Artemis (Artemis), daughter of Zeus, forever young and beautiful goddess of the hunt

Artemis (Artemis), Greek, Lat. Diana is the daughter of Zeus and the Titanide Leto; goddess of hunting and animals, mistress of nature, and also goddess of the moon. In the photo: Batoni Pompeo's painting "Diana and Cupid", 1761, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

She was the twin sister of the god of light and sun Apollo and, according to the most common legend, was born on the island of Delos (see article “”). But according to another version, Leto gave birth to them in the grove of Ortygia near Ephesus; Near this place, the Greeks built the Temple of Artemis, which became one of the “seven wonders of the world.”

William Henry Rinehart, "Latona and her children, Apollo and Diana" (1871-74), Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

However, wherever Artemis was born, her origins are clearly of Asia Minor; The Hittites also worshiped the goddess of hunting Rutamish (Rtemis), whose sacred animals were deer and fallow deer. IN ancient times her cult spread throughout the Greek and then Roman world. Artemis was originally revered as the mistress of nature; since her brother was the god of the sun, Artemis, accordingly, became the goddess of the moon. Being the goddess of nature, she was also the goddess of its fertility; under her protection were forests, groves, meadows, fields and, ultimately, everything that was previously called flora, or flora. Since she was the goddess of fertility and fertility, her competence also included childbirth: as soon as she was born, she already helped her mother Leto (Latone) give birth to her brother Apollo. Artemis was also in charge of healing springs; she could send madness, paralysis and sudden death. She never married - she remained a virgin goddess from birth until the extinction of her cult. Hunting was Artemis's strongest passion, so artists depicted her as a huntress with a bow and arrow, accompanied by various animals (swan, lion, tiger or deer). And since hunting and war were once very closely connected, in some countries Artemis also became the goddess of war. As reported, in Sparta they once offered human sacrifices to her, and later replaced them with another ritual: Spartan youths were scourged in front of her statue - this was a kind of preparation for the torment that awaited them in their future soldier's life. Artemis, the moon goddess, was sometimes confused with Selene, as was her brother Apollo with the sun god Helios.

Bathing of Diana, Francois Boucher, 1742

Artemis's main occupation was hunting; she hunted alone or accompanied by a squad of lower goddesses and nymphs. Having hunted to her heart's content, Artemis usually went to her brother in Delphi and there amused herself by dancing in a round dance with the Charites and singing with the muses. Some stories about her interference in the destinies of people indicate that she was more hard-hearted than femininely soft. She did not want to forgive Mycenaean for killing her beloved doe, and therefore she was going to disrupt his campaign against Troy; She relented only after he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to her. She cruelly accidentally spied on her bathing. When one day the Calydonian king Oeneus forgot to sacrifice to her, Artemis sent a huge boar to Calydon, which ravaged the country. Out of jealousy, Artemis killed (or ordered to kill) the famous hunter Orion. For insulting her mother Leto, Artemis killed Niobe's seven daughters.

The plot "Artemis and Actaeon" on an antique vase

However, there are cases where repentance and sacrifice softened her heart. So, for example, Hercules managed to reconcile with her, although he caught her favorite - the Kerynean doe. Artemis, Hippolyta, Cephalus and his other admirers and admirers.

For the Greeks, Artemis was the ideal of female beauty. She didn’t even need to participate in the ill-fated beauty contest that caused the Trojan War. True, she did not have the beauty of a stately lady like Hera, or the beauty of the worthy and wise Athena, or the sensual beauty of Aphrodite - but, as we would say today, she was beautiful like an athlete, such as we meet on sports grounds and in swimming pools. Perhaps that is why the Greeks, who highly valued sports and military activities (they had similar concepts), were most impressed by Artemis with her appearance. And then to the Romans, who identified her with the ancient Italian goddess Diana.

In the photo: the ruins of the Temple of Artemis in modern Turkey. In the background is a Byzantine fortress, the Church of St. John and a 14th-century mosque.

The Greeks dedicated a number of magnificent temples and sanctuaries to Artemis: in Attic Bravron, in Sparta, on Delos, in Magnesia above the Meander, in Lydian Sardis, etc.; she had a sacred site on Athens Acropolis. In Rome they built a temple for her on the Aventine; of the rest of her temples in Italy, the most significant was the temple of Diana Nemorena in Aricia, where women mainly pilgrimaged. But the best of all was the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (Ortygia) - the first temple in the Ionic style. Its construction began in mid. 6th century BC e. and ended more than a hundred years later.

In 356 BC. e. it was set on fire by Herostratus in 334 BC. e. the temple was restored according to the plans of the architect DeinocratesArtemis. The temple successively became a victim of the Goths, earthquakes and the edict of Emperor Theodosius I against pagan temples (383 AD). The remains of its ruins were discovered in 1869 by British archaeologist D. T. Wood.

The famous statue of "Diana of Versailles" is located in the Louvre

Initially, the Greeks depicted Artemis as a goddess with a month, then with wings and in a long robe (and she looked like a Christian angel), sometimes as a fertility goddess with many breasts, and finally as a slender girl in a simple, high-tucked and wearing a belted robe without sleeves, wearing hunting sandals and a short hairstyle. This is what, for example, the famous “Artemis of Versailles” looks like, a Roman copy of the original by Leochares (c. 330 BC, Paris, Louvre) - a pair to the “Apollo Belvedere”. Of the numerous statues of Artemis the Hunter, we note the Roman copy of the Hellenistic original, kept in the National Museum in Naples. Several copies and imitations of archaic Asia Minor statues depicting Artemis, the Orthigian goddess of fertility, have survived (the most famous are in the National Museum in Naples and in the Ephesus Museum in Selchuk). All R. 18th century In Pompeii, a statue of Artemis was discovered with hair covered in pure gold, wearing a blue robe with a red border, yellow and pink thongs on her sandals, carmine nails and a bright red mouth. This is important archaeological find served as one of the first proofs that Greek sculptors colored their works.

TV presenter Maria Kravtsova (Marika) as Artemis in Michele Ceppi's calendar.

There are about 400 images of Artemis in ancient vase painting, one of the most famous is in St. Petersburg, in the Hermitage (“Artemis with a Swan” by the so-called “artist Pan”, 5th century BC). An archaic figurine of Artemis (c. 650 BC), found in 1878 on the island of Delos, is listed in the Athens National Archaeological Museum under inventory number 1.

Artemis (Diana) enjoyed no less success among modern artists than among ancient artists. Of the statues, we will name three “Dianas”: Houdon (1790, Louvre), Vasse (1760-1765, Potsdam, Sanssouci Palace) and F. Shchedrin (1798). The most famous paintings: “Actaeon and Artemis” by D. Veneziano (1445-1450), “The Bathing of Diana” by Palma the Elder (early 16th century, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), “Artemis and Actaeon” and “The Punishment of Actaeon” by Titian (1559 and 1560, Bridgewater House and National Gallery in London), “Artemis and Actaeon” by Bruegel the Elder (National Gallery in Prague), “Diana and the Nymphs” by D. Domenichino (c. 1610, Rome, Galleria Borghese), “Return Dianas from the Hunt" and "Diana and Callisto" by Rubens (approximately 1615-1617, Dresden Gallery and Prado, Madrid), "Diana with the Nymphs" by Vermeer (2nd half of the 17th century, Mauritshuis, The Hague), "Diana's Rest" Boucher (c. 1742, Louvre), “The Bathing of Diana” by Corot (1873), “Diana” by Renoir (c. 1900, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), “Diana” is a poetic work by the Czech artist Zrzavoy (1913). The famous painting by P. Bordone “Diana the Huntress among the Nymphs” (c. 1560) burned during the bombing of Dresden in February 1945.

Artemis - goddess of the hunt Greek mythology. She is also a virgin, the patroness of chastity and all living things. It gives happiness in marriage and helps during childbirth. Later she was associated with the Moon, being the opposite of her twin brother Apollo, who personified the Sun. However, the goddess of hunting is her main hypostasis. Her animals were a bear and a doe.

Birth of twins

The goddess of hunting Artemis and her brother Apollo were the children of Zeus himself and his beautiful wife. When Zeus fell in love with Leto, his jealous wife Hera began to pursue her through the dragon Python. He drove Leto from one place to another, and not a single country, for fear of the monster, dared to shelter the goddess.

But there was a small rocky island of Asteria, which gave her shelter, since Leto promised to glorify it for this by building a magnificent temple here. On this earth the twins were born - Apollo and Artemis. Born first, the daughter helped her mother by delivering the baby. So the maiden goddess became an assistant to women in labor.

The island of Asteria became green and beautiful and received a new name Delos, from the Greek “to appear.” Keeping her promise, Leto founded the Temple of Apollo on Delos, famous throughout Greece.

Fulfillment of desires

According to legend, Zeus, holding three-year-old Artemis on his lap, asked her what she wanted to receive as a gift. Then the little goddess of the hunt announced many wishes, asking her father:

• eternal virginity;
• as many names as her brother;
• Bow and arrows;
• the ability to bring moonlight;
• a retinue of sixty oceanids and twenty nymphs to feed the dogs when she was hunting;
• everything in the world is mountains;
• a city that would show her respect above all other gods.

A loving father fulfilled all wishes. Artemis became the goddess of the hunt among the Greeks, the eternal virgin. Had a large number of names, for example, such as Arrow-loving, Huntress, Bolotnaya, Zlatostrelnaya. The Cyclops in the forge of the god Hephaestus made her a bow and arrows. She also received a city that revered her, not just one, but thirty.

City of Artemis - Ephesus

Artemis also softened in relation to Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek army in the war with Troy, who killed her beloved doe while hunting. Having achieved his obedience when he agreed to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis, the wayward goddess left the girl alive.

- (Αρτεμισ, Diana). Daughter of Zeus and Leto, sister of Apollo, born on the island of Delos, goddess of the moon and the hunt. She was depicted with a quiver, arrows and a bow and was identified with the moon goddess Selene, like Apollo with the sun god Helios. The Romans have this... Encyclopedia of Mythology

Artemis- Artemis of Ephesus. Roman marble copy. Artemis of Ephesus. Roman marble copy. Artemis in the myths of the ancient Greeks is the goddess of the hunt, daughter of Zeus and Leto, twin sister of Apollo. Born on the island of Asteria (). Spent time in forests and mountains... ... encyclopedic Dictionary"The World History"

Y, female Borrowed Derivatives: Artemis; Ida.Origin: (In ancient mythology: Artemis is the goddess of the hunt.) Dictionary of personal names. Artemis Artemis, s, female, borrowed. In ancient mythology: Artemis is the goddess of the hunt. Derivatives: Artemis, Ida... Dictionary of personal names

- (gr. Artemis). Greek name Diana. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. ARTEMIS Greek. Artemis. Greek name for Diana. Explanation of 25,000 foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language, with... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Artemis- Ephesus. Roman copy from a Greek original 3rd 2nd centuries. BC. Marble. National Museum. Naples. ARTEMIS, in Greek mythology, daughter of Zeus and Leto, goddess of the hunt, patroness of women in childbirth, protector of chastity. Artemis with bow and arrows in... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Artemis, Greek goddess of the moon and the hunt (virgin), revered in Asia Minor primarily as a goddess of fertility (Acts 19:24-35). Artemis of Ephesus was depicted as a woman with many breasts. Her figure, believed to have fallen from the sky, was... Bible Encyclopedia Brockhaus

Artemis, otherwise Diana (purity) (Acts 19:28) is a well-known pagan goddess among the Greeks, according to mythology the daughter of Jupiter and Latona, usually depicted with a tower on her head and with a bow in one hand, and with the other holding a deer by the horns. Serving her... ... Bible. Dilapidated and New Testaments. Synodal translation. Biblical encyclopedia arch. Nikifor.

Goddess among the ancient Greeks (Roman Diana); according to myth, the daughter of Zeus and Latona, the sister of Apollo, the goddess of fertility and hunting, the guardian of chastity and virginity. Literary encyclopedia. At 11 vol.; M.: Publishing House of the Communist Academy,... ... Literary encyclopedia

Diana, Hecate Dictionary of Russian synonyms. Artemis noun, number of synonyms: 7 asteroid (579) goddess ... Synonym dictionary

In Greek mythology, daughter of Zeus, goddess of the hunt, patroness of women in labor. She was depicted with a bow and arrows, sometimes with a crescent moon on her head. The Roman Diana corresponds to her... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• Artemis, Weier Andy. Artemis is the only city on the moon. People here do the same things they are used to in their homeland. Builders and scientists, owners of small shops and representatives of large...
• Artemis, Weyer E.. Artemis is the only city on the Moon. People here do the same things they are used to in their homeland. Builders and scientists, owners of small shops and representatives of large...

Nikolay Kun

The eternally young, beautiful goddess was born on Delos at the same time as her brother, golden-haired Apollo. They are twins. The most true love, the closest friendship unites brother and sister. They also deeply love their mother Latona.

Gives life to everyone Artemis. She takes care of everything that lives on earth and grows in the forest and field. She takes care of wild animals, about herds of livestock and about people. She causes the growth of herbs, flowers and trees, she blesses birth, wedding and marriage. The rich make sacrifices greek women the glorious daughter of Zeus Artemis, who blesses and gives happiness in marriage, heals and sends diseases.

Eternally young, beautiful as a clear day, the goddess Artemis, with a bow and quiver over her shoulders, with a hunter’s spear in her hands, happily hunts in shady forests and sunlit fields. A noisy crowd of nymphs accompanies her, and she, majestic, in short hunter’s clothing, reaching only to the knees, quickly rushes along the wooded slopes of the mountains. Neither a timid deer, nor a timid fallow deer, nor an angry boar hiding in the reeds can escape from her arrows that never miss. Her nymph companions hurry after Artemis. Cheerful laughter, screams, and barking of a pack of dogs can be heard far away in the mountains, and the mountain echo answers them loudly. When the goddess gets tired of the hunt, she hurries with the nymphs to the sacred Delphi, to her beloved brother, the archer Apollo. She is resting there. To the divine sounds of Apollo's golden cithara, she dances with muses and nymphs. Artemis, slender and beautiful, walks ahead of everyone in the round dance; she is more beautiful than all the nymphs and muses and taller than them by a whole head. Artemis also loves to relax in cool, green grottoes, far from the eyes of mortals. Woe to him who disturbs her peace. This is how young Actaeon, the son of Autonoia, daughter of the Theban king Cadmus, died.

Actaeon

Based on Ovid's poem "Metamorphoses"

One day Actaeon was hunting with his comrades in the forests of Cithaeron. It was a hot afternoon. The tired hunters settled down to rest in the shade of a dense forest, and young Actaeon, separating from them, went to seek coolness in the valleys of Cithaeron. He went out to the green, flowering valley of Gargafia, dedicated to the goddess Artemis. Plane trees, myrtles and firs grew luxuriantly in the valley; slender cypress trees rose on it like dark arrows, and green grass full of flowers. A transparent stream gurgled in the valley. Silence, peace and coolness reigned everywhere. In the steep slope of the mountain, Actaeon saw a lovely grotto, all entwined with greenery. He went to this grotto, not knowing that the grotto often serves as a resting place for the daughter of Zeus, Artemis.

When Actaeon approached the grotto, Artemis had just entered there. She gave the bow and arrows to one of the nymphs and prepared to bathe. The nymphs took off the goddess’s sandals, tied her hair in a knot, and were about to go to the stream to scoop up cold water, as Actaeon appeared at the entrance to the grotto. The nymphs cried out loudly when they saw Actaeon enter. They surrounded Artemis, they want to hide her from mortal sight. Just as the rising sun lights up the clouds with purple fire, so the goddess’s face glowed with anger, her eyes sparkled with anger, and she became even more beautiful. Artemis was angry that Actaeon had disturbed her peace; in anger, Artemis turned the unfortunate Actaeon into a slender deer.

Branched horns grew on Actaeon's head. The legs and arms turned into the legs of a deer. His neck stretched out, his ears became pointed, and spotted fur covered his entire body. The timid deer took off in a hasty flight. Actaeon saw his reflection in the stream. He wants to exclaim: “Oh, grief!” - but he is speechless. Tears rolled from his eyes - but from the eyes of a deer. Only the human mind remained with him. What should he do? Where to run?

Actaeon's dogs sensed the scent of a deer; They did not recognize their owner and rushed after him with furious barking.

Through the valleys along the gorges of Kiferon, along the rapids of the mountains, through forests and fields, a beautiful deer rushed like the wind, throwing branchy antlers on its back, and dogs rushed after it. The dogs were getting closer and closer, so they overtook him, and their sharp teeth dug into the body of the unfortunate Actaeon the deer. Actaeon wants to shout: “Oh, have mercy! After all, it is I, Actaeon, your master!” - but only a groan escapes from the deer’s chest, and in this groan the sound of a man’s voice is heard. The deer Actaeon fell to his knees. Sorrow, horror and prayer are visible in his eyes. Death is inevitable - furious dogs tear his body apart.

Actaeon’s comrades who arrived in time regretted that he was not with them during such a happy catch. The marvelous deer was hunted down by dogs. Actaeon’s comrades did not know who this deer was. Thus died Actaeon, who disturbed the peace of the goddess Artemis, the only mortal who saw the heavenly beauty of the daughter of the thunderer Zeus and Latona.

The immortal gods of Olympus have been exciting the minds of people for several millennia. We admire beautiful statues and paintings, read and reread myths Ancient Greece, watching films about their lives and adventures. They are close to us in that, despite all the divine immortality, nothing human is alien to them. One of the brightest characters of Olympus is Artemis of Ephesus.

Who is Artemis?

“Bear goddess”, mistress of mountains and forests, patroness of nature, goddess of hunting - all these epithets refer to Artemis. Among the host of inhabitants of Olympus, Artemis occupies a special place. Her images as a fragile girl delight with grace and beauty. It is difficult to imagine that Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, who is distinguished by ruthlessness and vindictiveness.

But the goddess was famous not only for her cruelty, not only for killing living creatures in the forests, but also for protecting animal world, protected forests and meadows. Women who wanted to give birth easily or die without pain approached Artemis with pleas. The fact that the Greeks considered her revered is evidenced by artifacts mentioning Artemis of Ephesus. The famous temple at Ephesus was burned by Herostratus; there was the famous statue of Artemis with many breasts. In its place, the no less famous Temple of Artemis, included in the Seven Wonders of the World, was built.

Symbol of Artemis

The beautiful goddess-hunter had a retinue of nymphs; she herself selected the most beautiful. They were required to remain virgins, just like Artemis herself. But the main symbols by which Artemis was immediately recognized are the bow and arrows. Her weapon was made of silver, made by Poseidon, and the dog of the goddess Artemis belonged to the deity Pan, from whom the goddess begged her. In the most famous sculptural image, Artemis is dressed in a short chiton, she has a quiver of arrows over her shoulders, and next to her is a doe.

Artemis - myths of Ancient Greece

The goddess Artemis in Greek mythology is a frequently encountered character, but not very kind. Most of the plots are connected with the revenge of Artemis. Such examples could be:

1. The myth of Artemis’s anger at the fact that the Calydonian king Oeneus did not bring the required gifts from the first harvest. Her revenge was a boar that destroyed all the crops of the kingdom.
2. The myth of Agamemnon, who shot the sacred doe of the goddess, for which he had to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to her. To Artemis’s credit, she did not kill the girl, but replaced her with a doe. Iphigenia became a priestess of Artemis in Tauris, where it was customary to make human sacrifices.
3. Even Hercules had to make excuses to Aphrodite for killing a golden-horned doe.
4. Artemis cruelly punished the nymph Calypso from her retinue for violating her vow to maintain virginity, succumbing to the passion of Zeus, the goddess turned her into a bear.
5. The handsome young man Adonis is another victim of Artemis’s jealousy. He was Aphrodite's lover and was killed by a boar sent by Artemis.

Artemis and Actaeon - myth

One of the striking myths showing the tough and uncompromising character of Artemis is the myth of Artemis and Actaeon. The myth tells the story of the beautiful hunter Actaeon, who, while hunting, found himself near the place where Artemis loved to swim in clear river water. The young man had the misfortune of seeing a naked goddess. Her anger was so great that she mercilessly turned him into a deer, which was then torn to pieces by her own dogs. And his friends, looking at the brutal reprisal, rejoiced at such a gain for their friend.

Apollo and Artemis

Artemis was born from the ruler of Olympus Zeus, the mother of Artemis, the deity of nature Leto. Zeus, fearing his jealous wife Hera, hid Leto on the island of Delos, where she gave birth to twins Artemis and Apollo. Artemis was born first and immediately began to help her mother, who gave birth to Apollo for a long and difficult time. Subsequently, women in labor turned to Artemis with a prayer for an easy and painless birth.

Twin brother Apollo, patron of the arts, and Atremis were always close to each other and together tried to protect their mother. They took cruel revenge on Niobe, who insulted their mother, by depriving her of all her children and turning her into an eternally crying stone. And another time, when the mother of Apollo and Artemis complained about the harassment of the giant Tityus, she struck him down with an arrow. The goddess protected from violence not only her mother, but also other women who turned to her for help.

Zeus and Artemis

Artemis is the daughter of Zeus, and not just a daughter, but his beloved, whom he early childhood set as an example. According to legend, when the goddess was three years old, Zeus asked his daughter about the gift she would like to receive from him. Artemis wished to be an eternal virgin, to have a retinue, a bow and arrows, to dispose of all the mountains and forests, to have many names and a city in which she would be revered.

Zeus fulfilled all his daughter's requests. She became the undivided ruler and protector of mountains and forests. In her retinue were the most beautiful nymphs. She was revered not in one city, but in thirty, but the main one was Ephesus with the famous Temple of Artemis. These cities made sacrifices to Artemis and held festivals in her honor.

Orion and Artemis

Orion, the son of Poseidon, became the unwitting victim of Artemis. Greek goddess Artemis was impressed by Orion's beauty, strength, and hunting skills. She invited him to become her hunting companion. Over time, she began to experience deeper feelings for Orion. Artemis's brother Apollo did not like his sister's love. He believed that she began to perform her duties poorly and did not keep an eye on the Moon. He decided to get rid of Orion and did it with the hands of Artemis herself. He sent Orion to fish, then invited his sister to hit a barely visible point in the sea, teasing her with ridicule.

Artemis shot an arrow and accurately hit her lover's head. When she saw who she had defeated, she fell into despair and rushed to Zeus, begging him to revive Orion. But Zeus refused, then Artemis asked to at least admire Orion. Zeus sympathized with her and sent Orion to heaven in the form of a constellation, and his dog Sirius went to heaven with him.