Melissa Coffey
(Paper submitted to Images of Women in the Ancient World: Issues of Interpretation and Identity, Spring 1998)
THE BIRTH OF ARTEMIS
Of all the major Olympian goddesses, Artemis is the only one who had a mother.
Artemis is usually considered to be the daughter of Leto and Zeus. Hera,
Zeus's wife, was furious upon learning of her husband's infidelity and forbade
anyone to give refuge to Leto in order to give birth to her twins. Leto
wandered around and finally settled to the island of Delos to deliver her
children. Apollo became god of the sun and Artemis became goddess of the moon
and of the hunt.
ATTRIBUTES OF ARTEMIS
Artemis can easily be identified wearing her short tunic with flat-heeled
sandals with a bags of arrows on her back. She is associated with many of the
animals of the wild including the bear, the boar, the stag, the goat and packs
of dogs. She is the goddess of the hunt and is thus associated with death,
bows and arrows and youth. Her arrows, often used in the hunt, serve several
other purposes as well. Artemis is said to have the power to infect people
with a plague with her arrows as well as use them to punish those who have
wronged her. She is associated with childbirth and may use her arrows to
relieve those in labor. Artemis is also associated with the crescent moon,
which she sometimes wears upon her head. Artemis, like Athena, is a chaste
goddess and her many followers take vows of chastity while under the service of
Artemis.
FEMINIST ARTEMIS
Feminists such as Ginette Paris praise Artemis because she is "an archetype of
femininity that is pure and primitive."[3]
She clarifies this statement by pointing out that Artemis does not exist in
relation to any males. She is not identified as a wife (Hera to Zeus), lover
(Aphrodite to Mars), child (Athena to Zeus) or as mother (Demeter to
Persephone). However, Downing states in her book that Artemis is linked to men
by being she who shuns men. Her example illustrates man's inability to look at
a woman as a whole being for fear of being overwhelmed. Aphrodite is only the
goddess of love and Artemis is only the goddess of the hunt . While many claim
that Artemis was as beautiful as Aphrodite, it is essential to distinguish the
two beauties. Artemis's beauty is not for the benefit of sexual relations or
reproduction as is Aphrodite's. As the tale of Actaeon will prove, her beauty
is not to be revealed to human sight. "The femininity of Artemis is sealed by
an inviolable and unnegotiable virginity."[4]
ARTEMIS AND CHILDBIRTH
When associated with childbirth, Artemis has the power to bring new life
into the world and to take life away. Artemis helps female animals while in
labor as well as humans.[5] Women in
childbirth call on Artemis while in labor and the goddess assists them or
brings them quick death by means of her swift arrows in order to end their
suffering. Ginette Paris points out that since Artemis witnessed the immense
pain that her mother suffered while giving birth to Apollo she was compelled to
dedicate herself to relieving women in labor. Artemis was born first and
immediately took on the role of midwife for her mother, who was giving birth to
Apollo. Paris speculates that perhaps she remained a virgin in order to avoid
the pain involved in childbirth. The clothes of the women who died in
childbirth were taken to Artemis because their deaths were attributed to her.[6]
ACTAEON
Artemis was responsible for the gruesome death of a young hunter by the name
of Actaeon who made the mistake of discovering Artemis while bathing nude with
her nymphs. He had finished a long day of hunting and was wandering around in
the woods when he stumbled across Artemis. She feared that he would boast of
seeing her in the nude and, for lack of having her arrows available, splashed
water on him. Suddenly Actaeon was transformed into a stag and he fled in
fear. Actaeon's own pack of dogs spotted him running and did not recognize him.
Actaeon, despite his attempts, was not able to identify himself. After a long
chase, the dogs caught their master and tore him to shreds and devoured his
flesh[7].
ORION
Artemis was responsible for the death of another talented hunter by the name
of Orion. There are many conflicting stories about why she killed him, but
each story ends with the same sad fate for Orion. One account states that
Orion tried to rape Artemis and she shot him with her arrows in retaliation. A
second account declares that Orion boasted that he would kill all of the wild
animals on earth, which prompted Artemis to send a scorpion to bring about his
death. A third account claims that Orion tried to ravish the virgin goddess
and she sent a scorpion to bite him, thus getting her revenge.[8] A fourth account dares to claim that
Artemis fell in love with Orion and that Apollo became jealous. One day while
the twins were hunting in Crete Apollo spotted Orion swimming far out in the
sea. Apollo, knowing that it was Orion, challenged his sister to hit the
distant object with her arrow. Artemis, being the great huntress and an
excellent shot, accepted her brother's challenge and pierced Orion's temple,
thus causing the death of her beloved.[9]
When Artemis realized what she had done, she made amends by placing him in the
sky as the constellation Orion.[10]
AGAMEMNON
Agamemnon made the mistake of killing a stag sacred to Artemis and incurred
her wrath when he wanted to sail to Troy. Other accounts say that Agamemnon
angered Artemis by declaring, after shooting a stag, that Artemis herself could
not have done such a deed.[11]The goddess
was responsible for the calm winds and the oracle stated that, in order to get
good winds to sail, Agamemnon must sacrifice his virgin daughter, Iphigeneia,
to Artemis. Agamemnon offered up his daughter to Artemis but the goddess
turned Iphigeneia into a deer at the last minute and sent her to Taurus to be
her priestess. Iphigeneia had accepted her fate bravely and was proud to be
the savior of Greece. Paris compares Iphigeneia to Christ and Artemis to God,
in that the girl will voluntarily sacrifice herself to Artemis (her "God") for
the benefit of her country.[12]
OTHERS
Artemis punished many other men by death or other means for offending her.
One such man, Oeneus, the king of Calydon, forgot to sacrifice to her when he
offered the first fruits of his crops to the other deities. Artemis responded
by sending a wild boar to destroy his land and crops.[13] Artemis is also responsible for making
Narcissus fall in love with himself. The punishment for Admetus forgetting to
offer her thanks during his wedding was the placement of snakes in his bridal
bed.[14]
Artemis often punished men who tried to rape women. Buphagus was punished with death by the arrows of Artemis when he tried to rape her on Mount Pholoe in Arcadia. Another such case involves two giants by the names of Otus and Ephialtes. These brothers were assaulting Hera and Artemis when Apollo sent a deer between the two brothers to distract them. Both of the brothers took aim at the deer and shot, thus shooting one another. Some sources say that the deer was actually Artemis.[15]
In another team effort, the twins came to the rescue of their mother, Leto, who was about to be raped by the giant Tityus. Apollo and Artemis killed him and condemned him to eternal punishment in Tartarus.[16] Artemis and Apollo also joined together to defend their mother when Niobe boasted of her twelve children compared to Leto's twins. The twins killed all of Niobe's children, one by one. If Apollo brings swift and natural death to men with his arrows and Artemis brings swift and natural death to women with her arrows, then it would make sense that Apollo killed the six boys and Artemis killed the six girls.[17]
Artemis came to the aid of her brother by killing his mistress, Coronis, for having sex with a mortal while pregnant with Apollo's child.[18]
BRITOMARTIS
Besides the possibility that Orion was a potential lover for Artemis, there is
only one other person mentioned who caught the attention of the chaste goddess.
Bell insinuates that Artemis is in a homosexual relationship with a woman named
Britomartis. Artemis saved her from the sexual advances of Minos and then fell
in love with her.[20]
HIPPOLYTUS
Although her relations with men were generally non-existent, there were
several exceptions. Artemis befriended Hippolytus because he swore to serve
the goddess and to uphold his vow of chastity. Phaedra, his stepmother,
falsely accused him of raping her after he rejected her sexual advances.
Hippolytus was put to death by his father and Artemis resurrected him and sent
him to Italy to establish her worship among the people.
HERCULES
Hercules is one of the few men who was able to escape Artemis's wrath for
killing an animal sacred to her. As one of his labors, Hercules was instructed
by Eurystheus to retrieve a stag with golden horns, a stag very dear to
Artemis. Hercules, knowing Artemis's love for this stag, tried to avoid
hurting or killing it. He pursued the stag for a year and finally killed the
beast. Artemis demanded an explanation immediately and Hercules, miraculously,
was able to please the goddess by blaming the death of the stag on
Eurystheus.[21]
AMAZONS
Artemis and the Amazons share a lot of the same qualities. Men are not able
to tame them and they pose a threat by their resistance to conform. The Amazons
and Artemis shun men as well as their feminine sides but are still beautiful
and appealing to men. Artemis is a chaste goddess as are many Amazons. It
seems that this unavailability is what entices men.
The Amazons were priestesses and attendants to the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. They also built shrines to Apollo and Artemis at Pyrrhichus.
ZEUS
There is not much information concerning Artemis and her father, Zeus. It is
said that Artemis went to her father and denounced the customary long tunics
that women wore. She declared that she wanted freedom of movement in her
clothing so that she could move about easily and hunt more efficiently. She
denounced jewelry and asked for arrows like her brother Apollo had.[22] She declared that she wanted to wear a
short tunic and flat-heeled sandals. Another story documents Artemis going to
her father and sitting on his knee to tell him what has upset her so. Hera,
Zeus's wife, who was wildly jealous of Artemis because she was Leto's child,
insults Artemis. She spills her arrows and boxes her ears, thus prompting the
young Artemis to seek refuge with her father.[23]
RITUALS SURROUNDING ARTEMIS
Artemis was the protector of young children ages nine and up. These children
were just released from their mothers' clutches, yet not quite ready to enter
the stage of Aphrodite. At festivals held in Ancient Greece, the young girls
would sometimes wear bearskins and played "acting the bear." The female bear
is one of the most difficult animals to domesticate. They acted out in dances
the gestures and growl of the bear. These dances were for the realization of
the physical body, not the body in a sexual or maternal sense.[24] This time in a girl's life is essentially
the last chance she gets to play and have fun before entering into the
Aphrodite stage.
The night before they were to be married, young girls sacrificed their tunics, toys, dolls and all youthful belongings to Artemis as a farewell to their youth.[25] It is also believed that these young girls wanted to please Artemis so that she would aid them in childbirth in the future.[26]
Worship of Artemis was not restricted to young girls and women in during childbirth. Some men took vows of chastity under Artemis, such as Hippolytus. The priests of Artemis castrated themselves voluntarily to serve her. Hunters also made sacrifices to the great goddess of the hunt. When a hunter had a successful day he would hand the skin and horns of his prey on a tree or pillar as an act of gratitude towards Artemis.[27]
SOME ARTEMIS LINKS
WORKS CITED
AND CONSULTED
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of an Image. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.
Bell, Robert. Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Santa Barbara:
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Bell, Robert. Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary.
Santa Barbara: ABC/CLIO, Inc., 1983.
Dexter, Miriam Robbins. Whence the Goddess: A Source Book. New York:
Teachers College Press, 1990.
Downing, Christine. The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine.
New York:
Crossroad Publishing Company, 1981.
Farnell, Lewis Richard. Greek Hero Cults and the Ideas of Immortality.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921.
Ferguson, John. Among the Gods: An Archaeological Exploration of Ancient
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Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. New York: Harper &
Row, 1989.
Grant, Michael and John Hazel. Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology.
Springfield: G&C Publishing Company, Ltd., 1973.
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. New York: The New American Library, Inc.,
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Harris, Stephen L. and Gloria Platzner. Classical Mythology: Images and
Insights. Mountain View: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1995.
Larson, Jennifer. Greek Heroine Cults. Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1995.
Leach, Marjorie. Guide to the Gods. Santa Barbara: ABC/CLIO,
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Leeming, David Adams. The World of Myth. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1990.
New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. New York: Prometheus Press,
1968.
Paris, Ginette. Pagan Meditations: The Worlds of Aphrodite, Artemis, and
Hestia. Dallas: Spring Publications, Inc., 1986.
Room, Adrian. Room's Classical Dictionary: The Origins of the Names of
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Stassinopoulos, Arianna and Roloff. The Gods of Greece. New York:
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