The hunter Aktaion (Actaeon) spied upon the goddess as she was bathing with her nymphs at a spring. When the Aloadai (Aloadae) giants tried to storm Olympos, Artemis assumed the form of a doe and raced between them causing the pair to cast their spears, miss, and strike each other dead.> In her grief Artemis placed him amongst the stars as the constellation Orion.> The handsome giant Orion was a companion of the goddess but her jealous brother Apollon tricked her into killing him with a distant bow-shot. When Artemis discovered the girl was pregnant she transformed her into a bear and exiled her to the wilds. Kallisto (Callisto) was a handmaiden of the goddess who Zeus seduced by assuming her form. There she gave birth to Artemis who assisted her mother as midwife with the birth of her younger twin-brother Apollon.> MYTHSĪrtemis' mother Leto was hounded throughout her pregnancy by the jealous goddess Hera but eventually found refuge on the floating island of Delos. In ancient art Artemis was usually depicted as a girl or young maiden with a hunting bow and quiver of arrows.
Together the two gods were also bringers of sudden death and disease-Artemis targetted women and girls, Apollon men and boys. She was also a goddess of childbirth, and the protectress of the girl child up to the age of marriage-her twin brother Apollon was similarly the protector of the boy child.
Diana Artemis, Athenian red-figure bell krater C5th B.C., Museum of Fine Arts BostonĪRTEMIS was the Olympian goddess of hunting, the wilderness and wild animals.
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