Chapter Eight, Lecture Two

Artemis

Athena

Artemis

• The ancient Potnia Therōn?

• Daughter of Leto

• Twin sister of Apollo

• Born on Ortygia

• Helped with Apollo’s birth?

Artemis

• Her iconography– Bow and arrows– Hunting attire

• boots• skirt• belt

Artemis the Virgin

• 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

Artemis

• 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

Artemis

• 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

Artemis

• 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

Artemis

• 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?

Artemis

• Callisto– Virgin follower of Artemis, daughter of

Lycaeon– Zeus raped her, and she’s now pregnant– Enraged, Artemis turns her into a bear and

then kills her– The child, Arcas, survives– The Brauron “little bears”

Artemis

• Hippolytus– Athenian devotee of Artemis– Aphrodite works a way to destroy him

• Phaedra, Theseus

– Eventually killed by a bull

Athena

Athena

• 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

Athena

• 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