| Artemis Biography |
| Artemis,
the Greek moon goddess, was the twin sister of Apollo,
and was occasionally presented as the daughter of Zeus and Demeter
or Persephone. She is known as the chaste goddess of wildlife and all
young living things. Artemis was also revered as the virgin goddess of birth and often
invoked by women in labor. In fact, at Ephesus in Asia Minor she was revered and
represented by Artemis Polymastos which means "many-breasted" and was a mother
of the Near Eastern type. Among the Romans she was known as Diana.
Artemis was born on the sixth day of the month of Thargelion and shared the vicissitudes, which marked her childhood, with her brother. As soon as she was born she went to her father Zeus and begged him, not for ornaments or jewelry, but a short tunic, hunting boots, a bow, and a quiver full of arrows. After accompanying her brother Apollo on his epic expedition against the serpent Python and his exile in Thessaly, Artemis chose to reside in her favorite place of Arcadia. Arcadia was known as a savage and mountainous region, where torrents tumbled down the woody slopes and plunged through narrow gorges. In this rude, out-door existence Artemis was accompanied by sixty young Oceanides and twenty nymphs who were appointed to the care of her pack of swift hounds. This allowed Artemis to give herself to the pleasures of the chase. To the virgin huntress this existence was no place for love. Even the legitimate joys of marriage were repugnant and she made a law of chastity which she imposed on her companions. So strict was she with this law that when Actaeon, a mortal, came upon her bathing she was so enraged that he should see her nakedness that she changed him into a stag and set his own pack upon him. The hounds tore Actaeon to pieces and devoured him. Yet Artemis’ own heart was stirred by the hunter Orion and if Apollo had not cruelly intervened, she would have married him. It is said that one day, when Orion was bathing in the sea he had swum far from shore. Apollo, seeing Orion in the distance, challenged his sister to hit the scarcely visible point which, far out to sea, moved on the surface of the waves. Artemis, not realizing that the distant object was Orion whom she loved, accepted the challenge and shot an arrow which pierced Orion’s temple. Elsewhere it is told that Artemis killed Orion with the sting of a deadly scorpion as he had dared to touch the goddess when they were hunting together. Tall and slender, Artemis is often depicted with her brother Apollo. Her attributes are the crescent moon and the bow and quiver. She wears a short tunic which does not fall below her knees and is usually accompanied by a hind or a dog. |
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