MythosData

greekdeitiesolympianshuntingarcherymaidenhoodephesus

Artemis

Virgin huntress with the golden bow, daughter of Zeus and Leto and twin of Apollo; "queen of the wild beasts", she shoots stags on the mountains and then leads the dances at Delphi. Apollodorus makes her the first-born and her mother's midwife; in the Iliad Hera boxes her ears and she runs weeping to Zeus. Ephesus was her greatest sanctuary.

Why this wins its question: Separates the Hymn, Apollodorus, Homer and Pausanias on Artemis's birth, Orion's death and her parentage, so an answer can say which text says what — including the Egyptian variant most pages omit.

Key takeaways

  • Twin of Apollo by Leto in every witness, but Ortygia (Hymn) versus Delos-as-midwife (Apollodorus) is a real disagreement.
  • The Hymn's Artemis hunts and then dances; the Iliad's is humiliated by Hera — the same goddess, two registers.
  • Her virginity is stated as a refusal of Aphrodite's works (HH5), not as an oath like Hestia's.
  • The "daughter of Demeter" variant is Egyptian in origin, and Pausanias says so.

Claims

Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.

  1. Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto and twin of Apollo: Leto "bore Apollo and Artemis delighting in arrows" (Theog. 918–920). The Homeric Hymns call her "own sister to Apollo" and "sister of the Far-shooter ... who was fostered with Apollo" (HH27 3; HH9 1–2).

    confidence 0.95Hesiod, Theogony — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primaryThe Homeric Hymns — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  2. The witnesses disagree on her birthplace and order. The Hymn to Apollo says Leto bore "her in Ortygia, and him in rocky Delos" (HH3 14–16); Apollodorus says Leto on Delos "brought forth first Artemis, by the help of whose midwifery she afterwards gave birth to Apollo" (Apollod. 1.4.1).

    confidence 0.9The Homeric Hymns — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primaryApollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca) — tr. Sir James George Frazer (Loeb, 1921), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  3. Her portrait in the Hymn: "shooter of stags", she draws her golden bow over the hills until "the tops of the high mountains tremble", then goes to Delphi "to order the lovely dance of the Muses and Graces", hangs up her bow and leads the dancing (HH27 1–20).

    confidence 0.93The Homeric Hymns — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  4. She is one of the three goddesses Aphrodite cannot subdue: "Nor does laughter-loving Aphrodite ever tame in love Artemis, the huntress with shafts of gold; for she loves archery and the slaying of wild beasts in the mountains, the lyre also and dancing" (HH5 16–20). Apollodorus says simply that she "devoted herself to the chase and remained a maid" (Apollod. 1.4.1).

    confidence 0.94The Homeric Hymns — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primaryApollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca) — tr. Sir James George Frazer (Loeb, 1921), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  5. In the Theomachy Hera calls her "bold and shameless thing", says Zeus made her "a lion" only against women, seizes her wrists, beats her about the ears with her own bow, and Artemis flees weeping "as a dove ... from before a falcon" to sit on her father's knees on Olympus (Il. 21.470–513).

    confidence 0.94Homer, Iliad — tr. A. T. Murray (Loeb, 1924), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  6. Artemis killed Orion in Delos, but Apollodorus records two motives: "as some say, for challenging Artemis to a match at quoits, but some say he was shot by Artemis for offering violence to Opis, one of the maidens who had come from the Hyperboreans" (Apollod. 1.4.3–5).

    confidence 0.9Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca) — tr. Sir James George Frazer (Loeb, 1921), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  7. Cult: "all cities worship Artemis of Ephesus, and individuals hold her in honor above all the gods", for the Amazons' dedication, the sanctuary's antiquity and the size of the temple (Paus. 4.31.8; cf. 7.2.6–7 on its founders). At Agrae on the Ilisus stood Artemis Agrotera, where "Artemis first hunted ... when she came from Delos" (Paus. 1.19.6).

    confidence 0.92Pausanias, Description of Greece — tr. W. H. S. Jones (Loeb, 1918–1935), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  8. A rival genealogy existed: Pausanias says that "Artemis was the daughter, not of Leto but of Demeter, which is the Egyptian account, the Greeks learned from Aeschylus" (Paus. 8.37.6); Herodotus gives the Egyptian equation itself — "Artemis Bubastis", born of Dionysus and Isis with Leto as nurse (Hdt. 2.156.5).

    confidence 0.88Pausanias, Description of Greece — tr. W. H. S. Jones (Loeb, 1918–1935), Perseus TEI edition · primaryHerodotus, Histories — tr. A. D. Godley (Loeb, 1920), Perseus TEI edition · primary

Questions answered

Who are the parents of Artemis?
Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto and twin of Apollo: Leto "bore Apollo and Artemis delighting in arrows" (Theog. 918–920). The Homeric Hymns call her "own sister to Apollo" and "sister of the Far-shooter ... who was fostered with Apollo" (HH27 3; HH9 1–2). source
Where was Artemis born?
The witnesses disagree on her birthplace and order. The Hymn to Apollo says Leto bore "her in Ortygia, and him in rocky Delos" (HH3 14–16); Apollodorus says Leto on Delos "brought forth first Artemis, by the help of whose midwifery she afterwards gave birth to Apollo" (Apollod. 1.4.1). source
Why is Artemis a virgin?
She is one of the three goddesses Aphrodite cannot subdue: "Nor does laughter-loving Aphrodite ever tame in love Artemis, the huntress with shafts of gold; for she loves archery and the slaying of wild beasts in the mountains, the lyre also and dancing" (HH5 16–20). Apollodorus says simply that she "devoted herself to the chase and remained a maid" (Apollod. 1.4.1). source
What happens to Artemis in the Theomachy of the Iliad?
In the Theomachy Hera calls her "bold and shameless thing", says Zeus made her "a lion" only against women, seizes her wrists, beats her about the ears with her own bow, and Artemis flees weeping "as a dove ... from before a falcon" to sit on her father's knees on Olympus (Il. 21.470–513). source
Where was Artemis worshipped?
Cult: "all cities worship Artemis of Ephesus, and individuals hold her in honor above all the gods", for the Amazons' dedication, the sanctuary's antiquity and the size of the temple (Paus. 4.31.8; cf. 7.2.6–7 on its founders). At Agrae on the Ilisus stood Artemis Agrotera, where "Artemis first hunted ... when she came from Delos" (Paus. 1.19.6). source