Artemis

Family: Olympian · Role: goddess · First appears: Apollodorus, Library 1.4

🌐 Also appears in: The Iliad (as Diana) · The Odyssey (as Diana) · The Aeneid (as Diana) · The Metamorphoses of Ovid (as Diana) · Greek Tragedy — The Same Myth, Three Voices (as Artemis)

Artemis is an Olympian goddess. At Delos, Latona gave birth to her first and, with Artemis’s help, later gave birth to Apollo, her sibling: “till she came to Delos and brought forth first Artemis, by the help of whose midwifery she afterwards gave birth to Apollo”. There, Artemis slew Orion, either after he challenged her or because he offered violence to Opis. She and Apollo also shot down Tityus, while Artemis later slew Gration.

When Otus wooed her, Artemis tricked him and Ephialtes, who were nine years old, into killing each other by changing into a deer and leaping between them. She killed the Aloads at Naxos by this ruse. Oeneus forgot Artemis when sacrificing the first fruits of his crops, and Broteas did not honor her.

At Cithaeron, Artemis and Apollo killed Niobe’s children, with Artemis shooting the females and Apollo killing the males. Callisto had been Artemis’s companion in the chase, but Hera persuaded Artemis to shoot her as a wild beast. Artemis also transformed Actaeon into a deer after he saw her bathing, made Phylonoe immortal, and was said to have caused Adonis to be wounded and killed by a boar during a hunt.