Mythic Monday: Artemis the Pure
February 20, 2017
No Greek mythological goddess can match Artemis—or, as her Roman counterpart is known, Diana—when it comes to personal modesty and purity. Artemis fiercely defended her own innocence, but she stood up for romantic love and was the goddess of childbirth and fertility. She was associated with chastity, the hunt, farming, the moon, the natural environment, and wild animals. Always alert, she is often depicted as a beautiful woman carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows. The epic poet Hesiod described her as “delighting in arrows.” She is sometimes accompanied by deer or hunting dogs.
Artemis reaches for an arrow in this statue in Marseille on the southern coast of France. Credit: © Shutterstock
Artemis was the daughter of Zeus, the king of the gods, and the goddess Leto. The god Apollo was Artemis’s younger twin—bursting on the scene, she helped Leto deliver him. A virginal deity, Artemis demanded moral purity from her followers. Young girls about to be married prayed to her, offering her a lock of their hair as a tribute.
Artemis did not take disappointment lightly, and she could be cruel to people who let her down. She punished followers who failed to live up to her standards, and she was often blamed for the sudden deaths of women. She was protective of her own purity, as well. The hunter Actaeon accidentally spotted her bathing in a woodland pond, and for that transgression, he was turned into a stag (a full-grown male deer) and then ripped to pieces by his own dogs. Artemis was initially kinder to the great hunter Orion, but his unwanted advances got him killed. In her sorrow, she placed Orion in the sky as one of the most visible and well-known constellations. Artemis is also sometimes blamed for the death of handsome Adonis, and she forced King Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia.
Artemis defended those who pleased her, however. To save the beautiful nymph Arethusa from the river god Alpheus, Artemis turned her into a spring. She sent a bear to suckle the orphaned infant Atalanta, who lived to become a great runner. She also helped the hero Aeneas survive the Trojan War. To keep Artemis happy, the ancient people of Ephesus (near the modern day Turkish town of İzmir) built the colossal Temple of Artemis, which was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Artemis was also especially revered in Sparta and the small island of Delos, her mythological birthplace.
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was one of the largest temples built by the Greeks. It was famous for its decoration and extensive use of marble. Credit: WORLD BOOK illustration by Birney Lettick
