Artemis

Artemis is depicted on this piece of Greek pottery from the 5th century BCE, now in the Museo archeologico regionale in Palermo, Sicily.

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Some scholars believe that the name, and indeed the goddess herself, was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals". In the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis (Greek: (nominative) Ἄρτεμις, (genitive) Ἀρτέμιδος} was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity and young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women; she often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows. 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

Didrachm from Ionie representing the goddess Artemis

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. Though connection with Anatolian names has been suggested and confirmed, as from a "common-gender term for bear in Hittite", the earliest attested form of the name Artemis is the Mycenaean Greek a-ti-mi-te, written in Linear B syllabic script at Pylos. Artemis was venerated in Lydia as Artimus.

In more traditional etymology within Ancient Greek, the name has been related to "ἀρτεμής" (artemes), "safe", or "ἄρταμος" (artamos) "a butcher".

Stories of birth and childhood

Leto bore Apollon and Artemis, delighting in arrows,
Both of lovely shape like none of the heavenly gods,
As she joined in love to the Aegis-bearing ruler.

—Hesiod, Theogony, lines 918–920 (written in the 7th century BCE)

Birth

Apollo (left) and Artemis. Brygos (potter, signed), Briseis Painter, Tondo of an Attic red-figure cup, ca. 470 BCE, Louvre.

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. However, 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

Roman marble Bust of Artemis after Kephisodotos (Musei Capitolini), Rome.

The childhood of Artemis is not fully related in any surviving myth. The Iliad reduced the figure of the dread goddess to that of a girl, who, having been thrashed by Hera, climbs weeping into the lap of Zeus. A poem of Callimachus to the goddess "who amuses herself on mountains with archery" imagines some charming vignettes: according to Callimachus, at three years old, Artemis, while sitting on the knee of her father, Zeus, asked him to grant her six wishes: to remain always a virgin; to have many names to set her apart from her brother Apollo; to be the Phaesporia or Light Bringer; to have a bow and arrow and a knee-length tunic so that she could hunt; to have sixty "daughters of Okeanos", all nine years of age, to be her choir; and for twenty Amnisides Nymphs as handmaidens to watch her dogs and bow while she rested. She wished for no city dedicated to her, but to rule the mountains, and for the ability to help women in the pains of childbirth.. Since the day she was born, Artemis always believed that she had been chosen by the Sisters of Fate to be a midwife, since she helped her mother on delivering her twin brother, Apollo. All of her companions remained virgins and Artemis guarded her own chastity closely. Her symbols included the golden bow and arrow, the hunting dog, the stag, and the moon. Callimachus tells how Artemis spent her girlhood seeking out the things that she would need to be a huntress, how she obtained her bow and arrows from the isle of Lipara, where Hephaestus and the Cyclops worked. Okeanus' daughters were filled with fear, but the young Artemis bravely approached and asked for bow and arrows. Callimachus then tells how Artemis visited Pan, the god of forest and he gave her seven bitches and six dogs. She then captured six golden-horned deer to pull her chariot. Artemis practiced with her bow first by shooting at trees and then at wild beasts.

Physical description

Artemis was portrayed in Classical sculpture as a a young woman, tall and slim. As a goddess of hunting, Artemis wore a girlish knee-length tunic, and carried bow and quiver on her shoulder. Sometimes, a stag was represented with her or a hunting dog. When portrayed as a goddess of the moon, Artemis wore a long robe and sometimes a veil covered her head.

Attributes

• Bow and arrow

The site of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.

According to the Homeric Hymn to Artemis, she had golden bow and arrows, as her epithet was Khryselakatos, "of the Golden Shaft", and Iokheira (Showered by Arrows). The arrows of Artemis could also to bring sudden death and disease to girls and women. Artemis got her bow and arrow for the first time from The Kyklopes, as the one she asked from her father. The bow of Artemis also became the witness of Callisto's oath of her virginity. In later cult, the bow became the symbol of waxing moon.

• Chariots

Artemis' chariot was made of gold and being pulled by four golden horned deers (Elaphoi Khrysokeroi). The bridles of her chariot also made of gold.

• Spears, nets, and lyre

Although quite seldom, Artemis sometimes being portrayed with a hunting spear. Her cult in Aetolia, The Artemis Aetolian showed her image with a hunting spear. The description about Artemis' spear could be found at Ovid's Metamorphosis While Artemis with a fishing connected with her cult as a patron goddess of fishing.

As a goddess of maiden dances and songs, Artemis is often portrayed with a lyre.

Fauna

• Deer

Deer were the only animals held sacred to Artemis herself. On seeing a deer larger than a bull with horns shinning, she fell in love with these creatures and held them sacred. Deer were also the first animals she captured. She caught five golden horned deers called Elaphoi Khrysokeroi and harnessed them to her chariot. To catch the Ceryneian Hind alive was the third labour of Heracles commanded by Eurystheus. Heracles begged Artemis for forgiveness and promised to return it alive. Artemis forgave him but targeted Eurystheus for her wrath.

• Hunting dog

Artemis got her hunting dogs from Pan in the forest of Arcadia. Pan gave Artemis two dogs black-and-white, three reddish, and one spotted, which were able to hunt even lions. Also seven bitches from the finest Arcadian race. Although, she only brought seven hunting pack.

• Boar

The boar is one of the hunters' favorite animals and is also hard to tame. In honor of Artemis' skill it was made sacred to her. Oineus and Adonis were both killed by Artemis' boar.

• Bear

The sacrifice of a bear for Artemis started from the Brauron cult. Every year, a little girl age not more than ten and less than five sent to Artemis' temple at Brauron. Arktos e Brauroniois, a text by Byzantine writer, Suidas told a legend about a bear that being tamed by Artemis and being introduced to people of Athens. They may touch and play with it, until one day a young girls poked the bear. The bear was furious and attacked the girls. One of the girls' brother found out what happened and killed the bear. Artemis sent a plague for what they did. The Athenians consulted an oracle of how to end the plague. The oracle suggested that the price they must pay for the blood of the bear is every young virgins weren't allowed to marry a man until she served Artemis in her temple (played the bear for the goddess.

• Guinea Fowl

Artemis felt pity for the Meleagrids as they mourned for their lost obrother, Meleagor, so she transformed them into Gunea Fowl to be her favorite animals.

• Buzzard hawk

Hawks were a favoured bird of most of the gods, including Apollo and Artemis. Artemis loved a buzzard hawk.

Artemis in mythology

Artemis and Actaeon

Artemis was once bathing in a vale on Mount Cithaeron, when the Theban hunter Actaeon stumbled across her; she turned him into a stag that was pursued and killed by his own hounds.

Artemis and Adonis

The Death of Adonis, by Giuseppe Mazzuoli, 1709 - Hermitage Museum.

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.

The Aloadae

These twin sons of Iphidemia and Poseidon, Otos and Ephialtes, grew enormously at a young age. They were aggressive, great hunters, and could not be killed unless they killed each other. The growth of the Aloadae never stopped, and they boasted that as soon as they could reach heaven, they would kidnap Artemis and Hera and take them as wives. The gods were afraid of them, except for Artemis who captured a fine deer (or in another version of the story, she changed herself into a doe) and jumped out between them. The Aloadae threw their spears and so mistakenly killed each other.

Wooing the goddess

As a young virgin, Artemis had interested many gods and men, but none of them successfully won her heart, except her hunting companion Orion, who was then accidentally killed either by the goddess herself or by Gaia.

Alpheus, a river god, was in love with Artemis, but he realized that nothing he could do would win her heart. So he decided to capture her. Artemis who was with her companions at Letrenoi, went to Alpheus, but suspicious of his motives, she covered her face with mud so the river god would not recognize her. Another story involving the god is the story where he tried to rape Artemis' attendant Arethusa. The goddess felt pity for her and saved her by transformed Arethusa into a spring in Artemis' temple, Artemis Alphaea in Letrini, where the goddess and her attendant drink.

Bouphagos, the son of the Titan Iapetos, saw Artemis and had a thought of raping her. Detecting his sinful thoughts Artemis struck him at Mount Pholoe.

Sipriotes was a boy who, either because he accidentally saw Artemis bathing or attemped to rape her, was turned into a girl by the goddess.

Callisto

Diana and Callisto by Titian.

Callisto was the daughter of Lycaon, King of Arcadia and also was one of Artemis's hunting attendants. As a companion of Artemis, she 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 than the goddess. 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 snatched Iphigenia from the altar and substituted a deer. Various myths have been told around what happened after Artemis took her. Either she was brought to Tauros and led the priests there, or became Artemis' immortal companion

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. The gods themselves entombed them.

The Meleagrids

After the death of Meleager, Artemis turned his grieving sisters, the Meleagrids into guineafowl that Artemis loved very much.

Chione

Chione was a princess of Pokis. She was beloved by two gods, Hermes and Apollo, and boasted that she was prettier than Artemis because she made two gods fall in love with her at once. Artemis was furious and killed Chione with her arrow or struck her dumb by shooting off her tongue. However, some version of this myth say Apollo and Hermes protected her from Artemis' wrath.

Atalanta and Oeneus

Artemis pouring a libation, c. 460-450 BCE.

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.

Aura

In Nonnus' Dionysiaca, Aura was Greek goddess of breezes and cool air, daughter of Lelantos and Periboia. She was a virgin huntress, just like Artemis, and proud of her maidenhood. One day, she claimed that Artemis' body was too womanly and she doubted her virginity. Artemis asked for Nemesis' help to avenge her dignity and caused the rape of Aura by Dionysus. Aura became a mad and dangerous killer. When she bore twin sons, she ate one of them while the other one, Iakhos, was saved by Artemis. Iakhos later became an attendant of Demeter and the leader of Eleusinian Mysteries.

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 times. 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.

Artemis played quite a large part in the Trojan War, like her mother and brother, who was widely worshiped at Troy, Artemis took the side of the Trojans. At the Greek's journey to Troy, Artemis becalmed the sea and stopped the journey until an oracle came and said they could win the goddess' heart by sacrificing Iphigenia, Agamemnon's daughter. He once promised the goddess he would sacrifice the thing dearest to him, which was Iphigenia, but broke the promise. Other versions of the story say he boasted about his hunting ability and provoked the goddess' anger. Artemis saved Iphigenia because of her bravery. In some myth, Artemis made her into her attendant or turned her into Hecate, goddess of night, witchcraft and the underworld.

Aeneas was helped by Artemis, Leto, and Apollo. Apollo found him wounded by Diomedes and lifted him to heaven. Secretly, the three of them healed him in a great chamber.

Worship of Artemis

Roman Temple of Artemis in Jerash, Jordan, built during the reign of Antoninus Pius.

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.

Artemis in art

Fourth century Praxitelean bronze head of a goddess wearing a lunate crown, found at Issa Vis, Croatia).

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 occasionally 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.

Artemis as the Lady of Ephesus

The Artemis of Ephesus, 1st century CE (Ephesus Archaeological Museeum).

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 have been variously interpreted as multiple accessory breasts, as eggs, grapes, acorns, or even bull testes. Excavation at the site of the Artemision in 1987-88 identified a multitude of tear-shaped amber beads that had adorned the 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!” Of the 121 columns of her temple, only one composite, made up of fragments, still stands as a marker of the temple's location. The rest were used for making churches, roads, and forts.

Artemis in astronomy

A minor planet, (105) 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.

Sources

• Walter Burkert, 1985. Greek Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press)
• Robert Graves (1955) 1960. The Greek Myths (Penguin)
• Karl Kerenyi, 1951. The Gods of the Greeks
• Seppo Telenius (2005) 2006. Athena-Artemis (Helsinki: Kirja kerrallaan)

External links

• Media related to Artemis on Wikimedia Commons
• Theoi Project, Artemis, information on Artemis from original Greek and Roman sources, images from classical art.

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Artemis. The list of authors can be seen in the page history.