In the Mysts: Artemis

Artemis

Introduction
It is interesting to note how popular Artemis was. Since three different sections of people worshipped her - all seperately - she became one of the most powerful goddesses. Why? Each section of the people attributed different things to her. Most attributed the semi-universal "goddess of childbirth and nature" to her. However, they each added in other attributes.

For instance, she had a large cresent-moon over her forehead. This, amoung being associated with other moon-goddesses, made her goddess of the moon to others. While she was an even-handed goddess, she had a wrath that almost no one could defy.

She was the daughter of Leto and Zeus. She also had a twin brother named Apollo. She was the goddess of many things, including:

wild animals
wilderness
the hunt
childbirth
fertility
moon

She was said to have nymphs, as well as other natural helpers, and she carried a bow and arrow made by Hephaestus. She had sacred boars, stags, and other animals, though the stags and boars were the most promenet in stories. As one of the only people immune to the enchantments of Aphrodite, she was a virgin.

Artemis' Family
Leto and Zeus were said to be her parents most often. Many people cite her birth as being secondary to that of Apollo. Leto had to flee the country to escape Hera, who was vengeful because Leto had Zeus' blessings. Hera sent Python after her.

Some people claim that Artemis helped her mother give birth to her brother. How? Directly after she was born, her mother was still in labor. It took Leto over a day to give birth to Apollo. Artemis helped, and thus became the goddess of childbirth.

After Apollo and Artemis were grown, they slew Python and Tityus in revenge of their mother. After that, they were purified by Tarrha and Aegialeia.

Free-Roving Goddess
There is a huge gap of time where Artemis is rarely mentioned. She was noted as a "free roving" goddess of the hunt. She appeared to help others, but was not mentioned nearly as much as one of the twelve divinities as she should have been.

She was connected, however long, to human sacrafic though Tauropolis. More than that, though, the worship of Artemis was extremely complex. Sacrifices were not enough.

Wrath of Artemis
Though she is noted as a good-handed goddess, she was vengeful as any other goddess. She slew Niobe's six daughters because Niobe boasted that she had twelve children ad Leto had only two. (Apollo helped by killing her twelve sons.) Admetus, a man who forgot to offer Artemis a sacrifice at his wedding to Alcestis, found snakes in his bridal bed.

Agamemnon killed one of her sacred stags. For this crime, he was forced to sacrific Iphigeneia. (This, eventually, lead to his death at his wife's hands.) On the same note, Phalaecus angered her by playing with a lion cub. Artemis sent a lioness to tear him to peices. Along with this, she plagued Teuthras with leoprosy because he killed one of her boars.

Orion was a Boetian hunter, and many claim that she fell in love with him. (Others say it was the other way around.) Since Artemis did not "love", or was not allowed to do so, she killed him.

Perhaps another testimony to the fact that she would never love a man was the story of Actaeon. He saw her bathing, and Artemis turned him into a stag. This would not be too terrible, however, if Actaeon did not bring his hunting dogs with him. They torn him to peices.

Love of Artemis
Though Artemis was vengeful, she was loving as well. Some say she was the lover of Britomartis. Britomartis was the Cretan divinity of fisherman and hunters. Artemis saved her from Minos, and many believe that they were full lovers.

In other instances, she helped followers of her. She aided Aeneas when he was wounded by Diomedes. She instructed Hypermnestra not to killed Lynceus when the rest of the Danaides killed there husbands.

She also helped Taygete. When Zeus wanted her, she tried to escape. Artemis changed her into a cow so that she could escape him. Atalanta, a huntress, was saved by a bear, and she thanked Artemis. (Bears were a symbol of Artemis.)

Bibliography
Robert E. Bell's Women of Classical Mythology - Published 1991
Encyclopedia Mythica - 1995-2002
Artemis - Virgin Goddess of the Moon - 1996-1998