Artemis
Hunt, oh mighty queen, and bring down the beast.
Run wild through the forests, alive with innocent wonder.
Stalk your prey and grant it quick death.
Easing suffering and pain.
Let fly your arrows, oh mighty moon.
Let loose the wild passions of instinct.
Let none defile what you hold sacred and true.
Let no man take that which you hold dear.
The Virgin
From the stories of Homer, we glean an aspect of Artemis that is astonishing in its power over us to this day, the aspect of virgin. Whereas today the term virgin is tied intimately to the idea of abstention from sex, it is a common belief in modern Hellenic Paganism that the term implies something far more important than that, the unwillingness of the female to submit to the will of males.
The virgin aspect then is something of a holdover from her pre Hellenic times. Times when Artemis was worshipped as a Great Goddess, a worship style that remained part of her character in a great many places in the Greek world. This aspect is, however, the one associated with her the most in the Greek mainland, and it is an important one to come to terms with in modern worship. It is also an aspect of her that is tied intimately to the view of Patriarchal Greece, for she is in this aspect the daughter of Zeus much more than she is the powerful huntress or Great Goddess. It is an interesting thing to think about, that Apollo is seen as a man, a young and beautiful man yes, but still a man, yet having assisted at his birth, Artemis is still pictured in Homer as quite the child.
But there is to the Virgin Artemis something of a mystery, for Artemis’ virginity is not a coldness of sexuality, as one might see it in Athena, but a tempting, almost flirting type of virginity that speaks of a promise of sexuality hidden just underneath the surface, but also of a purity of spirit that acknowledges sexuality as part of the purity of soul without indulging in its carnal pleasures, or perhaps, not indulging them with men.
Goddess of Wild Life
Along with her aspect of virgin is the aspect of huntress and protector of wildlife. These two seem contradictory in nature, yet when examined are anything but. The hunter must, after all, protect the lands he hunts so that he will always have prey. Artemis was, in myth and literature, extremely protective of lands she considered sacred to her, and in the stories surrounding the great Trojan War, Artemis plays a part in one the great tragedies of that cycle.
Iphigeneia, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, is demanded in sacrifice by the Goddess for her sacred lands in the Kings territory have been violated. The girl is offered up to the Goddess before the winds are allowed to blow, thus allowing the Kings great Army to take off for Troy. Upon his return, however, King Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, who is in turn murdered by her son in revenge.
Iphigeneia is, however, not slain, according to one version of the story, but whisked away by Artemis herself and made Propolos to her, a helper, a kind of Avatar of the goddess herself. Her mother could not know this, of course, and thus avenged her.
This aspect of Artemis is cruel, but understandable to a Goddess whose domain is one of vast responsibility to the world upon which we dwell. Like Gaea, Artemis is a goddess of nature, tied intimately to it and perhaps even hurt by our misuse and abuse of the bounty it provides. This is perhaps one of the main reasons that Pagans of all paths and traditions tend to be environmentally aware and even activist in that respect, for the Gods demand it of us, especially Artemis, who is not at all loathe to show her anger at our misuse of the wildlife of our world.
Goddess of Childbirth
Artemis is tied intimately to Eilytheia, the goddess of childbirth, and is herself a goddess of childbirth, but who is Eilytheia, an aspect of Artemis as seen by the Cretans perhaps? We may never be quite clear on this issue, but none the less, Artemis did take over many of these functions in the same way that she took over the functions of other non-Hellenic Goddesses.
Artemis was called upon by mothers in childbirth, and it was said that a mother that died at childbirth was struck down by Artemis. No doubt it was not too uncommon a thing, for women to die at childbirth, and in many cases it was likely a mercy to the suffering women. She even attended at the birth of her own brother Apollo, who is said to be her twin.
Moon Goddess
As goddess of the moon, there is Selene, yet many if not all of the Goddesses of ancient Greece were associated in some way to the moon. Hekate, Athena, and Selene were all associated with the moon, yet why such a need? Was not one moon goddess enough? I have come to see the title of moon goddess as a kind of office rather than an aspect per se, for each of these goddesses has a very clever thing in common, they are multifaceted and in many ways multi faced.
We see in the title of moon goddess a recognition of the multifaceted nature of divinity, that a goddess can be many things to many people, and perhaps many things in succession to a single person as that person moves through life. The moon can be new, waxing, full, and waning, and so too is our life cycle, and the Gods can be all of these things to us as well.
This is different then, say, the maiden mother crone archetype that is so popular among Wiccans and such, yet related in many ways. How you see the moon depends on your perspective, even if you may not think of it that way, and so too it is with deities.
Great Goddess
Like Hera and Demeter, Artemis is one of Greece’s Great Goddesses. This reference to her is a reference to her as a universal goddess, a vastly powerful goddess that spawned a rich and well developed religion of her own, one which stood by itself and as part of the cultus of the Olympian Gods. As a great mother goddess, Artemis was worshipped throughout the Eastern Aegean, and especially in Ephesus, where she was most definitely the great goddess of the people, the Ephesian Artemis, or as referred to in the bible, Diana of the Ephesians.
The term Great Goddess denotes to me something special. The simultaneous worship of a deity in all her aspects. As mother and virgin, underworld goddess and queen. It is tempting to make use of the term Archetype to describe a singular godhead as seen by many different people, and in a sense this is true, but one could never really say that Artemis was Hera or vice versa. Instead, one must look at it another way.
If the aspects of the Gods as seen in myth, etc, are in fact the actions of gods in response to the needs of their worshippers, then the aspect of Great Goddess is no different. Artemis simply was to her worshippers all that they needed her to be, and thus the all encompassing aspect of Mother or Great Goddess is born. So too it is with Hera and Demeter, and in varying degrees, with all of the deities of the Greeks.
Iphigeneia
There is another aspect of Artemisian religion that is haunting, and it is illustrated by the story of Iphigeneia. As the story goes, Iphigeneia was the step daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, but as the Mycenaean King was to set out to war against Troy, Artemis would not allow a favorable wind for their ships to set out until Agamemnon made proper restitution for his violation of her sacred land in the mountains. Her price was the sacrifice of a maiden, his own step daughter and beloved niece of his wife. The sacrifice was sanctioned and Iphigeneia was set upon the blood altar, but as the blade was to strike, Artemis whisked the young girl away, transforming her into an attendant who is sometimes called Hekate or even Artemis, leaving behind a deer to be sacrificed in her stead.
So, you may ask, what about it? Well, both Hekate and Artemis, often associated with each other, are associated with this kind of myth, a myth that describes the death of a young woman at a most premature age. Often as a way to save their communities from harm or from the wrath of the Gods, as in this case. Artemis is a goddess with a cruel nature, not because the goddess is cruel, but because the goddess must make choices that often harm us as people. The natural balance must be maintained, and so doing it she must sometimes harm us.
This association with young heroic women is very interesting in the light of Heroic Worship in Greece, but it is also interesting that while Heroes like Herakles received wide acclaim and worship, Heroines received less attention. It is a touching thing, this aspect. A sympathetic Artemis who conveys apotheosis to women of extreme courage, just as Zeus granted the same to his son, Herakles, Greece’s greatest hero.
Conclusions
The Great Goddess Artemis is to us today a multi faceted entity whose power is vast, yet to many, it is the Homeric Artemis that holds sway, the eternally childlike virgin of the wild places. The huntress and mistress of animals who is tightly bound to her role as a moon goddess. A little two dimensional, perhaps, is this Homeric view, but none the less a powerful reminder of the ability of Gods to be many things to many people.