Artemis+-+1

Atremis Artemis later became identified with [|Selene], a [|Titaness] who was a Greek moon goddess, and she was sometimes depicted with a crescent moon above her head. She was also identified with the Roman goddess [|Diana], with the [|Etruscan] goddess [|Artume], and with the Greek or [|Carian] goddess [|Hecate]. Various conflicting accounts are given in Classical Greek mythology of the birth of Artemis and her twin brother, Apollo. All accounts agree, however, that she was the daughter of [|Zeus] and [|Leto] and that she was the twin sister of Apollo. An account by [|Callimachus] has it that Hera forbade Leto to give birth on either terra firma (the mainland) or on an island. Hera was angry with Zeus, her husband, because he had impregnated Leto. But the island of [|Delos] (or [|Ortygia] in the [|Homeric Hymn to Artemis]) disobeyed Hera, and Leto gave birth there. A //[|scholium]// of [|Servius] on //[|Aeneid]//. 72 accounts for the island's archaic name Ortygia by asserting that Zeus transformed Leto into a [|quail] (//ortux//) in order to prevent Hera from finding out his infidelit y, 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 it lays an egg. [|Callimachus] – the goddess "who amuses herself on mountains with archery" – imagines some charming vignettes: at three years old, Artemis asked her father, Zeus, while sitting on his knee, to grant her six wishes. Her first wish was to remain chaste for eternity, and never to be confined by marriage. She then asked for lop-eared hounds, stags to lead her chariot, and [|nymphs] to be her hunting companions, 60 from the river and 20 from the ocean. Also, she asked for a silver bow like her brother [|Apollo]. He granted her the six wishes.[|[10]] All of her companions remained virgins and Artemis guarded her own chastity closely. Her symbol was the silver bow and arrow. [|Callimachus] – the goddess "who amuses herself on mountains with archery" – imagines some charming vignettes: at three years old, Artemis asked her father, Zeus, while sitting on his knee, to grant her six wishes. Her first wish was to remain chaste for eternity, and never to be confined by marriage. She then asked for lop-eared hounds, stags to lead her chariot, and [|nymphs] to be her hunting companions, 60 from the river and 20 from the ocean. Also, she asked for a silver bow like her brother [|Apollo]. He granted her the six wishes.[|[10]] All of her companions remained virgins and Artemis guarded her own chastity closely. Her symbol was the __silver__ bow and arrow. The myths also differ as to whether Artemis was born first, or Apollo. __Childhood__ The childhood of Artemis is not embodied in any surviving myth:the [|//Iliad//] reduced the figure of dreaded goddess, which had made her a girl,who, has been thrashed my [|Hera], climbs weepingly into the lap of Zeus. The poem of [|Callimachus] – the goddess "who amuses herself on mountains with archery" – imagines some charming vignettes: at three years old, Artemis asked her father, Zeus, while sitting on his knee, to grant her six wishes. Her first wish was to remain chaste for eternity, and never to be confined by marriage. She then asked for lop-eared hounds, stags to lead her chariot, and [|nymphs] to be her hunting companions, 60 from the river and 20 from the ocean. Also, she asked for a silver bow like her brother [|Apollo]. He granted her the six wishes.[|[10]] All of her companions remained virgins and Artemis guarded her own chastity closely. Her symbol was the silver bow and arrow.
 * Artemis** was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities and one of the oldest.[|[1]] In [|Greek mythology] of the classical period, Artemis ([|Greek]: ([|nominative]), ([|genitive]) was often described as the daughter of [|Zeus] and [|Leto], and the twin sister of [|Apollo]. She was the Hellenic goddess of forests and hills, child birth, virginity, fertility, the hunt, and often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.[|[2]] The [|deer] and the [|cypress] were sacred to her. In later Hellenistic times she even assumed the ancient role of [|Eileithyia] in aiding childbirth.

__Family Life__ The daughter of Leo and Zeus, and also the twin of Apollo.She is a goddess of the wild, hunting of animals and fertility(she has become goddess of fertility and childbirth mainly in citiesShe was often depicted with the crescent of the moon above her forehead and was sometimes identified with [|Selene] (goddess of the moon). Artemis was one of the Olympians and a virgin goddess. Her main vocation was to roam mountain forests and uncultivated land with her [|nymphs] in attendance hunting for lions, panthers, hinds and stags. Contradictory to the later, she helped in protecting and seeing to their well-being, also their safety and reproduction. She was armed with a bow and arrows which were made by [|Hephaestus] and the [|Cyclopes].) In one legend, Artemis was born one day before her brother Apollo. Her mother gave birth to her on the island of Ortygia, then, almost immediately after her birth, she helped her mother to cross the straits over to Delos, where she then delivered Apollo. This was the beginning of her role as guardian of young children and patron of women in childbirth. Being a goddess of contradictions, she was the protectress of women in labor, but it was said that the arrows of Artemis brought them sudden death while giving birth. As was her brother, Apollo, Artemis was a divinity of healing, but also brought and spread diseases such as leprosy, rabies and even gout. Being associated with chastity, Artemis at an early age (in one legend she was three years old) asked her father, the great god Zeus, to grant her eternal virginity. Also, all her companions were virgins. Artemis was very protective of her purity, and gave grave punishment to any man who attempted to dishonor her in any form. [|Actaeon], while out hunting, accidentally came upon Artemis and her nymphs, who bathing naked in a secluded pool. Seeing them in all their naked beauty, the stunned Actaeon stopped and gazed at them, but when Artemis saw him ogling them, she transformed him into a stag. Then, incensed with disgust, she set his own hounds upon him. They chased and killed what they thought was another stag, but it was their master. As with [|Orion], a giant and a great hunter, there are several legends which tell of his death, one involving Artemis. It is said that he tried to rape the virgin goddess, so killed him with her bow and arrows. Another says she conjured up a scorpion which killed Orion and his dog. Orion became a constellation in the night sky, and his dog became Sirius, the dog star. Yet another version says it was the scorpion which stung him and was transformed into the constellation with Orion, the later being Scorpio. Artemis was enraged when one of her nymphs, [|Callisto], allowed Zeus to seduce her, but the great god approached her in one of his guises; he came in the form of Artemis. The young nymph was unwittingly tricked, and she gave birth to [|Arcas], the ancestor of the Arcadians, but Artemis showed no mercy and changed her into a bear. She then shot and killed her. As Orion, she was sent up to the heavens, and became the constellation of the Great Bear (which is also known as the Plough). Artemis was very possessive. She would show her wrath on anyone who disobeyed her wishes, especially against her sacred animals. Even the great hero [|Agamemnon] came upon the wrath of Artemis, when he killed a stag in her sacred grove. His punishment came when his ships were becalmed, while he made his way to besiege Troy. With no winds to sail his ships he was told by the seer [|Calchas] that the only way Artemis would bring back the winds was for him to sacrifice his daughter [|Iphigenia]. Some versions say he did sacrifice Iphigenia, others that Artemis exchanged a deer in her place, and took Iphigenia to the land of the Tauri (the Crimea) as a priestess, to prepare strangers for sacrifice to Artemis. Artemis with her twin brother, Apollo, put to death the children of [|Niobe]. The reason being that Niobe, a mere mortal, had boasted to Leto, the mother of the divine twins, that she had bore more children, which must make her superior to Leto. Apollo being outraged at such an insult on his mother, informed Artemis. The twin gods hunted them down and shot them with their bows and arrows; Apollo killed the male children and Artemis the girls. Artemis was worshiped in most Greek cities but only as a secondary deity. However, to the Greeks in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) she was a prominent deity. In Ephesus, a principal city of Asia Minor, a great temple was built in her honor, which became one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World". But at Ephesus she was worshiped mainly as a fertility goddess, and was identified with Cybele the mother goddess of eastern lands. The cult statues of the Ephesian Artemis differ greatly from those of mainland Greece, whereas she is depicted as a huntress with her bow and arrows. Those found at Ephesus show her in the eastern style, standing erect with numerous nodes on her chest. There have been many theories as to what they represent. Some say they are breasts, others that they are bulls testes which were sacrificed to her. Which is the true interpretation remains uncertain, but each represent fertility. There were festivals in honor of Artemis, such as the Brauronia, which was held in Brauron; and the festival of Artemis Orthia, held at Sparta, when young Spartan boys would try to steal cheeses from the altar. As they tried they would be whipped, the meaning of Orthia and the nature of the ritual whipping has been lost and there is no logical explanation or translation. Among the epithets given to Artemis are: [|Potnia Theron] (mistress of wild animals) this title was mentioned by the great poet Homer; Kourotrophos (nurse of youth's); Locheia (helper in childbirth); Agrotera (huntress); and Cynthia (taken from her birthplace on Mount Cynthus on Delos). When young girls reached puberty they were initiated into her cult, but when they decided to marry, which Artemis was not against, they were asked to lay in front of the altar all the paraphernalia of their virginity, toys, dolls and locks of their hair, they then left the domain of the virgin goddess.

||
 * || || [[image:http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/000Images/aim/artemis6921.jpg width="315" height="496" align="bottom"]] || ||