| Daughter of Zeus and Leto |
| Artemis and Niobe |
| Artemis and Orion |
| Artemis and Agamemnon |
| Artemis in The Iliad (reference) |
| Artemis in The Odyssey (reference) |
| Images of Artemis |
Artemis and Apollon are the children of Zeus and Leto ... both are associated with the bow ... Apollon is said to use the curved bow and Artemis uses the silver bow. She is one of only three goddesses who are immune to the enchantments of Aphrodite (goddess of Love) ... the other two are Histia (Hestia) and Athene (Athena).
Artemis is a friend to mortals, and dances through the countryside in her silver sandals giving her divine protection to the wild beasts, particularly the very young. She rides her silver chariot across the sky and shoots her arrows of silver moonlight to the earth below.
When Apollon leaves his shrine in Pytho and travels to Mount Olympos (Olympus), the other gods and goddesses gather to hear the beautiful music he plays on the lyre. He sings with the Muses of the unending gifts the Immortals enjoy and the mortal plight of the people who must endure the pains of illness and the failings of old age. Hebe (goddess of Youth), the Graces, the Seasons, Harmonia and Aphrodite join hands and dance ... the goddess Artemis, tall and enviable, sings to her brother’s irresistible melodies.
Artemis, like the other Olympians, has favorites among the mortals but she could not protect the fine huntsman, Skamandros (Scamander), from the spear of Menelaos (Menelaus) at the battle for the city of Troy.
In The Odyssey (book 15, line 403), Odysseus was told the story of a wonderful island, Syria, where hunger and grim old age have no dominion. When the Fates determined that the noble inhabitants of this island were at the end of their lives, Artemis and Apollon would swoop down and painlessly kill them with their arrows.
Unlike her brother Apollon, Artemis is not skilled in war-craft but she can punish and kill as the will of Zeus dictates. In The Iliad (book, 24, line 603), her mother, Leto, was insulted by a woman named Niobe. Niobe boasted that she had twelve children and Leto only had two. As punishment, Apollon killed Niobe’s six sons and Artemis killed her six daughters ... the bloody bodies of the children laid exposed for nine days before Zeus allowed the other Olympians to bury them. Niobe was turned into stone on the slopes of Mount Sipylos near the waters of Achelous, in which state she still weeps over her loss.
Artemis and Apollon killing the children of Niobe.
The hunter Orion encountered Artemis and Leto on the island of Crete ... he had been recently punished with blindness and then healed but he learned nothing from the ordeal ... his vanity and brutality remained his trademark. While hunting with Artemis and Leto, Orion threatened to kill every wild beast on the earth. Gaia (Earth) was so annoyed with Orion that she sent a giant scorpion to sting and kill him. Artemis and Leto prayed to Zeus that Orion be put in the heavens as a major constellation to honor his manliness and there he remains today with the scorpion beside him. (Astronomy, fragment 4)
The preparations for the siege of Troy were well under way when the Greek fleet rendezvoused at the port town of Aulis. While at Aulis, Agamemnon offended the Artemis. As punishment for Agamemnon’s offence, Boreas (North Wind) would not let the ships leave the harbor. The seer, Kalchas (Calchas), said that unless Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia (Iphigeneia), to Artemis, the fleet would not be allowed to leave. Agamemnon had Iphigenia (or perhaps her name was Iphianassa), brought to Aulis on the pretext that she was to marry Achilles. When the time for the sacrifice came, Artemis took Iphigenia from the altar and substituted a stag in her stead. Artemis transported Iphigenia to Tauris where she became an immortal priestess to the goddess. Iphianassa was thus saved from the cruel sacrifice but this incident set the stage for Agamemnon’s tragic homecoming at the end of the Trojan War.
Agamemnon’s wife Klytemnestra (Clytemnestra) learned of the attempt to sacrifice Iphigenia to Artemis and, coupled with the lonely neglect of Agamemnon’s ten year absence, decided to kill him when he returned from Troy. Upon his triumphant return, Agamemnon paid no heed to the dire warnings from the ghost of Achilles or king Priam’s daughter, Kassandra (Cassandra). He entered his palace oblivious to his fate and was brutally murdered by Klytemnestra.
Artemis and Apollon
The line numbers listed here correspond fairly well with the Lattimore and Murray/Wyatt translations of The Iliad. Other translations (Fitzgerald, Fagles et al) do not correspond as well but, with a small amount of effort, you should be able to find the reference you need regardless of the translation you use. Lattimore (ISBN 0226469409); A.T. Murray/William F. Wyatt Vol. I & II (ISBN 0674995791 and 0674995805); Robert Fitzgerald (ISBN 0374529051); Robert Fagles (ISBN 0140275363)
The line numbers listed here correspond fairly well with the Lattimore and Murray/Dimock translations of The Odyssey. Other translations (Fitzgerald, Fagles et al) do not correspond as well but, with a small amount of effort, you should be able to find the reference you need regardless of the translation you use. Richmond Lattimore (ISBN 0060931957); A.T. Murray/George E. Dimock Vol. I & II (ISBN 0674995619 and 0674995627); Robert Fitzgerald (ISBN 0374525749); Robert Fagles (ISBN 0140268863)
