Birth All accounts agree that Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo. In some sources, the two are born at the same time, and in others one is born before the other. Although traditionally stated to be twins, the author of
The Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo (the oldest extant account of Leto's wandering and the birth of her children) is only concerned with the birth of Apollo, and sidelines Artemis with a later poet,
Pindar, speaking of a single pregnancy. The two earliest Greek poets,
Homer and
Hesiod, confirm Artemis and Apollo's status as full siblings, but neither explicitly makes them twins. According to
Callimachus, Hera, who was angry with her husband Zeus for impregnating Leto, forbade her from giving birth on either
terra firma (the mainland) or on an island, but the island of
Delos disobeyed and allowed Leto to give birth there; this rooted the once freely floating island to one place. According to the
Homeric Hymn to Artemis, the island where she and her twin were born was
Ortygia. In Cretan mythology, Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis on the islands known today as
Paximadia.
Servius, commenting on
Virgil's
Aeneid, accounts for the island's archaic name Ortygia by asserting that Zeus transformed Leto into a
quail (
ortux) to prevent Hera from finding out about his infidelity, and
Kenneth McLeish suggested further that in quail form, Leto would have given birth with as few birth-pains as a mother quail suffers when she lays an egg. The myths also differ as to whether Artemis was born first, or Apollo. According to
Apollodorus, she was born first, and assisted in the delivery of Apollo.
Servius, a late-fourth or early-fifth-century grammarian, wrote that Artemis was born first because at first it was night, whose instrument is the Moon, which Artemis represents, and then day, whose instrument is the Sun, which Apollo represents.
Pindar however writes that both twins shone like the Sun when they came into the bright light. After their troubling childbirth, Leto took the twin infants and crossed over to
Lycia, in the southwest corner of
Asia Minor, where she tried to drink from and bathe the babies in a spring she found there. However, the local
Lycian peasants tried to prevent the twins and their mother from making use of the water by stirring up the muddy bottom of the spring, so the three of them could not drink it. Leto, in her anger that the impious Lycians had refused to offer hospitality to a fatigued mother and her thirsty infants, transformed them all into frogs, forever doomed to swim and hop around the spring.
Relations with men Painter.
Louvre, Paris. When the giant
Tityos tried to rape Leto, she called out to her children, who were still young, for help. The twins were quick to respond by raining down their arrows on Tityos, killing him. For his actions against Leto, Tityos was banished to Tartarus, where he was pegged to the rock floor and stretched on an area of , while a pair of vultures feasted daily on his liver or his heart. The twin sons of
Poseidon and
Iphimedeia,
Otos and
Ephialtes, known as the
Aloadae, grew enormously at a young age. They were aggressive and skilled hunters who could not be killed except by each other. They never stopped growing and boasted that as soon as they could reach heaven, they would kidnap Artemis and Hera and take them as wives. The gods were afraid of them, except for Artemis who captured a fine deer that jumped out between them. In another version of the story, she changed herself into a doe and jumped between them. from Heracles. Detail of an Attic black-figure amphora c. 530–520 BCE.
Louvre, Paris
Eurystheus commanded
Heracles to catch the
Ceryneian Hind in the hope that it would enrage Artemis and lead her to punish the hero for his desecration of her sacred animal. The Cerynian hind used to be the
Pleiad Taygete, known as the "Mistress of Animals" and a dear companion of Artemis. One day, Zeus pursued Taygete, who invoked her protectress, who in turn saved her from her father by turning her into the hind. As Heracles was returning with the hind to present it to Eurystheus, he encountered Artemis and her brother Apollo. He begged the goddess for forgiveness, explaining that he had snared the hind as part of his penance, but promised to return it to the wild soon thereafter. Convinced by Heracles's earnestness, she forgave him, foiling Eurystheus's plan. The river god
Alpheus was in love with Artemis, but as he realized he could do nothing to win her heart, he decided to capture her. When Artemis and her companions at
Letrenoi go to Alpheus, she becomes suspicious of his motives and covers her face with mud so he does not recognize her. In another story, Alphaeus tries to rape Artemis's attendant
Arethusa. Artemis pities the girl and saves her, transforming her into a spring in the temple
Artemis Alphaea in Letrini, where the goddess and her attendants drink. According to
Antoninus Liberalis,
Siproites was a
Cretan who was metamorphized into a woman by Artemis for having seen the goddess bathing while he was hunting. Artemis similarly changed a Calydonian man named
Calydon, the son of Ares and
Astynome, into a stone when he accidentally saw the goddess bathing naked.
Daphnis was a young boy, a son of
Hermes, who was accepted by and became a follower of the goddess Artemis; Daphnis would often accompany her in hunting and entertain her with his singing of pastoral songs and playing of the
panpipes. Artemis taught a man,
Scamandrius, how to be a great archer, and he excelled in the use of a bow and arrow with her guidance. Bouphagos, son of the
Titan Iapetus, sees Artemis and thinks about raping her. Reading his sinful thoughts, Artemis strikes him down at
Mount Pholoe.
Broteas was a famous hunter who refused to honour Artemis, and boasted that nothing could harm him, not even fire. Artemis then drove him mad, causing him to
walk into fire, ending his life.
Divine retribution Actaeon , Paris. Multiple versions of the
Actaeon myth survive, though many are fragmentary. The hunter Actaeon is turned into a
stag by Artemis, as punishment for a transgression, and is then killed by hunting dogs. Usually, these dogs are his own, and no longer recognize their master, though they are sometimes said to be the hounds of Artemis. In different sources, Actaeon's transgression is viewing Artemis naked, boasting he is a better hunter than her, or trying to rival Zeus for
Semele's affection. Apollodorus, who records this last version, notes that the others are more common. According to Lamar Ronald Lacey's
The Myth of Aktaion: Literary and Iconographic Studies, the original version of the myth most likely portrayed Actaeon as the hunting companion of the goddess, who, after seeing her naked in her sacred spring, attempted to force himself on her. For this, he is turned into a stag and devoured by his own hounds. In some surviving versions, though, Actaeon is a stranger who happens upon Artemis. and her
nymph surprised by
Actaeon.Mosaic, 2nd century CE Ruins of
Volubilis, Morocco A single line from
Aeschylus's now lost play
Toxotides ("female archers") is among the earlier attestations of Actaeon's myth, stating that "the dogs destroyed their master utterly", with no confirmation of Actaeon's metamorphosis or the god he offended (but it is heavily implied to be Artemis, due to the title). Ancient artwork depicting the myth of Actaeon predate Aeschylus.
Euripides, coming in a bit later, wrote in the
Bacchae that Actaeon was torn to shreds and perhaps devoured by his "flesh-eating" hunting dogs when he claimed to be a better hunter than Artemis. Like Aeschylus, he does not mention Actaeon being deer-shaped when that happens.
Callimachus writes that Actaeon chanced upon Artemis bathing in the woods, and she caused him to be devoured by his own hounds for the sacrilege, and he makes no mention of transformation into a deer either.
Diodorus Siculus wrote that Actaeon dedicated his prizes in hunting to Artemis, proposed marriage to her, and even tried to forcefully consummate said "marriage" inside the very sacred temple of the goddess; for this he was given the form "of one of the animals which he was wont to hunt", and then torn to shreds by his hunting dogs. Diodorus also mentioned the alternative of Actaeon claiming to be a better hunter than the goddess of the hunt.
Hyginus also mentions Actaeon attempting to rape Artemis when he finds her bathing naked, and her transforming him into the doomed deer. Apollodorus wrote that when Actaeon saw Artemis bathing, she turned him into a deer on the spot, and intentionally drove his dogs into a frenzy so that they would kill and devour him. Afterward,
Chiron built a sculpture of Actaeon to comfort his dogs in their grief, as they could not find their master no matter how much they looked for him. Pausanias says that Actaeon saw Artemis naked and that she threw a deerskin on him so that his hounds would kill him, to prevent him from marrying Semele.
Niobe Niobe, queen of
Thebes and wife of
Amphion, blasphemously boasted of being superior to Leto. This myth is very old; Homer knew of it and wrote that Niobe had given birth to twelve children, equally divided in six sons and six daughters (the
Niobids). Other sources speak of fourteen children, seven sons, and seven daughters. Niobe claimed to be a better mother than Leto, for having more children than Leto's own two, "but the two, though they were only two, destroyed all those others." She also mocked Apollo's effeminate appearance and Artemis's manly appearance. Leto was not slow to catch up on that and grew angry at the queen's hubris. She summoned her children and commanded them to avenge the slight. depicting Niobe attempting to shield her children from Artemis and
Apollo.
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas. Swiftly Apollo and Artemis descended on Thebes. While the sons were hunting in the woods, Apollo crept up on them and slew all seven with his silver bow. The dead bodies were brought to the palace. Niobe wept for them, but did not relent, saying that even now she was better than Leto, for she still had seven children, her daughters. On cue, Artemis then started shooting the daughters one by one. Right as Niobe begged for her youngest one to be spared, Artemis killed that last one.
Orion Orion was Artemis's hunting companion; after giving up on trying to find
Oenopion, Orion met Artemis and her mother
Leto, and joined the goddesses in hunting. A great hunter himself, he bragged that he would kill every beast on earth.
Gaia, the earth, was not too pleased to hear that, and sent a giant scorpion to sting him. Artemis then transferred him into the stars as the constellation
Orion. In one version Orion died after pushing Leto out of the scorpion's way. In another version, Orion tries to violate
Opis, one of Artemis's followers from
Hyperborea, and Artemis kills him. In a version by
Aratus, Orion grabs Artemis's robe and she kills him in
self-defense. Other writers have Artemis kill him for trying to rape her or one of her attendants.
Istrus wrote a version in which Artemis fell in love with Orion, apparently the only time Artemis ever fell in love. She meant to marry him, and no talk from her brother
Apollo would change her mind. Apollo then decided to trick Artemis, and while Orion was off swimming in the sea, he pointed at him (barely a spot in the horizon) and wagered that Artemis could not hit that small "dot". Artemis, ever eager to prove she was the better archer, unwittingly shot Orion, killing him. The waves then brought his body to the shore, and Artemis mourned his death. Afterwards, she placed him among the stars. In
Homer's
Iliad, the
goddess of the dawn Eos seduces Orion, angering the gods who did not approve of immortal goddesses taking mortal men for lovers, causing Artemis to shoot and kill him on the island of
Ortygia.
Callisto and other nymphs. Antique fresco from Pompeii.
National Archaeological Museum, Naples.
Callisto, the daughter of
Lycaon, King of
Arcadia, was one of Artemis's hunting attendants, and, as a companion of Artemis, took a vow of chastity. According to
Hesiod in his lost poem
Astronomia,
Zeus appeared to Callisto, and seduced her, resulting in her becoming pregnant. Though she was able to hide her pregnancy for a time, she was soon found out while bathing. Enraged, Artemis transformed Callisto into a bear, and in this form she gave birth to her son
Arcas. Both of them were then captured by shepherds and given to Lycaon, and Callisto thus lost her child. Sometime later, Callisto "thought fit to go into" a forbidden sanctuary of Zeus, and was hunted by the Arcadians, her son among them. When she was about to be killed, Zeus saved her by placing her in the heavens as a constellation of a bear. In his
De astronomia,
Hyginus, after recounting the version from Hesiod, presents several other alternative versions. The first, which he attributes to
Amphis, says that Zeus seduced Callisto by disguising himself as Artemis during a hunting session, and that when Artemis found out that Callisto was pregnant, she replied saying that it was the goddess's fault, causing Artemis to transform her into a bear. This version also has both Callisto and Arcas placed in the heavens, as the constellations
Ursa Major and
Ursa Minor. Hyginus then presents another version in which, after Zeus lay with Callisto, it was
Hera who transformed her into a bear. Artemis later, while hunting, kills the bear, and "later, on being recognized, Callisto was placed among the stars". Hyginus also gives another version, in which Hera tries to catch Zeus and Callisto in the act, causing Zeus to transform her into a bear. Hera, finding the bear, points it out to Artemis, who is hunting; Zeus, in panic, places Callisto in the heavens as a constellation.
Ovid gives a somewhat different version: Zeus seduced Callisto once again disguised as Artemis, but she seems to realise that it is not the real Artemis, and she thus does not blame Artemis when, during bathing, she is found out. Callisto is, rather than being transformed, simply ousted from the company of the huntresses, and she thus gives birth to Arcas as a human. Only later is she transformed into a bear, this time by Hera. When Arcas, fully grown, is out hunting, he nearly kills his mother, who is saved only by Zeus placing her in the heavens. In the
Bibliotheca, a version is presented in which Zeus raped Callisto, "having assumed the likeness, as some say, of Artemis, or, as others say, of Apollo". He then turned her into a bear himself so as to hide the event from Hera. Artemis then shot the bear, either upon the persuasion of Hera, or out of anger at Callisto for breaking her virginity. Once Callisto was dead, Zeus made her into a constellation, took the child, named him Arcas, and gave him to
Maia, who raised him.
Pausanias, in his
Description of Greece, presents another version, in which, after Zeus seduced Callisto, Hera turned her into a bear, which Artemis killed to please Hera.
Hermes was then sent by Zeus to take Arcas, and Zeus himself placed Callisto in the heavens.
Minor myths Museum. When the monstrous
Typhon attacked Olympus, all the terrified gods except for Zeus transformed into various animals and fled to Egypt. Artemis became a cat, as she was identified by the Greeks with the Egyptian feline goddess
Bastet. Artemis saved the infant
Atalanta from dying of
exposure after her father abandoned her. She sent a female bear to nurse the baby, who was then raised by hunters and grew to model herself after the goddess. In some stories, Artemis later sent a bear to attack Atalanta because others claimed Atalanta was a superior hunter. Among other adventures, Atalanta participated in the
Calydonian boar hunt, which Artemis had sent to destroy
Calydon because King
Oeneus had forgotten her at the
harvest sacrifices. In the hunt, Atalanta drew the first blood and was awarded the prize of the boar's
hide. She hung it in a sacred grove at
Tegea as a dedication to Artemis. After the death of
Meleager, Oeneus's son who awarded Atalanta with the hide, Artemis turned his grieving sisters, the
Meleagrids, into
guineafowl she favours.
Cyrene was a fierce
Thessalian huntress and companion of Artemis, who had given her two hunting dogs. With the help of these dogs, Cyrene had been able to win the prize in the funeral games of
Pelias. When King
Eurypylus was still ruling
Libya, a monstrous lion had terrorized the citizens greatly, so Apollo brought Cyrene to get rid of it. After she killed the lion, he made her the new ruler of the lands, renamed
Cyrene in her honor. In some versions, she was transformed into a nymph so that she could have a long life and keep hunting with Artemis as much as she desired. In a story from
Valerius Flaccus, Artemis and her mother Leto stood before Zeus with tearful eyes while Apollo pleaded with him to release
Prometheus (the god who had stolen fire from the gods, given it to humans, and been chained in the
Caucasus with an eagle feasting on his liver each day as punishment). Moved, Zeus agreed and commanded
Heracles to free Prometheus. In some versions of the story of
Adonis, Artemis sent a
wild boar to kill him as punishment for boasting that he was a better hunter than her. In other versions, Artemis killed Adonis for revenge. In later myths, Adonis is a favorite of
Aphrodite, who was responsible for the death of
Hippolytus, who had been a hunter of Artemis. Therefore, Artemis killed Adonis to avenge Hippolytus's death. In yet another version, Adonis was not killed by Artemis, but by
Ares as punishment for being with Aphrodite. When two of her hunting companions who had sworn to remain chaste and be devoted to her,
Rhodopis and Euthynicus, fell in love with each other and broke their vows in a cavern, Artemis turned Rhodopis into a fountain inside that very cavern as punishment. The two had fallen in love not on their own but only after Eros had struck them with his love arrows, commanded by his mother Aphrodite, who had taken offence in that Rhodopis and Euthynicus rejected love and marriage in favour of a chaste life. In
Nonnus's
Dionysiaca,
Aura, the daughter of
Lelantos and
Periboia, was a companion of Artemis. When out hunting one day with Artemis, she asserts that the goddess's voluptuous body and breasts are too womanly and sensual, and doubts her virginity, arguing that her own lithe body and man-like breasts are better than Artemis's and a true symbol of her own chastity. In anger, Artemis asks
Nemesis for help to avenge her dignity. Nemesis agrees, telling Artemis that Aura's punishment will be to lose her virginity, since she dared question that of Artemis. Nemesis then arranges for
Eros to make
Dionysus fall in love with Aura. Dionysus intoxicates Aura and rapes her as she lies unconscious, after which she becomes a deranged killer. While pregnant, she tries to kill herself or cut open her belly, as Artemis mocks her over it. When she bore twin sons, she ate one, while the other,
Iacchus, was saved by Artemis.
Chione was a beautiful princess of Phocis. She was beloved by two gods,
Hermes and
Apollo, and boasted that she was more beautiful than Artemis because she had made two gods fall in love with her at once. Artemis was furious and pierced Chione's blasphemous tongue with an arrow, leaving the girl to choke in her own blood.
Polyphonte was a young woman who fled home in pursuit of a free, virginal life with Artemis, as opposed to the conventional life of marriage and children favoured by Aphrodite. As a punishment, Aphrodite cursed her, causing her to mate and have children with a bear. Artemis, seeing that, was disgusted and sent a horde of wild animals against her, causing Polyphonte to flee to her father's house. Her resulting offspring,
Agrius and Oreius, were wild cannibals who incurred the hatred of Zeus. Ultimately the entire family was transformed into birds who became ill
portents for mankind.
Coronis was a princess from
Thessaly who became the lover of Apollo and fell pregnant. While Apollo was away, Coronis began an affair with a mortal man named
Ischys. When Apollo learnt of this, he sent Artemis to kill the pregnant Coronis, or Artemis had the initiative to kill Coronis on her own accord for the insult done against her brother. The unborn child,
Asclepius, was later removed from his dead mother's womb.
Trojan War , Greece. Artemis may have been represented as a supporter of Troy because her brother
Apollo was the
patron god of the city, and she herself was widely worshipped in western
Anatolia in historical times. Artemis plays a significant role in the war; like Leto and Apollo, Artemis took the side of the Trojans. In the
Iliad, Artemis on her chariot with the golden reins, kills the daughter of
Bellerophon. When the Greek fleet was preparing at
Aulis to depart for
Troy to commence the
Trojan War, Artemis becalmed the winds. The seer
Calchas erroneously advised Agamemnon that the only way to appease Artemis was to sacrifice his daughter
Iphigenia. In some version of the myth, Artemis then snatched Iphigenia from the altar and substituted a deer; in others, Artemis allowed Iphigenia to be sacrificed. In versions where Iphigenia survived, a number of different myths have been told about what happened after Artemis took her; either she was brought to
Tauris and led the priests there, or she became Artemis's immortal companion. Crying, Artemis left her bow and arrows where they lay and ran to Olympus to cry at her father Zeus's knees, while her mother Leto picked up her bow and arrows and followed her weeping daughter. ==Worship==