139 Facts About Artemis

Artemis was often said to roam the forests and mountains, attended by her entourage of nymphs.

In Greek tradition, Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and twin sister of Apollo.

In one account, Artemis is born first and then proceeds to assist Leto in the birth of the second twin, Apollo.

Artemis was a kourotrophic deity, that is the patron and protector of young children, especially young girls.

Artemis was worshipped as one of the primary goddesses of childbirth and midwifery along with Eileithyia and Hera.

Artemis was a patron of healing and disease, particularly among women and children, and believed to send both good health and illness upon women and children.

Artemis was one of the three major virgin goddesses, alongside Athena and Hestia.

Artemis preferred to remain an unmarried maiden and was one of the three Greek goddesses over whom Aphrodite had no power.

In myth and literature, Artemis is presented as a hunting goddess of the woods, surrounded by her chaste band of nymphs.

Artemis demanded the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Agamemnon's young daughter, as compensation for her slain deer.

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities; her worship spread throughout ancient Greece, with her multiple temples, altars, shrines, and local veneration found everywhere in the ancient world.

Artemis' symbols included a bow and arrow, a quiver, and hunting knives, and the deer and the cypress were sacred to her.

Charles Anthon argued that the primitive root of the name is probably of Persian origin from *arta, *art, *arte, all meaning "great, excellent, holy", thus Artemis "becomes identical with the great mother of Nature, even as she was worshiped at Ephesus".

Artemis is presented as a goddess who delights in hunting and punishes harshly those who cross her.

Artemis' wrath is proverbial, and represents the hostility of wild nature to humans.

Artemis carries with her certain functions and characteristics of a Minoan form whose history was lost in the myths.

Artemis was one of the most popular goddesses in Ancient Greece.

The ancient Greeks called potnia theron the representation of the goddess between animals; on a Greek vase from circa 570 BCE, a winged Artemis stands between a spotted panther and a deer.

Artemis is called Artemis Chrysilakatos, of the golden shafts, or Chrysinios, of the golden reins, as a goddess of hunting in her chariot.

Artemis is an independent free woman, and she does not need any partner.

In Peloponnese the temples of Artemis were built near springs, rivers and marshes.

Artemis was closely related to the waters and especially to Poseidon, the god of the waters.

Artemis is the leader of the nymphs and she is hunting surrounded by them.

Artemis was worshipped with the surname Eucleia in several cities.

In relation to these myths Artemis was worshipped as Saronia and Stymphalia.

Artemis carrying torches was identified with Hecate and she had the surnames Phosphoros and Selasphoros.

Artemis has several stories surrounding her where men such as Actaeon, Orion, and Alpheus tried to couple with her forcibly, only to be thwarted or killed.

Artemis is rooted to the less developed personality of the Mycenean goddess of nature.

Artemis carries with her certain functions and characteristics of a Minoan form whose history was lost in the myths.

Artemis was a great goddess and her temples were built near springs marshes and rivers where the nymphs live, and they are appealed by the pregnant women.

Some cults of Artemis retained the pre-Greek features which were consecrated by immemorial practices and connected with daily tasks.

Artemis was worshipped in orgiastic cults with lascivious and sometimes obscene dances, which have pure Greek elements introduced by the Dorians.

Artemis is frequently depicted carrying a torch and she was occasionally identified with Hecate.

Artemis was considered to be the protector of the assemblies of the people in the agora.

At Olympia the cult of "Artemis Agoraea" was related to the cult of Despoinai.

Amphipyros, with fire at each end, a rare epithet of Artemis as bearing a torch in either hand.

Artemis was a vegetation goddess related to the ecstatic tree cult.

Artemis travelled to Aegina on a wooden boat and then she disappeared.

Artemis's statue was considered the same with the statue that Orestes brought from Tauris.

Pausanias describes xoana of "Ariste" and "Kalliste" in the way to the academy of Athens and he believes that the names are surnames of the goddess Artemis, who is depicted carrying a torch.

Artemis's cult is remarkable for the "arkteia", young girls who dressed with short saffron-yellow chitons and imitated bears.

Artemis was strongly related to the nymphs, and young girls were dancing the dance Caryatis.

Artemis escaped to his country taking with him the virgin priestess of the goddess Artemis.

Artemis's name is derived from the mountain Dikti in Crete.

Artemis escaped from Minos, who fell in love with her, by jumping into the sea and falling into a net of fishes.

Artemis was playing and dancing with the nymphs who lived near springs, waters and forests and she was hunting surrounded by them.

Artemis's sanctuary was near the bronze statue of Poseidon Hippios.

Artemis found his mares at Pheneus, where he founded the temple of "Artemis Heurippa".

Artemis was a goddess of dance and songs, especially of female choruses.

Artemis has a wild character and Hera advises her to kill animals in the forest, instead of fighting with her superiors.

Apollo and Artemis kill with their arrows the children of Niobe because she offended her mother Leto.

Kalliste, the most beautiful, another form of Artemis with the shape of a bear at Tricoloni near Megalopolis a mountainous area full of wild beasts.

Kallisto the attendant of Artemis, bore Arcas the patriarch of the Arcaden.

Artemis's name is probably derived from the custom of clothes consecration to the goddess, for a happy childbirth.

Artemis placed a goat on the altar and he sacrificed the goat instead of his daughter.

Artemis was worshipped as a goddess of vegetation in an orgiastic cult with boisterous cyclic dances.

Artemis was transformed by Artemis into a stream, traversed underground and appeared at Ortygia, thus providing water for the city.

Artemis is the only Greek goddess who stands close to the daimons and she has a wild side which differentiates her from other Greek gods.

Artemis followed the doe in the waters and he was drowned in the waves of the sea.

At Lycosura Artemis is depicted holding a snake and a torch and dressed with a deer skin, besides Demeter and Persephone.

Artemis's image was considered to have been carried from Tauris by Orestes and Iphigenia and was brought to Brauron, Sparta or Aricia.

Artemis was killed in the ritual with a sword cutting his throat.

Artemis's cult was superimposed on the cult of Dionysos Aisemnetis.

Triclaria was a priestess of Artemis who made love with her lover in the sanctuary.

Leto bore Apollo and Artemis, delighting in arrows, Both of lovely shape like none of the heavenly gods, As she joined in love to the Aegis-bearing ruler.

The myths differ as to whether Artemis was born first, or Apollo.

Bouphagos, son of the Titan Iapetus, sees Artemis and thinks about raping her.

Artemis taught a man, Scamandrius, how to be a great archer, and he excelled in the use of a bow and arrow with her guidance.

Broteas was a famous hunter who refused to honour Artemis, and boasted that nothing could harm him, not even fire.

Artemis then drove him mad, causing him to walk into fire, ending his life.

Artemis changed a Calydonian man named Calydon, the son of Ares and Astynome, into stone when he saw the goddess bathing naked.

The details vary but at the core, they involve the great hunter Actaeon whom Artemis turns into a stag for a transgression, and who is then killed by hunting dogs.

Apollodorus, who records the Semele version, notes that the ones with Artemis are more common.

Diodorus Siculus wrote that Actaeon dedicated his prizes in hunting to Artemis, proposed marriage to her, and even tried to forcefully consummate said "marriage" inside the very sacred temple of the goddess; for this he was given the form "of one of the animals which he was wont to hunt", and then torn to shreds by his hunting dogs.

Artemis summoned her children and commanded them to avenge the slight against her.

On cue, Artemis then started shooting the daughters one by one.

Right as Niobe begged for her youngest one to be spared, Artemis killed that last one.

In some versions, Apollo and Artemis spared a single son and daughter each, for they prayed to Leto for help; thus Niobe had as many children as Leto did, but no more.

Orion was Artemis' hunting companion; after giving up on trying to find Oenopion, Orion met Artemis and her mother Leto, and joined the goddess in hunting.

Artemis then transferred him into the stars as the constellation Orion.

Istrus wrote a version in which Artemis fell in love with Orion, apparently the only time Artemis ever fell in love.

Artemis meant to marry him, and no talk from her brother Apollo would change her mind.

Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon, King of Arcadia, was one of Artemis' hunting attendants, and, as a companion of Artemis, took a vow of chastity.

Enraged, Artemis transformed Callisto into a bear, and in this form she gave birth to her son Arcas.

Hera, finding the bear, points it out to Artemis, who is hunting; Zeus, in panic, places Callisto in the heavens as a constellation.

Artemis then turned her into a bear himself so as to hide the event from Hera.

Artemis then shot the bear, either upon the persuasion of Hera, or out of anger at Callisto for breaking her virginity.

Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, presents another version, in which, after Zeus seduced Callisto, Hera turned her into a bear, which Artemis killed to please Hera.

Artemis was beloved by two gods, Hermes and Apollo, and boasted that she was more beautiful than Artemis because she had made two gods fall in love with her at once.

Artemis was furious and killed Chione with an arrow, or struck her mute by shooting off her tongue.

Artemis saved the infant Atalanta from dying of exposure after her father abandoned her.

Artemis sent a female bear to nurse the baby, who was then raised by hunters.

In some stories, Artemis later sent a bear to injure Atalanta because others claimed Atalanta was a superior hunter.

Artemis hung it in a sacred grove at Tegea as a dedication to Artemis.

When out hunting one day with Artemis, she asserts that the goddess's voluptuous body and breasts are too womanly and sensual, and doubts her virginity, arguing that her own lithe body and man-like breasts are better than Artemis' and a true symbol of her own chastity.

The gods were afraid of them, except for Artemis who captured a fine deer that jumped out between them.

Artemis then turns into a deer and causes them to kill each other.

In some versions of the story of Adonis, Artemis sent a wild boar to kill him as punishment for boasting that he was a better hunter than her.

Polyphonte was a young woman who fled home in pursuit of a free, virginal life with Artemis, as opposed to the conventional life of marriage and children favoured by Aphrodite.

Artemis's resulting offspring, Agrius and Oreius, were wild cannibals who incurred the hatred of Zeus.

When two of her hunting companions who had sworn to remain chaste and be devoted to her, Rhodopis and Euthynicus, fell in love with each other and broke their vows in a cavern, Artemis turned Rhodopis into a fountain inside that very cavern as punishment.

Artemis became a cat, as she was identified by the Greeks with the Egyptian feline goddess Bastet.

Artemis plays a significant role in the war; like Leto and Apollo, Artemis took the side of the Trojans.

At the beginning of the Greek's journey to Troy, Artemis punished Agamemnon after he killed a sacred stag in a sacred grove and boasted that he was a better hunter than the goddess.

The seer Calchas erroneously advised Agamemnon that the only way to appease Artemis was to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia.

In some version of the myth, Artemis then snatched Iphigenia from the altar and substituted a deer; in others, Artemis allowed Iphigenia to be sacrificed.

In versions where Iphigenia survived, a number of different myths have been told about what happened after Artemis took her; either she was brought to Tauris and led the priests there, or she became Artemis' immortal companion.

Artemis chided her brother Apollo for not fighting Poseidon and told him never to brag again; Apollo did not answer her.

An angry Hera berated Artemis for daring to fight her:.

Crying, Artemis left her bow and arrows where they lay and ran to Olympus to cry at her father Zeus' knees, while her mother Leto picked up her bow and arrows and followed her weeping daughter.

Artemis's best known cults were on the island of Delos, in Attica at Brauron and Mounikhia, and in Sparta.

Artemis was often depicted in paintings and statues in a forest setting, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a deer.

Athenian festivals in honor of Artemis included Elaphebolia, Mounikhia, Kharisteria, and Brauronia.

Artemis demanded that young girls "act the bear" at her sanctuary in atonement for the bear's death.

Artemis was worshipped as one of the primary goddesses of childbirth and midwifery along with Eileithyia.

Artemis could be a deity to be feared by pregnant women, as deaths during this time were attributed to her.

Artemis was born on the sixth day of the month Thargelion, which made it sacred for her, as her birthday.

Artemis was worshipped in many festivals throughout Greece mainland and the islands, Asia Minor and south Italy.

The ancient cultural context in which Artemis' worship emerged held that virginity was a prerequisite to marriage, and that a married woman became subservient to her husband.

Artemis was traditionally linked to fertility and was petitioned to assist women with childbirth.

Notably, Roman-era author Plutarch writes how during the Battle of Salamis, Artemis led the Athenians to victory by shining with the full moon, but all lunar-related narratives of this event come from Roman times, and none of the contemporary writers makes any mention of the night or the Moon.

Selene, just like Artemis, was linked to childbirth, as it was believed that women had the easiest labours during the full moon, paving thus the way for the two goddesses to be seen as the same.

Artemis absorbed the Pre-Greek goddess Potnia Theron who was closely associated with the daimons.

Artemis would have, at that point, become more strongly associated with purity and maidenhood on the one hand, while her originally darker attributes like her association with magic, the souls of the dead, and the night would have continued to be worshipped separately under her title Hecate.

At Acacesium Artemis Hegemone is depicted holding two torches, and at Lycosura Artemis is depicted holding a snake and a torch.

Sophocles calles Artemis Amphipyros, carrying a torch in each hand, however the adjective refers to the twin fire on the two peaks of the mountain Parnassus behind Delphi.

At Kerameikos in Athens Artemis is clearly identified with Hecate.

Pausanias believes that Kalliste is a surname of Artemis carrying a torch.

Artemis is sometimes depicted with a fishing spear connected with her cult as a patron goddess of fishing.

Artemis caught five golden-horned deer and harnessed them to her chariot.

At Lycosura in isolated Arcadia Artemis is depicted holding a snake and a torch and dressed with a deer skin, besides Demeter and Persephone.

Artemis placed a goat on the altar and he sacrificed the goat instead of his daughter.

The fierce-hunter virgin Atalanta allied to the goddess Artemis was the first who wounded the Calydonian boar.

Artemis felt pity for the Calydonian princesses Meleagrids as they mourned for their lost brother, Meleager, so she transformed them into Guinea fowl to be her favorite animals.

Artemis is sometimes identified with the mythical bull-goddess in a cult foreign in Greece.

At Acacesium Artemis Hegemone is depicted holding two torches.

When portrayed as a lunar deity, Artemis wore a long robe and sometimes a veil covered her head.

Artemis was sometimes represented in Classical art with the crown of the crescent moon, such as found on Luna and others.

The Artemis program is an ongoing robotic and crewed spaceflight program which has the goal of landing "the first woman and the next man" on the lunar south pole region no earlier than 2025.