Artemis

Zeus mated with the goddess LETO and she bore ARTEMIS and APOLLO on the island of Delos. In some accounts, Artemis was born first and helped in the delivery of her brother. Thus she revealed at once her powers as a goddess of childbirth, which she shares with Hera and Eileithyia. The birth of the twin deities Artemis and Apollo links them closely together from the very beginning. Lovely Artemis will on occasion join her handsome brother in supervising the dances of the Muses and the Graces, and they both delight in the bow and arrow.

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Like her brother, Apollo, Artemis brings sudden death, but in other ways, she is her twin's polar opposite.

She is associated with wildness and wild things, where he is associated with reason and civilization. He is a huntress, the patron of wild beasts, and the protector of the young of all species.

Artemis's association with wild animals in various aspects dates back to very early times.

Homer calls Artemis potnia theron, or "Mistress of Wild Beasts"; many artistic representations recall this title.
One of her most important sites of worship was at Ephesus, in modern Turkey, where her role as potnia theron seems to have predominated.

As a huntress, she carries a bow and wears a a quiver; she is often shown in a short robe that would allow for running.
Classical Mythology - Elizabeth Vandiver

-She is the protector of women in childbirth.
-She is a virgin and is particularly associated with young girls before and up to the time of their marriages.
-She bring sudden death to women.
-Artemis's status as a virgin and her role as protector of women in childbirth may at first sight seem contradictory; however, both aspects of the goddess tie in to her essential wildness.
-Women in childbirth are most vulnerable to and most caught up in their animal natures; only in the instant of death are humans so clearly allied to the rest of the animal kingdom.
-Ancient Greek society associates women with nature and men with culture.
-Artemis's virginity is not a rejection of sexuality per se; rather, it is a rejection of male domination in sexual intercourse.
Classical Mythology - Elizabeth Vandiver

ACTAEON was an ardent hunter. Once when he wandered off alone, away from his companions, he stumbled upon, by accident or fate, a woodland cave with a pool of water, where Artemis was bathing accompanied by her attendant followers, as was their custom. When they saw Actaeon entering the cave, they screamed and Diana, outraged that a man had seen her naked, took swift revenge. She splashed water in his face and immediately horns began to grow from his head and he was transformed into a stag, completely except for his mind. He ran away in fear and was sighted by his own hunting dogs who turned on him and tore him to pieces.

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-which illustrates the danger of crossing a god. Even unintentional violations of the boundaries between gods and humans can lead to disaster.
-Actaeon inadvertently saw Artemis nude while he was out hunting. Artemis turned him into a stag, but left his mind cognizant of what had happened to him. Actaeon was torn to shreds by his own hunting hounds.
-In the worldview represented by classical mythology, intentions are often irrelevant; what matters is actions. Our culture tends to make a strong distinction between actions according to their intent, but the ancient Greeks considered motives much less important.
Classical Mythology - Elizabeth Vandiver

Artemis became predominantly a vehement virgin, as the stories above make terrifyingly clear. Yet she also possesses characteristics (e.g., her interest in childbirth and the young of both humans and animals) that suggest the fertility goddess. Also at Ephesus, a statue depicts her with what seem like multiple breasts. As a moon-goddess she was worshiped by women who linked her with the lunar cycle and their menstrual period. Nevertheless, above all, Artemis is the virgin huntress, the goddess of nature itself, not concerned with its teeming procreation (like Aphrodite) but with its pristine purity. Artemis, like the moon, appears as a symbol, cold, white, aloof, and chaste.

Hecate’s Suppers. As a moon-goddess, Artemis is linked with SELENE, another earlier goddess of the moon. She is also linked with her cousin HECATE, a fertility goddess of the Underworld who is depicted like a Fury with a scourge and blazing torch, and accompanied by fierce hounds. In particular she is a goddess of the crossroads, a place thought to be the center of ghostly activity in the dead of night. Skilled in the arts of black magic, Hecate is invoked by sorceresses and murderers (e.g., Medea and Lady Macbeth). Offerings of food were made to her (called Hecate’s suppers) at triple-faced statues, erected at crossroads and depicting three aspects of the moon: Selene in heaven, Artemis on earth, and Hecate in the Underworld.

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HIPPOLYTUS is the son of Theseus by the Amazon HIPPOLYTA. Theseus married Phaedra, the daughter of Minos, and Hippolytus grew up to be a young man troubled by his illegitimacy and obsessed with maintaining his virginity. Aphrodite, in a typically Euripidean prologue, describes her great power and her vehement anger against Hippolytus, a hunter who hubristically rejects love and prefers to follow Artemis. Aphrodite exacts her revenge by making Phaedra fall desperately in love with her stepson, a passion impossible to fulfill, which could only lead to tragedy. Phaedra first saw Hippolytus while he was being initiated into the Mysteries and was smitten by a hopeless lust. For two years Phaedra has suffered and now she lies ill, overcome by her guilty secret and determined to die because she is a noble woman and cannot commit this abominable adultery, unlike other unfaithful wives who could be false to their husbands under any circumstances. She desperately desires to preserve her own honor and also that of her sons, Theseus’ legitimate heirs. Her faithful nurse wrests the truth from her, and the solution that she takes upon herself determines the tragic outcome.

The nurse has Hippolytus swear an oath of secrecy, but when she tells him of Phaedra’s passion, he is enraged and cries out that his tongue swore but not his mind. Phaedra overhears the angry exchange and fears Hippolytus will tell all to her ruin (but he never does violate his oath). She hangs herself, but before doing so leaves an incriminating note to save herself and her children by claiming that Hippolytus violated her. Theseus too quickly believes her accusation against the protests of his innocent son, whose purity and religious fanaticism he had always resented. With a curse given him by his father, Poseidon, he orders his son into exile. Poseidon sends a bull from the sea which frightens the horses of Hippolytus’ chariot, entangling the youth in the wreckage. As he is dying, he is brought back to his father for a heartbreaking reconciliation, engineered by the deus ex machina Artemis, who explains to Theseus the truth and promises Hippolytus honors after his death for his devotion and that she will get even with Aphrodite.
(In one version of Adonis’ death, Artemis causes the boar to kill him.)

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