50 Fun Facts About Artemis

Artemis was the Greek goddess of the hunt and of which celestial body in later tradition?

The Greeks' original lunar deity was Selene; the two were merged over time, along with Hecate, into a triple goddess.

Who was Artemis's twin brother?

In one account she was born first and then helped her mother deliver him.

Who was the mother of Artemis?

Leto was a daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, and Hera hounded her across the earth for her affair with Zeus.

On which island, in most accounts, was Artemis born?

Hera had forbidden Leto to give birth on solid land, but the floating island defied her and became rooted in place as a reward.

Which goddess forbade Leto from giving birth anywhere on solid land?

Zeus's wife also sent the serpent Python and the giant Tityos to pursue Leto.

Which Roman goddess is the equivalent of Artemis?

Her name probably comes from Latin dius, meaning divine or heavenly.

Along with Athena and which other goddess, Artemis was one of the three great virgin goddesses?

They were the three over whom Aphrodite had no power.

Which animal was especially sacred to Artemis?

Her symbols were the bow, arrow and quiver; the golden-horned Ceryneian Hind was one of her creatures.

The hunter Actaeon saw Artemis bathing and was turned into which animal before his own dogs killed him?

In some versions his hounds grieved so much that the centaur Chiron carved a lifelike statue of him to console them.

Actaeon belonged to the royal house of which Greek city?

His mother Autonoe was a daughter of Cadmus, the city's founder, and his father was the herdsman Aristaeus.

Artemis's companion Callisto was transformed into which animal after Zeus seduced her?

Her son Arcas gave his name to Arcadia; mother and son became the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

Callisto was the daughter of which king of Arcadia?

In one version told by Hyginus, Zeus seduced her by disguising himself as Artemis during a hunt.

Which constellation was Callisto placed in, according to the version in Hyginus?

Her son Arcas became Ursa Minor in the same telling.

Which boastful queen claimed to outdo Leto as a mother and lost all her children to the twins?

Homer gives her six sons and six daughters; the twins killed the boys and girls in turn.

Which of Artemis's hunting companions was killed by a giant scorpion and placed among the stars?

In another version Apollo tricked his sister into shooting Orion herself while he swam far out at sea.

According to Istrus, Orion was the only person Artemis ever did what?

Apollo, disapproving, bet his sister she could not hit a distant speck in the sea, and she unwittingly shot Orion.

Which Greek commander shot Artemis's sacred deer, causing her to becalm the fleet at Aulis?

She demanded his daughter Iphigenia as compensation before the ships could sail for Troy.

In most versions, what did Artemis leave on the altar in place of Iphigenia?

Some tellers substituted a goat that was really the god Pan; the rescued girl was carried off to Tauris.

Iphigenia was brought to Aulis under the pretence that she would marry which hero?

Her mother Clytemnestra came with her; the deception fed her later hatred of Agamemnon.

In the Trojan War, which side did Artemis support?

She even challenged Hera in battle, and came off badly, running to weep at Zeus's knees.

Which goddess did Artemis fight in the battle of the gods in the Iliad?

Leto picked up her daughter's dropped bow and arrows and followed her weeping to Olympus.

Artemis sent the great boar that ravaged Calydon because King Oeneus had forgotten her at what?

The huntress Atalanta drew first blood in the resulting Calydonian boar hunt.

Homer's title for Artemis, 'Potnia Theron', means what?

The image of a woman flanked by two beasts goes back to the Bronze Age.

The name Artemis may be related to the Greek word arktos, meaning what?

That fits her bear cult at Brauron and the Callisto story, which was originally about Artemis herself.

At the Arkteia festival at Brauron, young girls in saffron robes acted as which animals?

The rite appeased the goddess after she sent a plague when a tame bear was killed in the town.

Which Minoan goddess of mountains and hunting is thought to be a precursor of Artemis?

In Diodorus's telling she was a nymph pursued by King Minos for nine months who leapt into the sea and landed in fishermen's nets.

Which god gave Artemis her hunting dogs, animals said to be able to hunt even lions?

She received two black-and-white dogs, three reddish ones and one spotted one.

Which of Heracles' labours was intended to enrage Artemis by capturing her sacred golden-horned animal?

Heracles talked his way out of trouble by promising to release the hind afterwards, foiling Eurystheus's plan.

The golden-horned hind Heracles captured was once which Pleiad, transformed by Artemis to save her from Zeus?

She had been a dear companion of the goddess and was called the Mistress of Animals herself.

As what did Artemis leap between the giant twins Otus and Ephialtes, tricking them into killing each other?

The Aloadae hurled their spears at the animal and struck one another instead.

Artemis killed which pregnant princess of Thessaly, her brother's lover, for taking a mortal lover?

Apollo rescued the unborn child from the pyre; he grew up to be the healer Asclepius.

Leto turned the peasants of which region into frogs after they muddied a spring she wanted to drink from?

Lycia in south-west Asia Minor was the centre of her earliest cult, and her name may come from the Lycian word for wife.

The Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, stood in which city?

The site is near modern Selcuk in Turkey, about 75 km south of Izmir.

The rebuilding of the Temple of Artemis from around 550 BC was funded by which famously rich king?

The Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes designed the temple, whose columns stood some 13 metres high.

Who is popularly blamed for burning down the Temple of Artemis in 356 BC, seeking fame at any cost?

The Ephesians executed him and banned all mention of his name; the phrase 'herostratic fame' survives regardless.

Ancient tradition held that the temple burned on the night of whose birth?

Plutarch quipped that Artemis was too busy attending the delivery to save her own temple.

When Alexander offered to pay for rebuilding the burnt shrine, how did the Ephesians reply?

They rebuilt it at their own expense after his death, and the new temple stood for some 600 years.

Which invaders set fire to the Temple of Artemis in AD 268, according to Jordanes?

Of the temple's 121 columns, only one composite column reassembled from fragments still marks the site.

In Acts, Ephesian metalsmiths rioted against whose preaching, shouting 'Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!'?

The silversmiths feared for their trade in shrines of the goddess.

The rex Nemorensis, priest of Diana's sanctuary at Lake Nemi, held office until what happened?

James Frazer built The Golden Bough around the legend; the challenger first had to break a branch from a sacred tree.

On which Roman hill did Diana have her temple, traditionally dedicated by King Servius Tullius?

The Aventine lay outside the pomerium, marking her as a goddess shared by all Latins rather than Rome's alone.

The earliest epithet of Diana, 'Trivia', referred to her guardianship over what?

The name comes from Latin trivium, 'triple way'; Seneca's Medea calls on Trivia to cast a spell.

The Diana of Versailles, a Roman marble of the goddess with a deer, is displayed in which museum?

Pope Paul IV gave it to Henry II of France in 1556, a sly nod to the king's mistress Diane de Poitiers.

NASA's Artemis program is aimed at returning humans to which destination?

The goddess was chosen because she is Apollo's twin sister, and the program follows the Apollo landings.

Which spacecraft did the uncrewed Artemis I mission send around the Moon in November 2022?

It flew on the Space Launch System carrying mannequins and robotic payloads after years of delays.

Of the 121 columns of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, how many have been re-erected?

The lone survivor is a composite assembled from fragments, marking where the wonder once stood.

Which abandoned infant, later a famous huntress, did Artemis save by sending a bear to nurse her?

Raised by hunters, she modelled herself on the goddess and joined the Calydonian boar hunt.

The epithet 'Cynthia', later applied to the Moon goddess, refers to Artemis's birth on which mountain?

Roman writers likewise borrowed her byname 'Phoebe' for Luna, just as 'Phoebus' passed from Apollo to Helios.

Which princess of Phocis had her tongue pierced by Artemis's arrow for boasting she was more beautiful?

Her boast rested on having made both Hermes and Apollo fall in love with her at once.

Which river god tried to seize Artemis, prompting her to smear her face with mud so he could not recognise her?

In another version he pursued her nymph Arethusa instead, who was turned into a spring.