fallen and loose the shaken tresses, fallen the sandal and girdling gold.
artemis ; not your father's virgin daughter.
→ basics
NAME: Artemis. (She is also known as Diana, as well as other names to various cultures. She prefers Artemis above all others.)
GODDESS OF: Chastity. This is most often equated to virginity, and while Artemis vowed to stay a virgin (with one sole exception, to be explained), she does not view fornication as a necessarily evil thing. Artemis is, first and foremost, a protector of women - there is a reason she watches over women giving birth. She is also the divine goddess of the hunt, and occasionally takes over Gaia's role as the protector of the forests.
SACRED OBJECTS:
Related to chastity: any and all objects a maiden possesses during her youth are sacred objects of Artemis. When a maiden is to be married, tradition states that she will sacrifice her childhood possessions to the goddess and leave her maidenhood behind. The colors white and yellow are often associated with her as well in this regard.
Related to the hunt: the bow and arrow is the most prominent symbol, and hers are crafted of gold (a present from the Kyklopes) and are sacred in their own right. She also drives a golden chariot, pulled by five golden-horned deer (the Elaphoi Khrysokeroi) that were her first capture. Deer are the only animals Artemis holds sacred unto herself
Other possessions/preferences: As the goddess of maidenhood (specifically maiden songs and dances), Artemis is often seen with a lyre. She was also gifted with her hunting dogs and breeding mates by Pan in Arcadia, five males and seven females.
FAMILY LINE: She is the daughter of Zeus (the god of sky and thunder) and Leto (the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe), and the twin sister of Apollo. In classical mythology, she bore no children as a virgin goddess. Thanks to the wonders of the internet and storylines, this is possibly going to change. Maybe.
→ history
Artemis' mother, Leto, was a daughter of the Titans. She was said to be remarkably beautiful, though she hid her beauty out of modesty, and her beauty caught the eye of Zeus. He courted her (or raped her, depending on the story you follow) and she became pregnant with twins. Her pregnancy angered Hera, who was already beside herself with worry about the natural order of the new generation of gods and goddesses, and Hera banned Leto from giving birth on "terra firma" - ie on land. Leto travelled the globe to find a safe space to give birth, and finally found the island of Delos, unconnected to the sea floor and therefore not terra firma. The first birth, Artemis, was easy - legend states it was as if she was simply revealing herself again - but the second child, Apollo, troubled her for nine days and nine nights until Artemis came to her aid as a midwife.
As a child, she was a doted-on daughter of Zeus, one of the few whose legitimacy in the kingdom of Olympus was never questioned. She was treated well, given whatever she could ask for, with one condition: she was expected to marry whomever her father set out for her, much like a classic princess. Artemis was promised to various gods and demigods, a prize for whomever could satisfy Zeus the most with an offering or sacrifice, and each time she denied the suitor. Her declaration of chastity came not from a personal hatred of men, but rather a stubborn idealistic streak that followed her through life. It is important to note that Artemis swore to a life of chastity, not specifically virginity. While the two are arguably related, there is much more to the story than simply never having sex.
Artemis believed (and still does) that a woman and her body were not objects to be handed over to a man. Being treated like an object at market made her very wary and distrusting of the idea of marriage, and this idea was only reinforced by the lackadaisical attitude many of her siblings and family members had towards the process. (See: all major gods and their affairs/illegitimate children.) She swore that she would remain chaste and pure, firmly refusing to be married off for her father's sake, and devoted herself to the protection of other young maidens.
While living on Mt Olympus as a daughter of Zeus, Artemis found herself shadowing the various gods and goddesses to find a passion she enjoyed. She spent time with Hephaestus in his blacksmithing shop, watched Poseidon as he manipulated the waves, and Hermes as he tended to athletes and perfected his own sport. It was not until she came across a group of mortal hunters in a Greek forest that she became interested in the hunt. She begged her father to procure a bow and arrow for her, one that would not miss its target, but he refused; she went to the island of Lipara, where Hephaestus and the Cyclops worked, and successfully begged for it there. She then visited Arcadia to see Pan, the god of forests, who gifted her with dogs for her pack. With hunting dogs and a bow and arrow, Artemis began to perfect her hunt; she practiced on trees and then wild animals, capturing first a group of golden-horned deer that she harnessed to a golden chariot (a gift from her brother, Apollo).
At some point in her girlhood, her "uncle" Helios abdicated his role as the bringer of light and the responsibility was passed on to her brother, Apollo. As they had been twins and therefore close, Artemis took the loss of her companion rather hard. She withdrew for many years into the forests of Earth, watching closely over maidens and gathering hunters to stand beside her. It was during this time that Artemis began gathering maidens to serve her and tend to her hunters and her pack - she selected women who were chaste and self-sufficient, ones with self-respect enough to remain pure until their wedding night. Unlike many goddesses, Artemis did not compel them to stay with her; if they chose to leave, they were free to do so.
As an openly opinionated and self-sufficient goddess, and also as the daughter of Zeus, Artemis had many suitors. There were many men who tried to win her heart, but none succeeded save for one: Orion, her hunting companion. She fell in love with him, and agreed to marry and step down as the goddess of purity to be joined with him, but she was tricked into killing him by her brother Apollo, who was concerned for her safety. She never loved another, and fell only deeper into her assertion that she would never marry or give herself to a man.
→ other incidents
ACTAEON: The Theban hunter came across her bathing in a vale on Mt Cithaeron, and she became enraged at his affront on her chastity. She turned him into a stag, and his dogs, not recognizing their owner, killed him.
ADONIS: A boastful god, Adonis once claimed to be a better hunter than even the goddess, who did not take kindly to his claims. After a warning was rebuffed, Artemis sent a wild boar to be "tamed". The boar took Adonis' life.
THE ALOADEA: Otos and Ephialtes, the twin sons of Iphidemia and Posiedon, were fast-growing demigods and fantastically skilled hunters who had the blessing of their father so that they could only be killed if they killed each other. They continued to grow, and became enormous; they claimed that once they reached the heavens, they would kidnap Artemis and Hera and take them as their wives. No god wanted to step in against Posiedon's sons, save Artemis, who transformed herself into a doe and jumped in between them. They threw their spears, each wanting to claim the animal, and in turn killed each other.
CALLISTO: The daughter of Lycaon, King of Arcadia and one of Artemis's hunting attendants Zeus appeared to her disguised as Apollo, gained her confidence, then took advantage of her (or raped her, depending on the story), causing her to conceive a son, Arcas. Enraged, Artemis changed her into a bear, which Arcas almost killed, Zeus stopping him just in time. To preserve his lover, Zeus placed Callisto the bear into the heavens, thus creating Callisto the Bear as a constellation.
NIOBE A Queen of Thebes and wife of Amphion, Niobe boasted of her superiority to Leto because while she had fourteen children, seven boys and seven girls, Leto had only one of each. When Artemis and Apollo heard this claim, Apollo killed her sons as they practiced athletics, and Artemis shot her daughters, who died instantly without a sound.
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