In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of hunting, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was often said to roam the forests and mountains, attended by an entourage of nymphs. The goddess Diana is her Roman equivalent.
Artemis was the daughter of Leto and Zeus, and twin sister of Apollo. In most accounts, the twins were produced by an extramarital liaison, for which Zeus's wife Hera forbade Leto from giving birth anywhere on solid land. Only the island of Delos allowed her to give birth to her children. In one account, Artemis is born first and then proceeds to assist Leto in the birth of the second twin, Apollo.Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.21
Artemis was a kourotrophic (child-nurturing) deity, being the protector of children, especially girls, and animal cubs. She was worshipped and feared as one of the primary goddesses of childbirth and midwifery along with Eileithyia and Hera. She was also a patron of healing and disease, and was believed to send good health, illness and death upon women and children, and a guardian over transitions from maidenhood. Artemis was one of the three major virgin goddesses, alongside Athena and Hestia. She was thought of as an unmarried maiden and one of the three Greek goddesses over whom Aphrodite had no power.Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (5), p.21–32
In myth and literature, Artemis is presented as a hunting goddess, who roams the wilderness, often surrounded by a retinue of nymphs. The hunter Actaeon was said to have seen her bathing naked, whereupon the goddess transformed him into a deer, to let his own dogs devour him. In another myth, Callisto is driven away from Artemis' company after breaking her vow of virginity, turned into a bear and then into Ursa Major. In the Epic tradition, Artemis halted the winds blowing the Greek ships during the Trojan War, stranding the fleet in Aulis, after King Agamemnon, the leader of the expedition, shot and killed her sacred deer. Artemis demanded the sacrifice of Iphigenia, his daughter, as compensation for her slain deer. In most versions, Artemis pities her and takes her away, leaving a deer in her place. In the war that followed, Artemis supported the Trojans against the Greeks, and she challenged Hera in battle.
Artemis was one of the most widely venerated Greek deities. Her great temple at Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, before it was burnt to the ground. Artemis's symbols included a bow, arrow, and quiver, and the deer was sacred to her. In later times, she was identified with Selene, the personification of the Moon.Smith, s.v. Artemis
Etymology
The etymology of the name "Artemis" (n., f.) remains uncertain, though various origins have been proposed. Robert S. P. Beekes suggested the e/i interchange indicates a Pre-Greek origin,R.S.P. Beekes, 2009, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, p. 142 a view supported by the Lydian variant ArtimusHouwink ten Cate, 1961, The Luwian Population Groups of Lycia and Cilicia Aspera during the Hellenistic Period (Leiden) p 166, noted in this context by 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. and by Georgios Babiniotis, who notes the name's Mycenaean attestation and possible pre-Greek roots.
The name may be related to Greek árktos "bear" (from PIE *h₂ŕ̥tḱos), supported by the bear cult the goddess had in Attica (Brauronia) and the Neolithic remains at the Arkoudiotissa Cave, as well as the story of Callisto, which was originally about Artemis (Arcadian epithet kallisto);Michaël Ripinsky-Naxon (1993) The Nature of Shamanism: Substance and function of a religious metaphor, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, p 32 this cult was a survival of very old totemic and shamanistic rituals and formed part of a larger bear cult found further afield in other Indo-European cultures (e.g., Gaulish Artio). It is believed that a precursor of Artemis was worshipped in Minoan Crete as the goddess of mountains and hunting, Britomartis. While connection with Anatolian names has been suggested,Campanile, Ann. Scuola Pisa 28:305Restelli, Aevum 37:307, 312 — Artemis, as Apollo's inseparable twin, is discussed at the earliest attested forms of the name Artemis are the Mycenaean Greek , a-te-mi-to /Artemitos/ (gen.) and , a-ti-mi-te /Artimitei/ (dat.), written in Linear B at Pylos. — s.v. Ἂρτεμις, a-te-mi-to- (genitive)
According to J. T. Jablonski, the name is also Phrygian and could be "compared with the royal appellation Artemas of Xenophon". 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". Anton Goebel "suggests the root or , 'to shake', and makes Artemis mean the thrower of the dart or the shooter".
Ancient Greek writers, by way of folk etymology, and some modern scholars, have linked Artemis (Doric Artamis) to , artamos, i.e. "butcher" or, like Plato did in Cratylus, to , artemḗs, i.e. "safe", "unharmed", "uninjured", "pure", "the stainless maiden". A. J. van Windekens tried to explain both and Artemis from , atremḗs, meaning "unmoved, calm; stable, firm" via metathesis.
Description Artemis is an extremely manifold deity worshipped under many names and one of the oldestThe Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome Vol I, 7, Oxford Encyclop, p.267-269 and most popular Olympian deities. Her many local depictions started fading into the image of the huntress in the classical age.Nilsson, "Geschichte", Vol I, p.482-483
The Huntress Classically, Artemis is portrayed as a maiden huntress, young, clothed in a short skirt, with hunting boots, a quiver, a golden or silver bow and arrows. The Homeric Hymn 27 to Artemis paints this picture of the goddess:
In myths and tragedy, Artemis is depicted as a cruel, vengeful goddess. She's a slayer of women, paralleling her brother Apollo's disease-bringing arrows, and demands human sacrifices in the Iliad. She punishes loss of virginity, insults and neglect of sacrifices by death or sending wild beasts, but is appeased in some myths. In other homeric hymns and as Apollo's sister, her musical aspect is stressed, as a dancer, singer and lyre-player. In Sparta, she was revered as a warrrior, in dances, ritual flagellation and competitions for cheese.Nilsson, "Geschichte", Vol I, p.488-489
Her temple at Ephesus was considered one of the seven Wonders of the World, and her local cult was popular until late antiquity. From the 8th-4th century BCE, images of her included the mistress of animals and a woman with a child. Her later "many-breasted" image and Anatolian context led to identification with a mother goddess by late antique and modern scholars. However, the balls hanging from her statue are interpreted as dates or other decorations as well, and Artemis is more commonly associated with (transition from) childhood than with motherhood.Nilsson, "Geschichte", Vol I, p.497-498
Entourage of Nymphs and Maidens Artemis is depicted as the leader of or surrounded by nymphs and she dances or huntsNilsson, "Geschichte", Vol I, p.499 in epics, most prominently in the Odyssey, where Odysseus compares Nausicaa to her, and in hellenistic and roman art. In earlier cult and literature, the association with nymphs is rare. However, she may have origins as an "übernymph", in addition to roots in Asia minor. Ancient poets note Artemis's imposing stature, as she stands taller than all the nymphs accompanying her.Homer, Odyssey 6.102 ffOvid, Metamorphoses 3.138 ff
In accordance with her maidenhood, references to Artemis' beauty are rare. She's only eroticized in (modern) paintings, although Burkert notes her virginity is sexualized akin to maidens' of marriageable age. Libanius wrote that Ptolemy was so smitten by the beauty of Antioch's statue of Artemis he took it home, and her mother Leto takes pride in her beauty, in the Odyssey and in a satirical exchange of insults with Hera, who calls Artemis mannish and barbaric.Lucian, Dialogues of the Gods Hera and Leto
In the Peloponnese and other regions, Artemis' sanctuaries are often found near springs or wetlands. According to Nilsson, this is how she can become a healing goddess, and of adulthood, marriage, pregnancy, birth, and childcare, although the last is not well-attested.Nilsson, "Geschichte", Vol I, p.492-495 Women offered clothes to Artemis for a happy childbirth on the Acropolis and after death in childbirth according to Euripides. She invented food for children according to Diodorus and women in labor cry out to her for help. Larson views Artemis as a deity of the cities and the rural cults of "hermetic" nymphs as separate.
Mistress of Animals and Forests Homer calls Artemis Potnia Theron (), lit. 'mistress of animals', a title associated with depictions as a woman between a pair of animals, found in art going back as far as the Bronze Age. On a Greek vase from circa 570 BCE, a winged Artemis stands between a spotted panther and a deer. During the annual Laphria festival, in Delphi, Patras, and central Greece, wild animals were burned as a sacrifice to Artemis, likely as mistress of animals.Nilsson, "Geschichte", Vol. I, p. 482-487
In some cults she may have retained the shape of a bear (άρκτος árktos, f.: bear) from a Pre-Greek animal form. Kallisto is another bear form or hypostasis of Artemis in Arcadia and immortalized as constellation. Both could be misleading, but show her connection to animals. Her cults at Brauron and at Piraeus (Munichia) are known for the arkteia festival in which girls "imitated bears" in worship to Artemis, replacing a human sacrifice according to myths.Suidas s.v : " Arkteusai (being bears)..... is established for the virgins before marriage at the temples of Artemis Mounychia and Brauronia
More generally, she is depicted with stags or boars, rarely with domesticated animals. The wild side of Potnia Theron allowed closer association of Artemis with daimons or apotropaic gorgons and later identification with Hecate, as did her depiction as torchbearer.Nilsson, "Geschichte", Vol I, p.227, 495
The Dorians interpreted Artemis mainly as goddess of vegetation who was worshipped in an orgiastic cult with lascivious dances.Nilsson, "Geschichte", Vol I, p. 161,490 The "horny" dances, named as such in Greek, were widespread in antiquity, some masked, and both masks' and dancers' genders varied. The forest goddess may descend from a tree cult with temples near holy trees, and was at times identified with the trees.Nilsson, "Geschichte", Vol I, p.315,486–487
Artemis has roots in the less understood Mycenaean goddess of nature. This deity was concerned with birth and vegetation and had chthonic aspects. The Mycenaean goddess was related to the Minoan mistress of the animals, who can be traced in later local cults, but is lost in the mythsB. C. Dietrich (1974), The origins of the Greek religion p. 181,182 :p. 181–182. Thus, how far Minoan and Mycenaean cult diverge remains hard to determine.Burkert (1985),Greek religion, p.21
Epithets Artemis had a number of epithets (surnames or titles) applied to her name, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects ascribed to her. Names like Ephesia or Brauronia mainly refer to (rites in the manner of) certain places. Several of Artemis' epithets may have turned into independent deities, more frequently than other gods'.Martin Nilsson (1967), "Die Geschichte der Griechischen religion", C.H. Beck Verlag, Munchen, p.481-500 Some of her epithets were shared by Amazons like Lyceia or Molpadia.