Artemis

The tale of Artemis

Artemis is the twin sister of the sun god Apollo, daughter of Zeus and the Titaness Leto. Hera, jealous as always, forbade every land under the sun to let Leto give birth, until the floating island of Delos took her in. Artemis was born first, and the story says she helped her mother bring her brother into the world. That is why women in childbirth prayed to her.

When she was only three years old, she sat on her father's knee and asked for her wishes. She wanted to stay unmarried forever, to have as many names as her brother, a bow and arrows like his, a short tunic to run in, nymphs to hunt with, hounds, and all the mountains of the world as her home. Zeus laughed and gave her everything. The Cyclopes forged her silver bow, and the god Pan gave her his finest hunting dogs.

Goddess of the wild

Artemis rules the wild places: forests, mountains and meadows far from the cities. She protects wild animals, young girls and women, and she is the goddess of the hunt and of the moon, riding through the night in a chariot drawn by golden-horned deer. She is kind to those who honour her and terrible to those who don't.

The hunter Actaeon once stumbled upon her bathing in a forest spring. To stop him from ever telling anyone, she turned him into a stag, and his own hounds tore him apart.

The Calydonian boar

King Oeneus of Calydon made his harvest offerings to all the gods but forgot one: Artemis. In her anger she sent a gigantic wild boar to ravage his land. It trampled the vineyards, uprooted the orchards and killed anyone who stood in its way. As the game's Artemis says, everyone remembers her altar now.

The greatest heroes of Greece gathered to hunt it, among them Theseus, Jason, the twins Castor and Pollux, and the huntress Atalanta, who drew the first blood. The king's son Meleager killed the boar and gave its hide to Atalanta, and the quarrel that followed brought his own death, just as Artemis may have intended.

Artemis in Battle of Myths

Artemis is a cost 3 Greek hunter and mystic. Her ability, Calydonian Hunt, calls a wild boar to fight at her side and shoots the weakest enemy with a powerful arrow. With every Greek hero she shares Glory: whenever an enemy falls, the Greeks grow stronger and heal.

Did you know?

• Her great temple at Ephesus, in modern Turkey, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
• The Romans called her Diana, and NASA named its program to return to the Moon after her: Artemis.