ARTEMIS PAGE ONE

Artemis and her twin brother Apollo were the children of Zeus and Leto, who was the daughter of the Titans Phoebe and Coeus. They were born on the island of Delos because Hera, jealous of her husband's love for the woman, had refused Leto to give birth on neither the mainland nor an island out at sea.

The only place safe enough to give birth was Delos, because Delos was said to be a floating island. Some versions of the twins' birth state that Artemis was born one day before Apollo, with that birth having taken place on the island of Ortygia.

Then the very next day, newborn Artemis helped her mother Leto to cross to the island of Delos, and even aided Leto with the delivery of Apollo. Either version may be considered accurate, depending on the source relied upon.

Like her brother, she has the power to send plagues or sudden death among mortals, and also to heal those who please her. Artemis loves to hunt and she is the lady of the forest and all the wild things, as well as the Huntsman-in-chief to the gods, an unusual position for a woman.

She protects little children and all suckling animals. Armed with the weapons specially crafted for her by the three Cyclopes, as ordered  by Zeus,  Artemis next went to the region of Arcadia and asked the god Pan for three lop-eared hounds, two parti-colored and one spotted, capable of dragging live lions back to their mistress.

Pan also gifted Artemis seven swift hounds from Sparta. She captured alive four horned hinds and harnessed them to a golden chariot with golden bits. That was her ride.

The first four times she tried the silver bow that the Cyclopes had made for her, Artemis sharpened her unerring aim by taking shots at two trees, a wild beast and a city of unjust men, whom she cut down mercilessly.

She is one of the three virgin goddesses along with Athena and Hestia. When Artemis was still only three years old and on her father Zeus' knee, he asked her what presents she would like. She didn't hesitate to ask this of the King of the Olympians:

"Pray give me eternal virginity;
as many names as my brother Apollo;
a bow and arrows like his;
the office of bringing light;
a saffron hunting tunic with a red hem reaching to my knees;
sixty young ocean nymphs from Amnisus in Crete,
to take care of my buskins and feed my hounds
when I am not out shooting
 all the mountains in the world;
and, lastly, any city you care to choose for me,
but one will be enough,
because I intend to live on mountains most of the time.
Unfortunately, women in labor will often be invoking me,
since my mother Leto carried and bore me without pains,
and the Fates have therefore made me
patroness of child-birth."

Callimachus: Hymn to Artemis

Hence, she also presides over childbirth. As stated above, this goes back to the fact that she was alleged to not have caused her mother Leto any pain when she was born. 

ARTEMIS CONTINUES ON PAGE TWO
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