Chapter 9 Lecture Two of Two Artemis Athena ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Chapter 9Lecture Two of Two

ArtemisAthena

©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

ARTEMIS, MISTRESS OF ANIMALSThe Roman Diana


Artemis, Mistress of the Animals

• The ancient Potnia Therōn?• Daughter of Leto• Twin sister of Apollo• Born on Ortygia• Helped with Apollo’s birth?


Fig. 9.3Artemis of Ephesus


Ephesus Museum; Vanni/Art Resource, New York


• Her iconography– Bow and arrows– Hunting attire

• boots• skirt• belt



• Odd that the mother earth goddess should become the virgin goddess of the hunt

• Still, there is pregnancy all around her in her stories

• Artemis the Killer– Shows her dangerous side– Kills women in childbirth

• arrows of Artemis– Kills in vengeance



• Niobe– Queen of Thebes– Challenged the honor of Leto

• The goddess had only two children• Niobê had 12

– Apollo and Artemis kill all but one of Niobê’s children

– Use of myth• Niobe’s excessive grief cited as an exemplum by Achilles

to get Priam to eat


Fig. 9.4 The Niobids


Musée du Louvre, Paris; University of Wisconsin–Madison Photo Archive

ORION AND ACTAEON The Dangers of Artemis


Orion and Actaeon

• Orion– Son of Poseidon and a hunter– Could walk on water– Blinded by Oinopion for raping his daughter,

Meropê– With a boy on his shoulders, he walked toward the

east, where the sun cured his blindness


Orion and Actaeon

• Orion (cont.)– Failed to find Oinopion– Either he tried to rape Artemis or he had an affair

with Eos– Artemis put a scorpion on his head that killed him

• The two constellations: Orion and Scorpio


Orion and Actaeon

• Actaeon– Theban prince, out hunting, accidentally saw

Artemis bathing– She turned him into a stag– His dogs find him and tear him to pieces– A veiled human sacrifice?


Fig. 9.5Actaeon attacked by his own hunting dogs.


Photograph © 2011 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

ATHENA, MISTRESS OF THE CITYThe Roman Minerva


Athena, Mistress of the City

• Daughter of Zeus and Metis• Muscular virgin• Goddess of the crafts of civilization

(“wisdom”)– Weaving, carpentry, military-industrial complex

and strategy, war chariot and warship, warriors• Helmet, owl, shield with Gorgon, snake, aigis

breastplate


Fig. 9.6 The Parthenon


University of Wisconsin–Madison Photo Archive

Fig. 9.7Athena on a Panathenaic vase.


Vatican Museums, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco' Alinari/ Art Resource, New York

ARACHNÊThe punishment for presumption.


Arachnê

• Arachnê– Girl from Lydia who challenged Athena in weaving– Ovid: Athena wove in stories of the fate of mortals

who dared to challenge the gods– Archnê wove in stories of the corruption of the gods– Athena beats her with her loom, Arachnê tried to

hang herself, and is changed into a spider


End


Chapter 9 Lecture Two of Two Artemis Athena ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

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