Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video,
we’re going to be discussing Artemis.
Let’s get into it.
Numbered among the 12 Olympians, Artemis was the goddess of the wild. Forests and mountains
were her home. Bow in hand, an arrow always ready to be nocked, she lived nomadically,
wandering the myriad glades, glens, and groves scattered throughout her rugged domain.
She was was the protector of all animals, prey and predator alike, and was the patron of hunters
who killed out of necessity, reverently thanking both goddess and animal for the bounty of flesh;
those who killed cruelly or hunted for sport did so at their own peril, inciting Artemis’
wrath. Though a virgin herself, she was one of the goddesses who presided over childbirth.
For both animals and humans, birthing mothers and their offspring were under her protection,
but using her golden arrows, she could also strike women in labour with sudden death.
The rites of passage for both boys and girls were under her purview. In this way she was considered
a goddess of transitions, which sometimes identified her with the goddess Hecate,
and was also identified with the moon as Apollo was to the sun.
Artemis was capable of lofty heroics, as was the case when she slayed the giant Gration
during the Gigantomachy, which was the war between the gods and the giants,
but she was also prone to gross overreactions, as we’ll see.
We’re going to start Artemis’ story at the beginning, which is to say the many
trials and tribulations her mother Leto was forced to endure early on.
At the best of times, giving birth is an ordeal, but for Leto, a titan goddess who shared Zeus’
bed, the travail of labour was so extreme that it would have killed any but a god. A prophecy
foretold that she was to bear a powerful son, so no place or person offered succor or wanted
her to give birth near them. Eventually, she found her way to the island of Delos, which didn’t want
to be the site of her birth either, but Leto promised the island that, if it welcomed her,
it would become a place sacred to her son. This won the island over,
but Leto’s troubles weren’t over. Hera, infuriated that Zeus had lain and impregnated another woman,
detained Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, who, only after being bribed with a beautiful
necklace, agreed to attend Leto, but by this time, Leto had already suffered greatly, stuck
in labour for nine days and nine nights. Finally, bent over, clutching the trunk of a palm tree,
which thereafter became the tree most sacred to Apollo, Leto gave birth. Artemis came first, and
though she was but an infant, she acted as midwife and helped deliver Apollo, her younger twin.
Both twins were very protective of their mother. Whatever the threat, no matter how grave,
whatever the insult, no matter how wounding, Artemis and Apollo were always quick to punish,
some instances warranted, others shocking overreactions. An example of a justified
punishment was when the giant Tityus attempted to force himself on Leto.
He was pincushioned with arrows and then condemned to eternal torture
in Tartarus. An example of an unjustified punishment was what happened when queen Niobe,
driven to hubris by her fecundity (she had 14 children), claimed that she was superior to Leto.
For her temerity, Apollo and Artemis hunted down and killed every last one of Niobe’s children.
In addition to being protective of her mother, Artemis was also very protective of her own
virginity - ostensibly very reasonable, but less so when you comb through the array of
related myths, weighing the punishments against the corresponding crimes. The Aloads, Orion,
and Actaeon are all characters who, whether slight or severe, transgressed against Artemis’ virgin
purity. The Aloads were giant twins sired by Poseidon. Their size and strength were matched
only by their arrogance and audacity. Their lives were an escalating chain of bad decisions just
begging for comeuppance. First they kidnapped Ares, then they resolved to assail Olympus,
and finally, they decided to capture themselves a couple of goddesses. One of these was Artemis, but
the hunters became the prey. Artemis transformed herself into a doe and bounded between them.
Each brother struck out, but they missed, impaling and killing each other. Also a son of Poseidon,
Orion was a giant hunter. There’s a range of reasons given in a variety of versions that
explain what Orion did to provoke Artemis to the point of killing him, spanning the whole gamut,
from absolutely unwarranted, like the version that says he was killed for having the gall
to challenge Artemis to a discus contest, to absolutely warranted, like the version that
says Orion tried to rape Artemis, an offense for which she set a poisonous scorpion on him.
Actaeon was a hunter. While wandering the woods, he inadvertently came upon Artemis while she was
bathing, seeing her naked. He was transformed into a stag and then ripped apart by his own hounds.
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