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ARTEMIS
Artemis (Diana to Romans) was the goddess hunting, wild nature and newborn children. The twin sister of Apollo and daughter of Zeus, she was the protector of wild animals and appealed to her father to be freed from the obligations of marriage and allowed to remain a wild maiden, hunting in the woods. Zeus agreed and gave Artemis 50 nymphs and packs of hunting dogs as companions. In the forest she found four deer with golden antlers and harnessed them to her golden chariot.
Artemis was also associated with childbirth, the harvest, and the moon. Considered the guardian of maidens and small children, she was worshiped throughout most of Europe and the Mediterranean during ancient times and she still has followers today. Statues of her have endowed her with a dozen and half breasts on her chest and bees on her skirt. Some scholars believe the breasts are ova on sacred bees. None of the breasts on the early statues had nipples however, which led one classical scholar to venture they were actually bull's testes.
Like her brother Apollo, Artemis-Diana was a popular god among ancient Greeks, Roman and other ancient peoples. A fertility deity known as the “Lady of Ephesus”, worshipped by the people of Ephesus in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) was believed to be a foreign version of Artemis. A large temple devoted of Diana (Artemis) in Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the World and drew large numbers of pilgrims. Images of Diana and her temple were sold on the streets of Ephesus like miniature Eiffel towers and Statues of Liberty are sold today. During the festival of Artemis images of Diana were placed on the steps of her temple for worshipers to kiss.
Artemis was a virgin goddess and served as a patroness of young girls. According to the Encyclopedia of World Mythology: She differed from the other Greek virgin goddess, Athena, in that she was considered the goddess of girls before they married, whereas Athena's virginity was considered to be asexual (without a sexual orientation). The followers of Artemis are known as ”nymphs,” and girls old enough to be married danced and sang at festivals that honored Artemis; it was one of the few opportunities in Greek culture for unmarried men and women to mingle. When girls married, Artemis continued to watch over them — this time as they gave birth. Artemis decided whether a woman lived or died in childbirth, and the Greeks believed that her arrows caused women to die from disease. [Source Encyclopedia of World Mythology]
Artemis Symbols and Patronages
Because Artemis was considered the goddess of wild things and the hunt she is often described as being young, wearing clothes she can run in — possibly made of animal skins — and carrying a bow and quiver of arrows. Oddly, though she is a huntress, she is also is considered the guardian of wildlife, associated with protecting the forest and the creatures in it. As the twin of Apollo, the god of the sun, Artemis sometimes wears a crescent moon on her forehead to symbolize her connection to the moon and lunar cycles like the tide, and women's mysteries and phases such as childbirth, puberty, and motherhood. [Source Encyclopedia of World Mythology]
Although the Greeks developed sophisticated agriculture and animal domestication, hunting was an important part of ancient Greek life and culture. Hunters traditionally offered Artemis the heads, anders, or skins of their prey, and fishermen also offered parts of their catch to her. The close connection between hunting and warfare resulted in her worship as a goddess of warfare in some Greek states.
In works of art, Artemis is often shown carrying her bow and arrows, surrounded by hounds. She appears in many literary works including Homer's Iliad, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Euripides' Hippolytus. Fritz Graf wrote in the Encyclopedia of Religion, In Greek religion she is concerned with the transitions of birth and growing up of both genders, as well as with the death of women and with the spaces outside the cities and the human activities in them — especially hunting and warfare. In the Greek East she is also a city goddess. Her equivalents in Anatolia and the Near East were the Phrygian Cybele and the Persian Anahita. The Romans identified Artemis with Diana, whereas the Etruscans accepted her under her Greek name as "Artumes." She is known as "Artimus" in Lydia, and as "Ertemi" in Lycia; she had many local sanctuaries all over Anatolia. The Greek goddess entered both the Lycian and Lydian pantheon under her Greek name, and numerous local goddesses all over Anatolia were hellenized as Artemis. [Source:Fritz Graf, Encyclopedia of Religion, 2005, Encyclopedia.com]
Artemis and Other Gods
Diana (Artemis)
Apollo was the god of music, of health, healing and human enlightenment. Artemis was his His twin sister. Artemis could be just as cruel as her brother. Once she was spotted naked, bathing with her nymphs, by a mortal. Outraged at being found in such a state, she turned the mortal into a stag and ordered her dogs to devour him.
Marianne Bonz wrote for PBS’s Frontline: “Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo. Their mother was Leto, one of the many goddesses seduced by Zeus. Like Apollo, Artemis was a goddess of the hunt. She is usually depicted as a kind of tomboy in short tunic, carrying a bow and arrows. Also like her brother, who was associated with the light of the sun, Artemis was associated with the light of the moon. As such, in some regions she was also considered the protectress of the tombs of the dead. Very different in origin and appearance is Artemis of Ephesus, whose immense temple came to be known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and whose ardent worshipers form the backdrop for one of the most dramatic encounters in the Book of Acts. This Artemis was a goddess of fertility and fecundity, who probably traveled to the area in and around Ephesus from barbarian regions further east.” [Source: Marianne Bonz, Frontline, PBS, April 1998 ]
Artemis and her twin brother, the handsome young Apollo, were the children of Zeus and the Titan Leto. Artemis was sometimes described as an eternal virgin. Her origins can be traced as far back as Babylon and she may even have evolved from Stone Age earth mothers goddesses that dominated primitive cultures before the Greeks popularized male gods. Artists throughout history have been fascinated with Diana's image. A Raphael painting of her graces the Vatican and a sculpture by a modern Brooklyn artist gave her four buttocks as well as eight pairs of breasts.
History of Artemis
Artemis’s name defies etymology. She is most likely referred to in the inscriptions from the Bronze Age Pylus (Linear B) although what here roles were are unclear. She is also referenced in Hyampolis (Boeotia), a sanctuary that in the first millennium B.C. belonged to Artemis and Apollo. The mythology and religious roles of Artemis are firmly established in early Greek in the literature of Homer and Hesiod in the late sixth to early seventh centuries B.C. Like here brother Apollo, she takes the side of the Trojans against the Greeks (Iliad 20.479–513). She is characterized as a rather inept fighter and Homeric poetry narrates some of her myths such as how she took revenge on the Calydonian king Oineus for neglecting her sacrifice (Iliad 9.533–540) and how she killed Orion, the lover of Eos (Odyssey 5.121), and Ariadne on the behest of Dionysos (Odyssey 11.324).[Source: Fritz Graf, Encyclopedia of Religion, 2005, Encyclopedia.com]
Epic poetry refers Artemis as the hunter. According to the Encyclopedia of Religion: Artemis is the "Lady of Animals" (potnia thērōn, Iliad 21.470) and protects the good hunter and punishes the bad one, such as Orion or Actaeon. In the company of her nymphs, Artemis hunts boars and stags, but she also relaxes with dance and play (Odyssey 6.102–109). The nymphs, the mythical projection of the nubile girls with whom Artemis is often connected, share her space during their transitional rites. Like these nymphs, Artemis, too, is a virgin; but unlike her, these maidens (korai) will lose their virginity (the chorus of "resounding Artemis" and her korai provokes erotic conquests). [Source: Fritz Graf, Encyclopedia of Religion, 2005, Encyclopedia.com]
Hunting means killing, and the huntress Artemis also kills humans — and not only in revenge. Her unfailing arrows were believed to cause the death from disease of women of every age and station. The invisible arrow of Artemis also explained unexpected female death (Odyssey 11.172). Hera, the protectress of married women, once called Artemis "a women's lioness" (Iliad 21.483). To the Greeks, warfare and hunting were closely connected. Hunting was training for war, and in several Greek states, Artemis was also connected with warfare. Before a battle, the Spartans offered a sacrifice to Artemis Agrotera (The Wild One) (Xenophon, Hellenica 4.2.20). The Athenians celebrated the victory of Marathon with an annual sacrifice to Artemis and Enyalios, a god of war often identified with Ares (Aristotle, State of Athens 58.1).
Artemis Myths
Diana and Actaeon
According to the Encyclopedia of World Mythology: Artemis and Apollo were the children of Zeus and Leto. When Leto was about to deliver the twins, Zeus's jealous wife Hera declared that she would not allow them to be born in any land where the sun shone. For this reason, Zeus led Leto to a floating island and caused a wave to shade the shore, creating a place for the birth that was above ground but hidden from the sun. [Source Encyclopedia of World Mythology]
Many myths about Artemis focus on her vengeful nature. She was known for punishing humans who offended or angered her. In one story, a young hunter named Actaeon came upon Artemis while she was bathing in a stream. Although he knew better than to spy on a goddess, he was captivated by her beauty. Artemis caught sight of Actaeon and, not wanting him to boast of having seen her naked body, changed him into a deer. His own hounds then attacked and killed him. The nymph Callisto met a similar fate when Artemis punished her for losing her virginity by transforming her into a bear; Callisto's own son Areas later unknowingly shot her while hunting.
Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek forces in the Trojan War, also felt the wrath of Artemis after he killed a deer that was sacred to her. In her anger, Artemis prevented the Greek fleet from sailing for Troy; it was only when Agamemnon promised to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess that Artemis let them go.
In another myth, Artemis and Apollo defended the honor of their mother, Leto. A woman named Niobe, who had six sons and six daughters, boasted that her offspring outshone Leto's two children. Outraged, Leto sent Artemis and Apollo to punish Niobe. With their arrows, the twins shot and killed all of Niobe's children.
The virgin goddess was also a notorious killer of women. Debra Kelly wrote in Listverse: When Artemis is young, she appeals to her father to allow her to remain a virgin for eternity and he grants her that wish. She is the huntress, and at the same time, the protector of animals. As much as she is the virgin goddess and the picture of purity, she is also the goddess of childbirth and the destroyer of young women. Her stepmother, Hera, calls her a lion among women—and she lives up to the unofficial title.Artemis murders the six daughters of Niobe, who boasted that she has more children than Artemis’s mother, Leto. She demands the sacrifice of Iphigenia in repayment for her father’s murder of a sacred stag (although in some versions, Artemis saves the maiden at the last moment). In Artemis’s real-life cult rituals, there were instances of extreme cruelty, from the ritual drawing of blood from a man’s throat to beatings and whippings. [Source Debra Kelly, Listverse, December 17, 2013]
Temple of Diana
The Temple of Diana (in Ephesus) was ordered by King Croesus and completed around 550 B.C. after 120 years of labor. Described by Phion as the greatest of the seven wonders, the Temple of Diana was 225-feet-wide and 525-feet-long, with 127 sixty-foot-high marble columns. The largest and most complex temple in ancient times, it was made out of marble, wood and tile, and built on marshy soil so it would be immune to earthquakes. Even so the temple had to be rebuilt three times before Goths destroyed it in 262 A.D.
reconstruction of the Temple of Diana, one the Seven Wonders of the World
The Temple of Diana was built around 550 B.C. near the sea and destroyed by invading Goths around A.D. 262. Ertastratus ordered the Temple of Diana to be burned down he did so to ensure that it was remembered, English archeologist J. T. Wood rediscovered the temple in 1874 after 11 years of digging. Today the ruins are located a mile or so away from Ephesus, and unfortunately all that remains is a foundation.
Diana of Ephesus, also known as the virgin huntress of the moon, was worshipped throughout most of Europe and the Mediterranean during ancient times and she still has followers today. The Greeks knew her as Artemis, and her origins can be traced as far back as Babylon. She may even have evolved from Stone Age earth mothers goddesses that dominated primitive cultures before the Greeks popularized male gods.
Despite the fact she was a permanent virgin, she was the goddess of fertility, and the famous statue of her now in the Selçuk Museum has endowed her with 18 breasts. None of the breasts have nipples, however, which led one classical scholar to venture they were actually bull's testes or the ova on scared bees. Whatever they were Diana's image has fascinated artists for centuries. Other statues have placed bees on her knees and lions over her shoulders. A Raphael painting of her graces the Vatican. And recently a Brooklyn artist gave her four buttocks as well as a chestful of breasts.
Cruel Artemis Rituals
Fritz Graf wrote in the Encyclopedia of Religion: In the sanctuary of Artemis Tauropolos in Attic Halai Araphenides, where young men performed armed dances, a young man's throat would be ritually cut until he bled. Myth explained this as a substitution for Orestes' sacrifice to the cruel Artemis of the Taurians. The rites in the Spartan sanctuary of Artemis Orthia were even more spectacular, rousing the interest of Greek and Roman visitors and scholars. The Spartans flogged a young man at the altar of Artemis until he bled. While this took place, her priestess assisted with the act, carrying a small image of the goddess. If the beating was not hard enough, the image the priestess carried grew heavier. This ritual was thought to replace a human sacrifice, although it developed from a contest among young males in which one group tried to steal cheese from Artemis's altar while a second group tried to prevent the theft. [Source:Fritz Graf, Encyclopedia of Religion, 2005, Encyclopedia.com]
Several statues of a priestess with a small, archaic-looking image belong to another sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, in the city of Messene. The Spartan image was said to be identical with the image in Artemis's sanctuary among the Taurians, located at the northern shore of the Black Sea. (Iphigenia and Orestes brought this image to Greece.) At some point in the ritual, the image was bound into the boughs of a lygos bush (a willow), hence the name Artemis Lygodesme (Bound in Willow) (Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.16.11).
In another local ritual from Tyndaris in Sicily, the same Taurian image was wrapped in a bundle of wood (phakelos, hence Artemis Phakelitis) and carried in a procession. According to a Spartan myth, the Taurian image drove the Spartans who found it mad. In the city of Pellene another small image of Artemis was carried around the walls of the besieged city in order to instill madness in the attackers, whereas in the Peloponnesian city Lousoi yet another Artemis (Hemerasia, the Tameress) could heal madness. Cruelty, madness, divine protection, and the world of young warriors seem to blend into one complex that expressed itself in a small image of Artemis that looked, in a native reading, old and foreign.
Several Greek cities performed yet another ritual that indigenous interpreters connected with warfare, with hunting, or with human sacrifice. In his Description, Pausanias gives an elaborate account of the contemporary festival (mid-second century ce) of Artemis Laphria in city of Patras: on a large pyre surrounded by a wooden palisade, the priests burned alive a large number of wild animals, including bears and stags (7.18.8–11). The ritual and the image of the goddess were said to have been transferred to Patras from the town of Calydon, where Artemis possessed an important sanctuary in the archaic period. A comparable ritual is confirmed in the cult of Artemis Laphria in Hyampolis in which the etiological myth derived from a war, while a fire ritual of Artemis Tauropolos in Phocaea was said to culminate in a human sacrifice.
Sacrifice of Iphigenia (fresco from Pompei) showing Agamemnon (right) and Clytemnestra crying (left); In the sky appears the fawn which will replace her
Artemis And Young Women
Artemis was as important for young girls and women as she was for young men. Fritz Graf wrote in the Encyclopedia of Religion: A chorus of girls dancing for Artemis was common, especially in the Peloponnese; the girls often performed in sanctuaries situated far outside the cities, often in the mountains or in swampy regions. There, Artemis was Limnatis or Limnaia from the grove's position near a lake, or Kedreatis and Karyatis from the prominent trees of a sacred grove. None of this material, however, points to Frazerian tree cult in the service of Artemis. [Source:Fritz Graf, Encyclopedia of Religion, 2005, Encyclopedia.com]
Young Athenian girls spent some time in the secluded sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia on the East coast of Attica, far away from any city. The archaeological finds from the sanctuary attest to dancing of choruses, running contests of naked girls, and the use of bear masks. Local mythology explains that the cult was instituted to appease Artemis; she was angry because the Athenians had killed her sacred bear. Myth and cult also recall the story of Callisto, a nymph whom Artemis turned into a bear to punish her for her loss of virginity. Callisto would give birth to Arcas, the founder of Arcadia, who, as a hunter, unwittingly shot his bear mother. This story combines the topic of girls in the service of Artemis with the male topics of bear hunt and the foundation of a state. Callisto's name, the "Most Beautiful Girl," also refers to beauty contests that were sometimes connected with choruses of girls.
As a patroness of nubile girls, Artemis does not only protect their virginity as long as necessary; she also presides over the birth of their children once these girls become married women. Before their weddings, brides dedicated their toys to her, sometimes providing sacrifice to her during the wedding ritual. More often, Artemis was called Lochia (Lady of Birth) or was identified with the birth-goddess Eileithyia. Iphigenia, who shared the sanctuary of Brauron with the goddess, received the clothing of women who had died while giving birth.
Hymns to Artemis
The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (seventh and sixth centuries B.C.) lists a number of Artemis's functions, which include archery and hunting in the mountains, playing the lyre, girls' dancing and ritual shouting in her sacred groves; and "the city of just men" — regarded as a reference to her political and civic functions (vv. 17–20).
According to the Encyclopedia of Religion: The Homeric Hymn to Apollo (seventh century B.C.) alludes to her birth in Ortygia (vs. 16). The passage separates Ortygia from Delus, where some later texts locate her birth, usually on the sixth day of the month Thargelion — Artemis has to be older than her twin brother, with whose birth she assisted on the seventh day of Thargelion. In most calendars, the festivals of Artemis are celebrated on the sixth day of any month, while Apollo's is celebrated on the seventh. The temple of Artemis on Delus dates to about 700 B.C. and is almost two centuries older than the first temple of Apollo, who was Delus's main divinity; its cult focused on the "Altar of Horns." [Source: Fritz Graf, Encyclopedia of Religion, 2005, Encyclopedia.com]
sacrifice in honor of Artemis-Diana who is accompanied by a deer; from a fresco from the triclinium of the house of Vettii in Pompeii, between AD 62 and 79
Callimachus (310-240 B.C.), a poet and scholar from Libya, wrote: “Artemis we hymn – no light thing is it for singers to forget her – whose study is the bow and the shooting of hares and the spacious dance and sport upon the mountains; beginning with the time when sitting on her father’s knees – still a little maid – she spake these words to her sire: “Give me to keep my maidenhood, Father, forever: and give me to be of many names, that Phoebus may not vie with me. And give me arrows and a bow – stay, Father, I ask thee not for quiver or for mighty bow: for me the Cyclopes will straightway fashion arrows and fashion for me a well-bent bow. But give me to be Bringer of Light and give me to gird me in a tunic with embroidered border reaching to the knee, that I may slay wild beasts. And give me sixty daughters of Oceanus for my choir – all nine years old, all maidens yet ungirdled; and give me for handmaidens twenty nymphs of Amnisus who shall tend well my buskins, and, when I shoot no more at lynx or stag, shall tend my swift hounds. And give to me all mountains; and for city, assign me any, even whatsoever thou wilt: for seldom is it that Artemis goes down to the town. On the mountains will I dwell and the cities of men I will visit only when women vexed by the sharp pang of childbirth call me to their aid even in the hour when I was born the Fates ordained that I should be their helper, forasmuch as my mother suffered no pain either when she gave me birth or when she carried me win her womb, but without travail put me from her body.” So spake the child and would have touched her father’s beard, but many a hand did she reach forth in vain, that she might touch it. [Source: Callimachus, “Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron. Aratus.” translated by A. W. and G. R. Mair, Loeb Classical Library, Volume . London: William Heinemann, ]
“And her father smiled and bowed assent. And as he caressed her, he said: “When goddesses bear me children like this, little need I heed the wrath of jealous Hera. Take, child, all that thou askest, heartily. Yea, and other things therewith yet greater will thy father give thee. Three times ten cities and towers more than one will I vouchsafe thee – three times ten cities that shall not know to glorify any other god but to glorify the only and be called of Artemis And thou shalt be Watcher over Streets and harbours.” So he spake and bent his head to confirm his words. And the maiden faired unto the white mountain of Crete leafy with woods; thence unto Oceanus; and she chose many nymphs all nine years old, all maidens yet ungirdled. And the river Caraetus was glad exceedingly, and glad was Tethys that they were sending their daughters to be handmaidens to the daughter of Leto...
“Artemis, Lady of Maidenhood, Slayer of Tityus, golden were thine arms and golden thy belt, and a golden car didst thou yoke, and golden bridles, goddess, didst thou put on thy deer. And where first did thy horned team begin to carry thee? To Thracian Haemus, whence comes the hurricane of Boreas bringing evil breath of frost to cloakless men. And where didst thou cut the pine and from what flame didst thou kindle it? It was on Mysian Olympus, and thou didst put in tit the breath of flame unquenchable, which thy Father’s bolts distil. And how often goddess, didst thou make trial of thy silver bow? First at an elm, and next at an oak didst thou shoot, and third again at a wild beast. But the fourth time – not long was it ere thou didst shoot at the city of unjust me, those who to one another and those who towards strangers wrought many deeds of sin, forward men, on whom thou wilt impress thy grievous wrath. On their cattle plague feeds, on their tilth feeds frost, and the old men cut their hair in mourning over their sons, and their wives either are smitten or die in childbirth, or, if they escape, bear birds whereof none stands on upright ankle. But on whomsoever thou lookest smiling and gracious, for them the tilth bears the corn-ear abundantly, and abundantly prospers the four-footed breed, and abundant waxes their prosperity: neither do they go to the tomb, save when they carry thither the aged. Nor does faction wound their race – faction which ravages even the well-established houses: but brother’s wife and husband’s sister set their chairs around one board.
“Lady, of that number be whosoever is a true friend of mine, and of that number may I be myself, O Queen. And may song be my study forever. In that song shall be the Marriage of Leto; therein thy name shall often-times be sung; therein shall Apollo be and therein all thy labours, and therein thy hounds and thy bow and thy chariots, which lightly carry thee in thy splendour, when thou drivest to the house of Zeus. There in the entrance meet thee Hermes and Apollo: Hermes the Lord of Blessing, takes thy weapons, Apollo takes whatsoever wild beast thou bringest. Yea, so Apollo did before strong Alcides came, but now Phoebus hath this task no longer; in such wise the Anvil of Tiryns stands ever before the gates, waiting to see if thou wilt come home with some fat morsel. And all the gods laugh at him with laughter unceasingly and most of all his own wife’s mother when he brings from the car a great bull or a wild boar, carrying it by the hind foot struggling. With this sunning speech, goddess, doth he admonish thee: “Shoot at the evil wild beasts that mortals may call thee their helper even as they call me. Leave deer and hares to feed upon the hills. What harm could deer and hares do? It is boars which ravage the tilth of men and boars which ravage the plants; and oxen are a great bane to men: shoot also at those.” So he spake and swiftly busied him about the mighty beast. For though beneath a Phrygian oak his flesh was deified, yet hath he not ceased from gluttony. Still hath he that belly wherewith he met Theiodamas at the plough.
Artemis and the Cyclopes
Callimachus wrote: “And straightway she went to visit the Cyclopes. Them she found in the isle of Lipara – Lipara in later days, but at the at time its name was Meligunis – at the anvils of Hephaestus, standing round a molten mass of iron. For a great work was being hastened on: they fashioned a horse-trough for Poseidon. And the nymphs were affrighted when they saw the terrible monsters like unto the crags of Ossa: all had single eyes beneath their brows, like a shield of fourfold hide for size, glaring terribly from under; and when they heard the din of the anvil echoing loudly, and the great blast of the bellows and the heavy groaning of the Cyclopes themselves. For Aetna cried aloud, and Trinacia cried, the seat of the Sicanians, cried too their neighbour Italy, and Cyrnos therewithal uttered a mighty noise, when they lifted their hammers above their shoulders and smote with rhythmic swing the bronze glowing from the furnace or iron, labouring greatly. Wherefore the daughters of Oceanus could not untroubled look upon them face to face nor endure the din in their ears. No shame to them! On those not even the daughters of the Blessed look without shuddering. Though long past childhood’s years. [Source: Callimachus, “Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron. Aratus.” translated by A. W. and G. R. Mair, Loeb Classical Library, Volume . London: William Heinemann, ]
“But when any of the maidens doth disobedience to her mother, the mother calls the Cyclopes to her child – Arges or Steropes; and from within the house comes Hermes, stained with burnt ashes. And straightway he plays bogey to the child, and she runs into her mother’s lap, with her hands upon her eyes. But thou, Maiden, even earlier, while yet but three years old, when Leto came bearing thee in her arms at the bidding of Hephaestus that he might give thee handsel and Brontes set thee on his stout knees – thou didst pluck the shaggy hair of his great breast and tear it out by force. And even unto this day the mid part of his breast remains hairless, even when mange settles on a man’s temples and eats the hair away.
“Therefore right boldly didst thou address them then: “Cyclopes, for me too fashion ye a Cydonian bow and arrows and a hollow casket for my shafts; for I also am a child of Leto, even as Apollo. And if I with my bow shall slay some wild creature or monstrous beast, that shall the Cyclopes eat.” So didst thou speak and they fulfilled thy words. Straightway dist thou array thee, O Goddess. And speedily again thou didst go to get thee hounds; and thou camest to the Arcadian fold of Pan. And he was cutting up the flesh of a lynx of Maenalus that his bitches might eat it for food. And to thee the Bearded God gave two dogs black-and-white, three reddish, and one spotted, which pulled down very lions hen they clutched their throats and haled them still living to the fold. And he gave thee seven Cynosurian bitches swifter than the winds - that breed which is swiftest to pursue fawns and the hare which closes not his eyes; swiftest too to mark the lair of the stag and where the porcupine hath his burrow, and to lead upon the track of the gazelle.
“Thence departing (and thy hounds sped with thee) thou dist find by the base of the Parrhasian hill deer gamboling – a mighty herd. They always herded by the banks of the black-pebbled Anaurus – larger than bulls, and from their horns shone gold. And thou wert suddenly amazed and sadist to thine own heart: “This would be a first capture worthy of Artemis.” Five were there in all; and four thou didst take by speed of foot – without the chase of dogs – to draw thy swift car. But one escaped over the river Celadon, by devising of Hera, that it might be in the after days a labour for Heracles, and the Ceryneian hill received her.
Artemis and the Nymphs of Amnisus
Callimachus wrote: “For thee the nymphs of Amnisus rub down the hinds loosed from the yoke, and from the mead of Hera they gather and carry for them to feed on much swift-springing clover, which also the horses of Zeus eat; and golden troughs they fill with water to be for the deer a pleasant draught. And thyself thou enterest thy Father’s house, and all alike bid thee to a seat; but thou sittest beside Apollo. [Source: Callimachus, “Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron. Aratus.” translated by A. W. and G. R. Mair, Loeb Classical Library, Volume . London: William Heinemann, ]
“But when the nymphs encircle thee in the dance, near the springs of Egyptian Inopus or Pitane – for Pitane too is thine – or in Limnae or where, goddess, thou camest from Scythia to dwell, in Alae Araphenides, renouncing the rites of the Tauri, then may not my kine cleave a four-acred fallow field for a wage at the hand of an alien ploughman; else surely lame and weary of neck would they come to the byre, yea even were they of Stymphaean breed, nine years of age, drawing by the horns; which kine are far the best for cleaving a deep furrow; for the god Helios never passes by that beauteous dance, but stays his car to gaze upon the sight, and the lights of day are lengthened.
“Which now of islands, what hill finds most favour with thee? What haven? What city? Which of the nymphs dost thou love above the rest, and what heroines hast thou taken for thy companions? Say, goddess, thou to me, and I will sing thy saying to others. Of islands, Doliche hath found favour with thee, of cities Perge, of hills Taygeton, the havens of Euripus. And beyond others thou lovest the nymph of Gortyn, Britomartis, slayer of stags, the goodly archer; for love of whom was Minos of old distraught and roamed the hills of Crete. And the nymph would hide herself now under the shaggy oaks and anon in the low meadows. And for nine months he roamed over crag and cliff and made not an end of pursuing, until, all but caught, she leapt into the sea from the top of a cliff and fell into the nets of fishermen which saved her. Whence in after days the Cydonians call the nymph the Lady of the Nets (Dictyna) and the hill whence the nymph leaped they call the hill of Nets (Dictaeon), and there they set up altars and do sacrifice. And the garland on that day is pine or mastich, but the hands touch not the myrtle. For when she was in flight, a myrtle branch became entangled in the maiden’s robes; wherefore she was greatly angered against the myrtle. Upis, O Queen, fair-faced Bringer of Light, thee too the Cretans name after that nymph.
“Yea and Cyrene thou madest thy comrade, to whom on a time thyself didst give two hunting dogs, with whom the maiden daughter of Hypseus beside the Iolcian tomb won the prize. And the fair-haired wife of Cephalus, son of Deioneus, O Lady, thou madest thy fellow in the chase; and fair Anticleia, they say, thou dist love even as thine own eyes. These were the first who wore the gallant bow and arrow-holding quivers on their shoulders; their right shoulders bore the quiver strap, and always the right breast showed bare. Further thou dist greatly commend swift-footed Atalanta, the slayer of boars, daughter of Arcadian Iasius, and taught her hunting with dogs and good archery. They that were called to hunt the boar of Calydon find no fault with her; for the tokens of victory came into Arcadia which still holds the tusks of the beast. Nor do I deem that Hylaeus and foolish Rhoecus, for all their hate, in Hades slight her archery. For the loins, with whose blood the height of Maenalus flowed, will not abet the falsehood.
Artemis, Lady of Many Shrines
Callimachus wrote: “Lady of many shrines, of many cities, hail! Goddess of the Tunic, sojourner in Miletus; for thee did Neleus make his Guide, when he put off with his ships from the land of Cecrops. Lady of Chesion and of Imbrasus, throned in the highest, to thee in thy shrine did Agamemnon dedicate the rudder of his ship, a charm against ill weather, when thou didst bind the winds for him, what time the Achaean ships sailed to vex the cities of the Teucri, wroth for Rhamnusian Helen. [Source: Callimachus, “Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron. Aratus.” translated by A. W. and G. R. Mair, Loeb Classical Library, Volume . London: William Heinemann, ]
“For thee surely Proetus established two shrines, one of Artemis of Maidenhood for that thou dist gather for him his maiden daughters, when they were wandering over the Azanian hills; the other he founded in Lusa to Artemis the Gentle, because thou tookest from his daughters the spirit of wildness. For thee, too, the Amazons, whose mind is set on war, in Ephesus beside the sea established an image beneath an oak trunk, and Hippo performed a holy rite for thee, and they themselves, O Upis Queen, around the image danced a war-dance – first in shields and armour, and again in a circle arraying a spacious choir. And the loud pipes thereto piped shrill accompaniment, that they might foot the dance together (for not yet did they pierce the bones of the fawn, Athena’s handiwork, a bane to the deer). And the echo reached unto Sardis and to the Berecynthian range. And they with their feet beat loudly and therewith their quivers rattled.
“And afterwards around that image was raised a shrine of broad foundations. That it shall dawn behold nothing more divine, naught richer. Easily would it outdo Pytho. Wherefore in this madness insolent Lygdamis threatened that he would lay it waste, and brought against it a host of Cimmerians which milk mares, in number as the sand; who have their homes hard by the Straits of the cow, daughter of Inachus. Ah! foolish among kings, how greatly he sinned! For not destined to return again to Scythia was either he or any other of those whose wagons stood in the Caystrian plain ; for thy shafts are ever more set as a defence before Ephesus.
not very accurate medieval rendering of the Temple of Diana
“O Lady of Munychia, Watcher of Harbours, hail, Lady of Pherae! Let none disparage Artemis. For Oeneus dishonoured her altar and no pleasant struggles came upon his city. Nor let any content with her in shooting of stags or in archery. For the son of Atreus vaunted him not that he suffered small requital. Neither let any woo the Maiden; for not Otus, nor Orion wooed her to their own good. Nor let any shun the yearly dance; for not tearless to Hippo was her refusal to dance around the altar. Hail, great queen, and graciously greet my song.”
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum
Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Greece sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Hellenistic World sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Greeks bbc.co.uk/history/; Canadian Museum of History, Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; MIT Classics Online classics.mit.edu ; Gutenberg.org, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Live Science, Discover magazine, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Encyclopædia Britannica, "The Discoverers" and "The Creators" by Daniel Boorstin. "Greek and Roman Life" by Ian Jenkins from the British Museum, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP and various books and other publications.
Last updated September 2024