ARTEMIS (Ἀρτεμις). - A Greek goddess who had a very widespread cult, as is also shown by the quite frequent use of the month name Artemisios, which was sacred to her in the various Greek calendars. The name has not been explained satisfactorily: derivations from Hebrew, Persian, Egyptian, Greek, etc. have been proposed, and recently a Minoan or Hittite origin has been spoken of, but all these hypotheses are uncertain. The original nature of A. is also debated: either a lunar divinity, or the result of the gradual fusion of various divinities of feminine and maternal nature, which was modified under the influence of the triad Apollo, Leto and A. and became the virgin A.; or, finally, a divinity of wild nature and of human fertility.
The characters under which A. appears in the classical age are numerous and diverse. She is a goddess of nature to whom the mountains, the woods, the trees and above all the waters of fertilizing moisture - springs, marshes, fountains - are sacred, near which she very often has her temples: because of the connection with springs she is sometimes worshipped alongside Asclepius. She protects agriculture and the crops and averts harmful influences from them, and for this reason the first-fruits are offered to her. She is the goddess of wild and domestic animals, πάντα θηρῶν, mistress of the animal world, which she protects but also pursues and kills with her unfailing bow. According to some, she herself was in ancient times worshipped in the form of an animal, especially a bear, and an attempt has been made to see proof of this in the nickname of "bears" given to the priestesses of A. Brauronia. As a huntress and archer she is known especially from the poets and artists, less so in the cult. She is also a warrior goddess, sometimes represented with helmet, sword and spear, especially on coins. To her, under the epithet of A. Eileithyia, women turn in childbirth. This character of hers contrasts with that aspect of the cult which makes her the goddess of chastity, the "pure" one par excellence, she who shrinks from any relationship of love.
She is a goddess of the sea, and as such has sanctuaries on its shores: of fishing and of navigation, she grants a good voyage and a prosperous crossing: in this aspect she was celebrated at Athens in the Delphinia festival. She is a lunar goddess and has as her attributes the torch and the crescent moon; according to some, indeed, this would be her original aspect, which would also appear in certain expressions of the Iliad; according to others, however, it is late and would have received impetus from her identification with Hecate. As a lunar goddess she had no influence on the cult, but, from the Hellenistic age onward, on poetry and art.
The places of worship were numerous. Among the most interesting is that of A. Orthia at Sparta, built in a marshy place on the banks of the Eurotas; Orestes is said to have brought its cult image from Tauris. Among the rites that characterized it was the flogging of children, perhaps in substitution for ancient human sacrifices of an expiatory character. Legend linked this sanctuary to those of A. Phacelitis at Reggio and of Diana Aricina at Nemi. Erroneous is a recent linking of A. Orthia to the goddess Rehtia of Este (Veneto), according to which the A. of Sparta would have the character of a healing goddess. Also characteristic at Sparta was the "festival of the nurses" in which infants were offered to A. In central Greece the cult of A. Laphria was widespread; during its festivals, living animals - birds, boars, deer, wolves, bears, etc. - were thrown into the fire and the priestess was carried on a chariot drawn by deer. In Arcadia A. was, together with Zeus Lycaeus, the ancestor of the Arcadians. At Athens A. Brauronia was celebrated, introduced from nearby Brauron, where was the tomb of Iphigenia to which the garments of women who had died in childbirth were offered. Only women participated in the Brauronia festivals; the priestesses were girls from five to eight years old surnamed "bears". In Asia the sanctuary of Ephesus was famous, founded by the Amazons, according to legend, and with the right of asylum: it had great political and religious importance; a very numerous staff of priests and priestesses depended on it. These had to be movable, and married women could not enter the temple. According to Acts 19:24 ff., reproductions of the temple and of the goddess were used as amulets. In March or April the Artemisia festivals were celebrated and, every four years, the "great Ephesia". More important for its artistic influence than for its cult is the Persian A.
Ancient art depicted A. under many aspects. The iconographic types are the huntress in a short chiton, armed with bow and arrows, accompanied by the dog and the deer; the lunar goddess with the torch and the patera; the Persian or Tauric A., often winged, in the act of seizing by the paws or by the neck the animals of which she is mistress; the Ephesian A., with a cylindrical body to which the numerous breasts were added in a later age, a reproduction of Oriental ornaments.
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Luisa Banti