both) changed her into a bear. Arcas almost
killed the bear, but Zeus stopped him just in time. Out of pity,
Zeus placed Callisto the bear into the heavens, thus the origin of
Callisto the Bear as a constellation. Some stories say that he
placed both Arcas and Callisto into the heavens as bears, forming
the
Ursa Minor and
Ursa Major constellations.
Iphigenia and the Taurian Artemis
Artemis punished
Agamemnon after he killed
a sacred stag in a
sacred grove and
boasted that he was a better hunter.
When the Greek fleet
was preparing at Aulis to depart for Troy
to begin the
Trojan War, Artemis becalmed the
winds. The seer
Calchis advised
Agamemnon that the only way to appease Artemis was to sacrifice his
daughter
Iphigenia. Artemis then snatches
Iphigenia from the altar and substitutes a deer.
Niobe
A Queen of
Thebes
and wife of
Amphion, Niobe boasted
of her superiority to Leto because while she had fourteen children
(Niobids), seven boys and seven girls, Leto
had only one of each. When Artemis and Apollo heard this
impiety, Apollo killed her sons as they practiced athletics, and
Artemis shot her daughters, who died instantly without a sound.
Apollo and Artemis used poisoned arrows to kill them, though
according to some versions two of the Niobids were spared, one boy
and one girl. Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, killed
himself. A devastated Niobe and her remaining children were turned
to stone by Artemis as they wept. Some myths say that their tears,
which still flowed from their stone eyes, formed the river
Achelous. The gods themselves entombed them.
Otus and Ephialtes
The
Gigantes Otus
and
Ephialtes were sons of
Poseidon. They were so strong that nothing
could harm them. One night, as they slept,
Gaia whispered to them, that since they
were so strong, they should be the rulers of Olympus.
They built a mountain
as tall as Mt.
Olympus, and then demanded that the gods surrender, and
that Artemis and Hera become their wives. The gods fought
back, but couldn't harm them. The sons even managed to kidnap Ares
and hold him in a jar for thirteen months. Artemis later changed
herself into a deer and ran between them. The
Aloadae, not wanting her to get away because they
were eager huntsmen, each threw their javelin and simultaneously
killed each other.
The Meleagrids
After the death of
Meleager, Artemis turned
her grieving sisters, the
Meleagrids into
guineafowl that Artemis loved very
much.
Chione
Artemis killed
Chione
for becoming too proud and vain after having an affair with Apollo
at his request.
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. But she
later sent a bear to hurt Atalanta because people said Atalanta was
a better hunter. This is in some stories.
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. In the hunt, Atalanta drew the first blood, and
was awarded the prize of the skin.
She hung it in a sacred grove at Tegea
as a
dedication to Artemis.
Trojan War
Artemis may have been represented as a supporter of Troy because
her brother
Apollo was the patron god of the
city and she herself was widely worshipped in western Anatolia in
historical time. In the
Iliad she
came to blows with Hera, when the divine allies of the Greeks and
Trojans engaged each other in conflict. Hera 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.
Worship of Artemis
Artemis, the goddess of forests and hills, was worshipped
throughout
ancient Greece..
Her best
known cults were on the
island of Delos(her birthplace); in Attica at Brauron
and
Mounikhia (near Piraeus
); in Sparta
. She
was often depicted in paintings and statues in a forest setting,
carrying a bow and arrows, and accompanied by a deer.
As
Aeginaea, she was worshiped in Sparta; the name
means either huntress of chamois, or the
wielder of the javelin ( ). She was worshipped at Naupactus
as Aetole; in her temple in that
town there was a statue of white marble representing her throwing a
javelin. This "Aetolian Artemis" would not have been
introduced at Naupactus, anciently a place of
Ozolian Locris, until it was awarded to the
Aetolians by
Philip II of Macedon.
Strabo records
another precinct of "Aetolian Artemos" at the head of the Adriatic
. As
Agoraea she was
the protector of the
agora. As
Agrotera, she was
especially associated as the patron goddess of hunters. In
Elis she was worshiped as
Alphaea.
In Athens 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 originally held at
Amarynthus in Euboea
. She
was sometimes identified by the name
Phoebe, the
feminine form of her brother Apollo's solar epithet
Phoebus.
The ancient Spartans used to sacrifice to her as one of their
patron goddesses before starting a new
military campaign.
Athenian
festivals in honor of Artemis included Elaphebolia, Mounikhia,
Kharisteria, and Brauronia
. The festival of Artemis Orthia
was observed in Sparta.
Pre-pubescent Athenian girls and young Athenian girls approaching
marriageable age 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 formed 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.
Virginal Artemis was worshipped as a fertility/childbirth goddess
in some places, assimilating
Ilithyia,
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).
Artemis in art
The oldest representations of Artemis in Greek Archaic art portray
her as
Potnia Theron ("Queen
of the Beasts"): a winged goddess holding a stag and leopard in her
hands, or sometimes a leopard and a lion.
This winged Artemis
lingered in ex-votos as Artemis Orthia, with a sanctuary close by Sparta.
In Greek classical art she is usually portrayed as a maiden
huntress clothed in a girl's short skirt, with hunting boots, a
quiver, a bow and arrows. Often she is shown in the shooting pose,
and is accompanied by a
hunting dog or
stag. Her darker side is revealed in some vase paintings, where she
is shown as the death-bringing goddess whose arrows fell young
maidens and women, such as the daughters of
Niobe.
The attributes of the goddess were often varied: bow and arrows
were sometimes replaced by hunting spears; as a goddess of maiden
dances she held a
lyre; as a goddess of light a
pair of flaming torches.
Only in post-Classical art do we find representations of
Artemis-Diana with the crown of the
crescent moon, as
Luna. In the ancient world, although she was
occasionally associated with the moon, she was never portrayed as
the moon itself. Ancient statues of Artemis have been found with
crescent moons, but these moons are always Renaissance-era
additions.
On June
7, 2007, a Roman era bronze sculpture of “Artemis and the Stag” was
sold at Sotheby’s auction house in
New York state by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery
for $25.5 million.
Remains of the temple today.
Artemis as the Lady of Ephesus
At Ephesus in
Ionia (Turkey), her temple
became one of the
Seven
Wonders of the World. It was probably the best known center of
her worship except for Delos. There the Lady whom the Ionians
associated with Artemis through
interpretatio Graeca was worshiped
primarily as a mother goddess, akin to the Phrygian goddess
Cybele, in an ancient sanctuary where her
cult image depicted the "Lady of Ephesus"
adorned with multiple rounded breast like protuberances on her
chest. They had been traditionally interpreted as multiple
accessory breasts, or as sacrificed bull
testes, as some newer scholars claimed, until excavation at the
site of the
Artemision in 1987-88 identified the multitude
of tear-shaped
amber beads that had adorned
her ancient wooden
xoanon. In
Acts of the Apostles, Ephesian
metalsmiths who felt threatened by Saint Paul's preaching of
Christianity, jealously rioted in her defense, shouting “
Great
is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Only one of 121 columns still
stand in Ephesus. The rest were used for making churches, roads,
and forts.
Artemis in astronomy
A
minor planet, Artemis; a lunar crater
; the Artemis Chasma
and the Artemis Corona
(both on Venus) have all been named for
her.
As
Selene she is associated with the
Moon, and as
Phoebe her
name was borrowed for a moon of
Saturn.
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