Artemis
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Artemis (Greek: nominative Ἄρτεμις, genitive Ἀρτέμιδος) in Greek mythology the daughter of Zeus and of Leto and the twin sister of Apollo was one of the most widely venerated of the gods and manifestly one of the oldest deities (Burkert 1985:149). In later times she was combined with the Roman goddess Diana. In Etruscan mythology, she took the form of Artume. Deer and cypress are sacred to her.
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[edit] Worship
Artemis was worshipped almost everywhere in the Hellenic world. She is the goddess of the hunt and the wild; she gradually displaced Selene (the titaness of the moon) as goddess of the moon. Her best known cults were in her birthplace, the island of Delos; in Brauron; Mounikhia (located on a hill near the port Piraeus); and in Sparta. Artemis is usually pictured naked in statues or paintings with deer, bow and arrows, in a forest setting.
In Ionia the "Lady of Ephesus", a goddess whom Hellenes identified with Artemis, was a principal deity. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (located in western part of Turkey), one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was probably the best known center of her worship apart from Delos. In Acts of the Apostles, 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).
| Greek deities series |
|---|
| Primordial deities |
| Titans |
| Aquatic deities |
| Chthonic deities |
| Personified concepts |
| Other deities |
| Olympians |
| Zeus and Hera, |
| Poseidon, Hades, |
| Hestia, Demeter, |
| Aphrodite, Athena, |
| Apollo, Artemis, |
| Ares, Hephaestus, |
| Hermes, Dionysus |
Athenian festivals in honor of Artemis include Elaphebolia, Mounikhia, Kharisteria, Brauronia; the festival of Artemis Orthia was observed 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 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.[citation needed]
Virginal Artemis was worshipped as a fertility/childbirth goddess in some places[citation needed] 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.
[edit] 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,[1] with hunting boots, a quiver, a silver 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;[citation needed] 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 the goddesses can sometimes be found with crescent moons, however these are invariably Renaissance-era additions.
She remains one of the greatest gods, adored by hunters, and more.
[edit] The Lady of Ephesus
In Ephesus, the Temple of Artemis became one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Here the Lady whom Greeks associated with Artemis through interpretatio Graecae was worshipped 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 breastlike protuberances on her chest.
[edit] Epithets
As Agrotera, she was especially associated as the patron goddess of hunters. 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 sometimes used the name Phoebe, the feminine form of her brother Apollo's epithet Phoebus.
Agrotera was a title of the goddess as the patron of hunters. The ancient Spartans used to sacrifice to her as one of their patron goddesses before starting a new military campaign.
[edit] Etymology
There may be some connection with the Greek αρτεμης = "safe and sound" from the root αρ = "to fit".[citation needed]
[edit] 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 raised an island that had been floating underwater and not yet touched by the sun. The island was Delos, and Leto gave birth there, while grasping hold of a sacred palm-tree. Artemis was born first, on the 6th of the month. She then proceeded to assist her mother with the birth of Apollo, who was born on the 7th.
[edit] Childhood
The childhood of Artemis is not embodied in any surviving myth, but 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 the god king's knee, to grant her several wishes. First she asked to remain a virgin forever. She then asked to never have to be married and to have lop-eared hounds, stags to lead her chariot, and nymphs as her hunting companions, "sixty dancing girls, daughters of Ocean, all nine years old, all little girl sea nymphs." He granted her wishes.[2] All of her companions remained virgins, and Artemis guarded her own chastity closely. Her symbol was the silver bow and arrow.
[edit] Tales of Artemis and men
[edit] 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, Actaeon boasted that he was a better hunter than she and Artemis turned him into a stag and he was eaten by his hounds.
[edit] Adonis
In some versions of the story of Adonis, Artemis sent a wild boar to kill the youth as punishment for the hubristic boast that he was a superior to the goddess in hunting. In others, she killed him for revenge. Adonis was a favorite of Aphrodite so Artemis killed him to get back at Aphrodite for the death of Hippolytus, a favorite of Artemis.
[edit] Siproites
A Cretan, Siproites, saw Artemis like Actaeon 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, suggesting that the story was current.
[edit] 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 Gaea. In some versions, Orion tried to rape one of her followers and she killed him. In one version,[citation needed] Orion tried to rape Artemis herself and she killed him in self-defense. According to Hyginus (quoting the Greek poet Istrus) Artemis once loved Orion and wanted to marry him, but was tricked into killing him by her brother Apollo who was protective of his sister's maidenhood.
[edit] Other stories
[edit] Callisto
Daughter of Lycaon, King of Arcadia. She was one of Artemis hunting attendants. As a companion of Artemis, Callisto took a vow of chastity. Zeus appeared to her in disguise, as Artemis, gained her confidence, then took advantage of her. As a result of this encounter she conceived a son, Arcas. Enraged, Hera 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.
[edit] Iphigenia and the Taurian Artemis
Artemis punished Agamemnon after he killed a sacred deer 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. As he was about to do so, Artemis snatched her from the altar and substituted a deer. The girl was transported to the Crimea and appointed as priestess in the goddess's Tauric temple, where strangers were offered as human sacrifice.
[edit] 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 a number of the Niobids were spared (Chloris, usually). Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, killed himself or was killed by Apollo. A devastated Niobe was turned to stone by Artemis as she wept, or committed suicide. In some myths she was thrown into a forsaken part of the Egyptian desert. Another says that 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.
[edit] Taygete
[edit] 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, Gaea 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.
[edit] The Meleagrids
After the death of Meleager, Artemis turned his grieving sisters, the Meleagrids into guineafowl that Artemis loved very much.
[edit] Chione
Artemis and Chione had many affairs.[citation needed]
[edit] 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. 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.
[edit] Trojan War
Artemis favored the Trojans during the ten-year war with the Greeks. 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. (Homer, Iliad 20,470 ff)
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.
[edit] Artemis in Neopaganism
Many Neopagans who worship Artemis today seem to omit many of the ancient myths. Those myths which are accepted by modern Neopagans seem to be interpreted rather abstractly, as mostly metaphor. Artemis is believed to be rather concerned with her followers' well being, but to reserve her boons to those who respect nature. Artemis, in this type of modern worship, is often seen as the goddess of wealth, magic, abundance, fertility, hunting, and longevity. While many who practice magic worship Hecate more favor Artemis for her supposed benevolence. Worship of Artemis may often include the burning of oils and incense, prayer, ritual nocturnal hunts, the burning of bread, and prostration. Artemis is thought to grant numerous boons and blessings on her followers, and is commonly worshipped by both men and women.
Some Neopagans view Artemis as serving a similar function to the Irish goddess Morrigan. While Morrigan is thought to choose the slain in battle, Artemis may be thought of as choosing those who die through more natural causes such as childbirth and disease as seen by the Greek custom of women in labor praying to Artemis. Artemis and Apollo fire the plague arrows at the Greeks during the Trojan war. So, Artemis chooses the slain and strikes them down with her bow. Some Pagans also view Artemis as a cognate to Diana, to whom she is closely related, and they picture her bow as the crescent moon.
In contrast, modern practitioners of reconstructionist versions of Hellenic polytheism 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.
[edit] Artemis in Astronomy
The minor planet (105) Artemis; a lunar crater; also Artemis Chasma and Artemis Corona, both on Venus, have all been named for her.
[edit] Artemis in Astrology
In the western zodiac, Artemis is the ruling Goddess of the Cancer sign due to her common affiliation with Earth's Moon.
[edit] Artemis in Popular Culture
Many references to Artemis in popular culture may be seen at Artemis (in Popular Culture).
[edit] Notes
- ^ Homer portrayed Artemis as girlish in the Iliad.
- ^ On-line English translation.
[edit] References
- Burkert, Walter, 1985. Greek Religion (Cambridge:Harvard University Press)
- Graves, Robert (1955) 1960. The Greek Myths (Penguin)
- Kerenyi, Karl, 1951. The Gods of the Greeks
- Vol, Mary - Telenius, Seppo - Aaljoki, Tatjana: Athene (Athena) and Artemis, (2005) 2006. An English article in the anthology Athena-Artemis (Helsinki: Kirja kerrallaan)
[edit] External links
- Theoi Project, Artemis, information on Artemis from original Greek and Roman sources, images from classical art.
- 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 |
|---|
| Primordial deities | Titans | Aquatic deities | Chthonic deities |
| Twelve Olympians |
| Zeus | Hera | Poseidon | Hades | Hestia | Demeter | Aphrodite Athena | Apollo | Artemis | Ares | Hephaestus | Hermes | Dionysus |
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | Articles lacking sources from June 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Greek mythology | Greek goddesses | Lunar goddesses | Hunting goddesses | Nature goddesses | Offspring of Zeus
