Hi guys!
Welcome to my channel.
I’m telling you history
and mythology here.
In this video,
I’m going to tell you
about Artemis.
Artemis is the
Greek goddess of the hunt,
the wilderness,
wild animals,
the Moon, and chastity.
She is one of
the Twelve Olympians.
The Romans
identified her
with their goddess Diana.
Let’s begin!
Artemis is the
daughter of Zeus and Leto,
and the twin sister of Apollo.
She was the patron and
protector of young girls,
and was believed to
bring disease upon women
and relieve them of it.
Artemis was worshipped
as one of the
primary goddesses of childbirth
and midwifery
along with Eileithyia.
Much like Athena and Hestia,
Artemis preferred to
remain a maiden
and is sworn never to marry.
Artemis was one of the
most widely venerated
of the Ancient Greek deities
and her temple at Ephesus
was one of the Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World.
Artemis' symbols
included a bow and arrow,
a quiver and hunting knives
and the deer and the cypress
were sacred to her.
The goddess Diana
is her Roman equivalent,
especially worshipped
on the Aventine Hill
in Rome, near Lake Nemi
in the Alban Hills,
and in Campania.
Artemis is almost universally
depicted as a young,
beautiful and vigorous huntress
carrying a quiver
with arrows and holding a bow,
typically wearing a
short knee-high tunic
and often
accompanied by some animal
(stag, doe, or hunting dogs).
As a moon goddess,
she is sometimes
represented wearing a long robe
and a crescent moon crown.
Artemis' symbols
were the Bow and arrows,
the Stags, the Hunting Dog
and the Moon.
Artemis' sacred animals
were the Deer and the Bear.
Various conflicting accounts
are given in
Classical Greek mythology
regarding the birth of
Artemis and Apollo,
her twin brother.
However,
in terms of parentage,
all accounts agree that
she was the daughter of
Zeus and Leto
and that she was
the twin sister of Apollo.
In some sources
she is born at the
same time as Apollo,
in others,
earlier or later.
An account by
Callimachus has it that
Hera forbade Leto
to give birth on
either terra firma
(the mainland) or
on an island.
Hera was angry
with her husband Zeus
because he had
impregnated Leto
but the island of Delos
disobeyed Hera and
Leto gave birth there.
According to the
Homeric Hymn to Artemis
the island where Leto gave birth
was Ortygia.
The myths also differ
as to whether Artemis
was born first,
or Apollo.
Most stories depict
Artemis as born first,
becoming her mother's midwife
upon the birth of her
brother Apollo.
The childhood of Artemis
is not fully related
in any surviving myth.
The Iliad reduced
the figure of the dread goddess
to that of a girl, who,
having been thrashed by Hera,
climbs weeping into
the lap of Zeus.
A poem by Callimachus
to the goddess
"who amuses herself
on mountains with archery"
imagines some
charming vignettes.
Artemis, while sitting
on the knee of her father,
Zeus, asked him
to grant her ten wishes:
to always remain a virgin
to have many names
to set her apart from
her brother Phoebus (Apollo)
to have a bow and arrow
made by the Cyclopes
to be the Phaesporia
or Light Bringer
to have a knee-length tunic
so that she could hunt
to have sixty
"daughters of Oceanus",
all nine years of age,
to be her choir
to have twenty Amnisides Nymphs
as handmaidens
to watch her dogs and bow
while she rested
to rule all the mountains
any city
to have the ability
to help women
in the pains of childbirth.
Artemis believed that
she had been chosen
by the Fates
to be a midwife,
particularly since
she had assisted her mother
in the delivery of her
twin brother, Apollo.
All of her companions
remained virgins,
and Artemis closely
guarded her own chastity.
Callimachus tells
how Artemis spent her girlhood
seeking out the things
that she would need
to be a huntress,
how she obtained her bow
and arrows from
the isle of Lipara,
where Hephaestus
and the Cyclopes worked.
Oceanus' daughters
were filled with fear,
but the young Artemis
bravely approached
and asked for bow
and arrows.
Callimachus then tells
how Artemis visited Pan,
the god of the forest,
who gave her seven female
and six male dogs.
She then captured
six golden-horned deer
to pull her chariot.
Artemis practiced
with her bow first
by shooting at trees
and then at wild beasts.
In some versions
of the story of Adonis,
Artemis sent a wild boar
to kill Adonis as punishment
for his hubristic boast
that he was
a better hunter than her.
In other versions,
Artemis killed Adonis
for revenge.
In later myths,
Adonis had been related
as a favorite of Aphrodite,
and Aphrodite was
responsible for the
death of Hippolytus,
who had been
a favorite of Artemis.
Therefore,
Artemis killed Adonis
to avenge Hippolytus's death.
In yet another version,
Adonis was not killed
by Artemis, but by Ares,
as punishment
for being with Aphrodite.
Orion was Artemis'
hunting companion.
In some versions,
he is killed by Artemis,
while in others he is killed
by a scorpion sent by Gaia.
In some versions,
Orion tries to seduce Opis,
one of Artemis' followers,
and she kills him.
In a version by Aratus,
Orion takes hold
of Artemis' robe and
she kills him in self-defense.
In yet another version,
Apollo sends the scorpion.
According to Hyginus
Artemis once loved Orion
(in spite of the late source,
this version appears
to be a rare remnant of her
as the pre-Olympian goddess,
who took consorts,
as Eos did),
but was tricked
into killing him
by her brother Apollo,
who was "protective"
of his sister's maidenhood.
Callisto was the
daughter of Lycaon,
King of Arcadia
and also was one of
Artemis's hunting attendants.
As a companion of Artemis,
she took a vow of chastity.
Zeus appeared to her
disguised as Artemis,
or in some stories
Apollo gained her confidence
and took advantage of her
or, according to Ovid,
raped her.
As a result of this encounter,
she conceived a son,
Arcas.
Enraged, Hera or Artemis
(some accounts say both)
changed her into a bear.
Arcas almost killed the bear,
but Zeus stopped him
just in time.
Out of pity,
Zeus placed Callisto
the bear into the heavens,
thus the origin of
Callisto the Bear
as a constellation.
Some stories say that
he placed both Arcas
and Callisto
into the heavens as bears,
forming the Ursa Minor
and Ursa Major
constellations.
Artemis punished Agamemnon
after he killed a sacred stag
in a sacred grove
and boasted that
he was a better hunter
than the goddess.
When the Greek fleet
was preparing at Aulis
to depart for Troy
to begin the Trojan War,
Artemis becalmed the winds.
The seer Calchas
advised Agamemnon
that the only way
to appease Artemis
was to sacrifice
his daughter Iphigenia.
Artemis then snatched Iphigenia
from the altar
and substituted a deer.
Various myths
have been told about
what happened
after Artemis took her.
Either she was
brought to Tauros
and led the priests there
or became Artemis'
immortal companion.
A Queen of Thebes
and wife of Amphion, Niobe
boasted of her superiority
to Leto because
while she had
fourteen children (Niobids),
seven boys and seven girls,
Leto had only one of each.
When Artemis and
Apollo heard this impiety,
Apollo killed her sons
as they practiced athletics,
and Artemis shot her daughters,
who died instantly
without a sound.
Apollo and Artemis
used poisoned arrows
to kill them,
though according to
some versions
two of the Niobids
were spared,
one boy and one girl.
Amphion, at the sight of
his dead sons, killed himself.
A devastated Niobe
and her remaining children
were turned to stone
by Artemis as they wept.
The gods themselves
entombed them.
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Bye guys!
