In the Greek Mythology, Artémis (in Greek old Ἄρτεμις / Ártemis ) is the goddess of hunting and one of the goddesses associated with the the Moon (compared to Apollon, which is the god of the Sun). It is comparable in the Roman Mythologie with the goddess Diane.

It is girl of Zeus and of Léto and sister twin of Apollo (or simply his sister, according to the Homeric anthem which is devoted to him), with which it divides many common features.

Divinity of the margins

Born on the island from Ortygie “the Island with ruails”, called more tardily Délos, made Artémis of the countries of Hyperborean its main home where it reigns as a mistress of wild nature and the animals. “That all the mountains are mine” declares it in the anthem of Callimaque de Cyrène. She also wanders in the agroi , the uncultivated lands, uncultivated and little attended. As Jean-Pierre Vernant underlines it, it “has its place in edge of sea, in the coastal areas where ground enters and water the limits are undecided”. Always located at the border between the civilized world and the wild world, Artémis the huntress is also one κουροτρόφος / kourotrophós , which governs the initiation of small men and animals and accompanies them until the threshold by the adult life.

Armed with an arc and arrows offered by the Cyclops, Artémis assists his/her Apollon brother in his combat against the snake Python like in the Gigantomachie. During the Trojan War, it is also at the sides of the Troyens. Like him, it pourfend of its arrows the Niobides. It helps it to be avenged for Coronis and Tityos. In a general way, it sends on the women sudden death, whereas Apollon undertakes the men. In Iliade , Héra qualifies it thus “lioness for the women”. One sings to him, as in Apollon, the Péan.

Huntress with the gold arc

Manhunter of wood, sauvageonne unsubdued and proud, Artémis belongs above all to the wild world, whereas his/her Apollon brother is presented in the form of a civilizing god. Only among the gods, except for Dionysos, it is constantly surrounded by a troop of wild animals, from where its épiclèse of ηγημόνη / Hêgêmónê , “the Conducting one”. It is also with the head of a troop of nymphs (20 nymphs of the Amnisos mount, according to Callimaque) and of young mortals, whom it carries out through the forests. the Iliade speaks about it like “rural Artémis (...), the lady of the deer ( potnia theron ).

Called the “Noisy one” ( Κελαδεινή / Keladeinế ), it carries out its pack and voice pushes. Artémis indeed has the double face of the partner of the wild animals, and the huntress. The hind symbolizes its ambivalence well: the animal is his/her favorite partner, and of many representations show it at its side. Nevertheless, Artémis is also that which is considered to continue of its arrows stags and hinds, even if few texts attest it.

The Sagittarius goddess is finally called by Homère Artémis khrysêlakatos , “with the arc of gold” and by Hésiode iochéairê , “the archère”. At Homère, the arc is said βιός / biós , which approaches βίος / bíos , “life”. This is why, Artémis, still called “the radiant one”, is also that which guides the stray ones, foreigners, or slaves in escape in the middle of the night. Also Artémis carries it in Latin the name of Trivia , “that which lights the road with the crossroads of the life”.

Ambiguous goddess

Just like Athéna and Hestia, Artémis is a “virgin” goddess, improperly considered by the mythocritiques ones until the 19th century as “pure”, until Jean-Pierre Vernant lights more the adjectives joined with its name. Artémis is parthenos , the virgin who deals with fire, or, as Plutarque brings it back, that who abstains from any sexual trade with men. She severely punishes the men who try to allure it: “sad weddings, those which aspired to Otos and Orion”. When Actéon surprises it by chance in its bath, it metamorphoses it in stag and the fact of tearing by its own dogs.

She also supervises the chastity of her partners: she strips an arrow with Callisto, girl of Lycaon, to have had sexual relations with Zeus. It will be stressed that Zeus arrived to its ends at Callisto because it had taken the appearance of Artémis, element which reveals the ambiguity of the relation which linked Artémis and Callisto.

Epithets, attributes and sanctuaries

Anecdotes

  • a bronze statuette, entitled " Artémis and the cerf" , dating of more than two thousand years, was sold with the biddings in New York in June 2007 for 28,6 million dollars.

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