Artemis

Goddess of the Hunt (Art by Guillaume Seignac; photographed by leo.jeje)

### Spirit of

The Moon, Hunting, Archery, Animals, Wilderness, Chastity, Maidenhood, Childbirth, Woodlands, Wild Animals, Fertility

## Relatives

### Siblings

Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Athena, Dionysus, Helen of Troy, Hephaestus, Heracles, Hermes, Persephone, Perseus

### Offspring

Trivia (Avatar)

**Artemis** is the goddess of the Moon, archery, hunting, animals, the wilderness, maidenhood, and childbirth. She is the eighth out of the Dodekatheon who ruled over the denizens of Greece.

## Overview

She is the leader of the Hunters of Artemis, an all-female group of hunters whose duty is to hunt and kill beasts and monsters who threaten to exposure the supernatural to the human world. She is the daughter of Leto and Zeus, and is the older twin sister of Apollo.

## Appearance

As a goddess, Artemis could take on various different forms. However, no matter what form she takes, she will always supernaturally beautiful.

As a virginal goddess and the protector of young children, she often take on the form of a young girl, roughly 12-14 years old. She has long auburn hair styled into a single braid and silver eyes. She wears hunting gears, carrying a quiver of arrows on her back with her iconic bow in her hand.

She could also transform into a beautiful adult woman.

## History

### Birth & Travel to Olympus

Artemis was conceived by Zeus and the Titaness Leto. After her mother got pregnant, Hera got infuriated for her husband's constant cheating and cursed Leto to wander the earth without finding a place with roots to give birth. After traveling for a long time, the floating island of Delos gave sanctuary to Leto as the nature spirits there welcomed her. All the goddesses begged Hera to allow her daughter Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to come to Leto, who finally gave birth to a daughter named Artemis on the seventh day of the seventh month.

Almost immediately, Artemis grew to the size of a six-year-old girl and helped deliver her twin brother, Apollo, nine days later.​​​​​​ Seeing that it took days and nights to help her mother give birth to Apollo, the young Artemis swore to be a virgin and that she didn't like men after that. However, this event also influenced her to become the protector and nurturer of the young.

Four days later, Artemis asked her aunt Hestia to take her to Mount Olympus so she could meet with her father. After Artemis lovingly embraced Zeus with open arms, he swore on the River Styx to grant his daughter anything as a birthday present. Artemis requested to be an eternal maiden, the goddess of the wilderness, and wanted a band of eighty maiden followers who varied from mortals or nymphs, twenty of whom hunted with the goddess personally. The Elder Cyclopes forged Artemis' silver bow and arrows, while Pan provided her with hunting dogs. Her followers consisted of about eighty maiden girls who varied from mortals or nymphs.

### Capture of the Golden Deers

Needing wild animals to pull her chariot, Artemis and her Hunters decided to capture a herd of five golden deer. Britomartis was her most skilled trapper, using a set snares and concealed nets. The Hunters made noise to scare off the regular deer, while four of the five golden ones charged straight into the traps and were harnessed for Artemis' chariot. The fifth and smartest golden deer escaped, later becoming known as the Ceryneian Hind. She was given Artemis' blessing and protection from other hunters.

### Calydonian Boar Hunt

When King Oineus of Calydon forgot to honor Artemis at harvest time, the enraged goddess summoned a monstrous boar which she unleashed upon the fields of Calydon, killing many animals and people in the process. Oineus consulted his son Meleager, who suggested launching a great hunt to appease Artemis. All the best hunters in Greece were summoned to participate in the Kalydonian Boar Hunt, but Artemis sabotaged them.

Mopsos, the strongest spear-thrower in Greece, tried killing the monster by launching his spear at it, but Artemis made it bounce harmlessly off the boar. Another hunter named Ankaios charged at it with a double-bladed ax, but died when the boar rammed his tusk straight into Ankaios' crotch. It was Prince Meleager who finally managed to kill the monster with help from the heroine Atalanta, who paralyzed the boar, but it wasn't enough to please Artemis.

She made the other hunters envious and a full-scale civil war erupted when fighting broke out over who really deserved credit for killing the Calydonian Boar.

### Punishing Niobe

When Queen Niobe of Thebes insulted Leto by saying her own children were more numerous and better overall, an enraged Artemis shot arrows at Niobe's seven daughters, while her brother Apollo shot arrows at Niobe's seven sons. In an act of mercy, the gods only left alive to the Queen's youngest daughter and turned Niobe into stone.

### Punishing Actaeon

One night, a prince named Actaeon hunted with his dogs until he stumbled upon Artemis and her Hunters bathing. At the sight of the naked goddess, he immediately fell in love with Artemis and revealed his presence to her. He declared his desire to marry her, though this incited her rage when Actaeon said "[he] must have [her]". As punishment, Artemis transformed Actaeon into a deer and had him killed by his own hunting dogs when she stirred them from sleep.

### Encounter with Sipriotes

Sipriotes was an unfortunate boy who spotted Artemis bathing. Unlike Actaeon, Sipriotes fell to his knees and begged Artemis for mercy. Having gazed upon her naked form, she would have killed Sipriotes, but she decided to give him the option of becoming female to live due to her position as the protector of young children. Left with no other choice, Sipriotes was changed into a girl by Artemis and joined the Hunters.

### Seduction of Callisto

Artemis' lieutenant and best friend was Callisto, a beautiful nymph who caught her father's attention. Zeus appeared to Callisto in his daughter's form and tried seduce her, but a confused Callisto rejected his advances. He decided to reveal his true self and had his way with her, fathering a child in the process.

Many months later, after a long hunt, Artemis and the Hunters decide to go swimming. When Callisto was reluctant to join them, Artemis discovered the pregnancy and demanded to know who took her maidenhood. When Callisto told her it was Zeus disguised as Artemis herself, the goddess was unable to do much because of her father's power. Declaring that she would have allowed Callisto to go peacefully and settle into a new life, a saddened Artemis followed her rules and transformed the sobbing girl into a bear, telling her former best friend to leave or face death.

Callisto eventually gave birth to a human son by the name of Arkas, but was later killed by hunters. Upon death, Zeus, who possibly felt guilty for his actions, honored Callisto in the stars by making her the constellation Ursa Major.

### Death of Orion

Following the incident with Callisto, Artemis befriended the giant Orion, former royal hunter of the King of Chios. After he had his sight restored by Hephaestus with mechanical eyes, Orion settled on Delos, where Artemis allowed him to join her Hunters as the first ever male due to his impressive hunting abilities and archery. He respected all the Hunters and gave them their space when they were bathing.

However, Apollo drove Orion crazy for being close to his sister, fearing she would break her vows of maidenhood. One day, the giant got carried away with hunting so much that he began killing harmless animals, declaring that "[he] will kill all the animals in the world". This didn't sit well with the Hunters' way of life, nor with the Earth Mother Dʰéǵʰōm.

His claims stirred the latter from slumber, sending a massive scorpion that killed Orion with its poisonous stinger. Artemis found his body shortly thereafter. Saddened by the death of yet another friend, she made Orion into a constellation with a scorpion to immortalize his story.

### Befriending Hippolytus

Hippolytus was a charming, handsome prince and legacy who had no interest in romance whatsoever. His passion for hunting made Artemis accept him into the Hunt, though her followers were rather hesitant at the thought of having an attractive male among their ranks.

However, Hippolytus never tried anything romantic with the Hunters. His belief that romantic love and sexuality as not only beneath men but also ridiculous and shameful, which greatly enraged the love goddess Aphrodite, who manipulated his step-mother Phaedra into falling in love with him. When he denied her advances, she hanged herself and made a note to her husband Theseus that she was raped by Hippolytus and was too ashamed to continue living. Furious, the king of Athens not only banished his son, but also called upon one of the three blessings of his father Poseidon, which resulted in his death.

Upon hearing of her friend's death, a devastated Artemis promptly rushed to Hippolytus' tomb and carried his deceased body to her nephew Asclepius, the best physician in all of Greece. She requested that Asclepius revive him from the dead, which he did with the Physician's Cure. However, this had immediate repercussions: Aphrodite complained to Zeus about Hippolytus' revival along with Hades, as it could possibly cause chaos in both the mortal world and the Underworld.

Zeus appeased his aunt and brother by personally striking down Asclepius with a thunderbolt, but Apollo was angered and devastated by the death of his favorite son and killed one of the younger Cyclopes who forged Zeus' thunderbolts in retaliation. To prevent a feud, Asclepius was resurrected and made into a god, but Hades forbid him from ever resurrecting the dead again. Fortunately, Artemis protected Hippolytus and had him sent off to Italy, where he lived to an old age as a priest to one of her sacred shrines.

## Trivia

* Artemis is one of the three Great Goddesses of Eternal Maidenhood, along with Hestia and Athena.
* The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
* She has a collection of furs belonging to many creatures, some of which may be extinct, that were hanging in her tent and temple.
* Artemis share jurisdiction over childbirth and midwifery with her half-sister Eileithyia.
* Though she is said to be the protector of young women, Artemis is said to have been appeased of crimes by the sacrifice of young women, such as Agamemnon's daughter, Iphigenia.
	+ However, in actuality, Artemis took Iphigenia from the pyre seconds before it was lit without Agamemnon or his men being aware. She is current being one of her immortal huntresses.
	+ Artemis could have only pretended to want young women sacrificed while secretly rescuing them, not just from the pyres but from whatever society they lived in.
* A minor planet, (105) Artemis, a lunar crater, the Artemis Chasma and the Artemis Corona (both on Venus) have all been named after her.
* NASA announced that their mission to the moon in 2024 would be named after Artemis.
* According to one source, Artemis was born a day before Apollo and then served as a guardian to him, which provided a context for her desire to protect and nurture.
* Artemis' name is often invoked by witches in tandem with Selene and Hecate.
	+ The three of them represent the three faces of the moon: Artemis - New Moon, Selene - Full Moon, and Hecate - Old Moon.
* In Christian belief, Artemis became the demon of witchcraft because she shared, as goddess of wilderness and transitions, traits with the goddess Hecate; as such, she is still worshipped among contemporary Wiccas and neopagans.
* Artemis' only brother is also the only god of archery worshiped in Hellenism other than her, that being Apollo.
	+ Apollo also contrasts with Artemis, as he is the god of the sun but she is the goddess of the moon.
* Her attributes are a silver bow, arrows, and the crescent moon (or the full moon).
	+ Her sacred animals are the deers, stags, bears, guinea fowl, bee, snakes and hunting dogs.
	+ Her sacred plants are the flowering almond, hazel, ranunculus, honeysuckle, thistle, fir and cypress.