Artemis
deity figure · 40 works · 69 mentions · 117 anchored passages
the goddess · Dictynna · Artemis Agrotera · huntress · huntress Artemis · queen Artemis · sister of Apollo · Artemis Chelytis · Artemis Colaenis · Artemis Condylitis
spoken of as
1 expressionin the texts
first 24 worksIliad
Goddess of the hunt who taught Skamandrios and later helps heal Aeneas.
There, within the mighty sanctuary, Leto and Artemis healed him and made him glorious to behold, while Apollo of the silver bow fashioned a wraith in the likeness of Aeneas, and armed as he was.
Artemis herself had taught him how to kill every kind of wild creature that is bred in mountain forests, but neither she nor his famed skill in archery could now save him, for the spear of Menelaos struck him in the back as he was fleeing;
his daughter was killed by Artemis of the golden reins, for she was angered with her;
Odyssey
Goddess recalled by Calypso as having killed Orion out of the gods' jealousy over Dawn's love for him.
So when rosy-fingered Dawn made love to Orion, you precious gods were all of you furious till Artemis went and killed him in Ortygia.
If you are a goddess and dwell in heaven, I can only conjecture that you are Zeus’ daughter Artemis, for your face and figure resemble none but hers;
As the huntress Artemis goes forth upon the mountains of Taygetus or Erymanthus to hunt wild boars or deer, and the wood-nymphs, daughters of Aegis-bearing Zeus, take their sport along with her (then is Leto proud at seeing her daughter stand a full head taller than the others, and eclipse the loveliest amid a whole bevy of beauties), even so did the girl outshine her handmaids.
Hellenica
The goddess for whose protection Tissaphernes summons the peoples of the region to defend Ephesus.
But when Tissaphernes learned of this plan, he gathered together a large army and sent out horsemen to carry word to everybody to rally at Ephesus for the protection of Artemis.
When this plan had been decided upon and carried out, the armies went away, the barbarians to Tralles in Caria, and the Greeks to Leucophrys, where there was a very holy shrine of Artemis and a lake more than a stadium in length, with a sandy bottom and an unfailing supply of drinkable, warm water.
And one would have been encouraged at another sight also—Agesilaus in the van, and after him the rest of the soldiers, returning garlanded from the gymnasia and dedicating their garlands to Artemis.
Orations
Goddess associated with childbirth, invoked among deities dishonored by sexual exploitation
neither Zeus the god of birth nor Hera the goddess of marriage, nor the Fates that bring things to fulfilment, nor Artemis of childbirth, nor mother Rhea, nor the Eileithyiae who preside over human birth, nor Aphrodite, named after the natural union and intercourse of the female with the male;
But I think they would sooner strip off the goddess's adornment than touch these.
and they abstain not even from Athena nor from Artemis;
Stromata
Greek goddess whose epithet 'air-cleaver' is invoked in the cosmological reading of the priestly vestment.
whence Artemis is called by some "the air-cleaver," being a kind of being, and the air is dusky.
or, if not this, then how is it that, in cases where they are not harmed, they grow bitter—like some irascible old woman provoked to anger—as men say that Artemis was wroth with the Aetolians on account of Oeneus?
Helen
Virgin huntress goddess, referenced in Helen's lament via the myth of a maiden banished from her company.
and also the one whom Artemis once drove from her chorus, as a deer with horns of gold, the Titan girl, daughter of Merops, because of her loveliness;
The loudly rattling castanets cried out a shrill sound, when they, swift-footed as whirlwinds, followed the goddess on her chariot yoked to wild creatures, after the girl that was snatched away from the circling chorus of maidens— here Artemis with her bow, and there the grim-eyed goddess, in full armor, with her spear.
Hippolytus
Virgin goddess of the hunt whom Hippolytus reveres exclusively, provoking Aphrodite's jealousy; also invoked by Phaedra and the Chorus.
Lady goddess, awful queen, daughter of Zeus, all hail!
most beauteous Artemis, lovelier far than all the daughters of Olympus!
By majestic Artemis, child of Zeus, I swear I will never divulge aught of thy sorrows.
Iphigenia in Aulis
Goddess whose home is at Aulis and who, through Calchas's oracle, demands Iphigenia's sacrifice before the fleet can sail.
They are presenting the maiden to Artemis, queen of Aulis, previous to marriage;
Have you already offered the goddess a sacrifice to usher in the maiden’s marriage?
In our perplexity, we asked Calchas, the seer, and he answered that we should sacrifice my own child Iphigenia to Artemis, whose home is in this land, and we would sail and sack the Phrygians’ capital.
Iphigenia in Tauris
Greek goddess of the hunt and moon; patroness of the Taurian temple where Iphigenia serves as priestess and where strangers are ritually sacrificed to her.
I blame the goddess’ subtleties;
Artemis, in whose temple I hold office.
Tell him that Artemis saved me, by giving a deer in exchange for me;
Theogony
Olympian goddess who delights in arrows, named among the gods praised in the Muses' hymn.
Thence they arise and go abroad by night, veiled in thick mist, and utter their song with lovely voice, praising Zeus the aegis-holder, and queenly Hera of Argos who walks on golden sandals, and the daughter of Zeus the aegis-holder bright-eyed Athena, and Phoebus Apollo, and Artemis who delights in arrows, and Poseidon the earth holder who shakes the earth, and revered Themis, and quick-glancing …
And Leto was joined in love with Zeus who holds the aegis, and bore Apollo and Artemis delighting in arrows, children lovely above all the sons of Heaven.
Electra
The goddess whose anger at Agamemnon's hunting offense caused the sacrifice at Aulis and whose name is used in oath.
Ask the huntress Artemis what wrong she punished when she stayed the frequent winds at Aulis;
Now by our mistress Artemis, you shall not escape the consequences of this audacity once Aegisthus returns.
My father, as I have heard, was once hunting in the grove of the goddess, when his footfall flushed a dappled and antlered stag;
Anabasis
The goddess to whom Athenians vowed and continued annual sacrifices.
And while they had vowed to Artemis that for every man they might slay of the enemy they would sacrifice a goat to the goddess, they were unable to find goats enough;
The place is sacred to Artemis.
and at Ephesus likewise a Selinus river flows past the temple of Artemis.
Against Ctesiphon
Goddess named among the recipients of the dedicated land and the curse sanctions.
And never, it says, may they offer pure sacrifice unto Apollo, nor to Artemis, nor to Leto, nor to Athena Pronaea, and may the gods refuse to accept their offerings.
If any one should violate this, it says, whether city or private man, or tribe, let them be under the curse, it says, of Apollo and Artemis and Leto and Athena Pronaea.
May they who fail to punish them never offer pure sacrifice unto Apollo, nor to Artemis, nor to Leto, nor to Athena Pronaea, and may the gods refuse to accept their offerings.
Birds
The goddess Artemis, invoked in the Priest's litany and comically reidentified by Pisthetaerus from her cult title 'Colaenis' to 'the goldfinch.'
It's no longer Artemis Colaenis, but Artemis the goldfinch.
to the swan of Delos, to Leto the mother of the quails, and to Artemis, the goldfinch.
Constitution of the Athenians
A goddess to whom the polemarch offers sacrifice.
The polemarch sacrifices to Artemis Agrotera and to Enyalius, and administers the funeral contest, and makes offerings to those who have died in war and to Harmodius and Aristogeiton.
Protrepticus
Virgin huntress goddess honoured with human sacrifice, obscure degrading local titles, and tomb-shrines, whose great Ephesian temple is shown destructible.
and the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the second after the Amazons;
The Arcadians worship an Artemis called "the Strangled," as Callimachus says in his Causes.
At any rate, in Icarus the statue of Artemis was an unwrought log, and that of Cithaeronian Hera in Thespiae a cut tree-trunk;
Against Meidias
Deity named in the oracle among recipients of prayer.
for good fortune to Apollo, god of the streets, to Leto, and to Artemis;
Hecuba
Goddess associated with Delos, whom the Chorus imagines hymning if enslaved to that island.
and there with the maids of Delos shall I hymn the golden head-band and bow of Artemis, their goddess?
Heracles
Goddess of the hunt, honored by Heracles' capture of the golden-horned deer.
And he slew that dappled deer with horns of gold, that preyed upon the country-folk, glorifying Artemis, huntress queen of Oenoe.
Phoenissae
Virgin huntress goddess repeatedly invoked by Antigone and the Chorus for protection.
Never, never, Lady Artemis, golden-haired child of Zeus, may I endure that slavery.
May Artemis, who rushes over the hills with his mother, lay him low with an arrow, for coming against my city to sack it!
O snow-capped Cithaeron, dear to Artemis, holy vale of leaves, crowded with wild animals, would that you had never reared the one exposed to die, Oedipus, Jocasta’s child, when as a baby he was cast forth from his home, marked with a golden brooch;
Suppliants
Goddess of childbirth, whose future blessing the now-childless mothers say they will no longer receive.
nor any more will Artemis in the hour of travail kindly greet these childless mothers.
The Histories
Goddess whose festival at Brauron was the occasion of the Pelasgian ambush and abduction of Athenian women.
Since they well knew the time of the Athenian festivals, they acquired fifty-oared ships and set an ambush for the Athenian women celebrating the festival of Artemis at Brauron.
Hymn 2 to Demeter
Artemis is named among the divine companions present with Persephone.
Styx too was there and Urania and lovely Galaxaura with Pallas who rouses battles and Artemis delighting in arrows:
Hymn 27 to Artemis
The goddess addressed by the hymn, characterized by hunting, golden shafts, archery, maidenhood, and dance leadership.
I sing of Artemis, whose shafts are of gold, who cheers on the hounds, the pure maiden, shooter of stags, who delights in archery, own sister to Apollo with the golden sword.
Also present in:
Hymn 3 to Delian and Pythian Apollo · Hymn 5 to Aphrodite · Hymn 9 to Artemis · Barlaam and Josaphat · Nemean · Olympian · Pythian · Cratylus · Theaetetus · Chrestomathy · The Genius of the Common Law · Ajax · Oedipus at Colonus · Oedipus Tyrannus · Characters · Agesilaus