Artemis
Artemis was a Greek Goddess of the wilderness, the hunt and wild animals, and also the goddess of fertility and childbirth. Her recognition of being goddess of fertility and childbirth was mostly in cities. Artemis was a virgin goddess and she roamed the mountains, forests, and untamed land with her nymphs. She hunted for lions, panthers, stags, and more. She watched after them and protected them to assure their safety and reproduction. She carried with her a bow and arrows. Her bow and arrow was made by Hephaestus and Cyclopes.
Leto and Zeus were the parents of Artemis and she was the twin sister of Apollo. It is said by some that she was born one day before Apollo. As the story went, she delivered Artemis on the island of Ortygia then immediately after giving birth, she helped her mother cross the straits to Delos. After they arrived there she gave birth to Apollo.
Artemis’ job became that of guardian of young children and the patron of women in childbirth. It was believed that she was a goddess of contradictions because while protecting women during childbirth, it was also said that her arrows also brought them sudden death while giving birth. She and her brother Apollo were also known as divine healers, but they also brought diseases and spread them. Some of these diseases were leprosy, rabies, and gout.
It is recorded that Artemis asked her father, Zeus, to grant her eternal virginity. She was one of the Olympians and a virgin goddess. All of her companions were also virgins and if any man tried to dishonor her, she gave them severe punishment. One instance was when Actaeon stopped and watched Artemis and her nymphs while they were bathing naked in a secluded pool of water. When Artemis saw him she turned him into a stag and sent his own hounds after him. Thinking the stag was just a stag, the hounds killed him. There are other recordings about Artemis.
It is written that Artemis and her brother, Apollo, killed the children of Niobe. The reason was that Niobe bragged about bearing more children than Leto (Artemis and Apollo’s mother), and Niobe considered herself superior to Leto. Artemis and Apollo hunted the children down and Apollo killed the males and Artemis killed the girls with their bows and arrows.
Apollo saw that Artemis was spending a lot of time hunting with the giant Orion and he didn’t like it so he decided to stop the friendship. Apollo challenged Artemis to a archery contest and told her to shoot at an object which was floating way out at sea. Artemis’ aim was perfect and the target turned out to be the head of Orion. Artemis is most often depicted as a young woman in buckskins and carrying a bow and quiver of arrows. She is also sometimes accompanied with wild animals such as stags or a she bear.
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