Olympian goddess of the hunt, wilderness, and young girls.
Overview
Artemis is a major pan-Hellenic goddess in Greek myth and is counted among the Olympian gods. She is mainly known as a goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, and the protection of young girls. She is also linked with childbirth and labor, and in later stories she becomes connected with the moon. In some contexts she is called Artemis Agrotera. She belongs to the mythic age of the Olympian gods and holds an important place in Greek religious and mythological tradition.
Epithets and Titles
Artemis has many epithets that show her different roles and local cults. Important epithets include Agrotera, Potnia Theron, Kourotrophos, Orthia, Brauronia, Hekate, and Phoebe. These names highlight her as a huntress, Mistress of Animals, and nurturer of the young.
Common cult titles in worship are Artemis Agrotera, Artemis Orthia, Artemis Brauronia, and Artemis Kourotrophos. Local epithets mark specific regional forms of her cult, such as Artemis Brauronia at Brauron in Attica, Artemis Orthia in Sparta and Laconia, Artemis Tauropolos in Attica and Tauris, and Artemis Ephesia at Ephesus in Ionia.
Descriptive titles like Mistress of Animals, Virgin Huntress, Protector of Young Girls, and Goddess of Childbirth further describe her roles. The meaning of the name “Artemis” is uncertain. Ancient authors sometimes linked it with ideas of safety and soundness. Modern suggestions include a pre-Greek origin or a link to words meaning “safe” (artemes), but no explanation is firmly accepted.
Her epithets and titles appear in many sources, including Homer’s Iliad, the Homeric Hymn to Artemis, Hesiod’s Theogony, Callimachus’ Hymn to Artemis, Pausanias’ Description of Greece, and inscriptions from sanctuaries at Brauron, Sparta, and Ephesus.
Family and Relationships
In Greek mythology, Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo. Unlike many Olympian gods, she has no traditional spouse, consort, lovers, children, or notable descendants. This reflects her status as a virgin goddess.
Her stories often show her in conflict with mortals who offend her or her sacred sphere. Among her well-known rivals and enemies are Actaeon, punished for seeing her bathing; Niobe, whose children she and Apollo killed for insulting their mother Leto; Orion, whom she kills in some versions of his myth; Agamemnon, who angered her by killing a sacred deer; and the giant brothers Otus and Ephialtes (the Aloadae), who challenged the gods.
Her allies and close figures include her twin Apollo, with whom she often acts together; her father Zeus, who protects her; and her mother Leto, whom Artemis and Apollo defend. She is also closely connected with the nymphs of the wilderness, who follow her in the hunt, and with Hecate, with whom she is linked in some cults and in stories involving magic and liminal spaces.
Domains and Powers
Artemis is active in many areas, mainly hunting, wilderness and forests, wild animals, and the lives of young girls and maidens. She is involved in childbirth and labor, watches over the change from girlhood to adulthood, and, especially in later tradition, is associated with the moon. She is also tied to lakes, marshes, and other wild or in-between places.
Within these areas she has several specific roles. She protects young girls until marriage, can cause the sudden death of women, especially in childbirth, controls the fertility of animals and the amount of game, upholds ideas of purity and virginity, and oversees liminal stages of life and rites of passage. She is especially important to hunters, midwives and women in childbirth, young girls and adolescents, and to cities and regions such as Ephesus, Brauron, and Sparta.
Her powers include perfect skill in archery and the ability to kill swiftly from afar. She can send or turn away sudden death and disease, especially among women and children. She controls wild animals and can lead them as Mistress of Animals. She can grant or withhold safe childbirth and guide the growth and maturation of girls. She may appear in animal form or act through wild creatures.
Her main limitation comes from her own vow of perpetual virginity. Her myths often show her reacting harshly to any violation of her modesty or sacred spaces, which usually brings severe punishment. In the sky she is linked with the moon, alongside Selene and later the Roman Diana, and is connected with nighttime hunting and lunar light in later art.
She is mainly an Olympian and a goddess of the earth’s wild places rather than a chthonic figure, but she can send sudden death and is called on during dangerous, in-between transitions.
Myths and Narratives
Stories about Artemis begin with her birth to Leto and Zeus on the island of Delos. In some accounts she is born first and helps with the birth of her twin brother Apollo, which sets up her lasting link with childbirth. As a child she is said to have asked Zeus for eternal virginity, a bow and arrows, and rule over mountains and wild animals. This request defines her as a virgin huntress and protector of the young.
She is often shown hunting with her nymphs, punishing those who threaten her chastity or defile her sacred spaces, and watching over the change of girls into women through both protective and deadly powers. Major stories tied to her include the Delian and Delphic cycle of Artemis and Apollo, the tale of her birth and Apollo’s on Delos, and her formal request to Zeus for her domains and virginity.
She plays a key role in the punishment of Actaeon for seeing her bathing, and in the killing of Niobe’s children with Apollo as payback for Niobe’s insult to Leto. In different versions of Orion’s myth, Artemis causes or brings about his death. She appears in the story of Iphigenia at Aulis, where she demands Iphigenia’s sacrifice and, in some versions, replaces her with a deer and carries the girl off to Tauris. This forms part of the Taurian/Iphigenia myth cycle.
Artemis also sends the Calydonian Boar to punish Oeneus for failing to honor her with sacrifice and is tied to the Calydonian Boar Hunt cycle. She appears in the story of Hippolytus and has a secondary but important role in some versions of the Trojan War cycle, sometimes backing certain heroes or the Trojans.
Across these stories, she appears as a protector and sometimes destroyer of young girls and women, an avenger of insults against herself, her mother, or her sacred animals, a divine huntress who controls wild game and punishes impious or excessive hunting, and a strict guardian of boundaries around chastity, modesty, and holiness. She sometimes helps favored mortals, especially those who are chaste or devoted to her.
Her main feats include helping with Apollo’s birth, killing or transforming Actaeon, killing with Apollo all or most of Niobe’s children, killing Orion in different ways depending on the version, demanding Iphigenia’s sacrifice and in some accounts substituting a deer and taking Iphigenia to Tauris, and sending the Calydonian Boar. Transformations linked with her include Actaeon’s change into a stag in some versions, and other changes of mortals and nymphs tied to her punishments or protection, such as certain versions of Callisto’s story.
Key literary sources for her myths include Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Homeric Hymns to Artemis and to Apollo, Hesiod’s Theogony, Callimachus’ Hymn to Artemis, Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis, Iphigenia among the Taurians, and Hippolytus, Apollodorus’ Library, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Pausanias’ Description of Greece.
Cult and Worship
The cult of Artemis is known from the Archaic period through the Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman Imperial periods. Her worship spread widely. Important centers were Delos, where she shared cult with Apollo; Ephesus, with the major sanctuary of Artemis Ephesia; Brauron in Attica, where she was honored as Artemis Brauronia; Sparta and Laconia, where she was worshipped as Artemis Orthia; and the Athenian Acropolis, which also had a cult of Artemis Brauronia. Many rural sanctuaries and groves across Greece were dedicated to her.
Notable cult sites include the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron, with its temple and buildings used for girls’ rites; the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia near Sparta, known for its special rituals involving youths; the great temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the most famous sanctuaries of the ancient world; and various temples and altars on Delos linked with Artemis and Apollo. Many local shrines stood in wild or liminal places such as groves, springs, and borders.
Festivals and rituals in her honor included the Arkteia at Brauron, where young Athenian girls served Artemis and acted as “bears”; festivals of Artemis Orthia in Sparta, with rites involving youths; local hunting festivals and offerings across Greece; and many city festivals that celebrated her under local epithets.
Ritual practices included dedicating garments, toys, and other items by girls moving toward adulthood; animal sacrifices, especially deer, goats, and other game; processions and dances by girls and youths at her sanctuaries; votive offerings showing animals, hunters, and female worshippers; and rites marking the passage from childhood to marriageable age for girls.
Those who took part in her cult included young girls and maidens, especially in Attica and at Brauron; youths and ephebes, especially at Sparta’s Artemis Orthia; hunters and rural communities; and civic authorities in cities where Artemis was a major civic goddess. Her worship also shows hero-cult or mixed elements, including a close link and partial blending with Artemis Ephesia, a highly developed local form at Ephesus with its own iconography and practices, and overlaps with Hecate and Selene in later times, especially in lunar and liminal aspects.
Symbolism and Iconography
In art, Artemis is usually shown as a young, athletic maiden with an adolescent look. She often wears a short chiton suited for hunting, sometimes with boots and a cloak, and is often in active poses, running or chasing. Her image strongly stresses her as a huntress: she commonly carries a bow and arrows, a quiver, and sometimes a spear.
She is often shown with deer, stags, hounds, or other wild animals, reflecting her title Potnia Theron, “Mistress of Animals.” Vase paintings and reliefs frequently show her with nymphs, in hunting scenes, or in myth scenes such as the punishment of Actaeon or the killing of Niobe’s children. In later art, a crescent moon may appear on her brow, highlighting her lunar side.
In the Ephesian cult, Artemis appears in a very stylized, column-like form with many protuberances on the chest and rich decoration. This type is very different from the usual Greek image of the huntress. Her main symbols and attributes include the bow and arrows, quiver, hunting spear, deer and stags, hunting dogs, the crescent moon in later art, and her short hunting chiton and boots.
Her key items in myth are the bow and silver arrows, said to be given by Zeus or made by the Cyclopes, and hunting dogs sometimes described as gifts from Pan or other gods. She is linked with the pale light of the moon and the night, and with the wild, untamed parts of the earth and forests.
Artemis had a strong impact on ancient art. She appears often in Greek vase painting, temple sculpture, and later Roman works, especially in hunting scenes and scenes of divine punishment. The statue type of Artemis as a running or striding huntress became a widely copied sculptural form in the classical and Hellenistic periods, while the Ephesian Artemis became one of the most famous cult images of antiquity, reproduced many times in sculpture and relief.