description: The gods and goddesses of Greek mythology-among them Artemis, Demeter, and Apollo-still live in the Western imagination. But many readers are less familiar with the loves and struggles of real people of sixth-century B.C. Greece and the kingdoms around it. Mary Matossian introduces readers to the very human inhabitants of that world. Artemis, a young priestess of the Daughters of Demeter, survives a shipwreck off the coast of Sidon, in what is now Lebanon, only to come into the hands of slave dealers-and to be reunited with her twin sister, Galatea, from whom she had been separated in infancy. Together they are given refuge by the Queen of the Amazons. Galatea becomes the concubine of King Koba of Sakartvelo, who also introduces Artemis to the pleasures possible between men and women. But Artemis chooses to return to the service of the Mother and the protection of the Mother's priestesses-until Koba sends his trusted emissary to ask Artemis to become his queen, after Galatea's death. Love develops in an unexpected way, as Galatea's and Artemis's children shape and are shaped by the turmoil created by warrior tribes and changing allegiances in the wild regions around the Black Sea. In the end, the world, characterized by worship of the Mother gives way to women needing the protection of warlike and very human men. Rich in research and scholarship, The Adventures of Artemis shines with the sights and sounds, the natural details and images of a faraway time brought close through the life of one woman who experiences and contains the drama and the majesty of the era.
language: English
title: The Adventures of Artemis
titlecomplete: The Adventures of Artemis
publisher: Creative Arts Book Co