Religious practices may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of deities or saints),  sacrifices,  festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services,  meditation, prayer,  music,  art,  dance,  public service, or other aspects of human culture. Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are sometimes said by followers to be true, that may also attempt to explain the origin of life, the universe, and other phenomena. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has been considered a source of religious beliefs.^[9]

There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide.^[10] About 84% of the world’s population is affiliated with Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or some form of folk religion.^[11] The religiously unaffiliated  demographic includes those who do not identify with any particular religion, atheists, and agnostics. But many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs.^[12] A portion of the population mostly located in Africa and Asia are members of new religious movements.^[13] Scholars have indicated that global religiosity may be increasing due to religious countries having higher birth rates in general.^[14]

The study of religion comprises a wide variety of academic disciplines, including theology, philosophy of religion,  comparative religion, and social scientific studies. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, including the ontological foundations of religious being and belief.^[15|
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show Hellenistic philosophy

In Greek tradition, Artemis is the daughter of the sky god and king of gods Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. In most accounts, the twins are the products of an extramarital liaison. For this, Zeus’ wife Hera forbade Leto from giving birth anywhere on land. Only the island of Delos gave refuge to Leto, allowing her to give birth to her children. Usually, Artemis is the twin to be born first, who then proceeds to assist Leto in the birth of the second child, Apollo. Like her brother, she was a kourotrophic (child-nurturing) deity, that is the patron and protector of young children, especially young girls, and women, and was believed to both bring disease upon women and children and relieve them of it. Artemis was worshipped as one of the primary goddesses of childbirth and midwifery along with Eileithyia and Hera. Much like Athena and Hestia, Artemis preferred to remain a maiden goddess and was sworn never to marry, and was thus one of the three Greek virgin goddesses, over whom the goddess of love and lust, Aphrodite, had no power whatsoever.^[4]

In myth and literature, Artemis is presented as a hunting goddess of the woods, surrounded by her followers, who is not to be crossed. In the myth of Actaeon, when the young hunter sees her bathing naked, he is transformed into a deer by the angered goddess and is then devoured by his own hunting dogs who do not recognize their own master. In the story of Callisto, the girl is driven away from Artemis’ company after breaking her vow of virginity, having lain with and been impregnated by Zeus.

In the Epic tradition, Artemis halted the winds blowing the Greek ships during the Trojan War, stranding the Greek fleet in Aulis, after King Agamemnon, the leader of the expedition, shot and killed her sacred deer. Artemis demanded the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Agamemnon’s young daughter, as compensation for her slain deer. In most versions, when Iphigenia is led to the altar to be offered as a sacrifice, Artemis pities her and takes her away, leaving another deer in her place. In the war that followed, Artemis along with her twin brother and mother supported the Trojans against the Greeks, and challenged Hera into battle.

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities, her worship spread throughout ancient Greece, with her multiple temples, altars, shrines, and local veneration found everywhere in the ancient world. Her great temple at Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, before it was burnt to the ground.
Artemis’ symbols: bow and arrow, quiver, hunting knives, spear, torch, lyre, quail, goat, deer, snake, buzzard, dog, bear,  palm, walnut,  cypress  and the Golden Chariot, were sacred to her. Diana, her Roman equivalent, was especially worshipped on the Aventine Hill in Rome, near Lake Nemi in the Alban Hills, and in Campania.^[5]

Etymology

The name Artemis (noun, feminine) is of unknown or uncertain etymology,^[6][7] although various sources have been proposed. R. S. P. Beekes suggested that the e/i interchange points to a Pre-Greek origin.^[8] Artemis was venerated in Lydia as Artimus.^[9] Georgios Babiniotis, while accepting that the etymology is unknown, also states that the name is already attested in Mycenean Greek and is possibly of Pre-Greek origin.^[7]

The name may be related to Greek árktos “bear“ (from PIE *h₂ŕ̥tḱos), supported by the bear cult the goddess had in Attica (Brauronia) and the Neolithic remains at the Arkoudiotissa Cave, as well as the story of Callisto, which was originally about Artemis (Arcadian epithet kallisto);^[10] this cult was a survival of very old totemic and shamanistic rituals and formed part of a larger bear cult found further afield in other Indo-European cultures (e.g., Gaulish Artio). It is believed that a precursor of Artemis was worshipped in Minoan Crete as the goddess of mountains and hunting, Britomartis. While connection with Anatolian names has been suggested,^[11][12] the earliest attested forms of the name Artemis are the Mycenaean Greek 𐀀𐀳𐀖𐀵, a-te-mi-to /Artemitos/ (gen.) and 𐀀𐀴𐀖𐀳, a-ti-mi-te /Artimitei/ (dat.), written in Linear B at Pylos.^[13][8]

According to J. T. Jablonski, the name is also Phrygian and could be “compared with the royal appellation Artemas of Xenophon.^[14] Charles Anthon argued that the primitive root of the name is probably of Persian origin from *arta, *art, *arte, all meaning “great, excellent, holy”,
(There you have it, there is a very strong SPIRITUAL ASPECT to ART and ARTESANS!  Not the heavenly kind of SPIRITS!  That is why artists are always “looking for their MUSE” To INSPIRE them, that is to fill them with the SPIRITS! That is why ART is one of the strongest tools the devil has to take captive our Imagination.  To cause us to hold IMAGES/IDOLS in our heads.)  thus Artemis “becomes identical with the great mother of Nature,  (GAIA)  even as she was worshipped at Ephesus”.^[14] Anton Goebel “suggests the root στρατ or ῥατ, “to shake”, and makes Artemis mean the thrower of the dart or the shooter“.^[15]

Reminds me of the Blind Archer as a sculpture by the pool and a painting on the wall of one of the buildings of Epstein Island.

Ancient Greek writers, by way of folk etymology, and some modern scholars, have linked Artemis (Doric Artamis) to ἄρταμος, artamos, i.e. “butcher”^[16][17] or, like Plato did in Cratylus, to ἀρτεμής, artemḗs, i.e. “safe”, “unharmed”, “uninjured”, “pure”, “the stainless maiden”.^[15][14][18] A. J. Van Windekens tried to explain both ἀρτεμής and Artemis from ἀτρεμής, atremḗs, meaning “unmoved, calm; stable, firm” via metathesis.^[19][20]

Description

Artemis is presented as a goddess who delights in hunting and punishes harshly those who cross her. Artemis’ wrath is proverbial, and represents the hostility of wild nature to humans.^[2] Homer calls Artemis πότνια θηρῶν, “the mistress of animals”, a titled associated with representations in art going back as far as the Bronze Age, showing a woman between a pair of animals.^[21]

The ancient Greeks called ‘potnia theron‘ this sort of representation of the goddess; on a Greek vase from circa 570 BCE a winged Artemis stands between a spotted panther and a deer.^[22] Another almost formulaic epithet used by poets to describe her is ἰοχέαιρα iokheaira, “she who shoots arrows“, often translated as “she who delights in arrows” or “she who showers arrows“.^[23] She is often called Artemis Chryselacatos, “Artemis of the golden shafts“. The Homeric Hymn 27 to Artemis paints this picture of the goddess:

I sing of Artemis, whose shafts are of gold, who cheers on the hounds, the pure maiden, shooter of stags, who delights in archery, own sister to Apollo with the golden sword. Over the shadowy hills and windy peaks she draws her golden bow, rejoicing in the chase, and sends out grievous shafts. The tops of the high mountains tremble and the tangled wood echoes awesomely with the outcry of beasts: earthquakes and the sea also where fishes shoal.

— Homeric Hymn 27 to Artemis

The hunt is the point at which the three spheres touch. Its significance far surpasses its primary object-the supply of meat. The whole range of human aspirations-for food, fertility, health, and longevity-is controlled by the spirits and may be thwarted by sorcery. If the hunt fails, the Lele fear that their other enterprises also are in danger. Not only do they feel angry at a wasted day and meatless fare, but they feel anxious for the recovery of the sick, for the efficacy of their medicines, for their whole future prosperity.

The Kings and nobility, however, had a special responsibility to defend the peasants not only from invaders, but also whatever evil lurked in the woods. Still, the forest and its denizens were not merely fearsome, they were also valuable resources. Hunting was as good a practice for warfare as was tourneying; moreover, the opponent was not human. As they shrank, forests were set aside for Royal and noble use. Bialowiecza Forest, eventually the last refuge of the European bison, and Jaktozowka Forest, which similarly served for the aurochs (less successfully; the last one died in 1627, although German geneticists have “bred back” animals at least similar in appearance and habits—if one could derive modern cattle from the old animal, could not the reverse be done?) were so reserved to the Polish Kings. The French Monarchs created a whole administration, the Eaux et Forts (waters and forests) to cover the network of forests around the Kingdom: such forests as Fontainebleau, Vincennes, Villers-Cotterêts, Retz, and St. Germain were monitored by a large team of foresters. The Louvre was built originally as a hunting box for the pursuit of wolves. In England, even more rigid forest and game laws were passed. As in France, a full civil service of foresters in varying ranks was appointed. Such well known English Forests as the New Forest, Epping Forest, the Forest of Dean, Sherwood Forest (home of Robin Hood) and Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden were all so set aside. The Holy Roman Emperor himself had a rather similar setup; among his domains was the grand and spacious Forest of the Ardennes. In all countries, small or dangerous game was permitted to commoners to hunt: fox, wildcat, badger, squirrel, hare, and sometimes rabbit or wolf. Landowners could (and were) granted hunting rights on their own land. This hunting was generally conducted on horseback with hounds—in a manner similar to that of fox-hunting as it developed later. Together the hunters would ride after their quarry, signalling to each other by means of horns—when the quarry was first sighted, and so on. Kings and nobles grew to love the sport; Elector John George II of Saxony (reigned 1656-80) was hereditary Lord High Master of the Chase for the Holy Roman Empire, and so loved hunting that he refused the crown of Bohemia because their stags were inferior in size to his own Saxon breed. He established the magnificent Hunt Museum remaining today in Dresden. In this he only emulated Bl. Charlemagne, first of the Holy Roman Emperors. In between fighting at the frontiers of Christendom, the great Emperor would gallop through the forests in pursuit of game. His city of Aix-la-Chappelle (Aachen) owes its origin to one of his hunting trips. Once while pursuing a stag across a stream, his horse immediately pulled his hoof out of the water and retreated. Examining the leg, Charlemagne found it scalded and the water hot; he built a chapel in the shape of a horseshoe on the spot. After he built his palace there, the city grew up around it. To this day the rotonda around the hot spring is in the shape of a horse shoe, reminding us of its origins. At another time, the Emperor was summoned one time to the Vosges mountains, where a bear was terrorizing the neighborhood. With his huntsmen and hounds, Charles pursued him, and the bear disabled many of the hunters and dogs. At last, Charles alone stood up to him, face to face on a hill-top, where the bear took the monarch in a crushing bear-hug. At last, Charles struck him with his dagger and flung the animal off the precipice. The witnesses cried out, “long live Charles the Great!,” which is one of the reasons why he was thereafter called Charlemagne. Although he was jealous indeed of his hunting rights, he allowed the monks of the Abbey of St. Denis to chase the stags who were overgrazing their woods, on the proviso that the venison would be fed to the postulants and novices, and the hides used to bind missals. His successor on the throne of France, many centuries later, St. Louis IX was just as great a huntsman. In Palestine during the crusades he hunted lions; while at home he allowed commoners to hunt, provided always that they give a haunch of any animal they killed to the lord of the place. From this comes the custom in Europe of giving the foot of the slain quarry to whomever leads the hunting party. Louis XV stopped on his way back from his Coronation in Rheims to chase the stag in Villers-Cotterêts before returning to Paris. The martyred Louis XVI was also particularly fond of hunting. Even such Popes as Pius II, Julius II, and Leo X were avid huntsmen, and it was permitted even to religious, so long as the animals pursued presented a threat either to people or crops. The chase helped develop the code of honor chivalry had bestowed on the high-born. If hunting for pleasure and not for food, the means at the hunter’s disposal must be limited so that the quarry might have a chance to escape; further, wounded animals ought not to be pained more than strictly necessary. Thus even today, it is considered against the code to shoot a sitting duck or wait for a game-animal to drink at a water hole. The hunting code yet demands that one track down and shoot a wounded animal, rather than leaving it to die in pain if pursuit should be inconvenient. Alongside this code grew up a hierarchy of each “hunt,” as a group of hunters, horses, and hounds were and are called. Master of Hounds, beaters-in, and so forth all developed particular roles; similarly,the hunt itself became ceremonial to a great degree, the coup de grace (stroke of grace) being given to the quarry with a ceremonial knife or short sword—designed to be swift and as painless as possible. From hunting has developed much of what we call gentlemanly behavior.

Royal Hunting Grounds | For UNESCO World Heritage Travellers Royal Hunting Grounds | For UNESCO World Heritage Travellers Royal Hunting Grounds A number of natural sites have only survived in a relatively unspoiled state because their use was once reserved to local Royalty for the purpose of hunting. WHS inscribed on Natural Criteria which were once “Royal Hunting Grounds”. Human Activity Connections

A Royal Heraldry – A ROYAL HERALDRY The Welsh Dragon (Welsh: Y Ddraig Goch, meaning “The Red Dragon) is a heraldic symbol that appears on the national flag of Wales. The oldest recorded use of the Dragon to symbolise Wales is in the Historia Brittonum, written around AD 829, but it is popularly supposed to have been the battle standard of King Arthur and other ancient Celtic leaders. spacer The Chivalric Order of the Dragon, the Medieval shield of Christendom – Ancient Origins Oct 16, 2021The Order of the Dragon Was Founded in Dire Times. The key man behind this medieval monarchical chivalric order was Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary. In 1408 AD, this powerful monarch founded the Societas Draconistarum together with his wife, Barbara of Celje. Today, we know that society by the name of Order of the Dragon

Order of the Garter – Wikipedia The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George Cross. The Order of the Garter is dedicated to the image and arms of Saint George, England’s patron saint . George Cross vcgca.org The George Cross is the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. In the British honours system, the George Cross, since its introduction in 1940, has been equal in stature to the Victoria Cross, the highest military gallantry award.Wikipedia Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour “in the presence of the enemy” to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously.Wikipedia

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ARTEMUS

In spite of her status as a virgin who avoided potential lovers, there are multiple references to Artemis’ beauty and erotic aspect;^[25] in the Odyssey, Odysseus compares Nausicaa to Artemis in terms of appearance when trying to win her favor, Libanius, when praising the city of Antioch, wrote that Ptolemy was smitten by the beauty of (the statue of) Artemis;^[25] whereas her mother Leto often took pride in her daughter’s beauty.^[26][27]

She has several stories surrounding her where men such as Actaeon, Orion, and Alpheus tried to couple with her forcibly only to be thwarted or killed. Ancient poets note Artemis’ height and imposing stature, as she stands taller and more impressive than all the nymphs accompanying her.^[27][28] In Athens and Tegea, she was worshipped as Artemis Calliste, “the most beautiful”.^[29] She was generally represented as healthy, strong, and active, bearing quiver and bow and accompanied by a dog.^[30]

Mythology

Leto bore Apollo and Artemis, delighting in arrows,
Both of lovely shape like none of the heavenly gods,
As she joined in love to the Aegis-bearing ruler.

— Hesiod, Theogony, lines 918–920 (written in the 7th century BCE)

Birth

Various conflicting accounts are given in Greek mythology regarding the birth of Artemis and Apollo, her twin brother. However, in terms of parentage, all accounts agree that she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and that she was the twin sister of Apollo. In some sources, she is born at the same time as Apollo, in others, earlier or later.^[5]

Although traditionally stated to be twins, the author of The Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo (the oldest extant account of Leto’s wandering and birth of her children) is only concerned with the birth of Apollo, and sidelines Artemis;^[31] in fact in the Homeric Hymn they are not stated to be twins at all, and it is a slightly later poet, Pindar, who speaks of a single pregnancy.^[32] The two earliest poets, Homer and Hesiod, confirm Artemis and Apollo’s status as full siblings born to the same mother and father, but neither explicitly makes them twins.^[33]

According to Callimachus, Hera, angry with her husband Zeus for impregnating Leto, forbade her from giving birth on either terra firma (the mainland) or on an island, but the island of Delos disobeyed and allowed Leto to give birth there. According to the Homeric Hymn to Artemis, however, the island where she and her twin were born was Ortygia.^[34][35] In ancient Cretan history Leto was worshipped at Phaistos and, in Cretan mythology, Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis on the islands known today as Paximadia.

A scholium of Servius on Aeneid iii. 72 accounts for the island’s archaic name Ortygia^[36] by asserting that Zeus transformed Leto into a quail (ortux) in order to prevent Hera from finding out about his infidelity, and Kenneth McLeish suggested further that in quail form Leto would have given birth with as few birth-pains as a mother quail suffers when it lays an egg.^[37]

The myths also differ as to whether Artemis was born first, or Apollo. Most stories depict Artemis as firstborn, becoming her mother’s midwife upon the birth of her brother Apollo. Servius, a late fourth/early fifth-century grammarian, wrote that Artemis was born first because at first it was night, whose instrument is the moon, which Artemis represents, and then day, whose instrument is the sun, which Apollo represents.^[38] Pindar however writes that both twins shone like the sun when they came into the bright light.^[39]

Childhood

The childhood of Artemis is not fully related to any surviving myth. A poem by Callimachus to the goddess “who amuses herself on mountains with archery” imagines a few vignettes of a young Artemis. While sitting on the knee of her father, she asks him to grant her ten wishes:

1. to always remain a virgin
2. to have many names to set her apart from her brother Phoebus (Apollo)
3. to have a bow and arrow made by the Cyclopes
4. to be the Phaesporia or Light Bringer
5. to have a short, knee-length tunic so she could hunt
6. to have 60 “daughters of Okeanos“, all nine years of age, to be her choir
7. to have 20 Amnisides Nymphs as handmaidens to watch her hunting dogs and bow while she rested
8. to rule all the mountains
9. to be assigned any city, and only to visit when called by birthing mothers
10. to have the ability to help women in the pains of childbirth.^[40]

Artemis believed she had been chosen by the Fates to be a midwife, particularly as she had assisted her mother in the delivery of her twin brother Apollo.^[41] All of her companions remained virgins, and Artemis closely guarded her own chastity. Her symbols included the golden bow and arrow, the hunting dog, the stag, and the moon.

Callimachus then tells^[42] how Artemis spent her girlhood seeking out the things she would need to be a huntress, and how she obtained her bow and arrows from the isle of Lipara, where Hephaestus and the Cyclopes worked. While Oceanus’ daughters were initially fearful, the young Artemis bravely approached and asked for a bow and arrows. He goes on to describe how she visited Pan, god of the forest, who gave her seven female and six male hounds. She then captured six golden-horned deer to pull her chariot. Artemis practiced archery first by shooting at trees and then at wild game.^[42]

Various tellings diverge in terms of the hunter’s transgression: sometimes merely seeing the virgin goddess naked, sometimes boasting he is a better hunter than she,^[49] or even merely being a rival of Zeus for the affections of Semele. Apollodorus, who records the Semele version, notes that the ones with Artemis are more common.^[50] According to Lamar Ronald Lacey’s The Myth of Aktaion: Literary and Iconographic Studies, the standard modern text on the work, the most likely original version of the myth portrays Actaeon as the hunting companion of the goddess who, seeing her naked in her sacred spring, attempts to force himself on her. For this hubris, he is turned into a stag and devoured by his own hounds. However, in some surviving versions, Actaeon is a stranger who happens upon Artemis.

Worship

Artemis, the goddess of forests and hills, was worshipped throughout ancient Greece.^[99] Her best known cults were on the island of Delos (her birthplace), in Attica at Brauron and Mounikhia (near Piraeus), and in Sparta. She was often depicted in paintings and statues in a forest setting, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a deer.

The ancient Spartans used to sacrifice to her as one of their patron goddesses before starting a new military campaign.

Athenian festivals in honor of Artemis included Elaphebolia, Mounikhia, Kharisteria, and Brauronia. The festival of Artemis Orthia was observed in Sparta.

Pre-pubescent and adolescent Athenian girls were sent to the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron to serve the Goddess for one year. During this time, the girls were known as arktoi, or little she-bears. A myth explaining this servitude states that a bear had formed the habit of regularly visiting the town of Brauron, and the people there fed it, so that, over time, the bear became tame. A girl teased the bear, and, in some versions of the myth, it killed her, while, in other versions, it clawed out her eyes. Either way, the girl’s brothers killed the bear, and Artemis was enraged. She demanded that young girls “act the bear” at her sanctuary in atonement for the bear’s death.^[100]

Artemis was worshipped as one of the primary goddesses of childbirth and midwifery along with Eileithyia. Dedications of clothing to her sanctuaries after a successful birth was common in the Classical era.^[101] Artemis could be a deity to be feared by pregnant women, as deaths during this time were attributed to her. As childbirth and pregnancy was a very common and important event, there were numerous other deities associated with it, many localized to a particular geographic area, including but not limited to Aphrodite, Hera and Hekate.^[101]

It was considered a good sign when Artemis appeared in the dreams of hunters and pregnant women, but a naked Artemis was seen as an ill omen.^[102] According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, she assisted her mother in the delivery of her twin.^[103] Older sources, such as Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo (in Line 115), have the arrival of Eileithyia on Delos as the event that allows Leto to give birth to her children. Contradictory is Hesiod’s presentation of the myth in Theogony, where he states that Leto bore her children before Zeus’ marriage to Hera with no commentary on any drama related to their birth.

Despite her being primarily known as a goddess of hunting and the wilderness, she was also connected to dancing, music, and song like her brother Apollo; she is often seen singing and dancing with her nymphs, or leading the chorus of the Muses and the Graces at Delphi. In Sparta, girls of marriageable age performed the partheneia (choral maiden songs) in her honor.^[104] An ancient Greek proverb, written down by Aesop, went “For where did Artemis not dance?”, signifying the goddess’ connection to dancing and festivity.^[105][106]

During the Classical period in Athens, she was identified with Hekate. Artemis also assimilated Caryatis (Carya).

Festivals

Artemis was born on the sixth day of the month Thargelion (around May), which made it sacred for her, as her birthday.^[136]

• Festival of Artemis in Brauron, where girls, aged between five and ten, dressed in saffron robes and played at being bears, or “act the bear” to appease the goddess after she sent the plague when her bear was killed.
• Festival of Amarysia is a celebration to worship Artemis Amarysia in Attica. In 2007, a team of Swiss and Greek archaeologists found the ruin of Artemis Amarysia Temple, at Euboea, Greece.^[137]
• Festival of Artemis Saronia, a festival to celebrate Artemis in Trozeinos, a town in Argolis. A king named Saron built a sanctuary for the goddess after the goddess saved his life when he went hunting and was swept away by a wave. He held a festival in her honor.^[138]
• On the 16th day of Metageitnio (second month on the Athenian calendar), people sacrificed to Artemis and Hecate at Deme in Erchia.^[139]
• Kharisteria Festival on 6th day of Boidromion (third month) celebrates the victory of the Battle of Marathon, also known as the Athenian “Thanksgiving“.^[140]
• Day six of Elaphobolia (ninth month) festival of Artemis the Deer Huntress where she was offered cakes
  shaped like stags, made from dough, honey and sesame seeds

  Elaphebolia – by Melissa edited by others (probably 6 Elaphebolion) This festival gives this month its name, from Artemis Elaphebolios (Deer-shooting), as the Goddess of the hunt.  The festival most likely occurred on the sixth day, which is Her usual day to receive prayers and honors. In ancient times, Athenians, especially the Aristocracy, may have sacrificed stags to her, but as building and agriculture expanded, the deer likely retreated from Attika into remote hills.  Instead, citizens of all classes offered elaphoi (stags-shaped cakes), made from dough, honey and sesame-seeds.  By the fourth century BCE and possibly sooner, this festival lost importance as the City Dionysia grew in importance (from H.W. Parke, Festivals of the Athenians, 1977, pp. 125-136).

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• Day 6 or 16 of Mounikhion (tenth month) is a celebration of her as the goddess of nature and animals. A goat was sacrificed to her.^[142]
• Day 6 of Thargelion (eleventh month), is the Goddess’s birthday, while the seventh was Apollo’s.^[143]
• A festival for Artemis Diktynna (of the net) was held in Hypsous.
• Laphria, a festival for Artemis in Patrai. The procession starts by setting logs of wood around the altar, each of them 16 cubits long. On the altar, within the circle, the driest wood is placed. Just before the festival, a smooth ascent to the altar is built by piling earth upon the altar steps. The festival begins with a splendid procession in honor of Artemis, and the maiden officiating as priestess rides last in the procession upon a chariot yoked to four deer, Artemis’ traditional mode of transport (see below). However, the sacrifice is not offered until the next day.
• In Orchomenus, a sanctuary was built for Artemis Hymnia where her festival was celebrated every year.

As the Lady of Ephesus

At Ephesus in Ionia, Turkey, her temple became one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was probably the best-known center of her worship except for Delos. There the Lady whom the Ionians associated with Artemis through interpretatio graeca was worshipped primarily as a mother goddess, akin to the Phrygian goddess Cybele, in an ancient sanctuary where her cult image depicted the “Lady of Ephesus” adorned with multiple large beads. Excavation at the site of the Artemision in 1987–88 identified a multitude of tear-shaped amber beads that had been hung on the original wooden statue (xoanon), and these were probably carried over into later sculpted copies.^[146]

In Acts of the Apostles, Ephesian metalsmiths who felt threatened by Saint Paul’s preaching of Christianity, jealously rioted in her defense, shouting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!“^[147] Of the 121 columns of her temple, only one composite, made up of fragments, still stands as a marker of the temple’s location.

As a Moon goddess

There are no records of the Greeks referring to Artemis as a Moon goddess, as their Moon goddess was Selene.^{[148][149][150]} However, the Romans identified Artemis with Selene leading them to perceive her as a Moon goddess, even though the Greeks did not refer to her or worship her as such.^{[151][152][153]} As the Romans began to associate Apollo more with Helios, the god of the Sun, it was only natural that the Romans would then begin to identify Apollo’s twin sister, Artemis, with Helios’ own sister, Selene, the goddess of the Moon.^[3] Evidence of the syncretism of Artemis and Selene is found early on; a scholium on the Iliad, claiming to be reporting sixth century BCE author Theagenes‘s interpretation of the theomachy in Book 21, says that in the fight between Artemis and Hera, Artemis represents the Moon against the earthly air (Hera).^[96][154]

Active references to Artemis as an illuminating goddess start much later.^[155] Notably, Roman-era author Plutarch writes how during the Battle of Salamis, Artemis led the Athenians to victory by shining with the full moon; but all lunar-related narratives of this event come from Roman times, and none of the contemporary writers (such as Herodotus) make any mention of the night or the Moon.^[155]

Artemis’ connection to childbed and women’s labour naturally led to her becoming associated with the menstrual cycle in course of time, and thus, the Moon.^[156] Selene, just like Artemis, was linked to childbirth, as it was believed that women had the easiest labours during the full moon, paving thus the way for the two goddesses to be seen as the same.^[157][154] On that, Cicero writes:

Apollo, a Greek name, is called Sol, the sun; and Diana, Luna, the moon. […] Luna, the moon, is so called a lucendo (from shining); she bears the name also of Lucina: and as in Greece the women in labor invoke Diana Lucifera,^[158]

Association to health was another reason Artemis and Selene were syncretized; Strabo wrote that Apollo and Artemis were connected to the Sun and the Moon respectively was due to the changes the two celestial bodies caused in the temperature of the air, as the twins were gods of pestilential diseases and sudden deaths.^[159]

Roman authors applied Artemis/Diana’s byname, Phoebe, to Luna/Selene, the same way as “Phoebus” was given to Helios due to his identification with Apollo.^[160] Another epithet of Artemis that Selene appropriated is “Cynthia”, meaning “born in Mount Cynthus.“^[161] The goddesses Artemis, Selene, and Hecate formed a triad, identified as the same goddess with three avatars: Selene in the sky (moon), Artemis on earth (hunting), and Hecate beneath the earth (Underworld).^[162] In Italy, those three goddesses became a ubiquitous feature in depictions of sacred groves, where Hecate/Trivia marked intersections and crossroads along with other liminal deities.^[163] The Romans enthusiastically celebrated the multiple identities of Diana as Hecate, Luna, and Trivia.^[163]

The Roman poet Horace in his odes enjoins Apollo to listen to the prayers of the boys, as he asks Luna, the “two-horned queen of the stars”, to listen to those of the girls in place of Diana, due to their role as protectors of the young.^[164] In Virgil‘s Aeneid, when Nisus addresses Luna/the Moon, he calls her “daughter of Latona.”^[165]

In works of art, the two goddesses were mostly distinguished; Selene is usually depicted as being shorter than Artemis, with a rounder face, and wearing a long robe instead of a short hunting chiton, with a billowing cloak forming an arc above her head.^[166] Artemis was sometimes depicted with a lunate crown or CORONA.^[167]

On June 7, 2007, a Roman-era bronze sculpture of Artemis and the Stag was sold at Sotheby’s auction house in New York state by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery for $25.5 million.

Legacy

In astronomy

• 105 Artemis (an asteroid discovered in 1868)
• Artemis (crater) (a tiny crater on the moon, named in 2010)
• Artemis Chasma (a nearly circular fracture on the surface of the planet Venus, described in 1980)
• Artemis Corona (an oval feature largely enclosed by the Artemis Chasma, also described in 1980)
• Acronym (ArTeMiS) for “Architectures de bolometres pour des Telescopes a grand champ de vue dans le domaine sub-Millimetrique au Sol”, a large bolometer camera in the submillimeter range that was installed in 2010 at the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), located in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.^[185]

In taxonomy

The taxonomic genus Artemia, which entirely comprises the family Artemiidae, derives from Artemis. Artemia are aquatic crustaceans known as brine shrimp, the best-known species of which, Artemia salina, or Sea Monkeys, was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae in 1758. Artemia live in salt lakes, and although they are almost never found in an open sea, they do appear along the Aegean coast near Ephesus, where the Temple of Artemis once stood.

In modern spaceflight

The Artemis program is an ongoing robotic and crewed spaceflight program carried out by NASA, U.S. commercial spaceflight companies, and international partners such as ESA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency.^[186] The program has the goal of landing “the first woman and the next man” on the lunar south pole region no earlier than 2025.^[187]