ARTEMIS

Artemis was the goddess of the hunt and animals. She was also the goddess of chastity and the protectress of maidens. She was also associated with the moon even though Selene was actually the true goddess of the moon. Artemis was also a goddess of childbirth; she had helped her mother deliver her twin brother on the island of Delos when Ileitheyia, the main goddess of childbirth, wasn’t able to help her.
She was the daughter of Zeus and Leto. Her twin brother was Apollo and despite that they were as different as day and night, they were very close. And they were both very protective of their mother. When Leto was put down by Niobe because Leto only had one son and one daughter while Niobe had seven of each, Artemis killed all of Niobe’s daughters and Apollo killed all her sons.

Artemis had a quiver full of silver arrows that brought to anyone a swift death. She roamed the forest with a group of nymphs that attended her.. Many of the nymphs tried to remain virgins as their leader, but they were often unsuccessful in their attempts. Whenever one of Artemis’s nymphs did not remain chaste, she was very cruel to them even if it was because of rape.

Orion, a son of Poseidon, was the only man that Artemis ever truly favored. He was a great hunter like her, but still gave her the proper respect. Apollo grew jealous of Artemis’s affection to Orion and some stories say that sent a scorpion that stung Orion in the heel. Others tell that Apollo bet that Artemis could not shoot a speck in the distance and when she did, she learned that the speck was actually Orion. Whatever the cause, Orion died and Artemis eventually forgave her brother. Apollo then helped her hang up Orion’s image in the sky as a constellation for all to see.

Her Roman names were Diana and Cynthia.