Artemis, whom the Romans acknowledged as Diana, is one of the twelve major gods of Olympus. She is the daughter of Zeus and Leto. She is known as the goddess of women, but she is also known as the goddess of the hunt. Many stories involving Artemis include hunting such as the Calydonian Boarhunt. Artemis also wields a bow like her twin-brother Apollo.
As the goddess of chastity and symbol of virginity, Artemis never married. It is said that she almost married Orion, but Apollo, jealous of Artemis’s love for Orion, convinced Artemis to shoot Orion. Other versions of the myth have Artemis unleashing a giant scorpion to kill Orion.
The Importance of Remembrance
One of the major themes of the stories of Artemis is the importance of remembering the deities. King Oeneus was punished for forgetting a ritual sacrifice to Artemis when she unleashed a giant boar on his kingdom. This is what prompted the famous Calydonian Boarhunt, in which many heroes from mythology participated in the hunt, including Jason. Artemis filled the bridal chamber of Alcestis with snakes after he forgot to sacrifice to her at his wedding.
In addition to remembering the deities, Artemis’s story illustrates the importance of respecting the deities. Actaeon is transformed into a stag when he boasts that he is a better hunter. He is subsequently killed by his own hunting dogs. This story appears in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in which Actaeon comes upon Artemis (who in Ovid is called Diana) in the forest while she is bathing. Ovid writes that she was “so dismayed, without her clothes, / upon her cheeks displayed the colors shown / by clouds when struck aslant by sunlight or / by Dawn – the color crimson” (Ovid 83). It was because she was shamed by Actaeon that he was transformed into a stag. The result, however, is the same as other versions where Actaeon is punished for being a braggart.
Artemis and Death
As one of the great archer-deities, Artemis is associated with many deaths, either by her hand or through her intervention. In one version of the myth of Ariadne, Ariadne is killed by Artemis. Artemis killed Coronis while she was pregnant with Asclepius because she had been unfaithful to Apollo. She provided Procris with a javelin that always struck its mark. Procris was later killed by her husband Cephalus by the javelin. These are only a few of the lives taken by Artemis.
It is interesting how Artemis is often slighted for being forgotten by mortals, and reacts by punishing them, when Artemis is not fully respected by the other gods. In Book Twenty-One of The Iliad, during the battle of the gods, Hera is seen boxing the ears of Artemis. This scene is perhaps humorous as Artemis retreats to cry on the knee of her father, Zeus.
Sources
- March, Jenny. Cassell’s Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Cassell: London, 2001.
- Ovid, The Metamorphoses. Trans Allen Mandelbaum. Harcourt: New York, 1993.
Joshua Benson - As a librarian and student of literature, I delight in the facilitation of knowledge to the eager reader.
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