Artemis is known as the goddess of the hunt.
she is one of the most respected of all the
ancient Greek deities.
It is thought that her name, and even the
goddess herself, may even be pre-Greek.
She was the daughter of Zeus, king
of the gods, and the Titaness Leto and she has a twin brother, the god Apollo.
Not only was Artemis the goddess of
the hunt, she was also known as the goddess of wild animals, wilderness,
childbirth and virginity.
Also, she was protector of young children and
was know to bring and relieve disease in women.
In literature and art she was depicted as a
huntress carrying a bow and arrow.
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Artemis was a virgin and drew the
attention and interest of many gods and men.
However, it was only her hunting companion,
Orion, that won her heart.
It is believed that Orion was accidentally
killed either by Artemis herself or by Gaia, the primordial goddess of the
earth.
Facts about Artemis.
Artemis was daughter of Zeus and Leto and twin
sister of Apollo.
According to one source, Artemis was
born a day before Apollo. She then served as a guardian to him, which provided
a context for her desire to protect and nurture.
She was primarily a virgin huntress,
goddess of wildlife and patroness of hunters.
The bear was sacred to her.
She guarded her virginity carefully.
Actaeon and Orion tried to dishonor or rape her, but anyone who threatened her
purity met with a violent end.
She was an important goddess in the
lives of women, especially when it came to marriage and young creatures.
She was sometimes associated with
the goddess of the moon.
Artemis acted out in anger whenever
her wishes were disobeyed, especially if anyone transgressed against the
animals that were sacred to her.
She punished Agamemnon, for example,
when he killed a stag in her sacred grove.
Artemis appealed to Zeus to grant
her eternal virginity.
Apollo and Artemis teamed up to kill
the children of Niobe.
Niobe bragged that she had birthed more
children than Leto.
The twins then hunted her children
and killed them with their bows and arrows.
Artemis was worshipped widely in
Greece but only as a secondary deity.
A temple built in her honor became
one of the “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.”
At least two festivals were celebrated
in her honor of Artemis:
Brauronia and the festival of Artemis Orthia.
Homer referred to her as a mistress
of wild animals.
Artemis spent most of her time
roaming the forests with her nymphs.
She was described as both hunting animals and
protecting them.
She armed herself with a bow and
arrows made by Hephaestus and Cyclops.
In art, Artemis is often accompanied
by a stag or hunting dog.
She is the protector of chastity and
a nurturer of the young.
goddess of :The Hunt, Wilderness,
Wild Animals, Virginity, The Moon, Delivery.
Symbols: Bow & Arrows, Hunting,
Stag, Dog,and The Moon.
Sacred animals: Deer, Bear.
Parents: Zeus and Leto.
Consort: None (Virgin).
Children: None.
Artemis and Orion.
Orion was Artemis' hunting
companion.
In some versions, he is killed by Artemis,
while in others he is killed by a scorpion sent by Gaia.
In some versions, Orion tries to seduce Opis,
one of her followers, and she killed him.
In a version by Aratus, Orion took hold of
Artemis's robe and she killed him in self-defense.
In yet another version, Apollo sends
the scorpion.
According to Hyginus, Artemis once
loved Orion (in spite of the late source, this version appears to be a rare
remnant of her as the pre-Olympian goddess, who took consorts, as Eos did), but
was tricked into killing him by her brother Apollo
, who was "protective" of
his sister's maidenhood.
Artemis was friends with the giant
Orion,
but long after Orion's death humans
thought that they could have been something more.
This was unlikely true because the
first stories of their friendship were things like Orion being a rapist and
attempting to take advantage of their friendship and rape Artemis, which in
turn led to her killing him.
Others were things like Orion attempting to
kill every beast in the world to win her heart, in order to stop him either
Artemis killed him without regret.
(she thought he was crazy and that she would
never fall in love no matter what, or Gaia sending Scorpio to kill him.
Either way unlike popular belief
there was plenty of evidence that they had nothing other than a mere friendship
(despite Orion wanting more but he may or may not have acted on it and tried to
rape her).
In the unlikely case of Artemis
being in love with Orion it would have likely ended with with Apollo wanting to
make sure Artemis kept her vow and he either sent Scorpio to kill him or
tricked Artemis into shooting Orion.
Orion was the self-proclaimed best hunter in
another version and Hera sent Scorpio to kill him, in this version Zeus put him
in the stars as a constellation as an apology to Orion for what his wife did.
It was most likely in most case that Zeus was
the one who put him in the sky.
and only the ones where Artemis was in love
with him would Artemis have put her in the sky. The whole idea of Artemis
loving Orion was started way after the first stories of any possible friendship
between the two.
Trojan War.
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 worshiped in
western Anatolia in historical times.
In the Iliad 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.
Artemis played quite a large part in
this war.
Like her mother and brother, whom was widely
worshiped at Troy,
Artemis took the side of the
Trojans.
At the Greek's journey to Troy,
Artemis becalmed the sea and stopped the journey until an oracle came and said
they could win the goddess' heart by sacrificing Iphigenia, Agamemnon's
daughter.
Agamemnon once promised the goddess he would
sacrifice the dearest thing to him, which was Iphigenia, but broke the promise.
Other sources said he boasted about his
hunting ability and provoked the goddess' anger. Artemis saved Iphigenia
because of her bravery.
In some versions of the myth,
Artemis made Iphigenia her attendant or turned her into Hekate, goddess of
night, witchcraft, and the underworld.
Aeneas was helped by Artemis, Leto,
and Apollo.
Apollo found him wounded by Diomedes and
lifted him to heaven. There, the three of them secretly healed him in
a great chamber.