Greek goddess of the hunt, who can be shown to share in the functions of several other divinities. She is Queen of the wild beasts (Potnia theron) in which capacity she can be traced back to the Minoan period. Graphically, she is represented as winged and accompanied by lions, deer and birds. Mainly, however, she appears as the virgin huntress roaming the woods with her attendants, the → Nymphs. She can use her arrows—like her brother → Apóllon—to send peaceful death or sudden destruction. In anger she is terrible. Originally, human sacrifice was not unknown to her cult—we may recall the story of Iphigenia who was replaced on the altar by a hind.
She was also the goddess of birth, and on Delos women sacrificed their hair to her in token of their devotion. She also appears as a goddess of vegetation and fertility (e.g. in the Peloponnese). In Asia Minor her cult overlapped that of the Great Mother (the many-breasted Artemis of Ephesus). Later, Artemis also came to be identified with the moon-goddess → Seléne. As bearer of light (Phosphoros) she had a temple in the harbour of Athens. The myth makes her the daughter of → Zeus and of → Leto.
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