Artemis By: Savannah Krigbaum

Artemis’ interests and recognition

• Hunting• Archery• Wild animals• She is most commonly

associated with the moon, childbirth and the harvest.

• As a virgin goddess, she is the guardian of chastity and protector of small children and maidens.

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• She was mostly worshiped by the Romans who called her Diana.

• Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo.

• They are the children of the Titan Leto and Zeus.

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Artemis and Apollo’s birth• Leto was very gracious and beautiful, and

when Zeus loved her dearly and got her pregnant with twins, his wife Hera was jealous. Hera forbade any place under the sun to offer shelter to Leto and would not let the goddess of childbirth, Eileithyia, assist Leto in her labor. Zeus took pity on Leto and tuned her into a quail to give birth to her children, but she was left roaming around the world aimlessly looking for shelter. Finally she was allowed to settle on a tiny, beat up island of Asteria. For nine days and nights she suffered from labor pains until the tenth day where she gave birth to first her daughter Artemis, who then acted as a midwife to assist her mother in birthing Apollo. Artemis from then on, took place as the goddess of birth.

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• Together her and her brother were known as the bringers of death and disease.

• Artemis to young girls and maidens.

• Apollo to young boys.

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The Aloadai • In another story Artemis’s wit is what outsmarts two giants who anger and threaten the gods. The Aloadai

were two great giants and children of Poseidon and Iphimedeia. The Giants were fifty four feet tall and eighteen feet wide and at nine years old they decided to fight the gods. The two of them stacked Mount Pelion on top of Mount Ossa and Mount Olympus and then proceeded to threaten to climb up to the sky and into the heavens. Artemis transformed herself into a deer and ran between the two Aloadai as they were making their way up the mountains. As they both were tempted to kill the deer, Artemis was too swift and they ended up spearing each other.

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Artemis and the Trojan War

• The sacrifice of Iphigenia is a major story involving Artemis. Iphigenia was the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Agamemnon angered Artemis by killing her sacred stag during his expedition against Troy. Artemis then stilled the winds, inducing a plague and detaining Agamemnon’s fleet to Aulis. In order to release the fleet, Artemis demanded that Agamemnon should sacrifice his daughter. He then sent Iphigenia to supposedly marry the warrior Achilles. In one version of the story she is killed, and in another she is replaced and Agamemnon carries her off to Taurus.

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Trojan War Continued…

• In the Iliad, the Trojan Aineias was wounded in battle by Diomedes. Apollo lifted him up from the battle and brought him to the temple where Artemis and Leto tended his wounds.

• Artemis stood against Hera in choosing sides in the Trojan war and since Artemis agreed with Zeus, Hera beat the goddess for going against her.

• Artemis was also commonly known as a vengeful goddess. She would often seek revenge on anyone who angered her.

• Actaeon was a young prince and skillful hunter. One day while traveling through the woods of Orchomenos, he stumbled upon Artemis surrounded by her nymphs bathing naked. He was so fascinated with how beautiful she was that couldn’t stop staring. Once she realized that he was staring, she sought revenge on him. There are two versions to the story. In one version she turns him into a tree. In another story, she transforms him into a stag and he then gets attacked by a pack of wild canines.

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The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus

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