Greek Goddess Artemis

Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto who were the son and daughter of Titans who were defeated to make way for the reign of the gods of ancient Greek lore. Artemis also had a brother by the name of Apollo who was another one of the twelve gods that lived on Mount Olympus. She was seen as a goddess of contradictions as many of the roles and duties that the ancient Greeks credited her with had dual contradictory contradictory functions.

Artemis had many roles in Greek mythology and one of them was as the eternally virginal goddess of fertility and child birth. According to ancient Greek lore a woman that died during child birth was said to have died as a result of being shot by the arrows of Artemis. According to Greek legend Artemis was born the day before her brother Apollo on the island of Ortegia and then immediately after being born she was able to assist her mother to cross the waters to Delos where her brother Apollo was subsequently born.

It is this legend that gave credence to the role of Artemis as a guardian and protector of young children and patron goddess of women during childbirth. However, just as in her contradictory role as the goddess of women in labor who was responsible for their protection and their death at the same time, as the protector of children she was also thought to be the goddess that was responsible for many of the deadly illnesses that took the lives of many Greek children such as rabies and leprosy.

Artemis was also considered the goddess of the moon and the hunt and was thought to spend most of her time roaming the forests looking for wild game such as panthers and stags. While Artemis was recognized and worshiped in all of the cities and provinces of ancient Greece she was held in the highest esteem in the area that is now modern day Turkey. In the city of Ephesus in this area what was then known as Asia Minor a huge and elaborate temple was erected in honor of Artemis and that was to be recognized as one of the seven wonders of the world.

In this area of then Asia Minor Artemis was predominantly recognized as a fertility goddess and in statues and other art work of the era she was depicted with several nodes on her chest. However, in the mainland area of Greece proper she was predominantly seen as the goddess of the hunt or the huntress and was depicted excursively in statue form holding her bow and arrows.