Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity, and protector of young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women; she often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows. The deer and the cypress were sacred to her.
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Artemis Greek Goddess: Leto
When Leto became pregnant with the two twins, she was hunted by Hera, who was infuriated over Zeus's infidelity all over the earth. Hera refused to allow Leto to give birth. Finally, Leto hid in a tree and gave birth to Artemis while on an olive branch. When Hera learned of this, she forbade her daughter Eileithyia to aid Leto in giving birth. This caused a delay in the twin's birth, but miraculously, Artemis learned the ability to midwife within a couple of days after her birth and was able to help her mother give birth to Apollo.
This experience shaped the relationship between Leto and her children. Artemis and Apollo were very protective of their mother.
When Niobe – a mother of six boys and six girls – boasted that while Leto gave birth to two gods, she delivered a whole Olympus, Apollo, and Artemis killed all her children. Apollo took care of the male offspring and Artemis of Niobe’s daughters. On another occasion, Tityus tried to rape Leto. He was met with the fury of the twins and found himself shot up with their arrows.
Artemis Greek Goddess: Virgin Maiden
When Artemis was a young maid, she asked her father to remain a virgin forever. He obliged, and she remained pure forever and guarded her purity with much more aggression than the other maidens. When the hunter Actaeon saw her bathing naked, she transformed him into a stag and set his hounds against him. Needless to add, Actaeon was ripped apart to pieces. The less famous Siproites was just a boy when he had Actaeon’s misfortune of accidentally seeing the goddess unclothed. So, he was punished less severely: Artemis transformed him into a girl.
Being a virgin goddess is tough when every god is promiscuous and at any point would jump at the opportunity to rape her. Artemis made quick work of any of these gods by ending their existence, but the most well-known of these is Orion.
Orion was her hunting companion, and the two seemed to have a romantic interest. and there are two different versions of this story. One version is that Orion tried to take off Artemis's robe, and she killed him for his pursuit. The second version is that Apollo and Gaea killed Orion when she saw Artemis's attraction to him. They killed him to save her from herself. Either way, Orion was attracted to the goddess, and he was killed because of it.
She not only defended her own purity but also that of those who worshipped and served her. She also rewarded those who kept the vows.
Callisto: After Zeus impregnated Callisto, Artemis and Hera devised a plan to have Arcas turn into a bear and have Arcas kill her. Zeus learned of the plan and placed both Callisto and Arcas in the heavens as the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
Hippolytus: Hippolytus chastised Aphrodite, after which the goddess of love made his stepmother fall in love with him. This set a chain of events that led to Hippolytus’ death. However, Artemis called upon Asclepius and resurrected Hippolytus as a new man, who then ruled in Italy under the name of Virbius.