Artemis Akira Yukishiro/Bond Story

*Artemis - goddess of the Moon. Her noble and severe beauty reminisces of the cold brilliance of the Moon. However, when she fell in love, her heart burned with a fantastic passion. An excerpt from the play "Tragic Orion."*

* Chapter 1
* Chapter 2
* Bond Level 15 Talk
* Bond Level 30 Talk

Artemis' Transformation

 **Akira:**Artemis was the daughter of Zeus - the king of gods.

 **Akira:**She and her brother Apollo were part of the Twelve Olympians.

 **Akira:**Even then, her mother was a Titan - a race that had opposed the gods of Olympus.

 **Akira:**Artemis was stoic, and acted severe toward herself and others...

 **Akira:**She would often hate people, and in particular men... Perhaps, her descent has something to do with it.

 **Akira:**She is also known as the goddess of the Moon.

 **Akira:**Like the Moon, her beauty was solitary and mystical.

 **Akira:**This is in stark contrast with the image of her hunts on the mountains with her retinue.

 **Akira:**Many gods of Olympus originally belonged to tribes and populations that had been conquered by the Greeks.

 **Akira:**In Artemis' case, they say that the goddess of the indigenous Greeks merged with different goddesses close to her.

 **Akira:**One of them being Selene - goddess of the Moon; and the other being Eileithyia - the goddess of childbirth worshipped in Crete...

 **Akira:**And perhaps the biggest influence was Hecate - the goddess of the underworld from Asia Minor.

 **Akira:**Hecate had three aspects.

 **Akira:**According to scholars, her nature influenced Artemis, and that's how Artemis came to have different qualities.

 **Akira:**Besides, Greek myths can be traced back to the 8th century BCE, but the modem corpus we have now was formed around the 4th century BCE.

 **Akira:**During that time, the several different versions of Artemis that had merged with local goddesses were imported back and added to the qualities of Artemis.

 **Akira:**For example, Roman mythology was created on the basic of Greek myth around the 6th century BCE...

 **Akira:**There the goddess Diana, herself based on Artemis, merged with the ancient goddess of the forest of the Italian Peninsula.

 **Akira:**On the other hand, the Artemis worshipped in the Crimean Peninsula was a severe goddess that demanded sacrifices.

 **Akira:**And in Asia Minor, Artemis was worshipped as the goddess of good harvest and fertility. They say that she merged with the goddess Cybele.

 **Akira:**It is only natural then when all these goddesses merged into one, the final Artemis would have several roles and qualities.

 **Akira:**Even then, her core aspects were the Moon, hunting, independence and purity.

 **Akira:**The wax and waning of the Moon relates to the different aspects of Hecate.

 **Akira:**They thought Artemis went hunting in the mountains of Crete with her retinue and her silver bow.

 **Akira:**Besides, she was a pure maiden that despised men, and distanced herself from other gods.

 **Akira:**She didn't open up to anyone but her parents Zeus and Leto, her brother Apollo, and her beloved.

 **Akira:**In the myths she only loved two people: Hippolytus - prince of Athens, and Orion.

 **Akira:**However, their myths have many common points, to the extent that people believe the myth of Orion was constructed after the one with Hippolytus.

 **Akira:**The myth of Orion is, after all, very unique.

 **Akira:**If we take into consideration the normal image of Artemis, it would have been odd for her to love Orion, let alone bring him along on hunts.

 **Akira:**Up until then, her retinue was composed only of maidens. It's strange that she allowed a human man to participate in them.

 **Akira:**It's fair to say that she'd be magnanimous toward the wish of a human being, but still she was a very severe and rigid goddess.

 **Akira:**This myth is indeed full of contradictions.

 **Akira:**However, gods aren't immutable; many stories prove that.

 **Akira:**Artemis simply changed when she met Orion.

 **Akira:**If we interpret the myth that way, the whole story makes sense. And that's how I should also understand my role.

 **Akira:**For someone that enjoyed hunting in the island of Crete like Artemis, Orion must have been a very special person.

 **Akira:**After all, he was able to go toe-to-toe with her. No one other than Apollo had been able to do that.

 **Akira:**Her whole world must have been turned around.

 **Akira:**He was the one that invited her to a different world... That's why she saw him as someone irreplaceable.

 **Akira:**This myth tells how her encounter with him changed her forever.

 **Akira:**That's what "Tragic Orion" is - a tale of Artemis' transformation.

Artemis' Wish

 **Akira:**What we couldn't tell in our performance is written in the myths.

 **Akira:**Artemis killed Orion with her own hands, but she couldn't bear the thought of not beihg with him anymore...

 **Akira:**So she pleaded Asclepius to bring him back.

 **Akira:**Asclepius was the greatest doctor of the day, and none other than the son of Apollo.

 **Akira:**Normally, no doctor would be able to bring back the dead, but he was different.

 **Akira:**Athena gave him the blood of Medusa, and with it he had resurrected many people already.

 **Akira:**However, Hades - the god of the underworld - didn't approve of her request, and stopped Orion from being brought back to life.

 **Akira:**As a final act of desperation, Artemis went to her father Zeus, king of the gods.

 **Akira:**And there she pleaded Orion be made into a constellation.

 **Akira:**That way she would be able to meet him every time she raced through the night sky on her silver chariot.

 **Akira:**Zeus answered her plea, and made Orion into the constellation we see today.

 **Akira:**And so Artemis can see Orion once a month when the Moon crosses Orion's path.

 **Akira:**She never lost hope and finally her wish became true.

 **Akira:**But I believe it wasn't completely her achievement.

 **Akira:**Asclepius and Zeus are both related to Apollo. In fact, Asclepius is Apollo's son.

 **Akira:**Had Apollo wanted to, he could have prevented her wish from coming true.

 **Akira:**...However, he didn't.

 **Akira:**...I think he regretted making his sister kill her beloved.

 **Akira:**It's rare to see a pair of gods like Artemis and Apollo.

 **Akira:**Their bond was only possible because they were twins.

 **Akira:**And between them came Orion, a young man who created many a scandal with women.

 **Akira:**What's more, he was a descendant of the Titans, a race who had always opposed the gods of Olympus.

 **Akira:**Apollo couldn't allow their union.

 **Akira:**He wanted her to become happy. Any brother would want that.

 **Akira:**That's why he didn't approve of their union. But Artemis refused to listen to him.

 **Akira:**She loved Orion so much that she defied her twin brother.

 **Akira:**And so Apollo chose to take drastic measures. He tricked her into killing her loved one.

 **Akira:**I can only imagine how broken she must have felt after realizing what she had done.

 **Akira:**Apollo thought this would bring the whole problem to an end.

 **Akira:**But Artemis never gave up even as she suffered.

 **Akira:**That's when Apollo realized he had been mistaken.

 **Akira:**And also when he realized he couldn't stop her anymore.

 **Akira:**He might have even helped her behind the scenes for all we know.

 **Akira:**I guess "only the gods know" would be appropriate here. It really is an interesting story...

 **Akira:**But us Stage Girls should only worry about how we perform our roles. Truth and persuasion shouldn't concern us.

 **Akira:**Apollo, Artemis and Orion all experience adversities in our "Tragic Orion".

 **Akira:**The story shines when they despair and when they fight against their hardships.

 **Akira:**Now that we have finished our performance I can truly say that.

 **Akira:**I believe that the meeting of Aijo, Kagura and I brought forth that conclusion, but...

 **Akira:**...if we were to do the same play again, who knows how it would end.

 **Akira:**Whatever the case may be, I will perform with all my heart.

 **Akira:**It looks like I was a good fit for Artemis' role.

 **Akira:**Artemis met Orion and fell in love with him... I’m sure that made her even stronger and more beautiful.

 **Akira:**That’s why she didn’t give in to despair, and managed to make Orion into a constellation.

 **Akira:**It wasn’t just a sad story... Artemis and Orion’s myth is a eulogy to their encounter. That’s how I felt when I chose to perform it.