Artemis

Artemis
The Diana of Versailles, a Roman copy of a Greek sculpture by Leochares. (Louvre Museum)
Goddess of the Hunt, Forests and Hills, the Moon
Symbol	Bow, arrows, stags, hunting dog, and moon
Parents	Zeus and Leto
Siblings	Apollo
Roman equivalent	Diana

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Some scholars believe that the name, and indeed the goddess herself, was originally pre-Greek.^[1] Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals".^[2] In the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis (Greek: (nominative) Ἄρτεμις, (genitive) Ἀρτέμιδος) was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity and young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women; she often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.^[3] The deer and the cypress were sacred to her. In later Hellenistic times, she even assumed the ancient role of Eileithyia in aiding childbirth.

Artemis later became identified with Selene,^[4] a Titaness who was a Greek moon goddess, sometimes depicted with a crescent moon above her head. She was also identified with the Roman goddess Diana,^[5] with the Etruscan goddess Artume, and with the Greek or Carian goddess Hecate.^[6]

Etymology

A hypothesis connects Artemis to the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂ŕ̥tḱos meaning "bear" due to her cultic practices in Brauronia and the Neolithic remains at the Arkouditessa. Though connection with Anatolian names has been suggested^[7] and confirmed, as from a "common-gender term for bear in Hittite",^[8] the earliest attested form of the name Artemis is the Mycenaean Greek a-ti-mi-te, written in Linear B syllabic script at Pylos.^[9] Artemis was venerated in Lydia as Artimus.^[10]

In more traditional etymology within Ancient Greek, the name has been related to "ἀρτεμής" (artemes), "safe",^[11] or "ἄρταμος" (artamos) "a butcher".^[12]^[13]

Birth

Apollo (left) and Artemis. Brygos (potter, signed), Briseis Painter, Tondo of an Attic red-figure cup, ca. 470 BC, Louvre.

Various conflicting accounts are given in Classical Greek mythology of the birth of Artemis and her twin brother, Apollo. All accounts agree, however, that she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and that she was the twin sister of Apollo.

An account by Callimachus has it that Hera forbade Leto to give birth on either terra firma (the mainland) or on an island. Hera was angry with Zeus, her husband, because he had impregnated Leto. But the island of Delos (or Ortygia in the Homeric Hymn to Artemis) disobeyed Hera, and Leto gave birth there.^[14]

A scholium of Servius on Aeneid iii. 72 accounts for the island's archaic name Ortygia^[15] by asserting that Zeus transformed Leto into a quail (ortux) in order to prevent Hera from finding out his infidelity, and Kenneth McLeish suggested further that in quail form Leto would have given birth with as few birth-pains as a mother quail suffers when it lays an egg.^[16]

The myths also differ as to whether Artemis was born first, or Apollo. Most stories depict Artemis as born first, becoming her mother's mid-wife upon the birth of her brother Apollo.

Childhood

Roman marble Bust of Artemis after Kephisodotos (Musei Capitolini), Rome

The childhood of Artemis is not fully related in any surviving myth. The Iliad reduced the figure of the dread goddess to that of a girl, who, having been thrashed by Hera, climbs weeping into the lap of Zeus.^[17] A poem of Callimachus to the goddess "who amuses herself on mountains with archery" imagines some charming vignettes: according to Callimachus, at three years old, Artemis, while sitting on the knee of her father, Zeus, asked him to grant her six wishes: to remain always a virgin; to have many names to set her apart from her brother Apollo; to be the Phaesporia or Light Bringer; to have a bow and arrow and a knee-length tunic so that she could hunt; to have sixty "daughters ofOkeanos", all nine years of age, to be her choir; and for twenty Amnisides Nymphs as handmaidens to watch her dogs and bow while she rested. She wished for no city dedicated to her, but to rule the mountains, and for the ability to help women in the pains of childbirth.^[18].

Artemis believed that she had been chosen by the Fates to be a midwife, particularly since she had assisted her mother in the delivery of her twin brother, Apollo.^[19] All of her companions remained virgins and Artemis guarded her own chastity closely. Her symbols included the golden bow and arrow, the hunting dog, the stag, and the moon. Callimachus tells^[20] how Artemis spent her girlhood seeking out the things that she would need to be a huntress, how she obtained her bow and arrows from the isle of Lipara, where Hephaestus and the Cyclops worked. Okeanus' daughters were filled with fear, but the young Artemis bravely approached and asked for bow and arrows. Callimachus then tells how Artemis visited Pan, the god of forest and he gave her seven bitches and six dogs. She then captured six golden-horned deer to pull her chariot. Artemis practiced with her bow first by shooting at trees and then at wild beasts.

Physical Description

Statue of Diana/Artemis at the Vatican Museums

Artemis was portrayed in Classical sculpture as a a young woman, tall and slim. As a goddess of hunting, Artemis wore a girlish knee-length tunic, and carried bow and quiver on her shoulder. Sometimes, a stag was represented with her or a hunting dog. When portrayed as a goddess of the moon, Artemis wore a long robe and sometimes a veil covered her head.

Attributes

Bow and arrow

According to the Homeric Hymn to Artemis, she had golden bow and arrows, as her epithet was Khryselakatos, "of the Golden Shaft", and Iokheira (Showered by Arrows). The arrows of Artemis could also to bring sudden death and disease to girls and women. Artemis got her bow and arrow for the first time from The Kyklopes, as the one she asked from her father. The bow of Artemis also became the witness of Callisto's oath of her virginity. In later cult, the bow became the symbol of waxing moon.^[21]

Chariots

Artemis' chariot was made of gold and being pulled by four golden horned deers (Elaphoi Khrysokeroi). The bridles of her chariot also made of gold.^[22]

Spears, Nets, and Lyre

Although quite seldom, Artemis sometimes being portrayed with a hunting spear. Her cult in Aetolia, The Artemis Aetolian showed her image with a hunting spear. The description about Artemis' spear could be found at Ovid's Metamorphosis While Artemis with a fishing connected with her cult as a patron goddess of fishing.^[23]

As a goddess of maiden dances and songs, Artemis is often portrayed with a lyre.^[24]

Fauna

Deer

Deer were the only animals held sacred to Artemis herself. On seeing a deer larger than a bull with horns shinning, she fell in love with these creatures and held them sacred. Deer were also the first animals she captured. She caught five golden horned deers called Elaphoi Khrysokeroi and harnessed them to her chariot.^[25] To catch the Cerynitian Hind alive was the third labour of Hercules commanded by Eurystheus. Hercules begged Artemis for forgiveness and promised to return it alive. Artemis forgave him but targeted Eurystheus for her wrath.^[26]

Hunting Dog

Artemis got her hunting dogs from Pan in the forest of Arcadia. Pan gave Artemis two dogs black-and-white, three reddish, and one spotted, which were able to hunt even lions. Also seven bitches from the finest Arcadian race. Although, she only brought seven hunting pack.^[27]

Boar

Boar is one of hunter's favorite animal and also hard to be tamed. In honor of Artemis' skill, they sacred it to her. Oineus and Adonis were both killed by Artemis' boar.^[28]

Bear

The sacrifice of a bear for Artemis started from the Brauron cult. Every year, a little girl age not more than ten and less than five sent to Artemis' temple at Brauron. Arktos e Brauroniois, a text by Byzantine writer, Suidas told a legend about a bear that being tamed by Artemis and being introduced to people of Athens. They may touch and play with it, until one day a young girls poked the bear. The bear was furious and attacked the girls. One of the girls' brother found out what happened and killed the bear. Artemis sent a plague for what they did. The Athenians consulted an oracle of how to end the plague. The oracle suggested that the price they must pay for the blood of the bear is every young virgins weren't allowed to marry a man until she served Artemis in her temple (played the bear for the goddess.^[29]

Guinea Fowl

Artemis felt pity for the Meleagrids as they mourned for their lost obrother, Meleagor, so she transformed them into Gunea Fowl to be her favorite animals.

Buzzard Hawk

Hawks were a favoured bird of most of the gods, including Apollo and Artemis. Artemis loved a buzzard hawk.

Flora

Palm and Cypress were issued to be her birth place. Another plants sacred for Artemis are Amaranth and Asphodel^[30]

Artemis and Actaeon

She was once bathing in a vale on Mount Cithaeron, when the Theban hunter Actaeon stumbled across her; she turned him into a stag that was pursued and killed by his own hounds.

Artemis and Adonis

The Death of Adonis, by Giuseppe Mazzuoli, 1709 - Hermitage Museum

In some versions of the story of Adonis, who was a late addition to Greek mythology during the Hellenistic period, Artemis sent a wild boar to kill Adonis as punishment for his hubristic boast that he was a better hunter than she.

In other versions, Artemis killed Adonis for revenge. In later myths, Adonis had been related as a favorite of Aphrodite, and Aphrodite was responsible for the death of Hippolytus, who had been a favorite of Artemis. Therefore, Artemis killed Adonis to avenge Hippolytus’s death.

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 Gaia. In some versions, Orion tried to seduce Opis,^[31] one of her followers, and she killed him. In a version by Aratus,^[32] Orion took hold of Artemis' robe and she killed him in self-defense.

In yet another version, Apollo sent the scorpion. According to Hyginus^[33] 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.

The Aloadae

These twin sons of Iphidemia and Poseidon, Otos and Ephialtes, grew enormously at a young age. They were aggressive, great hunters, and could not be killed unless they killed each other. The growth of the Aloadae never stopped, and they boasted that as soon as they could reach heaven, they would kidnap Artemis and Hera and take them as wives. The gods were afraid of them, except for Artemis who captured a fine deer (or in another version of the story, she changed herself into a doe) and jumped out between them. The Aloadae threw their spears and so mistakenly killed each other.

Wooing the Goddess

As a young virgin, Artemis had interested many gods and men, but none of them successfully won her heart, except her hunting companion Orion, who was then accidentally killed either by the goddess herself or by Gaia.

Alpheus, a river god, was in love with Artemis, but he realized that nothing he could do would win her heart. So he decided to capture her. Artemis who was with her companions at Letrenoi, went to Alpheus, but suspicious of his motives, she covered her face with mud so the river god wouldn't recognize her. Another story involving the god is the story where he tried to rape Artemis' attendant Arethusa. The goddess felt pity to her and save her by transformed Arethusa into a spring in Artemis' temple, Artemis Alphaea in Letrini, where the goddess and her attendant drink.

Bouphagos, the son of the Titan Iapetos, saw Artemis and had a thought of raping her. Detecting his sinful thoughts Artemis struck him at Mount Pholoe.

Sipriotes. This boy, either because he accidentally saw Artemis bathing, or attemped to rape her, was turned into a girl by the goddess.

Worship of Artemis

Roman Temple of Artemis in Jerash, Jordan, built during the reign of Antoninus Pius.

Artemis, the goddess of forests and hills, was worshipped throughout ancient Greece.^[37] Her best known cults were on the island of Delos (her birthplace); in Attica at Brauron and Mounikhia (near Piraeus); in Sparta. She was often depicted in paintings and statues in a forest setting, carrying a bow and arrows, and accompanied by a deer.

As Aeginaea, she was worshiped in Sparta; the name means either huntress of chamois, or the wielder of the javelin (αιγανέα).^[38]^[39] She was worshipped at Naupactus as Aetole; in her temple in that town there was a statue of white marble representing her throwing a javelin.^[40] This "Aetolian Artemis" would not have been introduced at Naupactus, anciently a place of Ozolian Locris, until it was awarded to the Aetolians by Philip II of Macedon. Strabo records another precinct of "Aetolian Artemos" at the head of the Adriatic.^[41] As Agoraea she was the protector of the agora. As Agrotera, she was especially associated as the patron goddess of hunters. In Elis she was worshiped as Alphaea. 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 was sometimes identified by the name Phoebe, the feminine form of her brother Apollo's solar epithet Phoebus.

The ancient Spartans used to sacrifice to her as one of their patron goddesses before starting a new military campaign.

Athenian festivals in honor of Artemis included Elaphebolia, Mounikhia, Kharisteria, and Brauronia. The festival of Artemis Orthia was observed in Sparta.

Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron

Pre-pubescent Athenian girls and young Athenian girls approaching marriageable age 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.

Virginal Artemis was worshipped as a fertility/childbirth goddess in some places, assimilating Ilithyia, 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).

Artemis in art

Fourth century Praxitelean bronze head of a goddess wearing a lunate crown, found at Issa (Vis, Croatia)

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,^[42] with hunting boots, a quiver, a bow^[43] 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 occasionally held a lyre;^[44] 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 Artemis have been found with crescent moons, but these moons are always Renaissance-era additions.

On June 7, 2007, a Roman era bronze sculpture of “Artemis and the Stag” was sold at Sotheby’s auction house in New York state by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery for $25.5 million.

Remains of the temple today.

Artemis as the Lady of Ephesus

Main article: Temple of Artemis

At Ephesus in Ionia (Turkey), her temple became one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was probably the best known center of her worship except for Delos. There the Lady whom the Ionians associated with Artemis through interpretatio Graeca was worshiped 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 breast like protuberances on her chest. They had been traditionally interpreted as multiple accessory breasts, or as sacrificed bull testes, as some newer scholars claimed,^[45] until excavation at the site of the Artemision in 1987-88 identified the multitude of tear-shaped amber beads that had adorned her ancient wooden xoanon. In Acts of the Apostles, Ephesian metalsmiths who felt threatened by Saint Paul's preaching of Christianity, jealously rioted in her defense, shouting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”^[46] Only one of 121 columns still stand in Ephesus. The rest were used for making churches, roads, and forts.

Artemis in astronomy

A minor planet, (105) Artemis; a lunar crater; the Artemis Chasma and the Artemis Corona (both on Venus) have all been named for her.

As Selene she is associated with the Moon, and as Phoebe her name was borrowed for a moon of Saturn.

References

↑ Rose, H. J. A Handbook of Greek Mythology, Dutton 1959, p. 112; Guthrie, W. C. K. The Greeks and Their Gods, Beacon 1955, p. 99.
↑ Homer, Iliad xxi 470 f.
↑ “Her proper sphere is the earth, and specifically the uncultivated parts, forests and hills, where wild beasts are plentiful" Hammond and Scullard (editors), The Oxford Classical Dictionary. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970) 126.
↑ Hammond, Oxford Classical Dictionary, 970-971.
↑ Hammond, Oxford Classical Dictionary, 337-338.
↑ “Artemis is very often identified with foreign goddesses of a more or less similar kind,” notes Hammond, Oxford Classical Dictionary, 127.
↑ Campanile, Ann. Scuola Pisa 28 :305; Restelli, Aevum 37 :307, 312.
↑ Edwin L. Brown, "In Search of Anatolian Apollo", Charis: Essays in Honor of Sara A. Immerwahr, Hesperia Supplements 33 (2004:243-257) p. 251: Artemis, as Apollo's inseparable twin, is discussed pp. 251ff.
↑ John Chadwick and Lydia Baumbach, "The Mycenaean Greek Vocabulary" Glotta, 41.3./4. (1963:157-271) p. 176f, s.v. Ἂρτεμις, a-te-mi-to- (genitive); C. Souvinous, "A-TE-MI-TO and A-TI-MI-TE", Kadmos9 1970:42-47; T. Christidis, "Further remarks on A-TE-MI-TO and A-TI-MI-TE", Kadmos 11 :125-28; Palaeolexicon, Word study tool of ancient languages;
↑ Indogermanica et Caucasica: Festschrift fur Karl Horst Schmidt zum 65. Geburtstag (Studies in Indo-European language and culture), W. de Gruyter, 1994, Etyma Graeca, pp. 213-214, on Google books; Houwink ten Cate, The Luwian Population Groups of Lycia and Cilicia Aspera during the Hellenistic Period (Leiden) 1961:166, noted in this context by Brown 2004:252.
↑ ἀρτεμής, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, On Perseus Digital Library.
↑ ἄρταμος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, On Perseus Digital Library.
↑ Ἄρτεμις, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, On Perseus Digital Library; "?". http://www.behindthename.com/name/artemis.
↑ Hammond. Oxford Classical Dictionary. 597-598.
↑ Or as a separate island birthplace of Artemis— "Rejoice, blessed Leto, for you bare glorious children, the lord Apollon and Artemis who delights in arrows; her in Ortygia, and him in rocky Delos," says the Homeric Hymn; the etymology Ortygia, "Isle of Quail", is not supported by modern scholars.
↑ Kenneth McLeish, Children of the Gods pp 33f; Leto's birth-pangs, however, are graphically depicted by ancient sources.
↑ Iliad xxi.505-13;
↑ Hymn Around Artemis' Childhood
↑ On-line English translation.
↑ Callimachus, Hymn III to Artemis 46
↑ "Bow". http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisTreasures.html#Bow.
↑ "Chariot". http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisTreasures.html#Chariot.
↑ "Spears". http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisTreasures.html#Spears.
↑ "Dance". http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisGoddess.html#Dance.
↑ "Chariot". http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisTreasures.html#Chariot.
↑ "Kerynitian". http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisTreasures.html#Kerynitian.
↑ "Pack". http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisTreasures.html#Pack.
↑ "Animals". http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisTreasures.html#Animals.
↑ "Cult". http://www.theoi.com/Cult/ArtemisCult.html.
↑ "Plants". http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisTreasures.html#Plants.
↑ "Another name for Artemis herself", Karl Kerenyi observes, The Gods of the Greeks (1951:204).
↑ Aratus, 638
↑ Hyginus, Poeticon astronomicon, ii.34, quoting the Greek poet Istrus.
↑ http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisFavour.html#Iphigeneia
↑ Aura does not appear elsewhere in surviving literature and appears to have been offered no cult.
↑ Homer, Iliad 21.470 ff).
↑ “. . . a goddess universally worshiped in historical Greece, but in all likelihood pre-Hellenic.” Hammond, Oxford Classical Dictionary, 126.
↑ Pausanias, iii. 14. § 3.
↑ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Aeginaea". In Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston. pp. 26. http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0035.html
↑ Pausanias, x. 38. § 6.
↑ "Among the Heneti certain honours have been decreed to Diomedes; and, indeed, a white horse is still sacrificed to him, and two precincts are still to be seen — one of them sacred to the Argive Hera and the other to the Aetolian Artemis. (Strabo, v.1.9 on-line text).
↑ Homer portrayed Artemis as girlish in the Iliad.
↑ Greek poets could not decide whether her bow was silver or gold: "Over the shadowy hills and windy peaks she draws her golden bow." (Homeric Hymn to Artemis), and it is a golden bow as well in Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.693, where her nymph's is of horn. "And how often goddess, didst thou make trial of thy silver bow?", asks Callimachus for whom it is a Cydonian bow that the Cyclopes make for her (Callimachus, Hymn 3 to Artemis).
↑ Faulkner, Andrew (2008). The Homeric hymn to Aphrodite: introduction, text, and commentary. Oxford University Press US. p. 95. ISBN 0199238049. http://books.google.com/?id=Awoy3xJpwh4C&pg=PA95.
↑ "In Search of Diana of Ephesus", New York Times, August 21, 1994.
↑ Acts 19:28.

Sources

Walter Burkert, 1985. Greek Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press)
Robert Graves (1955) 1960. The Greek Myths (Penguin)
Karl Kerenyi, 1951. The Gods of the Greeks
Seppo Telenius (2005) 2006. Athena-Artemis (Helsinki: Kirja kerrallaan)

External links

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Artemis

Contents

Etymology

Birth

Childhood

Physical Description

Attributes

Fauna

Flora

Artemis and Actaeon

Artemis and Adonis

Orion

The Aloadae

Wooing the Goddess

Other stories

Callisto

Iphigenia and the Taurian Artemis

Niobe

The Meleagrids

Chione

Atalanta and Oeneus

Aura

Trojan War