She was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. [see March 12 #4 re: twins] She was the goddess of forests and hills and was often depicted as carrying a bow and arrows. The deer and the cypress [see below: March 25 re: cypress trees] were sacred to her.
She became partially associated with the moon in later Greek culture (post-Classical). (One thing that leapt out at me is how much the moon on her head resembles the Taurus astrological sign.)
(This of course brought Campbell to mind, but that's all we'll say of this now.)
Her temple at Ephesus was one of the ancient world's seven wonders: I definitely did not know this before reading about her; I didn't even know what all seven the seven wonders were: did you?
Pre-pubescent Athenian girls and young Athenian girls approaching marriageable age were sent to the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron to serve the Goddess for one year. During this time the girls were known as arktoi, or little she-bears. A myth explaining this servitude relates that a bear had formed the habit of regularly visiting the town of Brauron, and the people there fed it, so that over time the bear became tame. A young girl teased the bear, and, in some versions of the myth it killed her, while in other versions it clawed her eyes out. Either way, the girl's brothers killed the bear, and Artemis was enraged. She demanded that young girls "act the bear" at her sanctuary in atonement for the bear's death.
Artemis was worshipped as a fertility/childbirth goddess in some places. Her realm also includes the hunt and 'spots' in nature. She seems serene and gentle but will show an indomitable wrath at times. Who then shall say she is not like the forest itself?
...she is usually portrayed as a maiden huntress clothed in a girl's short skirt, with hunting boots, a quiver, a bow and arrows. Often she is shown in the shooting pose, and is accompanied by a hunting dog or stag. Her darker side is revealed in some vase paintings, where she is shown as the death-bringing goddess whose arrows fell young maidens and women...
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 possibly Ortygia) disobeyed Hera, and Leto gave birth there. ...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 wishes. All of her companions remained virgins, and Artemis guarded her own chastity closely. Her symbol was the silver bow and arrow.
Artemis, it seems, is not one to let men too closely: Actaeon saw her bathing and spied on her. Artemis was furious and changed him into a stag who was then hunted and killed by his own hounds. In another version, Actaeon boasts he is the better hunter and the transformation then occurs. Adonis also boasted of being a better hunter and Artemis then sent a wild boar to kill him. Another person, Siproites, also saw Artemis and was changed by her into a woman.
You may recall in my post about Orion, there were connections with Artemis. Orion was either killed by Artemis or by a scorpion (Scorpio) sent by Gaea. Either way, it seems Orion was, like the above characters, overly boastful. Niobe boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children whereas Leto had only had two (Apollo and Artemis). For this, Artemis and Apollo used poisonous arrows to fell all fourteen. Niobe turned to stone from weeping for her children.
Agamemnon, the famous king, also got on Artemis' bad side: he killed a sacred deer in a sacred grove and boasted of his great hunting prowess. In one version of the story, Artemis calms the winds as he is trying to leave to go to Troy for the Trojan War. To appease Artemis, he must sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. Agamemnon, for sacrificing his daughter and appeasing Artemis, dies at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus (this trickles down into the Electra story I mentioned a while back: Electra seeks revenge and must kill her mother, Clytemnestra). (In the Trojan War, Artemis favours the Trojans and comes to blows with Hera who supports the Greeks: Artemis runs crying to Zeus; Homer portrays Artemis as something of a child.)
[Callisto] was one of Artemis's hunting attendants. As a companion of Artemis, Callisto took a vow of chastity. Zeus appeared to her disguised as Artemis, or in some stories Apollo, gained her confidence, then took advantage of her (or raped her, according to Ovid). As a result of this encounter she conceived a son, Arcas. Enraged, Hera or Artemis changed her into a bear. Arcas almost killed the bear, but Zeus stopped him just in time. Out of pity, Zeus placed Callisto the bear into the heavens, thus the origin of Callisto the Bear as a constellation. Some stories say that he placed both Arcas and Callisto into the heavens as bears, forming the Ursa Minor and Ursa Major constellations.
Artemis saved the infant Atalanta from dying of exposure after her father abandoned her. She sent a female bear to suckle the baby, who was then raised by hunters.but she later sent a bear to hurt Atalanta because people said Atalanta was a better hunter. This is in some stories. Among other adventures, Atalanta participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, 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 skin. She hung it in a sacred grove at Tegea as a dedication to Artemis.
The Gigantes Otus and Ephialtes were sons of Poseidon. They were so strong that nothing could harm them. One night, as they slept, Gaea whispered to them, that since they were so strong, they should be the rulers of Olympus. They built a mountain as tall as Mt. Olympus, and then demanded that the gods surrender, and that Artemis and Hera become their wives. The gods fought back, but couldn't harm them. The sons even managed to kidnap Ares and hold him in a jar for thirteen months. Artemis later changed herself into a deer and ran between them. The Aloadae, not wanting her to get away because they were eager huntsmen, each threw their javelin and simultaneously killed each other.
Interesting how most of these stories, from Wikipedia, show Artemis' vengeful side.
(How quiet is her love? (the wrong word, I'm sure))
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis
p.s. Please let me know if you come across examples of what ancient greek cypress trees might have been.
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2.) The twelve Olympians, the principal deities residing atop Mount Olympus, called the Dodekatheon, as per here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Olympians These are where my interest currently lies.
(Hades is not included in the classical scheme of the twelve and the article even says: Hades, the god of the Underworld, is always confused as not being part of the 12. He has earned the right to be part of the 12 since his big contribution to the war with the Titans. However, this seems to forget the earlier mention that the twelve are the principal deities residing atop Mount Olympus and I do not believe that Hades resides there, but this is only a conjecture of mine.)
(Interesting too: twelve Olympians to 'match' the twelve of the zodiac, recently 'investigated' (with a quick eye, of course) on this blog.)
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3.) Poor Hermes didn't get a picture, so here he is:
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