Simple things to know about the Goddess Artemis
Artemis is the goddess of hunting, the wilderness, and wild animals. She is also the goddess of childbirth, and protectress of girls up to the age of marriage, as Apollo is the protector of boys. With Apollo, they were bringers of sudden death and disease, Artemis targeted women and girls, while Apollo men and boys. To add- she is also a virgin goddess, like her half- sister Athene.
She is a daughter of Zeus and Leto, and twin sister to Apollo, and half sister of many of the other Olympian Gods. While pregnant, Leto was hounded by Zeus’ wife, Hera and forced Leto to wander the world in search of safe refuge. She was the first born of the twins, and being a divine precocious child, helped Leto with the delivery of Apollo.
Some of her symbols and attributes include her bow and arrow, but she was also sometimes carrying a quiver, a pair of hunting spears, a torch, a lyre, and/or a waterjug. She was clothed in a knee-length girl’s dress or a full-length woman’s robe(chiton), with a clock, headgear(usually a crown, tiara, headband, bonnet or animal-pelt cap), and occasionally the pelt of a deer draped across her shoulders.
Artemis’ sacred animal is the deer, and she also drove a chariot drawn by a pair, and was often depicted holding or hunting a deer or with a deer-skin cape draped over her shoulders. In myth, the most celebrated of her animals was the golden-horned Cerynitian Hind which Herakles was sent to fetch as one of his Twelve Labours. (possibly a post on that in the future) The bear was also sacred., as well as a variety of water and ground birds, such as partridges, quails and guinea-fowl. Her sacred plants are the cypress tree, and the palm tree.
Sources: theoi.com/olympios/Artemis.html
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